Introdution

An intranet is a private computer network that uses Internet Protocol

technologies to securely share any part of an organization's information or
network operating system within that organization. The term is used in
contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to
a network within an organization. Sometimes the term refers only to the
organization's internal website, but may be a more extensive part of the
organization's information technology infrastructure. It may host multiple
private websites and constitute an important component and focal point of
internal communication and collaboration.

Characterstic
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 analog 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 among early adopters, such as universities and technology
corporations, in 1992.[dubious – discuss]
Intranets are also contrasted with extranets. While intranets are generally
restricted to employees of the organization, 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 (AAA protocol).
Intranets may provide a gateway to the Internet by means of 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.
Benefits
▪ Workforce productivity: Intranets can 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.
▪ Time: Intranets allow organizations to distribute information to
employees on an as-needed basis; Employees may link to relevant
information at their convenience, rather than being distracted
indiscriminately by electronic mail.
▪ 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.[3] 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.
▪ 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 usually available to
employees using the intranet.
▪ 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.
▪ 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. For example, Peoplesoft "derived significant cost savings
by shifting HR processes to the intranet".[3] 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".
Another company that saved money on expense reports was Cisco.
"In 1996, Cisco processed 54,000 reports and the amount of dollars
processed was USD19 million".[3]
▪ Enhance collaboration: Information is easily accessible by all
authorised users, which enables teamwork.
▪ Cross-platform capability: Standards-compliant web browsers are
available for Windows, Mac, and UNIX.
▪ 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). Being able to specifically address your
"viewer" is a great advantage. Since Intranets are user-specific
(requiring database/network authentication prior to access), you
know exactly who you are interfacing with and can personalize your
Intranet based on role (job title, department) or individual
("Congratulations Jane, on your 3rd year with our company!").
▪ Promote common corporate culture: Every user has the ability to view
the same information within the Intranet.
▪ Immediate updates: When dealing with the public in any capacity, laws,
specifications, and parameters can change. Intranets make it
possible to provide your audience with "live" changes so they are
kept up-to-date, which can limit a company's liability.
Supports a distributed computing architecture: The intranet can also
be linked to a company’s management information system, for example a
time keeping system.

Uses
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]

Planning and Creation

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]
Intranets are often static sites. Essentially they are a shared drive, serving
up centrally stored documents alongside internal articles or
communications (often one-way communication). However organisations
are now starting to think of how their intranets can become a
'communication hub' for their team by using companies specialising in
'socialising' intranets.[6]
The actual implementation would include steps such as:
▪ Securing senior management support and funding.[7]
▪ Business requirements analysis.
▪ User involvement to identify users' information needs.
▪ Installation of web server and user access network.
▪ Installing required user applications on computers.
▪ Creation of document framework for the content to be hosted.[8]
▪ User involvement in testing and promoting use of intranet.
▪ Ongoing measurement and evaluation, including through benchmarking
against other intranets.[9]
Another useful component in an intranet structure might be key personnel
committed to maintaining the Intranet and keeping content current. For
feedback on the intranet, social networking can be done through a forum
for users to indicate what they want and what they do not like.

Advantages

▪ 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 set-up 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

Disadvantages

▪ 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 organisation in developing an intranet may not align with
user needs (see: further reading

What are the different Intranet servers available?

1. Enterprise server: - It manages and publishes contents to

form the foundation of an Intranet.
2. Mail server: - E-mail across network.
3. News server: - Facilitates groupware style discussion
group.
4. Catalog server: - Provide indexing, searching, browsing of
all content.
5. Directory server: - Management information, access
control and server configuration.
6. Certificate server: - Issues and manages publish key
encryption certificate for other.
7. Proxy server: - Filters the content.

What is the business value of Intranet?

1. Publication cost saving:-

* Elimination of printing, mailing and distribution cost is a
major source of cost saving.
* Company electronically publish:-
1. Telephone directories.
2. HR material.
3. Company policies.
4. Jobs etc.
2. Trainings and development cost saving:-
* Employee already knows how to use a browser.
* .Training and development costs for many intranet
applications are low.
* Especially for communication, collaborating and
information sharing.
3. Increase productivity:-

o Increase productivity via faster information access and

easier collaboration.

. What are the limitations of intranet?

* Lack of security feature.

* May require network upgrades.
* Unfiltered information may overwhelm users.
* Not all employees may have computer.