Why install an intranet? "It's a simple, easy, effective way of communicating common information among all employees," says an IT manager at a small business that manufacturers commercial kitchen equipment.
Other benefits of intranets to your small business:
Just-when-needed delivery of information.
If you post information on an intranet employees can download it or print it out whenever they need it. For example, your company's salespeople burning the midnight oil can download company marketing materials and incorporate them into a sales presentation without having to involve office administrative staff.
Dispensing with needle-in-haystack data hunts.
A well-designed intranet includes a search engine that enables employees to quickly find what they need - whether the intranet consists of 12 pages or 12,000. This eliminates the costly office scenario of involving multiple people in the search for a missing piece of data.
Save paper, time, and money.
By making information available to all employees all the time on an intranet you avoid having to print documents. This translates into savings in printing costs and into more up-to-date documents for your staff. For example, imagine keeping your small business' company phone directory online instead of having to print and distribute copies that are almost instantly outdated.
Improve collaboration.
An intranet page can house a project - all the notes on a design effort, team members' comments on a project, or a listing of project deadlines. Team members access and add input as necessary. One centralized "workroom" is much more efficient than each team member trying to update their own schedules and documents based on emails from other team members. Intranet workrooms can be password protected, and can be made read-only so only authorized changes are made.
Reasonable cost.
Intranets are usually cheaper than other types of networks, such as a proprietary wide-area network. A remote employee with a modem-equipped PC can dial a local phone number and connect to an intranet. Anybody who is familiar with an Internet browser can access an intranet, so little training is necessary.
Foster unity.
Some experts tout intranets as a way to foster community in corporations with far-flung employees. For example, Xerox Corporation's intranet includes a section on company "folklore" so new employees can learn about Xerox's history and feel more a part of the team. Some companies allow employees to post their own "home page" to let other employees know about their hobbies and interests.
Bridge the gap between incompatible software and hardware.
Intranets help disparate systems and software work in harmony, which is particularly useful if your small business has a mixed bag of hardware and software. Intranets operate on the Internet which uses computer languages that work across otherwise incompatible operating systems such as Windows, Macintosh and Unix.