Have a question about The Hub?
Check out our FAQs or get in touch for a demo.

Do I have to install upgrades to unlock new features?

Absolutely not! There are no annoying downloads or installations to unlock new functionality. We automatically upgrade you to the latest version of The Hub, enabling you to access every new feature and integration we've developed - completely free of charge. We are continuously enhancing The Hub's capabilities, and we believe everyone should benefit from every new enhancement we develop, helping to make your Hub more effective and responsive to your needs.

Are there any add-on costs to access new features?

No - there are no add-on or hidden costs to access any Hub functionality, just one annual license fee which gives complete access to every feature, system setting, management report and integrations. Your annual license fee includes automatic upgrades to the latest features whenever we roll out a new release of The Hub, giving you full access to every new or enhance feature or integration.

What GDPR features does The Hub have?

Custom Data Privacy Policy Customise the privacy notice users must accept when they first login. Personal Data Report Enables your Hub Admins to run a report on all data stored on the system for an individual user; i.e. contact information, Hub messages/chats, Form data submitted, etc. End-users are able to run a report on themselves to see what data is stored on them. 'Anonymise This Account' feature Enables your Hub Admins to scramble inactive user profile information and permanently delete the user data. Customisabled Inactive User Data Storage The Hub stores inactive user data in perpituity by default, but you can customise a timeframe period after which inactive user data is anonymised and deleted; i.e. 1 year.

Can you send internal bulk emails to users within The Hub?

Yes. The Hub has a dedicated Email Broadcasting system which makes it super easy to send bulk email comms to all or a filtered portion of your Hub users. Upload unlimited email templates Create custom header/footer images, allowing you to tailor your Hub's comms. Preview and send test emails Check to see what your email will look like in your inbox before sending to your mailing list. Send on behalf of another Hub user Allowing your marketing team to broadcast company comms on behalf of i.e. your CEO.

What messaging features does The Hub have?

In one word - LOTS! ... 1-2-1 Direct Messaging Users with the messaging permissions can send direct messages to one another within their Hub InMail Boxes. Broadcast Email Send an external email / newsletter from your Hub to all or a specific subset of your intranet users. These emails come with a custom header/footer image of your choosing. Group Forums & Chat Create private, open or hidden group spaces, which have dedicated resources specifically for that group. Group Chat allows members to start chat threads and share messages. Group Email allows the Group Owner to broadcast an email to all or a selection of Group Members. On-Screen Notifications Allows you to display a site-wide message at the top of your Hub for all users or a specific selection of users to see, i.e. office Christmas closure details. Nightly Hub Alerts Personalised automated alerts which sends notification emails to users about new content added to The Hub. User can set their alter preferences to receive emails about topics they're interested in, plus set company-wide / group-wide mandatory alerts, so users always receive email alerts about important cmpany announcements.

How easy is it to display different content to different users?

Very easy. The Hub features intelligent Tags and Page Visibility Settings which make it simple to personalise and segment the content on your Hub, so it's only visible to certain users. The Hub is also a multi-site intranet, enabling you to easily create and manage completely separate, private intranet environments within your one Hub, each one bespoke. These bespoke 'Hub Communities' can have different branding, homepages, content, navigation and users, allowing you to create private environments customised for i.e. different partner brands or different purposes (i.e. onboarding or training).

Can we create personalised internal comms for different users?

Yes - All communications and content within your Hub are user personalised, meaning your users only receive internal comms that are relevant to them. All personalisation within your Hub is powered by intelligent keyword Tags which are associated with your content and user profiles. This makes it simple for The Hub to match the right content to the right users, and automatically personalise your internal comms and Hub Alerts.

Can we customise the branding for different users / offices?

Yes - It's super easy to assign different branding (Hub Themes) to different users within the same Hub. The Hub enables you to create unlimited Hub Themes, each with a different logo, background image, colour palette and fonts/ You can assign different Themes to different users, offices or even change the branding on different department pages, making it so easy to change the look and feel of your Hub.

How easy is it to change the branding on The Hub?

Simple - just 3 clicks and you can have a totally different Theme! The Hub allows you to create unlimited Themes (branding), with different logos, background images, colour palettes and fonts. Creating a new Theme is super easy, and should take you less than 10 minutes, and applying that new Theme to your Hub is even quicker - just 3 clicks!

How can I track engagement on my Hub?

There are over 17 Hub Management Reports which provide you all the data and insights you need to track the success of your Hub. All reports are filterable by date, office, keyword tags, as well as specific individual users/groups, etc. Some of these engagement reports include: Usage Report: Shows the total number of daily Logins and Views. User Activity Report: Shows the activity of every user on your Hub, including how many logins, how many views and date they were last active. This report can be sorted to display your most / least active users. You can also click the Number of Views for a specific user to see what content they have viewed, how frequently, and when. Content Report: Shows the most / least viewed content on your Hub, based on content-type (i..e news, resources, events etc). You can filter down within each content-type to see the specific content / pages that received the most/least views and who by. Search Report: Shows the terms being searched for by users, how frequently they are searched for, and whether any results were found. (Handy for figuring out if content is hard to find, or what content you should be adding that users clearly want to find).

Is it easy to see what content users are viewing?

Absolutely - every page has a Views Report, enabling you to see who's viewed the page, how many times and on what dates.

Can I make a content mandatory to read?

Certainly - Every page comes with a Must Read feature which you can turn on/off for mandatory content. You can make Must Read content mandatory reading for all your users, or just a select group. User receive an Instant Alert notifying them of the Must Read, and will have to press the 'Click to Confirm' button on the relevant page. Outstanding users receive a daily reminder until have clieked the 'confirm' button on the relevant page, and your admins can view a report of everyone that has / hasn't read the content.

Can I upload files to The Hub?

Absolutely! The Hub accepts all normal formats of file; PDF, Word, Excel, JPG, PNG etc. Files can be attached to pages and you can link to files stored within your Hub. All files uploaded are full searchable within The Hub's Search Tool.

Is there a limit on how much data I can add to The Hub?

We're pleased to say The Hub provides you with unlimited data storage!

Do you have version control on files and pages?

Absolutely. All files have a full audit history of versions, and you can easily rollback to a previous version at the click of a button. Every Hub page has a full audit trail of changes. You can turn on full version control easily, which will enable you to save pages as drafts, send for approval, publish and track changes, and roll back to earlier page versions.

Is there an approval process on publishing News?

Yes - Every article must go through an approval process before it can be published. All news articles have a workflow approval process, with designated users assigned as Owners, Approvers and Editors. Editors can only draft news content. Owners and Approvers can accept or reject those drafts created by Editors, and send comments on each draft version. Once approved, the Editor can publish.

How quick is it to set-up a new Hub?

It takes us as little as 24-48 hours to set-up a new Hub, branded to your business. When it comes to launching your Hub to your users, we work to your timescales. Whether you need a rapid 10 day turnaround to go-live, or you have a more conservative 3 month timescale, launching your Hub can be as quick or slow as you need it to be. For more information on how we help make your launch a success, check out our Hub Training.

How often are new versions or upgrades released?

We are constantly evolving The Hub and its feature-set, continuously releasing new or enhanced features on a regular basis ensuring your business has the best possible tools are your disposal. We don't constrain upgrades to timescales. As soon as a new feature has been rigourously tested and is ready to go live, we roll it out to all our customers, with feature deployments happening weekly.

Can we get a custom URL for our Hub?

Certainly. Every Hub is set-up as standard with a unique URL on our standard domain format (example: companyname.ourhub.io). If you'd like us to set you up with a completely unqiue URL that's bespoke to your organisation, we can implement this for you with the assistance of your IT team.

Does The Hub integrate with Microsoft Active Directory?

Yes - The Hub has built-in integration with MS Azure Active Directory as standard. This helps to power single sign-on capabilities, as well as providing access to integrated OneDrive or Sharepoint cloud drives and automatically importing user data into your Hub. More information on Hub Integrations.

Does The Hub have Single Sign-On (SSO)?

Yes - The Hub provides Single Sign-On (SSO) as standard with all Hubs. Current SSO integrations include:

• Azure Active Directory
• Microsoft Office 365
• Google
• Facebook
• OKTA

Is The Hub cloud-hosted?

The Hub is securely cloud-hosted on the Google Cloud Platform, with all data stored at UK data centres, providing you with unlimited data storage. Being hosted on Google Cloud Platform servers allows for rapid implementations and ensures your Hub adheres to the highest levels of security and data protection, giving your business peace of mind. More information on the Google Cloud Platform. More information on Hub Intranet Security.

Is The Hub available as an on-premise solution?

No - The Hub is solely a cloud-hosted, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) intranet portal, providing you a more efficent solution than an on-premise intranet. Being cloud-hosted enables us to provide you with continual upgrades to any new and enhanced features we develop, ensuring you're always on the latest and greatest version of The Hub. Plus, being cloud-hosted, there's no annoying downloads or software to install, and zero maintenance.

Are there any additional maintenance or hosting fees?

No - all maintenance and hosting is taken care of within your annual Hub license fee. We don't believe in charging you extra to host or maintain your intranet. We never pass on additional costs to our customers for any hosting fees or extra maintenance work that needs to be carried out on our Hubs.

Is there an implementation / set-up fee?

Yes. Every Hub has a one-off fee which covers the creation and set-up of your Hub, tailoring the implementation to your requirements. This one-off fee includes:

• Creation of a dedicated database for your new Hub license;
• Creation of backup routine for all data in your new database;
• Creation of a dedicated DNS record / domain;
• Creation of initial Super Admin user accounts;
• Branding and site navigation customisation;
• Configuring and implementing data import of all users;
• Pre-populating user permissions, tags, groups, offices;
• API setup and Single Sign On (SSO) (if required);
• Implementing IP restrictions (if required).

Can we embed third party applications?

The Hub can accommodate third-party RSS feeds and third-party widget applications which can be easily embedded within your content pages or homepage containers. If you're interested in more advanced API integrations with third-party applications, we'd be more than happy to discuss this with you during the initial demo or onboarding process. We can normally accommodate most requests for third-party application integration, but of course this is on a case-by-case basis.

Do new upgrades need to be installed or downloaded?

No! There are no annoying downloads or installations to access Hub upgrades. All upgrades are automatically rolled out to all customers (new or existing) on a continuous basis whenever we release a new feature or enhancement, making your Hub more efficient and responsive.

Our staff don't have work emails - can they still log into The Hub?

Of course. You have the option to choose whether your users log in using an email address or a unique username. You can opt to use a mix of email address and username login fprmats, so you can equally accommodate staff that do and don't have work emails. Many customers use payroll numbers or some other unique employee number as the framework for their Hub usernames. (User's without an email address associated with their profile will receive all Hub alerts or other comms within their Hub's InMail Box.)

Can we restrict user access to content or have private content areas?

Yes. The Hub makes it easy to create private resource areas for specific users with the right permissions to access that content. This can be done on both a Page Level or on a Community-Wide Level basis: Page-Level Content Restrictions: Every page has customisable viewing settings, enabling you to give or restrict access to a page and its subpages. This allows you to create private content areas for specific purposes or users within your intranet community. Community-Wide Content Restriction: Your Hub comes with unlimited communities, meaning you can create completely separate intranet environments within your one Hub. These Communities have private content, a unique homepage experience, bespoke branding and custom navigation. Only users within this community can access this content, allowing you to create a unique intranet experience for a speciifc group of users.

What is your onboarding process?

If your initial Hub demo is a success, (and we're sure it will be), we set you up with a free Hub Trial branded to your business on a unique URL (example: companyname.ourhub.io). Your Hub Trial gives you full admin access to your very own Hub. Our team of experts work with you in free consultation sessions to deep-dive into your requirements to better understand your intranet objectives, and show you how to utilise your Hub's features to best achieve your goals. During these hands-on Hub Trial sessions, you'll learn how to add content, edit your Hub's features, and start to build the bones of your new intranet. If you pick The Hub as your chosen provider - great! Your Hub Trial automatically becomes your new company intranet, and the great news is you've already got a headstart by having the branding, domain, site structure and some initial content in place already, courtesy of the free consultation sessions you enjoyed as part of your Hub Trial. Next steps are 1-2-1 training sessions with your core intranet and content management teams. Our experts work closely with your teams to build a healthy site structure and navigation, guiding them how to create new features and add new content. We work with you right through to launch and beyond, ensuring your Hub is a continued success. Visit our Intranet Training page for more details.

Will we get any training on how to use The Hub?

Yes - Every new customer receiveds 1-2-1 training their dedicated Account Manager, normally via video conference. They spend the time to get under the skin of your business, listening to your needs and tailoring the training specifically to suit your requirements, centring around the best features that will enable you to achieve your goals. Every business is different, so we tailor the training around your timescales. Normally, we recommend a minimum of 3 days (22.5 hours) of training with our team, spread both pre- and post-launch. Depending on the complexity of your requirements, you may need more training.

Is customer support free?

100% unlimited free support. The Hub has been specifically built to be easy-to-use for both back-end admins and front-end users, but should you ever have a question or encounter any difficulties, our dedicated Hub Support team are always on hand to provide you with friendly guidance and expert solutions to resolve any issues you might have.

Where is your customer support team based?

Our Hub Support Team is UK-based, and is provided by our in-house team of Hub experts. We do not outsource any of our support services to a third-party company.

Our company is based outside the UK - can you still provide me with Hub Support?

Of course. We currently service customers in over 48 countries and 197+ geolocations around the globe, so no matter where you are based, we provide all of our Hub customers with the same level of support and dedication. Although our support team is UK-based and operates during UK working hours, we aim to prioritise support tickets from our non-UK customers to ensure you receive a timely response with the aim of resolving your question/issue as quickly as possible. We provide you dedicated training during the onboarding process, with the aim of making you 99% self-sufficient, so we find that many of our customers rarely or never contact our Hub Support.

Can I speak to a real-person?

There's no ChatBots here. Just real people delivering a real service. We believe in providing you with an ongoing, personal service. Our team of consultants, Account Managers and Hub Support experts are always on hand to provide you with guidance, ideas and a real 'hands-on' service to ensure you get the best possible service and are truly getting the best possible results from your Hub. All training / onboarding conducted via video conference, with all our support services delivered by our team via video conference, phone or email ... not an Autobot in sight.

Will we get an Account Manager?

Yes. From Day One, your Hub Account Manager will proactively work with your team to ensure your intranet enjoys a lifetime of continued success as it evolves over the years. As well as providing training and best practice advice, your Account Manager will provides you strategicleadership, empowering your team with the insights and knowledge that will enable you to fully maximise your Hub’s features, achieve your business goals, and enjoy a continued return on investment.

Is there an implementation / set-up fee?

Yes. Every Hub has a one-off fee which covers the creation and set-up of your Hub, tailoring the implementation to your requirements. This one-off fee includes:

• Creation of a dedicated database for your new Hub license;
• Creation of backup routine for all data in your new database;
• Creation of a dedicated DNS record / domain;
• Creation of initial Super Admin user accounts;
• Branding and site navigation customisation;
• Configuring and implementing data import of all users;
• Pre-populating user permissions, tags, groups, offices;
• API setup and Single Sign On (SSO) (if required);
• Implementing IP restrictions (if required).

How secure is The Hub?

In one word - VERY. As an organisation, Pancentric Digital is proud to be ISO/IEC 27001 certified in Information Security Management, and The Hub is a fully ISO compliant intranet solution. Our impeccable security processes and robust infrastructure ensure your data is always safe and secure. The Hub is regularly Penetration Tested to ensure it maintains the highest level of security. Securely hosted on the Google Cloud Platform, The Hub is also backed up nightly to separate AWS servers, to ensure data security and integrity. The Hub is a trusted intranet provider, used and trusted by many risk-averse organisations within the Financial Services and Insurance sectors, such as Legal & General, Marsh Commercial, RSA Insurance, and more.

Do you perform regular back-ups of data stored on The Hub?

Yes - All Hubs are backed up on a nightly basis to servers at Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Dublin, Ireland (EU), to ensure the highest levels of protection to your Hub.

Does The Hub have Two-Factor Authentication?

Yes - Every Hub comes with Google 2-Step Verification built-in, providing you with an extra layer of security when logging in. The Hub 2-Step Verification is compatible with both Duo Mobile and Google Authenticator Apps.

Is The Hub regularly penetration tested?

Yes - We conduct regular monitoring, testing, internal and external penetration tests on our Hubs, in collaboration with our partners PenTestPeople.

Is The Hub GDPR compliant?

Yes - The Hub is a fully GDPR compliant intranet, with dedicated GDPR and data privacy features built-in as standard, enabling you to easily and securely manage, report on and remove user data in just a handful of clicks. Key Hub GDPR features include:

• Custom Data Privacy Policy
• Personal User Data Report
• Anonymise Inactive Accounts
• Data storage customisation

Does The Hub have Single Sign-On (SSO)?

Yes - The Hub provides Single Sign-On (SSO) as standard with all Hubs. Current SSO integrations include:

• Azure Active Directory
• Microsoft Office 365
• Google
• Facebook
• OKTA

Is The Hub cloud-hosted?

The Hub is securely cloud-hosted on the Google Cloud Platform, with all data stored at UK data centres, providing you with unlimited data storage. Being hosted on Google Cloud Platform servers allows for rapid implementations and ensures your Hub adheres to the highest levels of security and data protection, giving your business peace of mind. More information on the Google Cloud Platform. More information on Hub Intranet Security.

Where is my Hub data stored?

All Hub data is stored on the Google Cloud Platform at UK data centres, with nightly back-ups to Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers in Dublin, Ireland. Every Hub customer has a dedicated separare database, ensuring that your data is stored in isolation of all other Hub customers, providing you complete security and peace of mind.

Does The Hub integrate with Microsoft Active Directory?

Yes - The Hub has built-in integration with MS Azure Active Directory as standard. This helps to power single sign-on capabilities, as well as providing access to integrated OneDrive or Sharepoint cloud drives and automatically importing user data into your Hub. More information on Hub Integrations.

Can we restrict user access to certain features or content?

Yes. The Hub provides you total flexibility in controlling and customising user access to your content and using The Hub's features - on both an intranet-wide and page-level basis. Every page on your Hub can be user restricted, whether by intranet community, office, keyword tags or by specific users, giving you total control over who can/can't see content. Build unlimited bespoke user permission levels / roles with Hub User Types. Each User Type is tailored to your needs, allowing you to give or restrict access to specific features, management functions or content editing capabilities.