intranet

A privately maintained computer network that can be accessed only by authorized persons, especially members or employees of the organization that owns it.

An inhouse Web site on the company's local network (LAN) that serves employees only. Having browser-based applications on the network makes a LAN an intranet. Intranet pages may link to the Internet, but the intranet is not accessed by the general public. It provides a standard way to publish anything including company policy, news, schedules, medical and insurance forms and training manuals. It also offers blogs and wikis and a venue for social activities such as sports and exercise.

Since the Web browser is the primary interface, intranets offer cross-platform support between Windows, Mac and Linux desktops.

An Internal Web

Intranets use the same HTTP server (Web server) technology, protocols and hypertext links as the public Web. The major difference is that they reside inside the firewall, fortified from the outside world. See HTTP and hypertext.

Good Riddance

When "intranet" is used together with "Internet," each term must be emphasized, creating a verbal tongue twister for an instructor. The term was popular in the mid 1990s, but although still used, browser-based applications are so common that intranet evolved back to simply "LAN." See LAN, extranet and firewall.

Download Computer Desktop Encyclopedia to your iPhone/iTouch

Private network inside an organization that conforms to the same standards as the Internet but that is only for use inside the organization. The intranet will only be accessible to those members or employees who have authorization to use it. Its web sites may look and act exactly like those found on the Internet, but they are designed so that they cannot be accessed without proper authorization. Like the Internet, an intranet is used by its members to share information.

Private network used within the company. An intranet serves the internal needs of the business entity. Intranet users are able to access the Internet, but firewalls keep outsiders from accessing confidential data. It makes use of the infrastructure and standards of the Internet and the Web. Intranets use low-cost Internet tools, are easy to install, and offer flexibility. Intranets have already been established by at least two-thirds of the Fortune 500 companies and many other organizations.

An intranet often gets confused with the Internet. While there are a lot of similarities between them, they really are two different things. Simply put, the Internet is the global World Wide Web, while an intranet is a private Internet operating within a company. Both the Internet and an intranet use TCP/IP protocol as well as features like e-mail and typical World Wide Web standards. One main difference is that users of an intranet can get on the Internet, but thanks to protection measures like computer firewalls, global Internet users cannot get onto an intranet unless they have access to it. In fact, an intranet can be ran without an Internet connection. While Internet technologies like browsers, servers, and chat scripts are still used, an intranet can be a separate entity as long as its owners do not require that users have access to information found on the Internet.

When they were first introduced, intranets were dismissed by critics as the latest in a seemingly endless parade of technological fads and buzzwords. That soon changed when businesses started to realize just how important a tool an intranet can be. A company would want to set up an intranet for many reasons. The broad bandwidths that are used in intranets allow for speedier communication and access to information than the Internet. The private internal networks (such as a LAN) offer security and protection in the form of the aforementioned firewalls as well as password-protected access and secure servers. The use of an intranet allows companies to control their business easier and manage their employees more successfully. Less paperwork, increased productivity, added flexibility, and versatility are other factors that intranet users take advantage of. All of this adds up to a bottom line that is attractive in any business decision: the ability to save money and increase profits.

An extranet is part of a company's intranet that can be accessed by users outside of the company. Clients, vendors, suppliers, and business partners are just a few examples of the types of people who would benefit from this type of private network. They can exchange large volumes of data using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), share exclusive information, collaborate on joint business ventures, participate in training programs, and share services between the companies. An extranet is a way to telecommunicate and share business information securely without having to worry about it being intercepted over the Internet. This is achieved by taking extra security and privacy measures with the extranet, including firewalls, required passwords, and data encryption.

Intranet Applications

The most popular intranet application is obviously inter-office e-mail. This capability allows the employees of a company to communicate with each other swiftly and easily. If the intranet has access to the Internet, e-mail can be accessed through the Internet connection. If the intranet is running without the Internet, special e-mail software packages can be bought and installed so that employees can take advantage of its many benefits.

An intranet has many other different applications that can be utilized by a company. These include the Web publishing of corporate documents, Web forms, and Web-to-database links that allow users to access information. Newsletters, information on benefits and 401(k) enrollment, job listings and classifieds, libraries, stock quotes, maps, historical data, catalogs, price lists, information on competitors' products, and customer service data are just a few examples of these types of applications. In addition, there are several other main applications that are very popular in the intranet format.

Every type of company has to deal with forms of some sort. This is another area where paperwork can become a problem for a business. Intranet servers can be equipped with programs that allow for forms to be filled out online. They could also be downloaded and printed out by the users themselves, which would cut down on the time it would take to distribute these forms manually.

Organizational policy and procedure manuals are also handy to have on an intranet. Unlike printed hard copies, online manuals can be easily accessed by all employees at any time. They are also easier to organize online, and can be indexed by subject and attached to a search engine to provide for easier navigation through the manual. In addition, changes can be made more quickly and easily when they are in this format. Converting printed materials to Web browser readable formats is fairly simple and requires either an appropriate html translator or a way for the original word processor documents to be launched with a specific application.

Phone directories are one of the most useful intranet applications. Again, this type of application cuts down on paperwork and the time and money it takes to produce hard copies of these directories. Instead, employee names, titles, duties, departments, phone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses, and even photographs can be stored in an online directory. They then can be easily searched and updated at any time with minimal effort. It is suggested that a few paper copies of the employee directory and other important records be kept on hand in the event that the intranet is experiencing technical difficulties.

Online organizational charts are a useful way for employees to see the hierarchy of their company. These charts can describe who reports to whom, the specific duties of a person or department, and the structure of the organization. They can be set up in either graphic or text formats on an intranet and updated every time there is employee turnover or a change in job title or responsibilities.

An intranet is also a useful tool for employee communication. One way users can share information with fellow employees is through online discussion forums or electronic bulletin boards. This requires special software that allows users to post and reply to messages on a variety of topics. Different forums can be set up with each one dedicated to a different topic. Before such a project is undertaken, employees should be aware of the rules regarding what types of posts are appropriate through a simple list of guidelines. These types of discussion forums should always have some sort of monitor to make sure things are running smoothly.

While somewhat complicated, intranets can be equipped with software to allow for live chat rooms or instant messages so that employees can communicate with each other online about work-related subjects. If a company is considering this form of communication, they should first form a policy about what can be discussed in an intranet chat. Chat room moderators and software to log the chats for future reference should also be considered. Despite these options, it is still difficult to see live online chats replacing traditional company meetings anytime soon.

Online polls or surveys are other useful types of intranet applications. As opposed to actual paper surveys (which have a low return rate because they are often considered a hassle), online polls allow employees to get opinions or information quickly with results that can be viewed instantly. Reductions in paper-work, wasted time, mailing costs, and erroneous data are other benefits of these types of surveys.

Designing an Intranet

There are many tools at managers' disposal to successfully implement an intranet. These include html editors, database and forms interfaces, java applets, and java script. An intranet must use these tools to be designed well enough to fully maximize its potential. This in turn saves a company time and money. When designing an intranet, careful attention must be paid to the details that will allow employees to find the information that they are looking for in an easy manner. Just because an intranet is only seen by employees and not by clients or the general public, this is no excuse for a company to take the easy way out and cut corners with design. Well-organized intranets with a pleasing graphic design sense are usually much appreciated by the employees who use them.

Generally, an intranet should be designed and organized to focus on a departmental process rather than the department itself. This allows for easier access by employees outside of the department who are contributing to the task at hand. This reflects recent trends in the business world that trumpet the success achieved by the interaction between different departments or divisions within the same company.

According to intranet experts Anthony Schneider and Christopher Davis, "Successful process-oriented intranets look and work as differently as the processes they enable, but they share several common characteristics. First, they are built on smart information design. Second, they focus on tasks, not documents, and aim to integrate those tasks into distinct processes. Finally, the best intranets encourage collaboration by creating shared and familiar spaces that reflect the personality of the company and create a common ground for all employees."

Since individual tasks are generally a small portion of a bigger task, intranets should be organized in such a way that the related individual tasks are grouped together. These tasks can be simple or complex, but as long as they all contribute to the same overall process, employees will benefit from the easy access to information that this sort of design provides.

Intranets are useful in bringing employees from different departments together. They can even help employees of the same company who work at different locations communicate more successfully. Through an effective design, these departments can collaborate and solve problems by using the intranet as a tool rather than relying on more traditional business ideas like meetings and conference calls.

The bottom line is that an intranet, like any corporate venture, is a reflection of the business that runs it. A company that is well organized (and therefore usually successful) will be able to design an intranet in such a way to best suit their needs. As Schneider and Davis state, "As the intranet creates new forms of collaboration, it will challenge traditional ways of doing work and obtaining information. For the intranet to be successful, it must provide ways of empowering all employees, offering concrete incentives for employees to use, and encourage the use, of the intranet. The process-oriented intranet, then, is 'in sync' with the company it works for. And this is where graphic design, tone, and standards emerge as vital to the intranet's success. Like it or not, intranets have personalities, which are amalgams of visual style, tone, and content. An intranet that reflects the culture of its company will make employees feel more at home, will help dispersed employees feel that they share the same space, and will encourage collaboration and communication around the processes they support."

The Cost of Setting Up and Running an Intranet

Initially, a business that wishes to set up an intranet has to consider the following costs: hardware (including the server and network adapter), software and utilities, and installation. This can all be done rather quickly since a simple intranet only requires an existing TCP/IP network and an extra machine to act as the server. This extra machine will have to have the proper Web server software and network card installed and may require a memory upgrade and added disk space. After everything is up and running, upgrades to the hardware will have to made from time to time to handle increasing traffic. New software like multimedia applications and interactive forums as well as upgrades to existing applications are all essential. The labor of employees who maintain the intranet is an ongoing cost, as are the costs to publish and archive data.

On the other hand, since intranets were designed to save time, they can usually be counted on to save money as well. By cutting down on routine communication, employees can refocus their efforts to better performing their duties. Employees who use the intranet to its fullest potential will discover that the benefits of e-mail, reduced paperwork, and easy access to information will increase their productivity. Both the employee and the employer benefit in this situation. As mentioned previously, company literature that is stored and distributed online rather than through traditional hard paper copies also cuts down printing and distribution costs. Companies sometimes notice a savings of tens of thousands of dollars when they post their documents online.

In an article that appeared in Intranet Communicator, however, Schneider and McGrath warned managers not to expect too much too soon: "Review the existing return on investment studies or question company executives on their claims of multimillion dollar savings, and one finds that calculating intranet ROI is more art than science and more guesstimate than calculation. Like the sweeping claims made for corporate Web sites a few years ago, many of the projections of ROI measured in thousands of percent may fade as organizations begin to experience the cost of ramping up, maintaining and administering intranets across thousands of users. Not to mention incorporating the inevitable upgrades and conducting enterprise-wide training."

Managing an Intranet

As the cost to maintain an intranet grows over time, so does the time and effort to maintain it. Managers often spend considerable energy trying to keep up with increased traffic and other forms of growth. Proper planning (including having the best Web and network tools available) is one way to cut down on the manpower required to run an intranet. Employees who maintain the intranet must be experts in the area of Web publishing. Managing the server, developing applications, and converting documents and databases to html format are just some of the duties found in this area.

Many companies decide to hire an outside firm to run their intranet rather than do so themselves. This cuts down on the number of internal problems and potential disasters and gives management peace of mind to know that trained professionals are handling this often delicate situation. If this route is taken, it is important for management to keep some employees dedicated to intranet issues in case the relationship with the outside supplier does not end up working out.

Once the intranet is set up, it is important to keep its content current in order to keep employees using it in the manner for which it was intended. Regular updates regarding company news and the promotion of the intranet from upper management are just two ways to keep it from growing obsolete before its time.

Large corporations like IBM, Ford Motor Company, and the Turner Entertainment Group have all had success implementing intranets into their corporate structure. But these giant companies are not the only ones who have been able to exploit the benefits of intranets to their fullest advantage. Small businesses have taken notice as to how intranets help cut down on costs and increase productivity. Since small businesses often also have less red tape to deal with than larger corporations, a full-fledged intranet or even a test version can often be set up quickly and easily. Once management and employees become familiar with how the intranet works, the possibilities for success are limitless.

Further Reading:

McGrath, George, and Anthony Schneider. "Measuring Intranet Return On Investment." Intranet Communicator. June/July 1997.

Schneider, Anthony, and Christopher Davis. "Intranet Architecture: Integrating Information Design with Business Planning." The Complete Intranet Resource (http://www.intrack.com/intranet/).

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (June 2009)

An intranet is a private computer network that uses Internet technologies to securely share any part of an organization's information or operational systems with its employees. Sometimes the term refers only to the organization's internal website, but often it is a more extensive part of the organization's computer infrastructure and private websites are an important component and focal point of internal communication and collaboration.

An intranet is built from the same concepts and technologies used for the Internet, such as client-server computing and the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). Any of the well known Internet protocols may be found in an intranet, such as HTTP (web services), SMTP (e-mail), and FTP (file transfer). Internet technologies are often deployed to provide modern interfaces to legacy information systems hosting corporate data.

An intranet can be understood as a private version of the Internet, or as a private extension of the Internet confined to an organization. The first intranet websites and home pages began to appear in organizations in 1990 - 1991. Although not officially noted, the term intranet first became common-place inside early adopters, such as universities and technology corporations, in 1992.

Intranets differ from extranets in that the former are generally restricted to employees of the organization while extranets may also be accessed by customers, suppliers, or other approved parties.^[1] Extranets extend a private network onto the Internet with special provisions for access, authorization and authentication (see also AAA protocol).

An organization's intranet does not necessarily have to provide access to the Internet. When such access is provided it is usually through a network gateway with a firewall, shielding the intranet from unauthorized external access. The gateway often also implements user authentication, encryption of messages, and often virtual private network (VPN) connectivity for off-site employees to access company information, computing resources and internal communications.

Increasingly, intranets are being used to deliver tools and applications, e.g., collaboration (to facilitate working in groups and teleconferencing) or sophisticated corporate directories, sales and customer relationship management tools, project management etc., to advance productivity.

Intranets are also being used as corporate culture-change platforms. For example, large numbers of employees discussing key issues in an intranet forum application could lead to new ideas in management, productivity, quality, and other corporate issues.

In large intranets, website traffic is often similar to public website traffic and can be better understood by using web metrics software to track overall activity. User surveys also improve intranet website effectiveness. Larger businesses allow users within their intranet to access public internet through firewall servers. They have the ability to screen messages coming and going keeping security intact.

When part of an intranet is made accessible to customers and others outside the business, that part becomes part of an extranet. Businesses can send private messages through the public network, using special encryption/decryption and other security safeguards to connect one part of their intranet to another.

Intranet user-experience, editorial, and technology teams work together to produce in-house sites. Most commonly, intranets are managed by the communications, HR or CIO departments of large organizations, or some combination of these.

Because of the scope and variety of content and the number of system interfaces, intranets of many organizations are much more complex than their respective public websites. Intranets and their use are growing rapidly. According to the Intranet design annual 2007 from Nielsen Norman Group, the number of pages on participants' intranets averaged 200,000 over the years 2001 to 2003 and has grown to an average of 6 million pages over 2005–2007.^[2]

Contents 1 Benefits of intranets 2 Planning and creating an intranet 3 See also 4 References

Benefits of intranets

1. Workforce productivity: Intranets can also help users to locate and view information faster and use applications relevant to their roles and responsibilities. With the help of a web browser interface, users can access data held in any database the organization wants to make available, anytime and - subject to security provisions - from anywhere within the company workstations, increasing employees' ability to perform their jobs faster, more accurately, and with confidence that they have the right information. It also helps to improve the services provided to the users.
2. Time: With intranets, organizations can make more information available to employees on a "pull" basis (i.e., employees can link to relevant information at a time which suits them) rather than being deluged indiscriminately by emails.
3. Communication: Intranets can serve as powerful tools for communication within an organization, vertically and horizontally. From a communications standpoint, intranets are useful to communicate strategic initiatives that have a global reach throughout the organization. The type of information that can easily be conveyed is the purpose of the initiative and what the initiative is aiming to achieve, who is driving the initiative, results achieved to date, and who to speak to for more information. By providing this information on the intranet, staff have the opportunity to keep up-to-date with the strategic focus of the organization. Some examples of communication would be chat, email, and or blogs. A great real world example of where an intranet helped a company communicate is when Nestle had a number of food processing plants in Scandinavia. Their central support system had to deal with a number of queries every day (McGovern, Gerry). When Nestle decided to invest in an intranet, they quickly realized the savings. McGovern says the savings from the reduction in query calls was substantially greater than the investment in the intranet.
4. Web publishing allows 'cumbersome' corporate knowledge to be maintained and easily accessed throughout the company using hypermedia and Web technologies. Examples include: employee manuals, benefits documents, company policies, business standards, newsfeeds, and even training, can be accessed using common Internet standards (Acrobat files, Flash files, CGI applications). Because each business unit can update the online copy of a document, the most recent version is always available to employees using the intranet.
5. Business operations and management: Intranets are also being used as a platform for developing and deploying applications to support business operations and decisions across the internetworked enterprise.
6. Cost-effective: Users can view information and data via web-browser rather than maintaining physical documents such as procedure manuals, internal phone list and requisition forms. This can potentially save the business money on printing, duplicating documents, and the environment as well as document maintenance overhead. "PeopleSoft, a large software company, has derived significant cost savings by shifting HR processes to the intranet" ^[3]. Gerry McGovern goes on to say the manual cost of enrolling in benefits was found to be USD109.48 per enrollment. "Shifting this process to the intranet reduced the cost per enrollment to $21.79; a saving of 80 percent" ^[3]. PeopleSoft also saved some money when they received requests for mailing address change. "For an individual to request a change to their mailing address, the manual cost was USD17.77. The intranet reduced this cost to USD4.87, a saving of 73 percent" ^[3]. PeopleSoft was just one of the many companies that saved money by using an intranet. Another company that saved a lot of money on expense reports was Cisco. "In 1996, Cisco processed 54,000 reports and the amount of dollars processed was USD19 million" ^[3].
7. Promote common corporate culture: Every user is viewing the same information within the Intranet.
8. Enhance Collaboration: With information easily accessible by all authorised users, teamwork is enabled.
9. Cross-platform Capability: Standards-compliant web browsers are available for Windows, Mac, and UNIX.
10. Built for One Audience: Many companies dictate computer specifications. Which, in turn, may allow Intranet developers to write applications that only have to work on one browser (no cross-browser compatibility issues).
11. Knowledge of your Audience: Being able to specifically address your "viewer" is a great advantange. Since Intranets are user specific (requiring database/network authentication prior to access), you know exactly who you are interfacing with. So, you can personalize your Intranet based on role (job title, department) or individual ("Congratulations Jane, on your 3rd year with our company!").
12. Immediate Updates: When dealing with the public in any capacity, laws/specifications/parameters can change. With an Intranet and providing your audience with "live" changes, they are never out of date, which can limit a company's liability.
13. Supports a distributed computing architecture: The intranet can also be linked to a company’s management information system, for example a time keeping system.

Planning and creating an intranet

Most organizations devote considerable resources into the planning and implementation of their intranet as it is of strategic importance to the organization's success. Some of the planning would include topics such as:

• The purpose and goals of the intranet
• Persons or departments responsible for implementation and management
• Functional plans, information architecture, page layouts, design.^[4]
• Implementation schedules and phase-out of existing systems
• Defining and implementing security of the intranet
• How to ensure it is within legal boundaries and other constraints
• Level of interactivity (eg wikis, on-line forms) desired.
• Is the input of new data and updating of existing data to be centrally controlled or devolved.

These are in addition to the hardware and software decisions (like content management systems), participation issues (like good taste, harassment, confidentiality), and features to be supported^[5].

The actual implementation would include steps such as:

1. Securing senior management support and funding.^[6]
2. Business requirements analysis.
3. User involvement to identify users' information needs.
4. Setting up web server(s) with the appropriate hardware and software.
5. Setting up web server access using a TCP/IP network.
6. Installing required user applications on computers.
7. Creation of document framework for the content to be hosted.^[7]
8. User involvement in testing and promoting use of intranet.
9. Ongoing measurement and evaluation, including through benchmarking against other intranets.^[8]

Content is King: A successful Intranet project engages its viewers and provides them with immense corporate value by:

1. Feeding the Intranet: Key personnel must be assigned and committed to feeding Intranet consumers. The alternative for your project to become the "yellow-pages" (a tool that is used as a last resort).
2. Keep it current: Information that is current, relevant, informative, and useful to the end-user is the only way to keep them coming back for more.
3. Interact or "Listen": Allow your users to create content. Social networking must be an integral part of any Intranet project, if a company is serious about providing information to and receiving information from their employees.
4. Feedback: Allow a specific forum for users to tell you what they want and what they do not like.

Act on Feedback: Your users of the Intranet are typically the employees of the company with their finger on the pulse of your industry. Those that are in the trenches on a daily basis will be able to tell "corporate" what trends are happening in the marketplace before any news source. This two-way communication is critical for any successful Intranet. Company executives must read the input and create responses based on the company's direction. Otherwise, what is the point of any employee taking the time to respond. If an employee submits their opinion or their observation, they need to feel that they have been heard. This is accomplished by:

1. Require management to review Intranet posts on a daily basis and respond to the poster. Let them know that their post has already been addressed, is being reviewed, or is being elevated to a department head. This ensures the poster that their post has been read and is being acted upon accordingly. If they do not receive feedback, they will discontinue posting.
2. Broadcast feedback: The ideas that make it into the "this is a great idea" bucket, should become "news-worthy". This makes the poster feel useful and encourages others to follow.
3. Log Feedback by User: This information can be useful when considering an applicant for promotion/transfer, etc. It will also let you know who is focused on the company's benefit and not just "filling a position".
4. Require Executives to provide daily/weekly content: Everyone wants to hear from the person(s) they are working for. The Executive Team needs to lead the way in communicating the company's vision to their associates on a frequent (daily, if possible. If not, no less than weekly) basis.

See also

• Enterprise portal
• Extranet
• Intranet portal
• Intranet strategies
• Intraweb
• Local area network
• Wide area network
• Web portal

References

1. ^ Callaghan, J (2002). Inside Intranets & Extranets: Knowledge Management AND the Struggle for Power. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-98743-8. 
2. ^ Pernice Coyne, Kara; Schwartz, Mathew; Nielsen, Jakob (2007), "Intranet Design Annual 2007", Nielsen Norman Group
3. ^ ^{a b c d} McGovern, Gerry
4. ^ Ward, Toby (2006-06-11). "Leading an intranet redesign". IntranetBlog. http://intranetblog.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2006/6/11/2025170.html. Retrieved on 2009-04-03. 
5. ^ LaMee, James A. (2002-04-30). "Intranets and Special Libraries: Making the most of inhouse communications". University of South Carolina. http://www.libsci.sc.edu/bob/class/clis724/SpecialLibrariesHandbook/Int&SpecLib.html. Retrieved on 2009-04-03. 
6. ^ Ward, Toby. "Planning: An Intranet Model for success Intranet". http://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/intranet-articles/intranet-planning-an-intranet-model-for-success. Retrieved on 2009-04-03. 
7. ^ "Intranet: Table of Contents". Bookrags.com. http://www.bookrags.com/sciences/computerscience/intranet-csci-04.html. Retrieved on 2009-04-03. 
8. ^ "Intranet benchmarking explained". Intranet Benchmarking Forum. http://www.ibforum.com/?cmd=CMS_Article_List_View&uuid=Services&article=8f4928b5b6f5584beda884868f3ca458. Retrieved on 2009-04-03. 

• McGovern, Gerry (November 18, 2002). "Intranet return on investment case studies". http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2002/nt_2002_11_18_intranet_roi.htm. Retrieved on 2009-04-03. 
• "Making the most of your corporate intranet". April 2nd, 2009. http://www.claromentis.com/blog/top-10-ideas-making-the-most-of-your-corporate-intranet_841/. Retrieved on 2009-04-02. 

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)