In the previous posts in this series (Small Business Tech) we’ve covered creating a professional email using your own custom domain Using Yandex and Zoho, we’ve also covered office management and creating a streamline workflow using Feng Office and Bitrix24. Both Feng Office and Bitrix24 have intranet like capabilities, but if you’re a small business and you want an intranet only solution without any additional features then this post is for you.
This post will present a free intranet solution (for up to 10 members) for small businesses, the service we’re going to cover is called Igloo. Igloo as an intranet solution helps you create a portal where you can control your business communications, assign tasks, and files control. Now, without any further ado let’s dive into the guide and overview.
Creating a Free Account
Step One
First, you need to visit Igloo website and signup using your business email; and click on the Signup button.
Step Two
You’ll be directed to a new window where you should enter your company’s name, size and who’s going to use the service.
Step Three
You’ll be directed to a new window where you should enter your name, country and phone number.
Step Four
You’ll then be directed to the confirmation window, you should check the email you’ve used during the registration process for the confirmation email sent from Igloo, in that email you shall find your portal’s link, your username, and password.
Igloo Interface
Igloo Interface (Overview)
When you first log into your account using the link provided in the step above, you’ll be directed to your portal’s (Team Space) main window as seen below, in that window you’ve access to the general settings, and to your intranet features, you shall also find updates and scheduled meetings.
Igloo Interface (Files)
From the intranet main window, you can access files, upload, share and control access to files (documents, photos, spreadsheets, presentations, etc.) related to your business with your team members. To add a folder simply click on the “add folder” tab and to add a file simply click on the “add file” tab.
Igloo Interface (Meetings)
From the intranet main window you can access meetings, where you can see already scheduled meetings and create/schedule new meetings, basically, it’s your business’s calendar. To add a new meeting simply click on the “add an event” tab.
Igloo Interface (Updates)
You can think of the updates section as a live chat between your team members, where you and your team members can initiate and discuss ideas, share feedback and thoughts. You can always follow and un-follow certain updates.
Igloo Interface (Forum)
As the name implies, the forum tab gives you access to the forum section, where you can create topics that you, your team and even clients can discuss the various business aspects and help each others. To add a forum topic simply click on the “add a topic” tab.
Igloo Interface (Tasks)
In the tasks tab, you’ll able to assign tasks to team members. You can access tasks either from the top menu or from the tasks tab in the main menu. To assign a task simply click on the “add a task” tab, you can search for tasks and even use filters to easily find them.
Igloo Interface (Team)
In the Team tab. you’ll have access to your team members’ profile, where you can add and remove team members. To add a team member just click on the “Invite users”. You can also invite clients and control their access so it’s not only for team members.
Igloo Interface (Messages)
In the top menu, you can have access to your messages, where you can have access to created and received messages.
Igloo Interface (Bookmarks)
In that section, you can add personal bookmarks or even share bookmarks with other team members, and have access to their shared bookmarks.
Igloo Interface (Portal Settings)
You can have access to all of the available settings to control your business’s portal using the cog gear icon on the top right-hand corner of the screen. You can customize the portal look and feel, manage membership, manage whether your portal is public or private and many other options/settings.
As you can see, Igloo focuses on the intranet aspect of the business only unlike the other two services we’ve covered before. So if you just want an intranet, and you want to keep it simple and your team is less than 10 members then the free tier of Igloo is an excellent solution for you. In the following posts, we shall cover more topics and help you improve your business workflow using free services and solutions.