Intranet Development

Intranets are, in effect, "internal websites." They are available only to your colleagues and employees, whether they are inside the same building as the intranet server, or whether they dial into your network using VPN.

VPN stands for "Virtual Private Network," and refers to an encrypted (scrambled) connection from the outside world to your computer network. It is a safe and relatively convenient way for employees to work from remote locations. "Relatively" convenient, because the encryption of the connection slows its speed.

An intranet allows you to easily manage access to resources, centralize document management, and to streamline your business processes. Optionally, your intranet can also be accessed from the outside, without VPN, using a secure connection from a simple web browser, (in which case your intranet becomes an "extranet.")

Examples

Typical uses of an intranet include:
1. Products documentation - any data relevant to the company's products or services has its place on an intranet, where employees can quickly access it, and bookmark it for faster retrieval.
2. HR forms - this guarantees that the user sees the most current version of the form, and spares HR from having to distribute them (and their seventh revision of the week) manually.
3. Corporate calendar - the data is available in real time, and can be accessed from any computer on the network. Authorized personnel can edit the calendar and make changes available in real-time.
4. Tutorials - common tasks are documented in detailed walk-through's, always a click away.

But the capabilities of your intranet are, literally, only limited by your imagination.