Update: This is the third article of the post series, General Information to Build an Intranet Better.
An Intranet benefits companies and enterprises in many ways. Here are the 6 major benefits a company or business enterprise gets from building an intranet computer network.
1. Reduces Cost
An obvious intranet benefit is its cost-effective feature which it gets from the paperless environment. For example with an intranet solution, a company can publish most of the company documents through the intranet Web pages. This saves the company money on printing documents and distributing information, duplication and document maintenance overhead etc. Another cost reduction results from the reduced meeting, travel and telephone time and better focused use of traditional meeting and operational communications. Also compared to a conventional client-server or legacy system, an intranet’s “per seat” cost is much lower. The Web server/s, which stores the intranet’s information, applications for instance can be made up from a simple desktop personnel computer (PC). Once PC users are equipped with Web browsers, new Web sites or pages with new information or new applications can be added without incurring additional cost. In addition intranets provide a common, universal browser interface in a diverse corporate computing environment. This ability significantly reduces the training costs in the company together with providing the opportunity to utilize various computer platforms. The intranet also results in training, corporate, administrative, and operational communications cost savings.
2. Saves Time
The intranet can speed up employees’ communications through e-mail, chat facility and newsgroup transmissions. For example a single e-mail can start a string of e-mails back and forth for further communications. Another efficient intranet communication is the use of “forms” on the intranet Web pages, such as forms for an employee survey. The data collected in this manner organized into database format and then displayed on the relevant parties computer screens or stored for future use saving time. With information residing in only one place -in the intranet Web server- it is also relatively easier and quicker to add new information or to update existing information to make it instantly available. The intranet also results in time saving for the company by providing timely and rapid access to information, information discovery by anyone in need, Just In Time (JIT) and on-demand. The facility the intranet can provide for any information to be accessible from any where in the company (provided the person has the permission) and also even fast access to archival data will result in considerable time savings for all employees of the company alike. The time saving by intranets also result from the reduced queries and the answer once mechanism the intranet provides.
3. Increases Collaboration
Communication and collaboration form the foundation of intranet applications. Intranet applications can enhance the communication and collaboration of company employees from just-in-time publishing, knowledge sharing to virtual team working. The intranet directly increases the collaboration in the company from function like broadcast publishing internally, editing and managing documents in a group, managing projects in a distributed workgroup and virtual team working, sharing corporate knowledge and support through intranet, online feedback mechanisms (employee surveys, opinions/complaints) etc. The collaboration benefits to the company also come indirectly through intranets. For example the contents in the intranet like announcement section, organizational information, FAQ (Frequently Asked Question) section, help desk, employee handbook, etc. are all oriented towards increasing the collaboration indirectly by enabling the employees to understand about the company, culture, other employees as well as motivating them and enabling new recruits to integrate to the company more quickly.
4. Increases Productivity and Effectiveness
Building an intranet can vastly benefit the company by increasing productivity and effectiveness. It increases the productivity by faster, easier, more flexible and open communication through a suite of standard, easy to use, powerful, and rich facilities, rapid transmission and feedback and one-to-one, many-to-many dialogs etc. The productivity increase also results by better learning and knowledge management facilities the intranet provides. E.g. Increased development, distribution, application, and quality/currency of intellectual capital, Better collection and sharing of market intelligence, enhanced training resources, available to all on demand and JIT (Just-In-Time). The intranet also contributes directly to the effectiveness of the company in producing business results. For example faster time to market by better communication to and with affected parties, improved coordination and agreements and rapid information access. Effectiveness also increases by better, faster feedback, adaptation, correction and increased participation.
5. Integrated and Distributed Computing Environment
Intranet can fully support a distributed computing architecture due to the Internet and World Wide Web architecture it uses. So the intranets Web server/s that stores information of the intranet can support various operating systems, computer types which allows every user to access information sources. This also enables the company to deliver information on the least expensive platforms and to scale the computing resources upward or downward as conditions shift. The retrieval, use and management of complex corporate information are possible through the Web architecture in the intranet. Also, a Web-based data warehouse technology intranets use provides another opportunity for enhancing the quality of the corporate decision-making process. Intranets allow for a dynamic and distributed work environment that can empower workgroups to conduct better business processes. Adopting a corporate intranet infrastructure generates a tremendous amount of strategic advantages. The information that flows company employees enables the company to achieve its business objectives. The intranet infrastructure can also link with company’s information systems such as transaction processing systems, management information systems, decision support systems, group decision support systems, artificial intelligence, and expert systems to form a complete enterprise network.
6. Rich in Format
Unlike the traditional paper-based documents, intranet provides a wide variety of media types, which include audio, video, and interactive applications. These features allow users to communicate in a dynamic way and to enhance the accuracy and speed of information sharing. An intranet is also well suited for multimedia applications.
Conclusion
In addition there are non-quantifiable benefits the intranet provides. For example cross-fertilization, idea triggers (shared ideas combined with others, generation of What-if scenarios), controlled information a accessibility (logical management, control what’s available, defined and agreed location routes), and information is always available.
As identified, by building an intranet companies and business enterprises will be able to harness all these benefits.
