Danversbank is among the local financial institutions that is offering new technology to its employees via an intranet site provided by Burlington-based Intranets.com.

Financial institutions have worked hard in recent years to offer the latest technological services to their customers, ranging from the ability to check balances online to the opportunity to pay bills via the Internet. But now, some of the same institutions are offering new technology to their employees via an intranet site.

By getting “everyone on the same page,” as its slogan says, Burlington-based Intranets.com offers a suite of applications that range from announcement applications to document repositories.

Intranets.com offers the applications to a variety of industries, including the financial services sector. Approximately 10 percent of Intranets.com’s 9,000 client companies are within the financial services industry.

Karen Leavitt, vice president of marketing at Intranets.com, said banks with many branches tend to favor the technology.

“Where we really shine is with organizations with more than one location,” Leavitt said.

Banks, mortgage companies and credit unions with multiple offices need those branches to be in regular communication with each other.

“They have a need to exchange a lot of information,” Leavitt said.

When developing the services, Intranets.com initially did not focus on recruiting the financial services industry, but Leavitt said the company was able to attract them.

“Our customers cut a wide swath across a number of vertical industries, but we have an especially high concentration of customers in the financial services sector,” Leavitt said. “These organizations need to share important information such as financial news or the latest compliance regulations quickly and securely. Our solution is easy to use, can be accessed from anywhere in real time and solves many of the collaboration challenges financial organizations encounter every day.”

A ‘Central Place’

Danversbank, which has 12 branches, is one institution that has been using Intranets.com software for several years. Cheryl Purinton, corporate communications manager at the bank, said employees often aren’t in the same building anymore, creating a need for better communication.

“We have too many employees to be e-mailing [information],” Purinton said. “It has made us more efficient.”

Calling it a “central place” for employees to go to obtain bank policies and forms, Purinton said Intranets.com applications are more advanced than what the bank previously used.

“This has a lot more functionality,” Purinton said, adding that the bank began using intranet five years ago. It switched from another provider to Intranets.com in 2003.

The financial services industry can use the Intranets.com applications in several ways, such as sharing reports with auditors, federal regulators and boards of directors; tracking and managing customers and sales leads; and posting daily rate change notifications, policy and procedure announcements, compliance regulations and notices for employees to view in real time.

“It’s a place where the teller, branch manager and lender can go Â… and see ‘here are today’s rates,'” Leavitt said.

Institutions also can create online databases to track information about competitors or new business opportunities, develop an information-technology help desk to quickly field IT questions and requests, and post links for benefits like 401(k) plans. Conducting employee opinion polls, which Danversbank uses, also can be done to track training sessions or employee outings.

“It helps employees be more autonomous,” Purinton said.

With a variety of offerings, even Purinton said there were options she didn’t realize would help the bank.

“There are things I didn’t really know I needed,” Purinton said.

For instance, the bank uses a service that allows it to poll employees. The technology then tallies responses for training sessions, like a recent 401(k) session at the institution. Purinton said that lessens the burden on the e-mail server because responses aren’t being sent through e-mail, but instead are collected in one place.

Danversbank’s board of directors also uses the technology. Within a “board of directors” folder, minutes from meetings, agendas and documents to be reviewed prior to their meetings are placed.

Danversbank has about 250 people using Intranets.com applications. According to Leavitt, any financial services company can afford the service. It’s priced at approximately $10 monthly per user.

Intranets.com customers simply go to their company’s intranet site to use the applications, but Leavitt said the entire program is hosted from the Intranets.com site, therefore Intranets.com is responsible for the maintenance and makes frequent updates. The other benefit is there is no software or need to download materials.

“All the features are available without the customer having to download software,” Leavitt said.

Because there is no software and hardware to purchase, many customers like the cost-effectiveness of the technology, Leavitt said.

“It’s a numbers game,” Leavitt said. “[Everyone] is looking for cost-effective solutions.”

Intranets.com began offering the services in 1999 for free, generating revenue through advertisements. When the ad model fell apart, the company converted to a free-to-fee model, and 75,000 users signed on. Today, Intranets.com hosts 300,000 users and offers the technology in English, German and Japanese. The company has been profitable since 2002. Leavitt said there are not many companies offering what Intranets.com offers. She said there is competition, but most companies offer “pieces” of what Intranets.com does.

The financial services sector isn’t the only industry using Intranets.com. Realtors, government agencies and nonprofit groups are a few other arenas where the technology is being utilized.

For financial institutions, cutting out one ingredient of the business day has been helpful.

“Banking is heavily regulated; there is a lot of paper,” Purinton said, adding that using a system such as Intranets.com allows the bank to manage that situation.

Intranets.com also offers Web and audio conferencing. Leavitt said banks, as well as other industries, have been requesting such a service.

“We have financial service customers who are able to do seminars with people who aren’t in the room,” Leavitt said.

Purinton said it is difficult to quantify how much time and money Intranets.com has saved the bank, but said the benefits have been substantial.

“This has been a huge communication tool for us,” Purinton said.

Jennifer Jope may be reached at jjope@thewarrengroup.com.