Wikis have been around for a while, but the idea of them is gaining traction among businesses wanting to create or improve their intranet software.
Most people recognize the term ‘wiki’ from high-profile websites such as Wikipedia or Wikileaks. Yet wikis also have huge applications for those businesses looking to improve internal collaboration and communications. But as we explain, a wiki should be part of an intranet solution, not its entirety.
Meaning ‘quick’ in Hawaiian, a wiki enables users to create and publish web pages that can then be added to or changed by anybody who has permission. They can be great for businesses that are happy to let their employees publish internal information as and when they want.
As such, the benefits are:
However, by themselves wikis do have limitations in that they don’t allow two-way conversation other than leaving text notes for the next editor. Also, unlike other collaboration software, it is not simple for two or more remote users to edit a page together in real-time.
Compared to easy-to-use content management systems, wikis can require more training on how to fully use all their features. Fortunately, Microsoft's SharePoint wiki will be simpler to use for those familiar with Office applications such as Word and PowerPoint as it uses similar editing tools.
So, while wikis can be very useful tools, they do have their limitations and should not be used in isolation. Instead, they should be deployed alongside other intranet apps to provide a business with the complete gamut of collaboration and communication tools required to be truly effective.
