German software vendor Staffbase is eying the broader market for corporate communication and indeed many talks and themes on the agenda at their VOICES 2024 conference in Berlin went far beyond the usual intranet topics.
Known for changing the game with their employee app approach, Staffbase has made it to the top of the charts for delivering modern intranets in a packaged solution. Or to be blunt: An alternative to the SharePoint intranets that tend to come up short and which historically has been loved by few.
We’ve followed them since the early days a decade ago, when they were called eyo and mostly delivered features like forms, calendars, and menu plans. Still back then they did more than just ship features, but looked broadly at the pain points of internal communication.
With ‘Inspiration’ as the key theme at VOICES 2024 coupled with some major product announcements, you don't need to be a seasoned industry analyst to see that they are going after a bigger market. Also, similar to the movement we are seeing from other software companies, winning the hearts and minds of the agencies is key and Staffbase also used their conference to share a new partner program. This also resonates with customers increasingly turning to their trusted agencies to make vendor decisions.
Based on conversations and the presentations I watched in Berlin, I'll share my perspective on the conference, key takeaways from some of the major customers who shared their experiences and finally how the Staffbase narrative is changing and what it means for you.
Read more2023 was quite a year with many big milestones. Also a confusing year with massive changes. Massive tech layoffs were a huge topic at the beginning of the year and in a memorable ask me anything with design leader Peter Merholz, he explained why he referred to it as a social contagion.
Also, at the beginning of the year, AI was more of a research thing and then just a few months into 2023, tools like Chat GPT was a big theme at pretty much every group meeting. We heard how it acts as a kind of assistant, how it was used officially and often also unofficially and terms like hallucination changed meaning. At the end of the year, Dutch Internet pioneer Steven Pemberton provided us a helpful reminder that there's no I in AI (yet).
In this long overdue community update, I’ll share a bit more behind the scenes and provide an update on our plans for 2024.
Read moreIt’s that time of year, where we look back at another year of learning and networking. We really like to have a good conversation and meet in person, but sharing openly as much as possible is also an important part of what we do.
The big stories this year covered AI (surprise!), intranets (an oldie, but goodie) and also a book launch on delivering services.
Keeping with tradition, here are the five posts, which seemed to resonate the most based on readership and engagement numbers.
Read moreReaching all employees and communicating successfully in this hybrid working environment has become a major challenge for companies.
Many have realised that just having an intranet or an employee app doesn’t cover it for internal communication as many employees are left out. To make matters worse, many internal communicators are struggling, understaffed and strained for time.
In a recent member call, we were joined by Kevin Hähnlein, Head of Product Marketing at employee communications and advocacy platform Haiilo. He shared his perspective on the future of internal communications, what a good employee experience strategy looks like and also how artificial intelligence will transform content creation at scale.
Read moreIntranets have been around since the mid-90’s and during the past decades, we’ve seen quite a few waves of different intranet concepts like the employee portal, the social intranet or even the digital workplace.
According to Frank Wolf, co-founder of employee communication software vendor Staffbase, we are now right in the middle of the next wave with intranets playing an important role in organisations, in particular when it comes to improving the employee experience.
In a recent member call, Frank joined us to explain what is behind this wave.
Read moreChoosing an Intranet. The project that makes you feel as if you're on a five-year hamster wheel. Is there a better way?
Brian Tomlinson at Hamburg-based real estate firm Engel & Völkers has spent the last few years trying to find a modern, best in class intranet solution that avoids the cyclical hell that we all want to avoid - and has managed to learn a thing or two along the way.
In a recent member conference call, he went through his process for finding and selecting a solution. Everything from identifying the pain points to be fixed to ensuring it has all of the features that you need and finally selling it to the people who hold the purse strings.
Read moreHave you ever put a new CMS, marketing or e-commerce tool in place to address a specific problem, only to find an ever-increasing workload and new problems emerge?
Read moreDuring the past years, intranets are often presented with a social in front of them. The hype behind social intranet remains deafening, technology investments have been made in many organisations and yet most social intranets are not being put to much use.
Read moreMobile-first coupled with new media firms like Buzzfeed, The Huffington Post and Vice have set new standards for what makes truly good content in a digital age. A changed mindset for content consumers impact intranets as well where employees no longer tolerate the old-fashioned internal press releases from the communications department. Earlier this year, I sat down with intranet expert Frank Wolf, who is co-founder at German-based software startup Staffbase which focuses on employee app solutions, including for non-desktop workers.
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