Report:

The Forrester Wave™: Intranet Platforms, Q2 2024

Top Vendor Products for Intranet Platforms in 2024

• LumApps
• Simpplr
• Unily

Intranet Platforms Vendor Product Comparisons 2024

• LumApps - Leaders
  

  Pros:

  • Strong capabilities in reporting, application integration, metadata, search, and workflow-driven employee journeys
  • Enhanced video support and video asset search are differentiators
  • Fast-tracks innovation with acquisitions, extending traditional intranets
  • Well-funded innovation strategy through investment and profitable operations
  • Roadmap focuses on AI capabilities across the platform, broadening application integration, automating repeatable journeys, and creating a data lake service

  Cons:

  • Lags in survey capabilities, which offers basic user feedback and voting but rely on third-party tools for advanced surveys and trending
  • Pricing strategy is not fully transparent and has several add-ons
  • Reference customers less satisfied with 'overwhelming' pace of new-feature rollout and add-on costs


• Simpplr - Leaders
  

  Pros:

  • Delivers rich AI/ML capabilities, including genAI writing assistants for content creators
  • Strong AI/ML capabilities that facilitate deep personalization of employee news feeds based on role, topic, or other context
  • Automation of content governance, rich metadata, and reporting tools
  • Employee experience and engagement at the core of innovation plans and customer adoption methodologies
  • Optimized Simpplr One end-to-end platform with organic R&D and acquisition, including virtual agent tool

  Cons:

  • Native collaboration tools are weak, with thin offerings for team workspaces/communities of interest
  • Pricing and licensing strategy is not transparent with add-ons for premium services
  • Reference customers less satisfied with some search features and the ability to create complex sites/subsites


• Unily - Leaders
  

  Pros:

  • Strong capabilities in dashboards/reporting for internal communication leaders and technical platform owners
  • Enhanced automation in areas like content governance, repeatable employee journeys, and communication campaigns
  • Flexibility in delegating design, scheduling, and administration tools across sites/subsites
  • Well-resourced roadmap that customers influence, focuses on automation, broadens application integrations, and improves data insights
  • Deliberate focus on global enterprises (10,000-plus employees) with mixed frontline and knowledge worker cohorts

  Cons:

  • Native collaboration offers support for communities and frontline worker coordination but depends on integrations with third-party tools such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, or digital whiteboards
  • Pricing is not transparent; licensing/packaging has undergone simplification but clients must be clear on requirements to determine modules needed and potential cost
  • Reference customers express concern about extra costs for new features


• Akumina - Strong Performers
  

  Pros:

  • Shines with a design and integration framework that has flexible personalization capabilities and UIs
  • Strong developer resources including APIs and developer tools
  • Unique impersonation feature allows admins to test content through the lens of specific personas
  • Successful product strategy has removed dependencies on third-party systems, widening customer base
  • Invests in growth via partner strategy that contains global systems integrators

  Cons:

  • Overall native collaboration capabilities lag in communities for peer discussions
  • Vision lacks differentiation that could set it apart from competitors with stronger brand recognition
  • Pricing strategy is opaque with little public-facing explanation of packages or tiers
  • Reference customers less satisfied with cross-site publishing features, timeliness of technical support, and ease of transitioning from older versions


• Interact - Strong Performers
  

  Pros:

  • Excels in many core capabilities such as repository services, search, metadata, personalization, and design tools
  • Solid support for multisite/brand requirements of large complex organizations, including options to support cloud deployments in EU or US data centers
  • Successful track record with customer adoption programs, onboarding, launch strategies, and business reviews after go-live
  • Differentiators include support for digital signage and SMS, with geofencing and shift-parameter options
  • Evolved midmarket focus to target large enterprises with 50,000-plus employees, often with substantial frontline workforces

  Cons:

  • Lack of support for complex process-driven employee journeys or multistage campaigns
  • AI-based intelligent agents were not generally available at the time of evaluation
  • Partner strategy is nascent, which may limit reach and brand awareness in new verticals or geographies
  • Reference customers less satisfied with reporting capabilities and complexity of some UIs and administrative interfaces


• MangoApps - Strong Performers
  

  Pros:

  • Provides a strong set of core capabilities and addresses adjacent needs such as HR rewards and recognition
  • Strong support for metadata and governance
  • UI and design tools support accessibility standards
  • Offers genAI including video summarization, tools to help users get started with prompts, writing assistants, and architecture that allows clients to use its LLM or a preferred LLM
  • One of the more flexible approaches to genAI in this market with higher proportion of R&D investment relative to revenue

  Cons:

  • Must improve developer resources, particularly as it targets large customers
  • Pricing transparency can improve; prospects must understand use cases, requirements, users, and preferred deployment method before getting pricing
  • Must further equip partner ecosystem and customer adoption programs to serve clients with global operations
  • Reference customers less satisfied with reporting


• Microsoft - Strong Performers
  

  Pros:

  • Strengths include repository services and ever-broadening support for third-party applications
  • Collaboration is a differentiator, integrating content and communications into Teams and Engage chats, feeds, and communities
  • AI/ML is strong, using Copilot as a cross-platform tool
  • Surveys, with its Viva Glint module, are strong, helping leaders capture employee sentiment
  • Cohesive vision that reinforces Microsoft as a foundation for the modern digital workplace, going beyond SharePoint into employee experience, learning, insights, and internal communications

  Cons:

  • Areas to improve include reports and dashboards, ease of delegating tasks across admin interfaces, and support for repeatable employee journeys
  • Roadmap must focus on feature gaps that are table stakes: communication and personalization tools, packaged reports, and cross-tenant branding and design tools
  • Lacks the depth of customer adoption programs common to pure-play providers
  • Reference customers dissatisfied with reports and internal communication capabilities, including audience targeting and calendars for scheduled posts


• Workvivo - Strong Performers
  

  Pros:

  • Strong native collaboration tools such as communities, support for employee-generated content, and 1:1 and group messaging, which can extend to frontline workers
  • Integration with major productivity suites
  • Employee survey tools such as templates and builders, as well as trend reports
  • New deeper resources from Zoom acquisition bode well for innovating — especially in areas such as video and AI
  • Roadmap expands internal communications into video-centric channels, along with deeper employee insights

  Cons:

  • Weaknesses include the breadth of developer resources and support for an AI-based intelligent agent, which was not generally available at the time of evaluation
  • Challenge will be to maintain balance across priorities, such as expanding integration for Microsoft 365 clients while taking advantage of Zoom bundling opportunities
  • Reference customers less happy with workflow automation such as journeys and the breadth of developer tools


• Appspace - Contenders
  

  Pros:

  • Offers solid internal communication and design tools, bringing users a consumer-style experience
  • Developer resources are a strength, including APIs for custom integration, an online community, and code resources
  • Some support for AI is available, such as coexistence with Microsoft Copilot, metadata generation, and speech-to-text conversion
  • Highly differentiated vision of an integrated workplace for hybrid, remote, and in-office employees
  • Will appeal to enterprises seeking to simplify their workplace tech stacks

  Cons:

  • Employee surveys and reporting largely depend on third-party tools
  • Intranet-specific roadmap remains ecosystem agnostic, reducing dependencies on Microsoft and redesigning some capabilities such as native collaboration
  • Reference customers less satisfied with search and native reporting


• Firstup - Contenders
  

  Pros:

  • Strengths include calendaring tools for scheduling and coordination, preview tools for content creators, and flexible ways to define audiences
  • Intelligent delivery tools recommend optimal times of day/week to send content
  • Vision focuses on optimizing employee journeys with automation and AI and seeks to provide deeper insights into employee engagement
  • Reference customers rate microapp integrations highly and are satisfied with mobile experience and news feeds

  Cons:

  • Lags in developer resources and some core content management areas such as automated governance
  • Document and media management is rudimentary
  • Roadmap focuses on enhancing areas where it lags rather than differentiation in the market
  • Reference customers less satisfied with lack of SMS support, inconsistencies in customer support, and complexity of multistep campaigns


• Haiilo - Contenders
  

  Pros:

  • Employee advocacy allows employees to share designated content in their social media with analytics revealing influencer reach and external readership
  • Solid in its use of genAI, allowing customers to choose from three supported LLMs
  • Reporting includes word clouds and aggregation of readership across channels
  • Among the first in this market to launch a genAI writing assistant, AVA
  • Invests in partner ecosystem, working with boutique consultancies and midsize systems integrators, with marketplace for partner add-on tools

  Cons:

  • Weaknesses are limited automated governance, simplistic metadata support, and lack of breadth in support of third-party tools for communications
  • Roadmap must now focus on innovation and market vision beyond rebuilding foundational platform
  • Reference customers expressed dissatisfaction with document search and ease of content formatting


• Igloo Software - Contenders
  

  Pros:

  • Excels in fundamentals such as content governance to drive approval or retirement actions
  • Design capabilities for branding, employee journeys, and libraries of solution templates for new-hire onboarding or knowledge management
  • Track record of strong customer service including robust set of customer adoption methodologies such as health checks, peer benchmark data, online communities, and coaching
  • Platform modernization strategy, fast-tracking innovation in AI and support for very large organizations with extensive frontline workforces

  Cons:

  • Weaknesses include survey and employee advocacy capabilities
  • Classic intranet platform lags in support for writing assistants and other genAI capabilities (available in next-generation Flex platform)
  • Partner strategy lags in breadth and depth, lacking depth to help expand into new markets
  • Reference customers less satisfied with reporting and page/content layout


• Staffbase - Contenders
  

  Pros:

  • Excels in internal communication features, including calendaring, audience segmentation, SMS support, and editing tools for design of communication elements like email newsletters
  • Vision includes delivering insights and value to C-level roles, showing the impact of communications on employee engagement and meeting corporate goals
  • Roadmap execution has focused on platform integration, new metrics and measurements, as well as genAI for content authors
  • Reference customers express very high satisfaction with internal communication tools and stellar customer support services

  Cons:

  • Areas of weakness include limited content governance capabilities, options for content approval workflows, native file and media management tools, as well as reporting on content freshness
  • Must balance partnership strategy and navigate competitive landscape where large partners aspire to gain market share
  • Reference customers less satisfied with documentation for developers and some aspects of packaged reporting tools

Reference

• Forrester, The Forrester Wave™: Intranet Platforms, Q2 2024, June 5, 2024, ID

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