Tech Talk: Intranets

By Dave Rutledge

    Websites generally have been used for marketing over the Internet or communication on a subject. A different style of site, known as a company Intranet site is different from the normal website use in that it is usually only used by employees or members of an organization.

An Intranet is a site only accessible to employees or members of the site organization, and is usually password protected. Intranet sites can be hosted internally and only seen from the office computer network, or accessed over the Internet. The Internet allows for company Intranets to network their communications through one site, without having to spend on the communications equipment between the separate corporate locations.

Intranet portals can be valuable communications tools, and can be the company home page for the Internet browser. When set up in such a way each employee sees vital communications and bulletins by going about their daily Internet tasks. By storing your policies on the Intranet site you can easily refer an employee or new hiree to company policies.

With proper site design, a website on the Internet can be used as a company Intranet. The site can incorporate a log in ability that will then show company information to the employee. If the Intranet site is used for internal communication this way of design can give the company a website image on the Internet, and an Intranet for internal communications.

Intranets can also be used as a data exchange tool to handle daily corporate activities such as POS sales systems, calendar and events scheduling, sales and performance figures, and company resource downloads. Important and confidential information can be handled through internal computers and not be put on the Internet to further protect against hacking attempts. If hosted internally site designs can become browser-based applications, capable of handling tasks that will become integral to daily company work.

Email | Print | Facebook | Twitter | Digg | Del.icio.us