Intranets and Extranets

Understanding Intranet

An intranet is an organization's internal communication tool, hosted within a local network, for communicating within the organization's members, employees or others with authorization.

It is an organization's specific local "website". Whereas a website communicates an organization's information to the entire world, an intranet communicates within the organization's network, only limited to the members of the organization.

An intranet automates the functions of an organization. In essence, it aids in the running of the day to day organizational activities.

Advantages of an organizational intranet

  • Cuts on organizational cost
  • Better internal communication
  • Improved Customer Service
  • Shared resouces

Some features of an organizational intranet

  • Document Management - different documents are uploaded into the intranet.
  • Departmentalization - all staff belong to departments and other divisions.
  • Collaboration - different people can work on the same document or project
  • Teams - are created for different with a specific mandate. Team members access all information on the Team's page
  • People directory - all official information relating to the different staff can be accessed by all
  • Contacts - stores contacts of different people, both personal and organizational
  • Organizational calendar - for different organizational events and activities
  • News and events - all news, memos, upcoming events etc
  • Active directory connection - for organizations with AD, users are synchronized for single sign on
  • Email notifications - users are notified when different activities are done on the intranet, eg when assigned an task
  • Tasks assignment - assigned to different people, especially from seniors to juniors
  • Staff chat - a facility that enables only staff to chat on the intranet
  • Forums and blogs- used to discuss on different topics
  • Organization (structure) chart - pictorial view of the organizational structure
  • Birthday reminders - staff are reminded of others' birthdays. Helps in enhancing social togetherness.
  • Featured employee - the most active employee is featured.
  • Work-flows - like transport, petty cash, stores requisition
  • Leave management - leave request and other information is done on the intranet
  • Roles and priviliges - different users have different rights on the intranet
  • Content management - all content is managed in a user-friendly
  • User Profile -all staff manage their profile information, including profile photo, phones etc
  • Library -materials such as magazines, etc are accessed through the library, digital or physical
  • RSS Feeds - for accessing information related to the organization
  • Related links - different URLs leading to websites of related organizations
  • Photo gallery - for photos showing different events of the organization
  • Search - a facility where you can search for information on the internet
  • Polls and Surveys- for helping to collect different information from the users
  • etc