Internal Communication Tools: Definition, Benefits and Core Features

In today's business world, the line between physical and digital communication has become thinner, and digital communication has become more widely used. Solutions such as intranets, chat apps, and knowledge management tools have been offered to meet this need. Apps that allow companies to share information with their employees are called internal communication tools. However, since technology constantly evolves, your internal communication tools must be upgraded with developing technologies. If you're wondering what internal communication tools are, we've got you covered!

In this article, we’ll explain what internal communication tools are and their must-have effective features.

Ready? Let’s begin!

TL; DR

• Internal communication tools are applications that facilitate communication between employees of businesses and organizations or between employees and managers.
• Internal communication tools enable employees to communicate more effectively, focus on their tasks and increase their productivity.
• Internal communication tools offer benefits such as saving time, eliminating geographic barriers, improved efficiency, and collaboration.
• Some of the core features of an internal communication tool are having filters, supporting file sharing, streamlining the organization with systems such as tagging and offering integration with different websites and apps.
• If you are looking for an AI co-pilot that offers everything an internal communication tool offers, plus individual and collaborative features, then TextCortex is designed for you.

What are Internal Communication Tools?

Internal communication tools are apps that help companies, businesses and organizations manage employee communication. With these tools, you can streamline communication between managers and employees or between employees themselves. Internal communication tools also help your employees save time by reducing face-to-face conversations.

Why are Internal Communication Tools Important?

In today's digital business world, the key to a company's success is internal and external communication. According to Spiceworks' survey, 57% of employees report not being given clear directions. It is important to use internal communication tools so that your employees understand the company's strategy and know what to do. Internal communication allows your employees to effectively exchange information with managers or other teams. Thus, your employees can work collaboratively and increase their overall productivity.

Benefits of Internal Communication Tools

Without an internal communication tool, you’re likely to run into issues with coordinating work, keeping everyone informed, and sharing knowledge. To avoid wasted time, decreased productivity, and an ineffective work environment, you should use internal communication tools. Benefits of internal communication tools include:

• Collaboration Across Teams
• Time-saving
• Eliminate Geographic Barriers
• Improves Efficiency
• Boosts Productivity
• Keeps Employees Informed
• Offers an Engaged Workplace for Remote/Hybrid Workers

Types of Internal Communication Tools

Internal communication tools have various types depending on the needs of companies. Each internal communication tool offers advantages and conveniences to companies in different aspects. The most popular internal communication tool types include:

• Messaging Apps
• Intranets
• Collaboration Tools
• Workspaces
• Knowledge Management Tools
• Voice or Video Conference Apps
• File Sharing Tools

Core Features of Effective Internal Communication Tools

Regardless of the type of internal communication tool, there are core advantages and features that it should offer to its users and the company. These features both improve internal communication and enable employees to communicate more effectively and work more efficiently. Let's take a look at the core features of effective internal communication tools.

Search and Categorize

One of the essential features of an internal communication tool is chat history, which involves ordering messages and files according to certain parameters, providing easy access to old data, and strengthening communication. Internal communication tools are used not only for communication but also for task tracking and information storage. Employees should be able to access old communication records and examine key points related to the tasks they performed, and decisions made during conversations.

Organization

Internal communication tools allow users to structure and organize information in ways that work best for both. This way, employees can effectively track and organize tasks and conversations by creating their own schedules. For example, many communication tools, such as Gmail, offer features such as label creation and tagging.

Notifications, Announcements, and News

Receiving notifications, announcements and news from specific conversations or messages is one of the key features of internal communication tools.

According to TradePressService’s research, 74% of employees feel they are missing out on company information and news. To prevent this situation, you can make sure that your employees stay updated by following notifications and news via internal communication tools. In this way, it will be easier for employees to follow sudden task changes and prioritized tasks.

File Sharing

High-quality internal communication tools allow users to not only send text messages but also share various documents such as videos, files, presentations, videos, audio, and PDFs. Thus, employees can share the necessary files and documents while communicating among themselves and quickly access the files they need. Moreover, the ability to share PDFs, documents, images, videos, audio, presentations, and other types of files can make it much easier for teams to collaborate on projects.

Task Tracking

It is a great advantage for employees and managers to track the history of tasks and what was said and done on projects through internal communication tools. It acts as a reference point for employees working across several projects to be able to view their task history and track the latest changes made on the project. Thus, even if employees work on several projects at the same time, they can track how far each project has progressed and move on to the next step. As a result, instead of spending time determining changes in the project, employees can spend their valuable time completing the tasks.

Integrations

The more integration an internal communication tool has, the more new opportunities it can open up to its users. First of all, the integration of an internal communication tool with websites and apps means that it will support your employees anytime and anywhere.

TextCortex – All-in-One Company Assistant

If you are looking for a company co-pilot that offers all the features of an effective internal communication tool and more, then TextCortex is designed for you. TextCortex offers its users features such as text/image/code generation, task automation, seamless integration, multiple LLMs, powerful RAG (Retrieval-augmented generation), web search, custom personas, and knowledge bases. Using all the features of TextCortex, you can enable your employees to work collaboratively and boost their individual performance. Moreover, TextCortex offers a browser extension that is integrated with 30,000+ websites and apps to support you anywhere and anytime.

ZenoChat – Knowledge Bases

TextCortex comes with the conversational AI of your dreams, called ZenoChat. ZenoChat offers its users features such as text generation, translation, document summarization, web search, and knowledge management in a conversational format. With ZenoChat’s knowledge bases, you can upload all your internal data to ZenoChat and generate output using your documents.

We know that it's a challenge to navigate through your company knowledge and get something meaningful out of it––as an AI solution, we allow you to query your own data and get actionable insights out of it.

You can increase the efficiency of your employees and boost the productivity of your company by using all the features of ZenoChat, including knowledge bases. See the results from one of our case studies:

• TextCortex was implemented for Kemény Boehme Consultants as a solution to tackle these challenges and today employees report increased efficiency and productivity (saving 3 work days per month per employee on average).
• AICX, an ecosystem partner of TextCortex, was integral to the onboarding and helped achieve a 70% activation rate of the team within the first weeks.
• Employee confidence in using and working with AI increased by 60%.‍
• The implementation results in a 28x return on investment (ROI)

Ready to explore more?

Click here to try ZenoChat and see the difference it makes in internal communication.