Enterprise social networking applications facilitate, capture and organize open conversations and information sharing between individual workers and groups within an organization. In addition to capabilities that support conversations and information sharing, they can keep track of the network of relationships between participants (via social graphs), in order to deliver a personalized stream of updates about events or conversations to individuals (via news feeds and activity streams). These applications help people find out about each other, have discussions, share information and generally interact. Interaction occurs either at a one-to-one level, or in groups, teams, communities and networks, and in the context of structured or unstructured business activities.
Gartner defines an intranet packaged solution (IPS) as a software product that organizations use to create and deploy an internal website or network of websites, portals, hubs, mobile apps and other digital experiences supporting business-to-employee needs. An IPS is delivered as an integrated assembly of capabilities geared specifically for intranet use cases, including employee communications and engagement, employee service and self-service, application access and knowledge services. “Packaged” signifies a holistic and fit-for-purpose approach. In contrast, a custom-built or developed approach would leverage a platform or array of products not specifically designed to support intranet use cases.