Intranet

An intranet is a computer network for sharing information,

collaboration tools, operational systems, and other computing
services within an organization, usually to the exclusion of access
by outsiders. The term is used in contrast to public networks, such
as the Internet, but uses most of the same technology based on the
Internet Protocol Suite.[1]

A company-wide intranet can constitute an important focal point of

internal communication and collaboration, and provide a single
starting point to access internal and external resources. In its
simplest form, an intranet is established with the technologies for local area networks (LANs) and wide
area networks (WANs).[2][3][4] Many modern intranets have search engines, user profiles, blogs, mobile
apps with notifications, and events planning within their infrastructure.

An intranet is sometimes contrasted to an extranet. While an intranet is generally restricted to employees of

the organization, extranets may also be accessed by customers, suppliers, or other approved parties.[5]
Extranets extend a private network onto the Internet with special provisions for authentication,
authorization and accounting (AAA protocol).

Contents
Uses
Benefits
Planning and creation
Maintenance
Staying current
Privacy protection
Enterprise private network
See also
References

Uses
Increasingly, intranets are being used to deliver tools, e.g. collaboration (to facilitate working in groups and
teleconferencing) or sophisticated corporate directories, sales and customer relationship management tools,
project management etc.,

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, it 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.[6]

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 the 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 email.

Communication: Intranets can serve as powerful tools for communication within an organization, vertically
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 whom 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.[7] 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, news feeds, 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.
Workflow: a collective term that reduces delay, such as automating meeting scheduling and vacation
planning

Cost-effectiveness: 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, the HRM company PeopleSoft "derived significant cost savings by
shifting HR processes to the intranet".[7] McGovern goes on to say the manual cost of enrolling in benefits
was found to be US$109.48 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".[7]

Enhance collaboration: Information is easily accessible by all authorised users, which enables teamwork.
Being able to communicate in real-time through integrated third party tools, such as an instant messenger,
promotes the sharing of ideas and removes blockages to communication to help boost a business'
productivity.

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 one's "viewer" is a great advantage. Since intranets are user-
specific (requiring database/network authentication prior to access), users know exactly who they are
interfacing with and can personalize their 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.

Supports a distributed computing architecture': The intranet can also be linked to a company's management
information system, for example a time keeping system.

Employee Engagement: Since "involvement in decision making" is one of the main drivers of employee
engagement,[8] offering tools (like forums or surveys) that foster peer-to-peer collaboration and employee
participation can make employees feel more valued and involved.

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 determining the purpose and goals of the intranet,[9][10] identifying persons or departments responsible
for implementation and management and devising functional plans, page layouts and designs.

The appropriate staff would also ensure that implementation schedules and phase-out of existing systems
were organized, while defining and implementing security of the intranet and ensuring it lies within legal
boundaries and other constraints. In order to produce a high-value end product, systems planners should
determine the level of interactivity (e.g. wikis, on-line forms) desired.

Planners may also consider whether the input of new data and updating of existing data is to be centrally
controlled or devolve. These decisions sit alongside to the hardware and software considerations (like
content management systems), participation issues (like good taste, harassment, confidentiality), and
features to be supported.[11]
Intranets are often static sites; they are a shared drive, serving up centrally stored documents alongside
internal articles or communications (often one-way communication). By leveraging firms which specialise
in 'social' intranets, organisations are beginning to think of how their intranets can become a
'communication hub' for their entire team. The actual implementation would include steps such as securing
senior management support and funding,[12] conducting a business requirement analysis and identifying
users' information needs.

From the technical perspective, there would need to be a co-ordinated installation of the web server and
user access network, the required user/client applications and the creation of document framework (or
template) for the content to be hosted.[13]

The end-user should be involved in testing and promoting use of the company intranet, possibly through a
parallel adoption methodology or pilot programme. In the long term, the company should carry out ongoing
measurement and evaluation, including through benchmarking against other company services.[14][15]

Maintenance
Some aspects are non-static.

Staying current

An intranet structure needs 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.

Privacy protection

The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation went into effect May 2018.

Enterprise private network

An enterprise private network is a computer network built by a business to interconnect its various
company sites (such as production sites, offices and shops) in order to share computer resources.

Beginning with the digitalisation of telecommunication networks, started in the 1970s in the US by
AT&T,[16] and propelled by the growth in computer systems availability and demands, enterprise networks
have been built for decades without the need to append the term private to them. The networks were
operated over telecommunication networks and, as for voice communications, a certain amount of security
and secrecy was expected and delivered.

But with the Internet in the 1990s came a new type of network, virtual private networks, built over this
public infrastructure, using encryption to protect the data traffic from eaves-dropping. So the enterprise
networks are now commonly referred to as enterprise private networks in order to clarify that these are
private networks, in contrast to public networks.

See also
eGranary Digital Library
Enterprise portal
 Intranet portal
Intranet strategies
Intranet Wiki
Intraweb
Kwangmyong (intranet)
Virtual workplace
Web portal

References
1. "The Difference Between Internet, Intranet, and Extranet" (http://www.iorg.com/papers/iw/199
81019-advisor.html), October 19, 1998, Steven L. Telleen, http://www.iorg.com/
2. Luk, A. (9 May 1991). "Fujikama goes Unix". IEEE Pacific Rim Conference on
Communications, Computers and Signal Processing, 1991. Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers. 2: 783–786. doi:10.1109/PACRIM.1991.160857 (https://doi.org/10.11
09%2FPACRIM.1991.160857). ISBN 978-0879426385. "The internet and intranet Unix
network provide a functioning email facility around the world."
3. Richardson, C.; Schoultz, M. (14 October 1991). "Formation flight system design concept".
Digital Avionics Systems Conference, 1991. Proceedings., IEEE/AIAA 10th: 18–25.
doi:10.1109/DASC.1991.177138 (https://doi.org/10.1109%2FDASC.1991.177138). "The
data transfer task is broken up into two network solutions: an intranet used for transferring
data among formation members at high update rates to support close formation flight and an
internet used for transferring data among the separate formations at lower update rates."
4. RFC 4364
5. Callaghan, J (2002). Inside Intranets & Extranets: Knowledge Management AND the
Struggle for Power. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-98743-8.
6. Pernice Coyne, Kara; Schwartz, Mathew; Nielsen, Jakob (2007), "Intranet Design Annual
2007", Nielsen Norman Group
7. McGovern, Gerry (November 18, 2002). "Intranet return on investment case studies" (https://
web.archive.org/web/20090406042110/http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2002/nt_2002_11
_18_intranet_roi.htm). Archived from the original (http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2002/nt_
2002_11_18_intranet_roi.htm) on April 6, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-03.
8. "Report Summary: The drivers of employee engagement | Institute for Employment Studies"
(http://www.employment-studies.co.uk/report-summaries/report-summary-drivers-employee-
engagement). Report Summary: The drivers of employee engagement | Institute for
Employment Studies. Retrieved 2018-01-04.
9. Wright, Andrew. "8 good business reasons for having an intranet" (http://www.worldwideintra
netchallenge.com/2009/06/7-tips-for-writing-a-business-case-for-an-intranet-update.html).
Retrieved 3 September 2013.
10. Wright, Andrew. "From innovation to operation: the role of the intranet" (http://www.worldwide
intranetchallenge.com/2012/04/innovation-to-operation-the-role-of-the-intranet.html).
Retrieved 3 September 2013.
11. LaMee, James A. (2002-04-30). "Intranets and Special Libraries: Making the most of inhouse
communications" (http://www.libsci.sc.edu/bob/class/clis724/SpecialLibrariesHandbook/Int&
SpecLib.html). University of South Carolina. Retrieved 2009-04-03.
12. Ward, Toby. "Planning: An Intranet Model for success Intranet" (http://www.prescientdigital.co
m/articles/intranet-articles/intranet-planning-an-intranet-model-for-success). Retrieved
2009-04-03.
13. "Intranet: Table of Contents – Macmillan Computer Sciences: Internet and Beyond" (http://w
ww.bookrags.com/sciences/computerscience/intranet-csci-04.html). Bookrags.com.
Retrieved 2009-04-03.
14. "Intranet benchmarking explained" (http://www.ibforum.com/?cmd=CMS_Article_List_View&
uuid=Services&article=8f4928b5b6f5584beda884868f3ca458). Intranet Benchmarking
Forum. Retrieved 2009-04-03.
15. "Benchmarking intranet end user satisfaction" (http://www.worldwideintranetchallenge.com/
wic/faqs.html). Retrieved 2013-09-03.
16. "History of network switching (http://www.corp.att.com/history/nethistory/switching.html)".
AT&T.

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