Inside line - using Intranet technology for internal communications

Entrepreneur, Oct, 1996 by Cheryl J. Goldberg

Less than two years ago, small companies were at a distinct disadvantage when it came to sharing information among employees. Large corporations had the means to install expensive groupware systems, such as Lotus Notes, that allowed them to share internal information such as sales contacts, customer service information and other documents. They could also install large wide area net works to share key database or other corporate information. But such systems were far too costly and complex for smaller organizations to even consider.

Today, with the increased availability of Intranet technology, organizations of all sizes - even those with as few as five to 10 employees - can give everyone on staff access to internal information, wherever and whenever they need it, simply and cost-effectively.

"Intranet" is a term used to described the use of Internet technologies Internally within an organization rather than externally to connect to the global Internet. Essentially, companies use the Intranet to publish information on an internal Web page, using the same process they would use to publish an external Web page. Users then access this information using a Web browser. These Intranet products also provide some e-mail capabilities.

Intranet applications are, catching on quickly in the business world. The percentage of large and mid-sized companies using some sort of Intranet application has soared to 55 percent, up from just 11 percent a year ago, according to Business Research Group, a high-tech market research and consulting firm in Newton, Massachusetts. By January, that figure is expected to reach 70 percent. And the Intranet's popularity extends equally to smaller companies, according to Clay Ryder, a senior industry analyst at Zona Research, a Redwood City, California, market research and consulting firm. "We've talked to numerous very small companies," Ryder says, "and found usage patterns parent much different between small and large organizations."

* DOING IT ALL

With the Intranet, businesses are moving one step closer to the long-awaited paperless office. The Intranet allows companies to publish al kinds of internal corporate documents - human resources manuals newsletters, annual reports, maps company phone lists or locations price lists and product information - where it is easily accessible by all employees at any time.

Intranets can provide powerful search engines that enable employees to easily find answers to questions that arise in the normal course of doing business. For instance, you could post a list of common customer questions and answers on the Intranet so your customer service representatives could quickly access it while talking to customers.

Intranet applications can also handle functions similar to groupware applications. For instance, you can post electronic sign-up sheets, surveys or simple schedules.

More sophisticated practices include using the Intranet to link employees to your company databases to let them access a wide range of data, such as sales projections and internal discounts. You can also use the Intranet to distribute software. For these types of aplications, you would need to contract with a systems integrator to custom design a program using a tool such as Oracle's PowerBrowser or Power-Builder from the Powersoft Business Group of Cybase.

* INTRANET

ADVANTAGES

The Intranet offers a number of important advantages over printed documents, when it comes to distributing information. Much of the material businesses print for internal use is expensive and time-consuming to produce (not to mention tree-wasting). You can't guarantee that everyone in your organization will receive the most recent, updated versions of internal documents, policies or other information. With the Intranet, however ...

* You can deliver information whenever someone needs it - any time, day or night. Users simply call up the internal Web page whenever they need the data.

* You can guarantee the information is the latest and most accurate available, as long as you keep the information on the Web server current. For example, you could use it to deliver daily sales projections.

* Updating information is easy. Information is posted on the Intranet using HyperText Markup Language (HTML). Because HTML is simple to learn, you don't have to hire a "techie" to update your information - you can simply train the same people who would have previously on paper and distributed it.

* You can cross-link information to other files using Hyper Text links. For example, you could cross-link your product literature to technical specifications and pricing information. To find specifications or pricing, users would simply click on a keyword such as "tecspec" or "price," in the product literature, and the system would automatically take them to the desired information. You can even crosslink information to other files on other servers-whether those servers are down the hall, down the street or across the country.

* IT'S SO EASY

Despite all its advantages over printed documents, the Intranet would not be nearly as popular were It expensive or difficult to use. Luckily, all you need to get an Intranet site up and operating is a personal computer capable of running some sort of graphical user interface system, such as Windows 95, Windows NT or the Macintosh OS; an Internet browser; and a networking card for each system.