Corporate Intranet
Nearly everyone on the planet is quite familiar with
the Internet and what it does. Most of these people
use it at work and at home.
There is yet another type of network that is
not as well known but is becoming more noticed in
the business world. It is called the Intranet and
functions as a corporate information network.
While similar
to the Internet, an Intranet is made for one
specific set of users and has security that insures
no one else outside of the group has access to the
contents. Corporate intranets offer a unique and
exciting way for corporate librarians to make use of
their organization and handling skills of
information.
There are definite differences between the Internet
and an Intranet. As the Internet is a public access
network, it is there for the whole world to see.
Therefore, when a corporation builds a web page, it
wants the graphics to be eye catching and memorable.
This website is built to attract customers or
clients and is going to be something that the
corporation hopes people will remember. They use
their website to lure so it may be a rather
glamorous site. In contrast, the corporate Intranet
is simply a company’s private place for their
employees to obtain needed information. Once they
have done that, they leave the site and start
working. For this reason, there is not much time put
into the appearance of this site. It is made for
speed and nothing else. While both the Internet and
the Intranet use the same hardware and software,
they are used for two very different reasons.
The benefit of having a corporate Intranet system is
to help communication between employees who will
normally have no reason to meet or work on projects
together. Intranets allow for knowledge and idea
sharing while also providing one reliable and secure
way to access the private information of the company
that is needed.
Intranets improve the ability of a company to
manage its information. It can also keep the
distribution of documents streamlined. Productivity
is higher because the access to important
information is improved and cost reduction of
printing and distributing information is likely.
Oddly enough, even with all of the benefits of
having a corporate Intranet, the main problem in
creating one is how to convince management that it
is a good idea. They worry that secrets of the
corporation will escape to the general public. To
help show them that the Intranet is a good idea that
can offer many benefits and advantages to the
company, explain to them that security in the form
of firewall software is in place.
This protects any data from getting into the
wrong hands.
Sometimes it is difficult to convince employees and management alike to share knowledge that they may have. This is due to the fact that information management on an Intranet is more open and a lot of people prefer the more traditional and structured way. Another possible problem is the question of who owns any documents that are published on the company Intranet. A last issue may be due to not needing any extra money or staff to manage the Intranet. This may actually bother some people. Whatever the objections to installing a corporate Intranet that may come up, they can be overcome with the proper facts.