Last month we looked at what is an intranet and why your business should consider implementing one, including the benefits. This month we look at who can use an intranet, what's required and provide a case study on just one of our clients who use their intranet to manage their business.

Who can use an intranet?

Virtually any member of an organisation that needs information in a timely fashion can benefit from an intranet. For example staff can list their movements using an internal calendar system, jobs, orders & projects can be logged and managed. Company documents, such as proposals, project briefs, images and multimedia can be stored and searched for using an Document Management search engine. In addition the business manager can evaluate employee performance using a time billing system and "snapshot" business efficiency at any time. Client invoicing can even be generated so that complete workflow and billing can be managed from one central location.
 
What does it take to run an intranet?

Every intranet contains some basic components. Some companies choose to have their intranet hosted internally on their own fileserver while others actually host their intranets externally on an internet webserver (to reduce hardware costs).

. A company must generally have TCP/IP as the protocol of the network to run an intranet and have enough bandwidth to handle all types of media

. Firewalls must be installed to keep hackers on the Internet from accessing company information. If users are to be allowed access to the intranet from a remote location security rights must be set up through the firewall. As mentioned above the intranet does not have to be hosted externally

. The intranet runs off a Webserver and a Web browser is required to access it at the desktop level.

A Case Study.

A client of ours has around 12 employee's working all over the world and required a cost effective solution that offered a central information point for them to manage workflow effectively. In addition the business owners required a facility to track business efficiency's, generate workflow reports and invoice clients. So an intranet was developed with the user in mind. The intranet is used for data retrieval and active applications and users can use real-time data for job requests and time tracking. In addition customised intranet applications were integrated to help facilitate work management and invoicing.

As the new system was moving away from the previous and very time-consuming process of emailing spreadsheets, the employees were very excited about the new technology and we developed applications based on user feedback.
 
According to our client, the intranet has brought about many cost-savings and increased employee productivity by providing access to time-sensitive information faster and enhancing the decision-making process. The process of invoicing clients has been reduced from 3 days to less than 3 hours, the intranet is inexpensive to run and has vastly cut back on the use of paper. The system is now at its third version and has become a mission critical to the management of the business.