Intranets

This article describes the role of intranets inside an organisation, from 1997.

Intranets are becoming a popular and integral part of communication and trade for organisations. Using intranets, organisations can save money and ensure information is more accessible to users, regardless of their individual operating environments.

According to a recent International Data Corp (IDC) report, more than 35% of companies in Australia have installed intranets and a further 25% intend to install one by the end of 1997. By the year 2000, most large organisations and many smaller organisations will use an intranet for communication and trade.

Making money has not been the main motivator behind the popularity of intranets, as one might expect. Rather, companies are looking to intranets for the use of simple applications, such as mail and messaging, document-sharing and the dissemination of company information.

Intranets operate in much the same way as the Internet, using the Internet-based TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) technology, but rather than being a global network of computers, an intranet is a privately owned and operated network.

The advantages of using an intranet for communicating within an organisation and sharing resources are numerous. For example, an intranet:

provides Internet functionality, such as Active X Controls, VB Script, Java, Java Script, and broader CGI-based applications;
is relatively inexpensive to implement, especially as much of the software can be downloaded free from the Internet (eg Microsoft Internet Information Server and Microsoft Internet Explorer);
builds on existing structures and platforms;
increases flexibility of work environments by allowing employees to work from remote locations;
allows staff to become more familiar with Internet-based interfaces;
allows more focused development than traditional Internet development, as you have more control over client-side software; and
content and structure can easily be converted to an Internet presence.

Here at HyperWrite, we installed our intranet a couple of years ago to meet the needs of both our on-site and off-site employees. Our intranet has made our office more productive and efficient, and today our intranet (HyperWrite's Internet Office) plays four important roles:

Provides a staff-only intranet, where employees and contractors can access our Quality Manual and Procedures, on-line messaging (through Web Message Pad developed by HyperWrite), electronic lodgement of various administrative forms, and access to commonly used reference materials;
Acts as our shopfront on the World Wide Web, providing information about our company as well as selling products online;
Provides a customer-only intranet, giving our customers access to a wealth of information from product reviews to FAQs to an online reference centre; and
Provides access to the World Wide Web, which staff use for research as well day to day tasks such as looking up a number in the Yellow or White Pages.

IDC Report Source: "Businesses warm to intranets' charms", Jennifer McCarthy, The Age, 21 October 1997.

Intranets

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