Intranet Strategies - Role of Intranets

Role of Intranets

Intranets are generally used for four types of applications:

1) Communication and collaboration

• send and receive e-mail, faxes, voice mail, and paging
• discussion rooms and chat rooms
• audio and video conferencing
• virtual team meetings and project collaboration
• online company discussions as events (e.g., IBM Jams)
• inhouse blogs

2) Web publishing

• develop and publish hyperlinked multi-media documents such as:
  • policy manuals
  • company newsletters
  • product catalogs
  • technical drawings
  • training material
  • telephone directories

3) Business operations and management

• order processing
• inventory control
• production setup and control
• management information systems
• database access

4) Intranet portal management

• centrally administer all network functions including servers, clients, security, directories, and traffic
• give users access to a variety of internal and external business tools/applications
• integrate different technologies
• conduct regular user research to identify and confirm strategy (random sample surveys, usability testing, focus groups, in-depth interviews with wireframes, etc.)