Inside Line Intranet applications use Internet technology to streamline your internal communications.

Less than two years ago, small companies were at a distinctdisadvantage when it came to sharing information among employees.Large corporations had the means to install expensive groupwaresystems, such as Lotus Notes, that allowed them to share internalinformation such as sales contacts, customer service informationand other documents. They could also install large wide areanetworks to share key database or other corporate information. Butsuch systems were far too costly and complex for smallerorganizations to even consider.

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

"Intranet" is a term used to describe the use ofInternet technologies internally within an organization rather thanexternally to connect to the global Internet. Essentially,companies use the Intranet to publish information on an internalWeb page, using the same process they would use to publish anexternal Web page. Users then access this information using a Webbrowser. These Intranet products also provide some e-mailcapabilities.

Intranet applications are catching on quickly in the businessworld. The percentage of large and midsized companies using somesort of Intranet application has soared to 55 percent, up from just11 percent a year ago, according to Business Research Group, ahigh-tech market research and consulting firm in Newton,Massachusetts. By January, that figure is expected to reach 70percent. And the Intranet's popularity extends equally tosmaller companies, according to Clay Ryder, a senior industryanalyst at Zona Research, a Redwood City, California, marketresearch and consulting firm. "We've talked to numerousvery small companies," Ryder says, "and found usagepatterns aren't much different between small and largeorganizations."

Doing It All

With the Intranet, businesses are moving one step closer to thelong-awaited paperless office. The Intranet allows companies topublish all kinds of internal corporate documents--human resourcesmanuals, newsletters, annual reports, maps, company phone lists orlocations, price lists and product information--where it is easilyaccessible by all employees at any time.

Intranets can provide powerful search engines that enableemployees to easily find answers to questions that arise in thenormal course of doing business. For instance, you could post alist of common customer questions and answers on the Intranet soyour customer service representatives could quickly access it whiletalking to customers.

Intranet applications can also handle functions similar togroupware applications. For instance, you can post electronicsign-up sheets, surveys or simple schedules.

More sophisticated practices include using the Intranet to linkemployees to your company databases to let them access a wide rangeof data, such as sales projections and internal discounts. You canalso use the Intranet to distribute software. For these types ofapplications, you would need to contract with a systems integratorto custom design a program using a tool such as Oracle'sPowerBrowser or PowerBuilder from the Powersoft Business Group ofCybase.

Intranet Advantages

The Intranet offers a number of important advantages overprinted documents when it comes to distributing information. Muchof the material businesses print for internal use is expensive andtime-consuming to produce (not to mention tree-wasting). Youcan't guarantee that everyone in your organization will receivethe most recent, updated versions of internal documents, policiesor 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 wheneverthey need the data.

You can guarantee the information is the laBODY and mostaccurate available, as long as you keep the information on the Webserver current. For example, you could use it to deliver dailysales projections.

Updating information is easy. Information is posted on theIntranet using HyperText Markup Language (HTML). Because HTML issimple to learn, you don't have to hire a "techie" toupdate your information--you can simply train the same people whowould have previously updated the information on paper anddistributed it.

You can cross-link information to other files using HyperTextlinks. For example, you could cross-link your product literature totechnical specifications and pricing information. To findspecifications or pricing, users would simply click on a keyword,such as "tecspec" or "price," in the productliterature, and the system would automatically take them to thedesired information. You can even cross-link information to otherfiles on other servers--whether those servers are down the hall,down the street or across the country.

Its So Easy

Despite all its advantages over printed documents, the Intranetwould not be nearly as popular were it expensive or difficult touse. Luckily, all you need to get an Intranet site up and operatingis a personal computer capable of running some sort of graphicaluser interface system, such as Windows 95, Windows NT or theMacintosh OS; an Internet browser; and a networking card for eachsystem.

You'll also need a hard drive on which to post content; ifyou want to post more dynamic applications, such as forms, orprovide access to "applets" (small applications writtenin Sun Microsystems' Java programming language), you may need acomputer to act as a server on which to post your internal Webpage.

With browsers costing about $20 per user, an Intranet can costas little as $1,000 to install--even taking the server intoaccount.

Other reasons Intranet systems are so popular?

Ease of use: Most people can learn to use a Webbrowser in a few days (or less), compared with weeks or months formany other software applications.

Consistency: You can use the same browserinterface for a wide range of applications, from database accessand document retrieval to bulletin boards and e-mail. Thissignificantly reduces the time needed to train new users and makeslife a lot easier for even the most computer-savvy employees.

Performance: The Intranet runs over a highbandwidth network, which means it can easily handle
audio clips, graphics, animation, video and other multimediatechnologies that improve communication.

Cross-platform communications: The adoption of awide range of standard protocols, such as TCP/IP for networking andHTML for publishing documents on the Web, makes for ease ofcommunication. Whether your company uses a single type of computerplatform or a mix of Macs, Unix, Windows systems and so on, commonstandards for Intranet publishing mean any of these machines canaccess Intranet documents. You can even set up secure links tocommunicate with specific external partners or potentialcustomers.

Security: While many people remain concerned aboutInternet security, Intranets remain secure because they'reinternal. Intranet users can access the Internet but not viceversa. And, if you wish, you can incorporate additional securitylevels, including firewalls or encryption.

Computing Caveats

Mastering the Intranet is as easy as learning any computertechnology. But hardly any technology is as simple as the vendorsmake it out to be. Posting Web pages is not difficult, but learningto do so requires training, and no one tool gives you all the bellsand whistles you might need to create the fabulous Web pagesyou've conjured up in your mind.

Still, the Intranet has tremendous potential to save you moneyin printing costs, to make your organization more competitive, andto give your employees instant access to the up-to-the-minuteinformation they need to make decisions in a fast-changingenvironment.

Contact Sources

Business Research Group, (617) 630-3900, http://www.brgresearch.com

Oracle Corp., 500 Oracle Pkwy., Redwood Shores, CA 94065,(800) ORACLE-1;

Powersoft Business Group of Cybase Inc., 561 VirginiaRd., Concord, MA 01742, (800) 395-3525;

Zona Research Inc., 900 Veterans Blvd., #500, RedwoodCity, CA 94063, (415) 568-5700.