Inspired by Step Two’s post “Naming the Intranet” I decided to finally publish the list of intranet names that I’ve been ‘collecting’ over some time. It can be found in the top-level navigation menu under “Intranet Names” in this blog.
As commenting does not work on that page, please post any input to the list (additional intranet names that you are aware of, errors in the list, …) by using the comments function below.
Thank you!
Intriguing idea. My last intranet was called the ‘Information Management System’. Very grandiose title but my users just called it ‘IMS’ (rhymes with ‘rims’) and so a brand was born.
Thank you, Patrick. I was often asked by participants of the intranet trainings I’m giving, what a “good name” for an intranet would be. So I started putting together this list to give them an idea what names other organisations use.
Will add yours to the list - thanks.
The Victorian State Library calls their intranet “The Fridge” as in stick it on the fridge
Thanks for that, Kate. That’s a good analogy you’re using there!
Hey, heres a few from companies I’ve worked with in the past:
“Energy” - to inspire energy, and surprisingly, from an energy supply company.
“Momentum” - No stopping us now…or that was the theory. Another energy supply company
“K.I.S” - Keep It Simple. A printing firm.
Cool stuff, StuNZ. Thanks a lot!
In the BBC we call our intranet ‘Gateway’ and that’s whatever refers to it as. Dunno why it’s called Gateway, but you can see where we’re going with that. Some smarty pants thought that one up long ago….
Hi Phil & thank you. ‘Gateway’ is a great way of describing the single-point-of-entry character of an intranet without having to use the threadbare and spongy term ‘portal’. Must have been someone really smart…
I like your collection - very useful!
In my company (WOLF THEISS, a law firm with approx. 600 employees in CEE/SEE) we organized a firm-wide internal name contest for our new intranet that was launched in March 2008. We had stunning 377 suggestions. Finally, we had online-votings and it turned out people liked “floW” best.
I love the name floW as it is connected to our company name (Wolf backwards) AND highlights what our intranet offers - a constant flow of information and communication.
The name contest was a perfect vehicle for promoting the new intranet. And now we have a real “brand” that people feel connected to. So, I can only recommend such a name contest.
Thank you, Chris. That’s a real fortunate cirumstance and connection to your name and the intranet’s nature.
Name contests are really useful also in respect to making employees aware that each and every one of them is (or at least should be) in some way involved with the intranet.
I’ve never come across a participation rate of more than 60% as in your case, though. Congratulations!
Our ‘old’ intranet was called “Plaza”; the new one, launched last Friday, still has no name but its working title is “Lighthouse”.
Some I’ve come across…
ANZ Bank - Max
Coles Group - Connect
Sensis - inSite
Thanks Claudia and Stewart! Added these to the list.
A good one is “Milkyway” for a company called Fonterra who produce milk.
The intranet at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants is called BRAIN (Berger Research and Information Network).
My last company called theirs ‘Inside’, which is pretty good.
Others I like are:
• Core
• Focus
• The Hoard
• Alexandria (as in Library of…)
• Skynet (though it’s a little scary)
• Father
Australia Post named it’s intranet: Postnet
Our new intranet at Royal National Institute for Blind People is called iSite. The old intranet was called Iris. I quite liked that but the intranet was disliked so no-one wanted to keep the old name. Vision related puns seem unavoidable, given RNIB’s subject matter.
Thank you, Karen. That’s (one of) the great things with a named Intranet - you do get a second chance to build a positive association. If it’s just “the intranet”, it’s usually much harder to eliminate an existing negative relation to it.
Our lawfirm’s former CEO was a real Trekker. Our current Intranet is Voyager. This really works well, as the name is unique enough that it doesn’t occur in normal business conversation.
Hallo,
unser Intranet der DAK heisst schlicht und einfach DAKintranet.
In der momentanen Ausbaustufe befassen wir uns in einem Projekt mit der Weiterentwicklung hin zum Wissensmanagement. Synonym hierbei ist DAKwissen bzw. DAKw!ssen.
Gruß, Stephan Büttner
Hi Stephan.
Thanks for you comment on my recent post. Fabulous list of names. Is a resource I am bound to use and refer others to in the future.
A couple of additions for your list perhaps.
Name: The Lounge
Company: Tab Limited
Name: eon (acronym for Entertaining Opportunity Network)
Company: Tabcorp Holdings
Happy for you to use may name as the source.
Great blog by the way. Will be a keen follower or your feed from now on.
Thanks for this listing. We are looking for a name for a new intranet. The current Vertex intranet is called VIC - Vertex Intranet Centre and we have a subsidiary intranet called infonet.
USAA calls their internal website “Connect”
I suggested to my employer to have an employee contest to name their new intranet site, as this was what a former employer had done. When I worked for Fun Sun Vacations, they had named their intranet site: The Beach House which was a real fun way to catch up on local company news.
Love that one! Too few intranets manage to build positive associations attached to them. Thanks a lot for sharing!
i workin an hardware company…. pliz suggest what name is best for a hardware company.. what u guys doing is marvelous
Well, hardware sure is a wide field and often the company name or other organisation specific elements are more important for the name.
Maybe you’d want to consider running an internal name contest as this in many cases helps raise awareness plus gets you many good suggestions from the perspective of those who use the (future?) intranet.
Very interesting blog post thank you for writing it I just added your blog to my bookmarks and will check back.
good morning, superb post.
I manage the intranet at David Evans Associates Inc. in Portland, Ore., which is called Merlin. Comes complete with tiny animated wizard.
Great collection!
Here’s ours: The British Columbia Public Service intranet is called @Work.
One for the list, our employee intranet at KCTCS, simply called “thePoint”. Launched in March, 2009, it is based on SharePoint 2007.
KCTCS is a mouthful of an acronym for the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, which is even more of a mouthful. Coming up with a brand and name for the intranet for our employees had just a few requirements, one of which was “make it simple and not a mouthful”. Basing it on the SharePoint name and concept made the decision easy.
Here’s a challenging one. Need Portal name for Home Health Care organization! Any suggestions?
Not sure if I fully understand the nature of our business, Trish, but here’re some quick ideas :
- iGuardian
- iCare
- Careline
- Homeplace
- MyHome
For WWF our intranet is called Connect.