What is an Intranet and what does it do for business?

Like the Internet itself, Intranets are used to organise and share company information. Based on a secure networking infrastructure, Intranets are accessible only by the organization's members, employees, or others with authorization.
Like the Internet itself, Intranets use standard browser technologies to deliver rich applications to users, unbounded by geography. Like the Internet itself, Intranets allow information to be published and searched, but unlike the Internet, the availability and control of this information can be controlled and directed.

The use of Intranets has grown rapidly because they are both relatively simple, and relatively inexpensive to set up. All you need to create an Intranet is the following:

• A number of computers connected together with either a wireless or cable based network
• A dedicated server, holding the operating system software, core applications and business information
• Internet browser enabled client workstations

At this stage it might be tempting to get your intranet up and running immediately, but there are a number of important things you should consider.

• Do you have an adequate network infrastructure to support an Intranet deployment. Is it a local Intranet or distributed across multiiple locations? Things you should review here are access and security issues such a user policies, firewall configurations and virus protection.
• Review your hardware and software requirements. Storage space on the server, backup devices, software licensing, maintenance and support all need to be in place to support what is to become a key business asset.
• What applications are you going to provide your end users? A key feature of an Intranet is the ability to start small and adapt as your requirements change. Many projects fail because too much is attempted at the beginning, causing missed deadlines and leading to user frustration.
• Put together a project plan. This should include all the elements of the above, including cost anaylsis, resource assignment and timescales.

So what can your business expect to gain from an Intranet?

It really depends on the applications you deploy on the server.

As an example, the activities listed below are managed one way or another in most companies, usually manually, perhaps handled electronically through an individuals word processor or spreadsheet. Try and calculate the total number of hours spent on the following each month in your organisation.

• Centralised Help Desk
• Room and Resource Booking
• Whereabouts
• Asset Manager
• Contact Manager (CRM)
• Visitors Manager
• Timesheet Manager
• Article Publishing
• Customer Complaints Manager
• Supplier / Price List Manager
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• Discussion Forum
• Search Engine across all company information
• Personnel Management

Now multiply the number of hours by the average cost per employee per hour and the result is a very rough estimate of the cost to your organisation. Automating these business functions by using Intranet applications can significantly reduce these costs.

Intranets pay for themselves very quickly through the combination of

• More cost effective IT spend - Browser based clients can use existing lower specification hardware.
• Increased competitiveness - thanks to better information access, improved customer service, knowledge sharing, and being quicker to market.
• Streamlined administration - with many standard tasks such as expense reports, timesheets, and calendar sharing becoming largely self-administered.
• Virtual organisation - employees in the office, on the road, and at home can all access and update the same core data.
• Easier training of new employees - intranets are well suited to disseminating induction and othe company training programmes.
• Increased staff productivity - Calendar, diary sharing and automating bookable resources reduces time spent on these activities and hence cost
• Reduce supplier relationship costs - Your Intranet is also Extranet-ready, allowing trading partners access to relevant information.
• Reduced office costs - decreased printing and paper requirements, administrative costs
• Increased security - due to information sharing and e-mail traffic over an internal private network, rather than the public channel of the Internet.
• Better customer service - thanks to quicker more accurate access to customer account details, and pricing and product information.