Intranet Portal

CONCEPTS

1. What is it?
   1. A private network accessible only to an organisation's Staff
   2. A gateway that unifies access to Enterprise information and applications
   3. Serving a wide range of information and services from organization's internal IT systems
   4. A tool that helps a company manage its data, applications, and information more easily through personalised Views
2. What is it used for
   1. Integration
   2. Deliver Tools to advance productivity
      1. Corporate directories
      2. Sales
      3. Customer Relationship Management Tools
      4. Project Management
   3. Corporate culture-change Platforms e.g. large numbers of employees discussing key issues in a forum
   4. Extranet - an Intranet that is accessible to customers and outsiders
   5. Communication Channels
3. Who is involved in Intranet?
   1. Development by Intranet user-experience, editorial and technology teams
   2. Managed by HR, CIO or combination
4. Examples of What is on an Intranet
   1. Tools & Resources — Area for employees to link to or download necessary applications to perform work functions. Information also provided to find internal and external resources.
   2. Task Management — Create and update shared task lists throughout the corporation.
   3. Bulletin Board — Manage corporate announcements.
   4. Workflow Management — Establish work flows for common business tasks such as submitting expense reports, submitting corporate HR paperwork and document approval processes.
   5. Wiki — can be used in the business environment for knowledge management
   6. Access Point for Employees — Location for employees default main company webpage to obtain all information regarding the company.
   7. Company Calendar — To give user access to important company event dates and times.
   8. Business Operations — To give users access to important business policies and manuals.
   9. Associate Services — .
5. Why do Organisations have Intranets? (Benefits)
   1. Workforce productivity:
      1. help users to locate and view information faster
      2. use applications relevant to their roles and responsibilities.
      3. help employees find information more easily and perform their jobs better
   2. Accessibility
      1. With a web browser interface, users can access data held in any database the organization wants to make available, anytime and from anywhere: ,
         1. increasing employees' ability to perform their jobs faster, more accurately, and with confidence that they have the right information.
      2. helps to improve the services provided to the users.
      3. By integrating services and presenting personalized snippets on the initial screen, intranet portals also reduce the need for users to browse far and wide to obtain needed information, thus making it easier for them to perform their jobs
   3. Time:
      1. distribute information to employees on an as-needed basis;
      2. Employees may link to relevant information at their convenience, rather than being distracted indiscriminately by email.
   4. Communication: chat, email, and/or blogs
      1. serve as powerful tools for communication within an organization, vertically strategic initiatives that have a global reach throughout the organization.
      2. The type of information that can easily be conveyed is
         1. the purpose of the initiative
         2. what the initiative is aiming to achieve
         3. who is driving the initiative
         4. results achieved to date
         5. who to speak to for more information.
      3. staff have the opportunity to keep up-to-date with the strategic focus of the organization.
   5. Publishing
      1. allows cumbersome corporate knowledge to be maintained and easily accessed throughout the company using hypermedia and Web technologies. e.g. employee manuals, benefits documents, company policies, business standards, news feeds, and even training, can be accessed using common Internet standards (Acrobat files, Flash files, CGI applications).
      2. Each business unit can update the online copy of a document, the most recent version is usually available to employees using the intranet.
   6. Business operations and management:
      1. a platform for developing and deploying applications to support business operations and decisions across the internet worked enterprise.[9]
   7. Cost-effective:
      1. Users can view information and data via web-browser rather than maintaining physical documents such as procedure manuals, internal phone list and requisition forms. save the business money on printing, duplicating documents, and the environment as well as document maintenance overhead.
   8. Enhance collaboration:
      1. Information is easily accessible by all authorised users, which enables teamwork.
   9. Cross-platform capability
      1. Standards-compliant web browsers are available for Windows, Mac, and UNIX.
   10. Built for one audience:
       1. Many companies dictate computer specifications which, in turn, may allow Intranet developers to write applications that only have to work on one browser (no cross-browser compatibility issues). Being able to specifically address your "viewer" is a great advantage. Since Intranets are user-specific (requiring database/network authentication prior to access), you know exactly who you are interfacing with and can personalize your Intranet based on role (job title, department) or individual ("Congratulations Jane, on your 3rd year with our company!").
   11. Promote common corporate culture:
       1. Every user has the ability to view the same information within the Intranet.
   12. Immediate updates:
       1. When dealing with the public in any capacity, laws, specifications, and parameters can change. Intranets make it possible to provide your audience with "live" changes so they are kept up-to-date, which can limit a company's liability.
   13. Supports a distributed computing architecture:
       1. The intranet can also be linked to a company’s management information system, for example a time keeping system.
   14. Better decision Making
       1. Intranet portal helps employees make better and more informed decisions, which result from increased knowledge.
   15. In General
       1. It also helps reduce costs, saves time, increases collaboration, increases productivity and effectiveness.
       2. Intranet portal is a Web-based tool that allows users to create a customized site that dynamically pulls in Internet activities and desired content into a single page. By providing a contextual framework for information, portals can bring S&T (Science and Technology) and organizational "knowledge" to the desktop.
6. Some Caveats
   1. Few portal designs are optimal just out-of-the-box.
      1. Especially in smaller companies, designers can realize some features found in off-the-shelf portal software through simpler (do-it-yourself) means.
   2. Most intranets have become completely unwieldy
      1. present a highly fragmented and confusing user experience, with no consistency and little navigational support.
   3. One solution is by presenting a single gateway to all corporate information and services.
      1. One benefit of creating this consistent look and feel is users need less time to learn how to use the environment.
      2. They also more easily recognize where they are in the portal and where they can go—no small feat when navigating a large information space.
   4. Intranet Portals can be a large business cost.
      1. The maintenance and management can be time consuming and expensive. Not only is it a cost to keep the portal running but a cost when the system goes offline. Most intranets are established to put all an organization's resources into one place and having that offline can force operations to be put on hold.
   5. Security issues can become an ongoing problem.
      1. Unauthorized access is a concern and can result in users gaining access to sensitive information.
      2. Denial of access can cause issues for users needing access for their work.
   6. Having everything in one place is only good if it's organized.
      1. Information overload can make finding information very difficult - lowering productivity.

Reference

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intranet_portal
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intranet

ReSEARCH

White Papers

1. "Usability of Intranet Portals Executive Summary". Nielsen Norman Group.
2. Ward, Toby. "2012 Social Intranet Study" (PDF). prescientdigital.com. Prescient Digital Media. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
3. "Ongoing projects at DTIC - Intranet Portal". Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC). 2009-05-28.
4. "Disadvantages of Intranets". University of Toronto. 1998.

OUTLINES

GUIDES

Developing an Intranet/ Intranet Portal