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INTRANET

Definition: Intranet is the generic term for a collection of private computer networks within an
organization. An intranet uses network technologies as a tool to facilitate communication between
people or work groups to improve the data sharing capability and overall knowledge base of an
organization's employees.
An organization's intranet typically includes Internet access but is FIREWALLED so that its
computers cannot be reached directly from the outside.
A common extension to intranets, called extranets, opens this firewall to provide controlled
access to outsiders.
More sophisticated intranets include Web sites and databases containing company news, forms,
and personnel information. Besides company email and Internet access, an intranet generally
incorporates internal Web sites, documents, and/or databases.
Acceptable Use Policy (AUP):
An AUP defines the intended uses of the network including unacceptable uses and the consequences for
non-compliance. A good Acceptable Use Policy will cover provisions for network etiquette, mention
limits on the use of network resources, and clearly indicate of the level of privacy a member on the
network should expect.
Some factors to consider in evaluating the effectiveness of AUP:
Does it clearly specify the policy owner or owners?
Have scenarios been documented unambiguously for the key policy issues?
Descriptions of so-called "use cases" or "situational analyses" help everyone to relate the policy
to real life situations especially those based on actual past experience.
Are the consequences for non-compliance clear and intended to be enforced?
Good Acceptable Use Policies (AUP) cover network monitoring strategies such as these:
Scanning proxy server logs to find hits to inappropriate Web sites including non work-related
access occurring during business hours.
Installing filtering software that blocks access to certain public Web sites
Scanning of incoming and outgoing emails
Establishing disk space quotas on shared network drives.



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STRATEGY
For an intranet, a typical strategy would include the following elements:
Vision
Mission
Target audience definition / segmentation
Governance
Goals
Objectives
Action plans
KPIs (or CSIs)

When looking at strategy as it relates to the process of developing or redesigning an
intranet, strategy encompasses the first two phases of Prescient Digital Media's Intranet
Project Methodology .Assessment & Planning.








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Assessment
During Assessment (Phase I), the current state of the intranet is documented and the needs and
requirements identified. Assessment serves two important functions: it documents the needs and
requirements of the user population, and those of the business and its stakeholders while aligning
project goals with corporate goals and objectives. This phase often includes the following
activities:
a heuristic intranet evaluation (gap analysis)
business requirements analysis (and stakeholder interviews)
user reviews
user survey
focus groups
technical infrastructure analysis
benchmarking and best practices

Planning
Phase II, Planning, addresses the needs documented during the Assessment. Intranet planning
incorporates both the strategic vision and the functional plan and maps out the strategic and
tactical steps for designing the site or portal including:
the high-level vision and mission
goals and objectives
governance
critical success indicators (PKIs)
business case and ROI
content management plan & policies

As well, detailed tactical plans are drafted, including:
the functional plan
site or portal information architecture
page wireframes
design concepts
usability testing




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Model for Success
It is easier to look at strategy from the top-down, beginning with the vision and 'visualizing' the
end state or model of success for the intranet. While a successful intranet 'looks' very different
from organization to organization, another way to visualize success is as a model or mental
construct (the elements of success). The model or construct I developed some years ago, which
guides the work Prescient has done with dozens of intranet clients, is called the Nexus of Intranet
Success. Nexus comes from a Greek word meaning meeting place (a fitting label given the
intranets importance as the only true, universal meeting ground or water cooler in the average
organization).
The most critical determinant of an intranets success is people. In particular, the crucial
participation and support of senior management (the heart or inner ring of the Nexus model:
Executive Support) and the end users (the all encompassing factor represented by the outer ring
Motivated Users of the Nexus model). The model therefore visually depicts the significant
importance of people. Ironically, the engagement of both senior management and end users are
critical tasks during the intranet strategy.



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The Nexus model therefore represents the desired end-state, not the process for getting there.
Ive been known to say that the intranet is not a technology system or IT project, nor is it a
communications vehicle or channel; the intranet is a business system that should represent and
support all areas of the business. In fact, the intranet is really only one part technology, and many
parts people and process.

FEATURES:
Intranet can be understood as a private network within the organization that is based on the Internet
and that utilizes TCP/IP protocols for effective communication. An effective Intranet application must
have the following features.

Usability

The intranets content management system should be simple with easy-to-understand GUI (Graphical
User Interface). The CMS should have an associated document, which can easily guide the user to add,
edit and share the data. It must be easy to navigate through the applications within the intranet.

User-friendliness

as discussed earlier, the intranet must be able to indulge the user in the participative development on
any project. The features must be simple to understand and the users should easily operate them.

Flexibility

The intranet must have the space and flexibility for addition of new features (depending on the
requirements of the business). For example, if the requirement arises for assimilating a relatively
complicated business management tool then the Intranet should easily accommodate the updates.

Administration

providing multiple options in administering the correct usage of Intranet is quite essential. There must
be a feature from which a central authority can manage groups, users and other authentication
procedures.


Task Management

one of the major applications of Intranet lies in its ability of providing a platform of collaborative
working on a project or any other task. So, the intranet must have features through which the senior
members can propagate the important messages and notifications regarding the project.



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Security

Intranet is the strategic application through which collaborative work and social culture in offices are
promoted. Hence, if somebody penetrates through the Intranet it can mean leakage of important
information and that would be quite catastrophic for the business. This is why the intranet must be
comprehensively secured against any malicious attempts to breach the security.

All these features are highly desired from a comprehensive Intranet portal. If you have a business and
you are interested in getting an Intranet portal then you must exhaustively work on the customized
requirements. Remember, it is always feasible to know your requirements. On the contrary, chipping in
with the tweaks and suggestion in the later stages will only inflate the budget.
Some basic Features of Intranet Applications are
Powerful, Easy to use, Customizable
Document Manager
The Intranet Document Manager application allows you to store, access, view, modify and
manage a wide spectrum of information generated within your company. All file types, text files,
HTML files, audio, and all popular MS Office documents can be stored within your company
intranet.

Shared Calendars Manage your schedule and keep track of your appointments and tasks
by utilizing the Intranet Calendar application. Multiple calendars can be created and shared
within your organization. Import/Export data between Outlook, Palm and the intranet calendars.

Access Rights Management The Intranet is a powerful tool that enables an organization to
create, capture and share information effectively, but most importantly, in a fashion that is secure
and reliable through assigning Access Rights to System Members. Just point and click to adjust
access rights.

Active Directory Synchronization
intranet administrators can synchronize users that are located within their existing active
directory database to the intranet user database. This solves the problem of users having multiple
usernames and passwords for different applications and greatly reduces administrator resources.

Data Manager
The Data Manager application allows users to create complete custom web forms that can be
designed to capture data and provides an easy to use interface to manage the data that was
entered into the forms. The Data Manager can be used for many business needs.


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WYSIWYG Editor The Intra Editor, a dynamic integrated HTML editor that allows
intranet members the ability to create documents with the assistance of various features and
without the knowledge of HTML. Update intranet pages on the fly.

Group Calendar
The group calendar allows you to create one screen that presents data from multiple
calendars. Each calendar is included in the legend and is color coded for easy identification.

Intranet Contact Manager
The Intranet Contact Manager is the application that will assist you in storing and organizing
your customer and associate contact information while remaining completely
mobile. Import/Export data between Outlook, Palm and the intranet contact managers.

Item Routing
Within applications, pre-defined routes can be set up to control intranet workflow and track item
changes.

Opinion Polls
Create an Opinion Poll Port let as part of a Portal page.

Intranet Import/Export
The Intranet Import/Export Utility allows you to quickly and easily import and export your
Outlook and Palm contacts and appointments.

Web Based Email
Most companies and organizations already have a well-established e-mail system that they have
grown accustomed to, so, the Intranet E-mail client application has an interface that allows all
Users to access their own established POP3 and IMAP accounts rather than requiring the
creation of a new separate e-mail address.

Image Thumb nailing
An easy to use graphic file storage area, which allows you to preview and organize your jpeg and
gif images within one location. Each image is thumb nailed for easy viewing.

Intranet Bulletin Board
The Bulletin Board application is a centralized location to easily store and collect ideas,
opinions, and suggestions within your company on important work issues and projects.


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Shared Links
The Web Links Manager allows you to create and store important Web links in a central location
for quick and easy access by you or others.

Full Text Search
The Search Engine is a very functional tool, as it allows you to quickly locate information
anywhere within your Intranet. Full text search is available by utilizing Oracle or MSSQL as
your database.

Auto Notification
The Auto Notification System allows Intranet members to know when new items have been
added to the Intranet through E-mail. Notifications can be set up to be automatically sent when
items are created, modified, moved or routed.

Online Help
The Intranet offers a complete Online Help Guide, which System Members can easily access,
simply click on the Help link on the top toolbar.

Company Memos
The built in Memo Manager allows your company to set reoccurring email memos that will be
delivered at a set time and date. These memos can also include URL links pointing to important
sections and application within the Intranet. This application increases the overall usage of the
product.

Intranet User Administration
Manage your employee information, as well as control who is added to the Intranet.

Intranet Group Administration
This application allows you to arrange your system members into groups that suit your
organization.

Intranet Settings
The System Settings application allows the System Administrator, as well as other system
members who have been given access, complete control over a number of system wide
administrator tasks from this location.



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Intranet Statistics
The Intranet Statistics application provides a range of numerical data compiled and gathered by
the system to assist in comprehending the frequency of the Intranet's use.

Intranet Application Administration
The Application Manager allows the System Administrator, or another User who has been
entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining and managing this application, to turn
applications on or off within your Intranet.

External Application Launcher
The External Application Launcher enables you to access other web-based applications from one
central location.

Item History Tracking
Item history provides a complete report based on the life cycle of an item. Every time and item
is moved or modified the change is listed in the item history

COST:
The cost-benefits of intranets are meant to be self-evident. After all, the set up costs appear to
be minimal and the benefits although largely intangible are, by all accounts, substantial.

Why is cost-benefit analysis necessary?
For many people, the process of measuring the costs and benefits of an intranet is one that, with any
luck, can be avoided. After all:
"There are so many intangibles, it's impossible to do."
"The benefits of an intranet are so obvious, there's no point."
"An intranet is so cheap to set up that there's no requirement to justify it."
"An intranet is just a basic tool, like fax and word processing that can be taken for granted."
"The figures are far too complex to calculate."
.Perhaps the strongest argument for conducting a proper assessment of the costs and benefits of an
intranet is that this should provide you with the ammunition you need to do the job properly, with an
appropriate budget and a realistic timetable. If it doesnt, then at least you will be forewarned enough to
drop the subject quietly or look to get a job with another organization, where an intranet is going to be of
more use.


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A method for calculating cost-benefits
Determine what you want your intranet to be able to do in its initial implementation.
Analyze what it will cost you to make this happen both up-front and in ongoing maintenance.
Anticipate the cost savings and the productivity benefits that will arise.
Calculate the return you will get on your investment and how long this will take to materialize.

Scoping your intranet
It is not possible to conduct a meaningful analysis without a clear indication of what you want your
intranet to achieve. There are many ways of categorizing what an intranet does. Information publishing:
using the intranet to deliver news and other information in the form of directories and web documents.
E-mail: implementing an e-mail system that integrates seamlessly with the intranet, allowing
information to be both 'pushed' and 'pulled'.
Document management: using the intranet to allow users to view, print and work collaboratively
on office documents (word-processed documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc.).
Training: using the intranet to deliver training at the desktop.
Workflow: using the intranet to automate administrative processes.
Databases and other bespoke systems: using the intranet as a front-end to organization-specific
systems, such as corporate databases.
Discussion: using the intranet as a means for users to discuss and debate issues.
Pretty well every organization will implement the first of these information publishing. The majority will
have ambitions to extend their intranet to cover the rest of the list at some stage. Dont be distracted into
predicting too far into the future - apart from anything else it will make your calculations more difficult and
less useful. Concentrate on what you expect to achieve in the first major wave of implementation lets
say the first year.

Establishing some basic facts and figures
To make your calculations later you will need to gather some basic facts and figures about your audience:
The size of your intranet target population and, if appropriate, the proportion this represents of
your organizations total projected intranet user population.
The number of people within the target population who will need new PCs, the number who are
currently not networked and the number who will be provided with access to the Internet.
The average annual salary and benefits of the target population, the average working hours in a
day and working days in a year (used to calculate labor savings and productivity gains).




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Analyzing costs
The next step is to analyze the costs that will be incurred in setting up and running your intranet. There
are two main categories of cost:
Capital costs: hardware and software costs that will be met by the organizations capital budget
and, normally, written off over a number of years.
Revenue costs: other costs that is likely to be borne by the organizations normal expense
budget.
It is also necessary to make a distinction between the one-off costs associated with start-up and ongoing
maintenance costs. Here are some ideas for what to include in each case:
Start-up capital costs
these costs form a major part of your up-front investment. Because, as fixed assets, they have a useful
life of several years and a resale value, they are normally written off over three or four years. Your finance
department will be able to tell you what your organizations depreciation policy is. Youll also need to
consult your IT department to get estimates for all the hardware and software needed:
New PCs for providing intranet access to employees without their own PCs.
Providing network connections to PCs not currently networked.
Web servers and server software.
You also need to provide for the cost of software applications, whether they are developed on a bespoke
basis (in-house or outside) or purchased off-the-shelf. You can pay considerable prices for industrial
strength applications, but much cheaper or even free applications can be obtained with a little research.
What you will need will depend on what you are using your intranet for:
Information publishing: examples of automated applications include directories (phone,
employees, products, services, locations, etc.) and applications that automate the production of
news pages, classified ads or newsletters.
E-mail: intranet e-mail is typically provided with a single off-the-shelf application, plus individual
client licenses.
Document management: typically one main application.
Training: for ease of calculation, assume that an intranet training application represents one hour
of self-instructional material.
Workflow: applications include on-line forms (holiday, sickness, expenses, timesheets,
purchasing, surveys, and bookings for rooms, training or travel). If these simply submit messages
to be processed manually, they will be relatively inexpensive to develop. If complete
administrative processes are to be automated, which use the intranet as a front-end, a more
substantial investment will be required, whether in bespoke software development or purchase
of/upgrade to intranet-enabled versions of off-the-shelf systems such as HR databases, media
libraries, sales support systems, etc.
Databases and other bespoke systems: include any application that provides users with an
intranet front-end to a major, existing, bespoke corporate system.
Discussion: there will typically be one application to allow users to debate topics over the intranet.



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Start-up revenue costs
these also form part of your up-front investment, but are more likely to be written off in the first year of
implementation:
Design consultancy: the cost, whether internal or external, of creating a structural, navigational
and graphical design for the part of the intranet being analyzed.
Promotion: the cost, again internal or external, of launching the intranet to your target population.
Training: the total cost, per user, of providing training in both how to use the intranet and how to
provide content.
Ongoing capital costs
some money will have to be reserved each year, from year 2, for upgrades to your server hardware and
software and to your off-the-shelf applications. Perhaps the best way of estimating this will be as a
percentage of the initial cost say 25%.

Ongoing revenue costs
a considerable amount of effort is required to maintain and continuously improve your intranet. These
costs need to be budgeted from year one:
Editorial and design personnel: the people required to administer intranet policies and act as
overall content editors for your target population. Remember to include salaries, benefits and
expenses.
Technical personnel: the people required by the organization as a whole to keep your intranet up
and running from a technical perspective.
Internet access: the cost of providing lines out to the Internet. A simple way of estimating this is to
make a small annual allowance, say 50, for each employee who will have access.
The following costs apply after the first year of implementation:
Ongoing consultancy: continuous modifications and improvements to your intranet design,
expressed as a percentage of start-up design consultancy costs.
Ongoing promotion: continuing promotion of the intranet to your target population, expressed as a
percentage of start-up promotional costs.
Ongoing training: a percentage of start-up training costs, largely to account for employee
turnover.
Maintenance of bespoke applications: assuming this work is not carried out by the technical
personnel listed above, make an allowance for continuing development of your bespoke
applications, and say 25% of the initial cost.






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Forecasting benefits
Not many people have trouble calculating costs. It takes a little more ingenuity to pin down the benefits.
There are three main categories of benefit:
Direct cost savings: savings in expenditure other than labor - print, paper, telephone, travel costs,
etc. - that can be directly attributed to the introduction of the intranet. These can usually be
calculated in three steps: (1) the number of incidences of expenditure in the time period, (2) the
cost of each incidence and (3) the proportion of these that could be eliminated using the intranet.
For example, if the number of pages of formal printed material received per person per year was
500, the cost in pence per page, including printing and delivery, was 6p and the percentage of
these pages that could be delivered on-line was 70%, the saving in pounds would be 500 x (6 /
100) x 70% x the size of the population.
Labor savings: savings in the amount of time required to carry out tasks as a result of introducing
the intranet. These can be expressed in minutes per person per day. To calculate the saving,
divide the number of minutes saved by the number of minutes in the day (60 x the number of
working hours) and multiply by the size of the population and the average salary.
Productivity increases: increases in output per person attributable to the introduction of the
intranet, expressed as a percentage. Because personal productivity has such a wide range of
implications from job to job and organization to organization, it is probably easier to convert these
to simple labor savings. For example, if the total productivity gains were 3%, calculate the savings
as (3 / 103) x the size of the population x the average salary. The actual effect of higher
productivity, such as increases in sales, could well be much larger and, if you can estimate these,
then you should.
Each category of intranet usage has its own associated benefits:
Information publishing
Direct cost savings: the print, paper and delivery costs that can be saved by making documents available
on-line and discontinuing their paper equivalents. Clearly this saving cannot be realized if paper and on-
line versions operate in parallel.
Labor savings: faster access to information; more rapid and easy exchange of information; less
duplication of effort (because there need be only one owner for each piece of information) and less
interruptions (because you can control when you access information).
Productivity increases: through the availability of more accurate and up-to-date information and making
available information that was not previously available.
Intranet e-mail
direct cost savings: Costs of phone calls, faxes, memos, letters, diskettes and other digital media, saved
through the use of e-mail both within and outside the organization.
Labor savings: less time trying to get through on the phone; less time spent preparing and checking
items to be sent out and less interruptions (because you can control when you access information).
Productivity increases: faster access to information.


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Document management
Direct cost savings: the print, paper, digital media and delivery costs that can be saved by making
documents available on-line for review, editing and approval rather than distributing as hard copy or on
diskette.
Labor savings: less time spent sending out documents for review, editing and revision; less time spent
locating/obtaining documents for review, editing and revision; less duplication of effort (data can be
shared between documents by linking or copying and pasting); less time wasted correcting errors caused
by work being undertaken on incorrect versions.
Productivity increases: faster access to accurate and up-to-date business documents.
Training
Direct cost savings: savings in travel and accommodation, trainers, rooms and equipment for courses
delivered via the intranet rather than in a classroom.
Labor savings: less time spent travelling to courses; less time required to reach learning objectives
(through the use of more efficient self-instructional methods).
Productivity increases: immediate access to required knowledge and skills.
Workflow
Direct cost savings: the print, paper and delivery costs that can be saved by making forms available on-
line.
Labor savings: less time spent per person per form in obtaining up-to-date copies of the form to complete;
for each fully-integrated workflow application, the number of days saved in admin time per year.
Productivity increases: faster and more reliable admin processes.
Databases/bespoke systems
Labor savings: less time required to learn and use applications.
Productivity increases: through information being available that was not previously available.
Discussion
Direct cost savings: travel and accommodation costs for meetings that could instead be conducted on-
line.
Labor savings: less time spent travelling to meetings; less time spent in meetings.
Productivity increases: faster resolution of issues and concerns; the resolution of issues and concerns
that would not have been possible without the intranet.




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Analyzing the results
Before you can make any conclusions from your findings, youll need to total up your costs and benefits.
Summarizing costs
if your target population is a subset of your organizations total intranet population, then you need only
need to take a proportion of the costs that are borne centrally. The following costs are likely to be central:
server hardware and software
the purchase, development, maintenance and upgrades to software applications
provision of technical personnel
Remember that you only need to take account of the cost of applications that are required to support your
initial intranet implementation.
Summarizing benefits
Total up the benefits for each intranet category under the three benefit headings: direct cost savings,
labor savings and productivity increases. Before making your calculations, it is necessary to determine
the proportion of the target population that is affected by each of the intranet categories. For example, the
whole population may be affected by the use of the intranet for information publishing, but only 30% for
document management and 40% for workflow. If you dont make these distinctions, you are likely to over-
estimate your benefits.

ROI:
10 Ways We Improve Intranet ROI:
Reduce the time it takes for employees to find company documents by placing them all in a
central location on the business intranet with a unified, single advanced search and full-text
searching.

Your business intranet can help to attract talent and keep them with you. Use the intranet to
facilitate community and culture. Give employees the tools they look for in collaboration,
networking and increased job satisfaction, and then watch your turnover rate decrease
yielding significant intranet benefits.
Building a custom business intranet is expensive. Save money with business intranet
software that is out-of-the-box. No contractors, developers or consultants. You can deploy
quickly with minimal user training and you never have to worry about finding, building or
maintaining new features and applications.
Reduce the management of your business intranet with Smart Delegation. Stop the bottleneck
of restricted publishing and let everyone contribute themselves, rather than tying up an IT or HR
person to publish content.

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Automate and streamline the management of courses and student registrations by putting it all
on the intranet in an online training calendar. Free up the time of a training manager to focus on
course material, video how-to have and brings on new projects.
Retaining your employees knowledge beyond their employment in a FAQ or Knowledge Base
application is a soft cost that may be hard to quantify but can provide huge gains for the
company in the long run.
Create a leaner and more efficient IT help center by encouraging employee to use the business
intranet Support Desk tool, where they can submit issues and track the status of their tickets.
Encourage employees to share cost-saving ideas for the company on your intranet with the Idea
Share application.
Provide better service to your customers by arming your employees with streamlined
information at their fingertips. Use various widgets from our 20+ widget library to keep
employees up-to-date on Company News, Daily Tips, and current weather, along with current
industry news through RSS feeds.
Pick pain points within the business (paper pushing, email overload, clunky workflows) and
move these procedures onto your business intranet to reap the rewards of time cost savings.


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 , "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

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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."
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

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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.






Potential advantages of using intranets
reduces printing, distribution, and paper costs - particularly on policy manuals, company
newsletters, product catalogs, technical drawings, training material, and telephone directories
easy to use - no specialized training required
inexpensive to use (once it is set up)
moderate initial setup costs (hardware and software)
standardized network protocol (TCP/IP), document protocol (HTML), and file transfer protocol
(ftp) already well established and suitable for all platforms
can be used throughout the enterprise
reduces employee training costs
reduces sales and marketing costs
reduces office administration and accounting costs
ease of access results in a more integrated company with employees communicating and
collaborating more freely and more productively

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Potential disadvantages of intranets
it is an evolving technology that requires upgrades and could have software incompatibility
problems
security features can be inadequate
inadequate system performance management and poor user support
may not scale up adequately
maintaining content can be time consuming
some employees may not have PCs at their desks
The aims of the organization in developing an intranet may not align with user needs.















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Building a PHP Intranet: 10 Key Tools
Fedora Core

Link: http://fedoraproject.org/
What it does: Fedora Core is a free linux distribution. As with most free linux distributions, it
usually contains the bleeding edge code from the OpenSource projects that comprise the
distribution. Generally, this is desirable for people looking to take advantage of new features, but
for enterprise servers, or for applications requiring a more stable and tested codebase,
distributions such as RedHat Enterprise Linux or SuSE Enterprise Linux are more appropriate.
Fedora is my particular favorite, but Debian and Ubuntu are also very solid.
PHP5

Link: http://www.php.net/
What it does: Its PHP, Fedora Core features this in an RPM package, and you can install it
during the installation process.
Apache2

Link: http://httpd.apache.org/
What it does: Apache is the front-end webserver required by all of the other OpenSource
projects on this list. As with PHP, it is included in the Fedora Core distribution as the HTTP
server, and you can install it during the initial installation process.

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mySQL

Link: http://www.mysql.com/
What it does: mySQL is the database back-end required to store data for all of the OpenSource
projects on this list. As with PHP and Apache, it is a part of the Fedora Core distribution, and can
be installed during the installation process.
MediaWiki

Link: http://www.mediawiki.org
What it does: MediaWiki is a fantastic OpenSource wiki platform. Its fairly straightforward to
set up and deploy, and youll be up and running in no time. MediaWiki is the platform that
supports Wikipedia.
Drupal

Link: http://drupal.org/
What it does: Drupal is a web content management system. Drupal includes templates, making
it easy for departments to start building their own web pages quickly and easily.

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phpBB

Link: http://www.phpbb.com/
What it does: phpBB is a web-based discussion platform (aka a bulletin board system, or
forums). Having a web-based platform for discussion allows you to capture tacit information that
might otherwise be inaccessible in email discussions and make it readily available to anyone
searching for it on your Intranet.
Horde

Link: http://www.horde.org/
What it does: Horde is a web-based email, calendaring and task management system that is
quick to set up and deploy.
WordPress

Link: http://www.wordpress.org
What it does: WordPress is simply the best PHP-based blogging application available.
Coppermine

Link: http://coppermine-gallery.net/
What it does: Coppermine is an easy-to-use and powerful image gallery application.

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SCOPE OF INTRANET IN BL:
Human Resources Intranets to store and avail training documentation, contact
databases, employee surveys, candidate applications and screening, etc.
Sales and Marketing Intranets that allow sales and marketing personnel to access
product information, sales scripts, market analysis and research, pricing charts, contact
databases, sales records, etc.
Information Systems Intranets for instruction manuals, software and applications,
technical support, resource scheduling, etc.
Executive Intranets to organize departmental information, business contracts, meeting
minutes, business metrics, external contact information, etc.
Customer Service Intranets for customer information, order entry and tracking,
stocking information, customer FAQs, and technical support documents, etc.
Accounting Intranets for the centralization of payroll, budgeting information, asset
management, accounts support, financial reports, financial policies and procedures, etc.