What do Intranets have to do with helping people work smarter, better, faster? Everything.

Build an Intranet or not? The better question is "how?" Corporate Intranets are cutting costs and raising productivity throughout all levels of enterprises. Implementing information technology for mission-critical business functions is the most complex business challenge facing executives and system management today. Powerful new Intranet technologies are changing the way enterprises are communicating and doing business. It is clear that organizations that optimize the use of information will hold market dominance.

The past year has seen an explosion in Intranet technologies. Almost every business world-wide is now implementing Intranets in some form. Software giant Microsoft has re-oriented their entire product lines around Intranets. Recent headlines like, "Chrysler Saves Big Online" - announcing $1.1 Billion in yearly cost cuts - are becoming common arguments for the technology. Beside the Global Internet explosion, most forward-looking companies are building their "private Internets" or Intranets as fast as they can. So what's all the excitement about?

Benefits of an Intranet

The attractiveness of Internet technology lies not just in lowering networking costs and high return on investments, but more importantly, in improved communications between employees, customers and suppliers. Because Intranets are based on the same open standards, they are accessible to every member within an organization, regardless of their choice of hardware or their physical location.

Intranet servers enable real business functionality for publishing internal information, processing data and collaboration among employees, vendors and customers. Companies realize that many of their current communication vehicles are too limited to cope with the new market environment. Therefore, intuitive access to broad types of media make an internal web an ideal solution for addressing these communication issues. Intranets can provide information in a way that is immediate, cost-effective, easy to use, rich in format and versatile.

Intranets also do more than just solve internal communication problems. According to International Data Corporation's (IDC) study: "Intranet: Slashing the Cost of Business," they produce a substantial return on investment. IDC's report shows ROI in excess of 800% in many case studies. HBO, for example, is saving thousands of dollars previously incurred for printing, duplication and distribution of marketing campaign materials among 300 sales representatives. "Their Intranet eliminates the time and effort involved in distributing printed materials and gives the sales force instant access from any location," explains Jim Lauria, Manager of Professional Services for Pathbuilders, Inc., a Los Angeles based Intranet consulting company.

IDC's ROI study shows that in just three months, Cadence Design Systems built a dynamic databased sales and marketing Intranet giving an incredible 1,766% ROI. Their system maps out each step of the sales cycle with links to sales report resources, using Netscape forms to facilitate communication with headquarters, and providing a repository of sales tools and reference material in a variety of document formats.

Other departments are jumping on the Intranet bandwagon as well. Customer Service and support applications are substantially improved with Intranet technology. It enables sharing of up-to-date status reports on problems so that team members can respond to customer calls. Customers can be alerted immediately about any important changes. Staff can be trained on-line to respond to customers queries and complaints. Mobil Oil Internet team member, Shelley Moore explains, "People have always called or written to Mobil with comments or questions about products, services or environmental issues. But we only got feedback from people who were motivated to write or call all over to find the right person within Mobil. With Intranet, we get a more immediate response."

Human Resources Departments can free their staff from answering routine questions and doing basic processing tasks. They can publish information and enable secure transactions for benefits information and enrollment, corporate policies, company mission and goals, job postings and internal transfer forms, searchable telephone directories, the annual report, classified bulletin boards, medical referrals, and more.

Biotechnology pioneer Genentech uses its Intranet to provide its employees with access to information on research seminars, company announcements, building facilities, the employee directory, commuting options, benefits, child care, how to place a purchase order, how to get business cards and more, saving thousands in printing and time. They look at the Web as an online employee handbook and information on how to do things at Genentech. Intranet applications eliminate much of the routine paper processing that are typically handled throughout the organization by providing employees with immediate access to forms and other information.

Finance Departments can disseminate information to key recipients by securely posting corporate financial data or simple forms-based query capabilities. Purchasing can use the same products that enable "Cyber Malls" on the Global Internet today. Companies can simplify electronic software distribution, billing and purchasing of supplies by providing an internal based "mall" that offers all company-approved products.

The Challenge

It's true that Intranets can be built rapidly using inexpensive, readily available tools which are incorporated and deployed into the existing infrastructure, yet this presents new challenges. Despite the instant success of the new Information Technology, the marketplace is becoming crowded with emerging technologies and options. Evaluating and defining organizations' long-term strategy can be difficult. Implementing Intranet technology such as groupware, collaborative work flow environments and data distribution is becoming crucial and not always easy for IS Departments that use traditional client/server computing.

"All too often, disorderly build-up of new technology leads to cost over-runs, financial losses, confusion, missed opportunities and abandoned projects. Many companies jump into the acquisition of new technology without the necessary groundwork hoping it will solve the problem. It usually doesn't," commented Fred Mehrdad, V.P. Technology, Star1 WEBwide Services, a Los Angeles based Intranet system integrator and Path-builders' strategic partner. Most companies need outside resources in one form or another to build their Intranets. Who to choose may not be easy and can be critical to the success of the entire project. High demand for Intranet know-how and lack of established "integrated solution" companies doesn't make the task easier.

Many projects wrongly start with the focus on technology issues. "The Intranet design approach should be based on productivity, addressing a company's specific needs and relevant issues from the start. Most important is not the bandwidth and packets, but timeliness, user-friendliness and an over-all productivity increase. The objective is to design an Intranet that will be an asset to the organization, build its architectures based on content and the company's business objectives. Make good use of the existing infrastructure and create an expandable architecture built on open standards. This is what really counts," Mehrdad emphasized.

How to build an Intranet?

Building successful Intranets requires a new approach in planning, development, testing and deployment phases. Small and mid-sized companies usually have limited access to needed resources. Star1 WEBwide Services and strategic partner Pathbuilders, Inc. represent the new breed of consultants that combine human resources and internetworking know-how to meet increasing demands for integrated solutions. "Our new model approach eliminates a client's need for costly and time-consuming search and evaluation. Who to call, what applications, hardware, staff, connectivity, security - we have answers to these questions and this saves clients substantial time and money," said Susan Hayden, Pathbuilders V.P. of Business Development.

Hayden explained that to succeed with an Intranet and reap the expected benefits, project scoping and development is based on these new requirements. "The priority is to enable seamless integration of the Intranet into the company's existing infrastructure ensuring the success of the project from the start. It is advisable to divide projects into relevant phases," Hayden said and describes the fundamentals of each phase:

1: Define service. Evaluate existing technology, present and future users. Where is data located, what information is available to whom? Establish data standards and sources. Security, back-up and redundancy options. Evaluate suitable hardware, software and communication options. Project scoping.

2: Pilot model. Make Intranet a team project - involve management of Sales, HR, Purchasing. Patterning of Intranet based on global Internet model. Testing, user feedback, de-bugging, customization and communications testing.

3: Switch from developmental server to production sewer. Promotion of new technology - conference rooms, sales tracking, corporate news groups, forms, documents etc. Efficiency and cost-reduction analysis. Evaluation and performance tuning of the network.

The mounting popularity of Intranets is continuing to skyrocket. IDC predicts that by the end of 1997, 80% of all existing web servers will be used for internal Intranets. And perhaps, a more profound change brought about by corporate Intranets will be cultural, not technological, as we gain new tools that reassign the influence of information access within the enterprise as a whole.

Looking forward, Forrester Research predicts the move toward a full service Intranet and reported, "By 2000, the Intranet will grow far beyond a TCP/IP network that just supports the Web-enabled applications. It will have five core standards-based services-directory, email, file, print, and network management - that will overshadow all proprietary client/server Network Operating System solutions."

The speed at which this new technology is being conceived and implemented throughout businesses is astounding. New developments are occurring almost daily. Before long, we will all be on the Information Super-highway, whether on the global Internet or within our own private Intranets.

Sandra Girard is Vice President of Public Relations for StarOne Internet in Beverly Hills.