What is an Intranet?
Think of an intranet as your company's own private information network. An intranet is a private communications system - built on the infrastructure of the Internet - that can increase employee productivity, build stronger ties with your customers and encourage more profitable relationships with vendors. Whether you run a small business or a multi-national corporation, an intranet can serve your company's specific information requirements. It can streamline information access and dissemination. In short, an intranet is a technology tool that can save you time and money.

Image The Possibilities
An intranet can be customized to support whatever internal or external communication and information application your business requires. It is easy and inexpensive to use and can grow with the needs of your business. In fact, there are so many advantages to intranet technology that many companies are choosing intranets over traditional client-server networks. The value of an intranet is most clearly demonstrated by its impact on the two groups that most emphatically affect your bottom line: your employees and your customers.

Employee Productivity
A motivated and informed workforce is critical to business success. Good communication builds employee morale. Up-to-date information makes employees more productive. Intranet technology promotes the efficient use of management, marketing and personnel resources. It is a versatile and low cost communications tool that lets employees share information and ideas electronically. Intranet applications are limited only by your imagination. Some examples:

• Facilitate communications with fulltime, real-time, flextime, timeshare, and telecommuting employees. Your online office is open 24 hours a day! Provide easy access to information, LOTS of information, or just the one right piece of information -- fast.
• Distribute training documents, procedure manuals, software and technical updates instantly, without printing. Allow employees to access information about their health plans, retirement benefits and other human resource information.
• Reduce paperwork by filing reports online.
• Look up a department or colleague with the click of a mouse in your online directory. Keep product descriptions and product information up to the minute.
• Provide a calendar of classes and educational opportunities.
• Help employees share under-utilized resources, like expensive lab equipment. Locate supplies, materials -- ANYTHING -- quickly.
• Facilitate collaboration -- editing, building consensuses, getting comments -- on projects by putting working documents online. Create an on-line suggestion box to increase morale and productivity.
• Let managers examine progress reports from salespeople on the road and distribute daily work assignments or strategies instantly. Employees can collaborate online: planning, design and development can occur in real time even though team members are separated geographically.

Customer Support
Business success depends on providing good service to your customers. Timely information and accessibility are key. An Intranet lets you offer customers 24 hour access to your company, so they can learn about new products, download technical information or software upgrades, track inventory and place orders at their leisure. There are numerous ways an Intranet can help you build a strong relationship with your customers. Some examples:

• Keep customers informed about their projects and deliveries via secured access to status information.
• Distribute Customer surveys and gather results immediately.
• Grow and publish a database of questions frequently asked by customers -- with the answers.
• Use the intranet to solicit employee suggestions for improving service to customers.
• Allow authorized buyers to establish accounts and place orders directly.
• Reduce costs with "just in time" inventory controls.
• Provide always up-to-date product information to your internal and field teams.
• Give field reps a single point of access for order forms, invoices, procedures guides and support materials.