At Mapme, we’ve noticed a growing trend: more businesses and organizations are adopting interactive maps for internal use.
Instead of showcasing these maps on their public websites, companies choose to host them on their intranet networks or internal SharePoint channels. This strategy provides employees with easy access to a wealth of internal information not intended for public consumption.
Interactive maps on corporate intranets or SharePoint offer significant benefits:
- User-Friendly Data Display: Interactive maps make complex data easy to understand by focusing on key information like performance metrics.
- Higher Engagement: Interactive maps are more engaging than text-based reports, prompting employees to explore information more deeply.
- Customization: Maps can be customized to show the most relevant information for the different teams in the organization.
- Up to date: Interactive maps are easy to update frequently or even in real-time offering always accurate information.
- Improves Accessibility: Maps ensure all employees can easily find the information they need. This is especially useful in large and geographically spread-out organizations.
This article explores common applications and shares best practices to make your own interactive map to streamline your internal business operations.
Interactive Maps for Remote Team’s Management
The modern workplace often sees company employees or specific team members dispersed across countries, continents, or even globally.
Creating an interactive map that showcases all team members is an excellent tool for fostering team unity. You can include details for each member, such as:
- Their global location
- Personal interests, likes, dislikes, and favorite movies
- Photos and videos (e.g., from recent trade shows or conferences)
- Significant dates like birthdays or work anniversaries
- Social media profiles, including LinkedIn
Interactive maps can be enriched with categories to sort employees by department, location, or shared interests, introducing a playful element to facilitate ice-breaking among team members.
Keeping current employee information on the map is essential for its effectiveness. We suggest using Map To Sheets, a Google Sheets integration, to easily keep the map data accurate.
Company Expertise Maps
Large companies often struggle with communication and collaboration across different locations, especially internationally. For instance, an employee in a French office may encounter a challenge that their Canadian counterpart specializes in.
In 2023, Mapme collaborated with a multinational in the recruitment and advisory sector to develop an interactive map displaying the unique expertise of each office location. This map, which includes contact details for key personnel, quickly became a daily resource for employees, facilitating better communication and collaboration.
Search functionality and advanced filters are crucial to the success of these maps.
Sales and Operations Maps
Maps offer a visually compelling way to present information, making them ideal for internal planning and operational tracking. Sales territories, for example, can be organized on a map to display:
- Team members in sales or operations
- Goals and objectives
- Sales pipelines or ongoing projects
Color coding these territories offers a clear overview of team performance and helps identify areas of success and improvement.
Company Campus Maps
While campus maps are commonly associated with educational institutions, companies with large campuses can also benefit from interactive maps. These maps can guide employees and visitors, showing locations of offices, meeting rooms, and amenities.
Interactive floor plan maps indicate the location of each office or meeting room within a building. When organizing an onsite meeting, the planner can conveniently include a direct link to the specific location (meeting room) on the map in the invitation.
Features like “Show My Location” help users find their current position and navigate to their destination, whether it’s a meeting room, exit, restaurant, or restroom.
Use our map tool categories and subcategories to structure the map by types of amenities such as:
- Hygiene Facilities: toilets, showers, changing rooms
- Food and Beverages: cafes, food, snacks, and drink vending machines
- Employee Services: quiet spaces, kitchens, gyms
Ensuring Map Security
Internal maps often contain confidential or sensitive information, so securing access is a top priority. Mapme offers robust security features that give organizations full control over how and where their maps are accessed.
For organizations using an intranet or SharePoint, Mapme allows maps to be embedded securely within these environments. This ensures that maps are accessible only to authorized users, minimizing the risk of unintended exposure. Additionally, companies can create multiple versions of a map, each with tailored access levels depending on the sensitivity of the content.
If your organization doesn’t use an intranet or SharePoint, you can still maintain control through Roles and Permissions. Assigning users the “Viewer” role allows you to grant view-only access, ensuring employees can see maps without the ability to make changes.
This new flexibility means you can safely share maps across your organization, whether through a secure internal portal or by managing individual user roles—all without compromising sensitive information.
The Possibilities Are Endless
Our clients continually find innovative ways to integrate maps into their daily operations. We’re excited to share more examples of how interactive maps can transform internal business processes.