Want a better company intranet? Check out Igloo.

by Alison Green on January 15, 2015

And now a break to talk about a sponsor…

If your company intranet is basically the place where documents go to die, you should check out Igloo, a much cooler corporate intranet than what you’re used to.

Igloo is crazily interactive, incredibly easy to use, and super customizable. You can use it to have a very simple intranet if that’s your thing, or you can use it to create something complex that pulls together team calendars, project information, working documents, wikis, task management, document collaboration, secure file-sharing, and real-time updates from all your teams. It even has a Twitter-ish internal micro-blogging system, so people can share quick, real-time thoughts across the organization.

And because you don’t need to be especially tech-savvy to configure it, you can even set it up and maintain it on your own, rather than needing to send over change through your overworked I.T. department and having it languish for weeks or months.

In fact, after I wrote about Igloo last fall, I received an email from a reader (shared here with permission) who wrote that her company had been on the verge of signing a contract for intranet services with Sharepoint, “which was going to be pricey.  I forwarded your blog post to the team that was working on this project, and they just informed me that they’ve decided to contract with Igloo and are thrilled with the product.” 

I thought I’d highlight the update she sent in afterwards: “I work closely with those folks (doing the implementation), and they are very happy with our decision to use Igloo. I can also vouch for the fact that our ‘all in’ cost saved us a good bit of money over Sharepoint. Also — I’m going to step on out on a limb and say that future support calls to Igloo, if needed, will be much less frustrating than they would be calling Sharepoint … Our company is quite small (40 or so employees) and the Igloo support team has, I’m told, bent over backwards to assist in our implementation.”

So if you’re looking for a better intranet solution, check out Igloo. (It’s also surpringly affordable: $12 per user per month, which is about a quarter of what you’d pay for Sharepoint. And it’s free if you have fewer than 10 users.

You can learn more about Igloo here.

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{ 19 comments }

{ 19 comments… read them below }

  1. Stephanie*

    Has anyone tested the free version out? I know there’s file sharing, but I’m trying to see if cloud storage comes for free in the free version.

    We have about 7 people on our team, and I would love to know the difference between the paid and free subscriptions. Thanks!

  2. M. S.*

    The hosting stuff is a killer for my company. (We’re extremely security conscious here – We don’t allow any cloud storage stuff).

      1. Dan Latendre*

        Understand about your security concerns regarding SaaS solutions. At Igloo, we take security very seriously. We have large global 1000 companies using our platform to manage their corporate data and conversations.

        We offer a enterprise class security – including encrypted data storage, SSL, IPS, IDS etc. Most of our enterprise customers require us to complete a security audit – which we always pass. The company is SOC II compliant – with our processes audited very year.

        Hope this helps.

  3. Persephone Mulberry*

    As an involuntary Sharepoint administrator, this post makes me weep. I even forwarded last fall’s post to my manager when I started hearing rumblings about building a Sharepoint site, but to no avail.

    2. LBK*

      I feel your pain.Fortunately I haven’t had to use SharePoint since 2008, but from what I hear it hasn’t gotten much better than the steaming pile of crap it was back then.

      1. Bea W*

        Still a steaming pile of crap. Lately it has been relocating our documents to wherever it sees fit. :/

        1. Dan Latendre*

          We deal with a lot of companies who are looking for an alternative to MS SharePoint. The main business drivers we hear at Igloo why companies are looking to move include:
          – too expensive
          – too difficult to implement
          – not really that social
          – branding
          – cloud

          Not to say that SharePoint does not have a place. A lot of large companies have customized it to create some cool, yet pricey intranet solutions.

  5. Elena*

    Ugh. I would love something like this, it would make our team’s communication so much better…but management is wedded to SharePoint. Also, stockpiling old Blackberries and complaining how difficult (!!!) the Iphone 5S is to use.

    But you’ll have to excuse me, I need to go upload another case file to sharepoint…and then email it to the three European team members can’t even access the site.

  6. LOLwut*

    Having been bulldozed into several SharePoint projects over the years, I’m convinced it was forged in the pits of hell. Smoke signals and tin cans on a string would be an improvement.

  7. Chris Brady*

    With many companies purchasing Office 365 Sharepoint is in the bundle so it’s unlikely you will get the deciders to go for another app for the intranet when SP team sites are cropping up all over.

    1. Ask a Manager* Post author

      I think Igloo’s point is that companies that care about having an intranet done right are looking for alternatives to Sharepoint, because Sharepoint has so many problems. For many organizations, that fact trumps the fact that it’s included in the Office bundle.

    2. Dan Latendre*

      Interesting comment. It seems Microsoft is using Office 365 to prolong the life of SharePoint. Good strategy. Not sure if it is going to work – as companies like Igloo will be offering deep Office 365, Google Drive, DropBox and Box integration later this year.

      Oops.. did I just leak that out?

  8. Anon Today*

    I work at a company that has one of the largest implementations of SharePoint globally, and I’m on the SharePoint team, so I feel a little defensive on SharePoint’s behalf, but I know it can be difficult and annoying at times for site admins/site owners (whose main job is not managing their team’s SP site). I also participate in a non-profit community group that has a board of 5+ people, and they are always emailing files back and forth and having trouble coordinating their schedules. I was going to suggest SharePoint for them, even though I know it’s more than they need, but now that I know about Igloo, I’ll suggest that instead. They have resisted any kind of collaboration software, so I hope it’s as easy to use as Alison says!

    1. Dan Latendre*

      Anon… we would love for you to use Igloo with your NFP. We would also love your feedback. No platform is perfect, but we keep trying to make Igloo better from feedback from our customers – big or small!

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