Weaving a web at the office: intranets are all the rage in networking technology.

The Internet is essentially a global network of networks, all using a common language to communicate information that can be accessed regardless of the computing platform (i.e. Windows, Mac, Unix). Armed with only a browser--and Internet access, of the course--consumers have instant access to seemingly unlimited amounts of information from all over the world. Many companies have now adapted this concept to facilitate communication and collaboration within the corporate structure.

Welcome to the new world of the Intranet, the current rage in corporate computer networks. In this new era. of corporate communication, the Intranet gives everyone quick access to company data and other resources they need to do a better job. Similar to a local area network, or LAN, the Intranet enables your business to increase productivity, facilitate communications and cut traditional travel and paper costs. Now a business can integrate its computers, software and databases into a single Web server-based network.

In effect, Intranets are private networks that use the infrastructure of the Internet and the interface of the Web. (Many also provide access to the Internet, though it's not necessary.) An in-house Web server, a PC with Web server software installed, is connected to browser-equipped PCs throughout the company. In turn, this allows the computers to communicate with one another using a network communications standard called TCP/IP. If your business has offices in different locations, employees using Web browsers can still point and click through mounds of data, provided they can access the Web server.

Omar Wasow, president of New York Online (www.nyo.com), has been able to reap the benefits of the Intranet. When working on client projects, a folder is set up on the Web server into which all correspondence and documentation--including proposals, responses and contracts--from each person working on the project are stored. "At the end of the project there is documentation [in a central online locale] of everything that has happened," says Wasow. "It allows us to keep track and produce a thorough report for the client without a lot of additional work. And it has almost eliminated the need for staff meetings."

Building a basic Intranet is simple, says Raj Gossain, a product manager for Netscape Communications Corp. (http://home.netscape.com), a technology company which generates 80% of its revenue from Intranet solution sales. "If your company already has a LAN, it's just a matter of adding the server software." Documents and databases are then coded in HTML--the hypertext markup language used to create web pages--and stored on the server.

In turn, each department can have its own internal Web site. Complete with links to related data or departments, the sites offer immediate access to information that previously would have filled reams of paper and taken days to ferret out. Intranets let companies customize their networks with groupware and productivity applications from different vendors. "The Intranet is an open solution just like a PC, so I can buy my hard drive from one company and my monitor from another based on features and price," says John Murray, COO and vice president of sales and marketing for the Pleasanton, California-based Internet Factory (www.ifact.com), an African American-owned computer consulting and software development firm.

"If you have someone who manages your LAN, that person could implement a basic Intranet, which could just include e-mail," he says. In addition, training costs for employees learning to install and maintain the networks are minimal compared with the installation and maintenance of higher priced groupware products like Lotus Notes. The price for Lotus Notes is based on the number of servers and overall users. However, Netscape's SuiteSpot Intranet solution retails for $3,995.

But that price is still daunting to some small businesses that want to go high tech with low funds--and without the hassle of finding various applications to add to their Intranet to make it fit their needs. Frontier Technologies (www.frontiertech.com), a software company in Mequon, Wisconsin, offers a one-stop, out-of-the-box package called the Intranet Genie. The product comes with applications that would generally have to be purchased separately for use with an Intranet. It includes Web server software, Web page designer and editor, e-mail, a search engine and security management tools. It's priced according to the number of users: $2,740 for five users and $3,370 for 25. The Internet Factory also has an Intranet solution that retails for $495 for a 25-user license; it includes online address books, calendaring and project collaboration and meeting software.

For the price, the benefits of building an Intranet are a definite plus. Publishing Web pages, conferencing or just having e-mail could be the key to your company running more efficiently. And, as other groupware products begin to comply with Intranet standards, it will become less costly for your internal communications to take you a step closer to the future of business.