Intranets Development - Velez Internet Solutions

"We can provide for you intranet solutions to meet your needs."

Major corporations and companies as small as 15 employees are reaping the benefits of developing intranets. Companies have discovered a new way to deliver coordination and collaboration to their employees.

What is an intranet?

An intranet is a private computer network based on the communication standards of the Internet. It is smaller version of the Internet that only the members of an organization can see. These internal Webs are growing from an explosion in the use and understanding of Internet technology.

The past few years have seen exponential growth in companies connecting to the Internet. In July 1996 there were 12,000,000 servers and desktops connected. Companies began the use of Internet technology by setting up e-mail gateways to the Internet. They then moved to setting up Web servers to publish basic corporate Web sites. The biggest trend now is to use those same tools that publish information to the world to publish information internally across a private network, the intranet.

Why set up an intranet?

Companies are looking for an open-architecture, cost-effective solution for distributing information throughout their organization. Employees want better information faster. The intranet offers this solution.

As on the Internet the Web browser is the universal interface for the intranet. Never before has a company had the ability to set up a network where all the operations run from one interface that can run on disparate platforms. Now the UNIX user can communicate with the MAC user who can then communicate with the Windows user.

This universal interface will decrease the learning curve of new applications, decreases the need for costly proprietary software upgrades at the desktop and provide a common look and feel to all applications.

An intranet is surprisingly inexpensive to implement. Browsers such as Netscape Navigator and the Microsoft Internet Explorer are almost free. A simple Web server can be set up for a few thousand dollars and someone can even download free server software from the Internet. Many companies can maintain an intranet with only one person. With the advent of many HTML authoring tools the publishing of content for the intranet grows ever easier.

The intranet provides a way for employees to gain better access to more time-sensitive information. The intranet can end the paper trail of many office applications. Now that information is published on the intranet instead of printed in a company paper newsletter the employee can make faster more informed decisions. In summary, the benefits on an intranet include:

Easy to set up and administer
Open Architecture
Universal interface
Inexpensive
Connects all operating system platforms
Cost effective
Faster access to information
Better Decision making
Build and share knowledge

What are the obstacles to implementing an intranet?

With every introduction of new technology obstacles must be overcome. There is no exception with the introducing Internet technology to the workplace. I examine them below.

Bandwidth and the excitement surrounding the technology - An intranet can publish text, audio, and video. This has never been capable before across one internal network. Employees can get very excited about the technology and will scream for more and more applications. The administrators of the system must be very careful monitor use of the system to control bandwidth flow.
Employee Fears - Many managers may resist the intranet because it provides information so quickly to the lowest level of employee. Information equals power in most organizations and managers must be convinced that empowering users with knowledge will not endanger their job.
Reward for Collaborative Behavior - Intranets build cooperation and the sharing of ideas. Many organizations reward competitive behavior among employees. Rewards must be set up for the sharing of information and knowledge across departmental boundaries for the intranet to be successful.

Who can use an intranet?

Virtually any department that needs information in a timely fashion can benefit from an intranet. I have listed some examples below.

Human Resources

On-line job postings
Career Development and training
On-line employment directories
Web-based forms for collection of payroll and insurance information
Marketing
Search engines to gather market research
Sales tracking and reporting
On-line catalogs
Corporate Office
On-line newsletters
Corporate events calendar
Links to company resources and tools

What does it take to build an intranet?

Every intranet contains some basic components. Companies choose to supply some or all of these internally while others go to outside consultants. I have listed the basic components of an intranet below.

Network

Security

Hardware and Software