Intranet Case Study

What is an 'Intranet'?

An intranet is made up of two parts: the services offered by the servers, and the computers (known as 'client computers') around the company's offices. To be part of the intranet, a computer must be connected to the company's local area network (LAN), and have a permanent connection to the servers so that they can be used at any time of day.

Because these connections are a simple matter of fixed wiring (or fixed wireless connections), there is usually no cost overhead involved in keeping the client computers connected to the servers all day long.

The entrance to the intranet bears a certain resemblance to a web site because it is based on standard web browser technology. This means that there's very little software maintenance to be done by the company's system administrators. Once a browser is installed on any PC, and that PC is linked to the network, the intranet is ready to use right away without any other programs needing to be installed locally.

And because it is entirely situated within the LAN, and it can't be seen or abused from the outside world, the intranet can be very closely tied in with existing applications, data, documents and network security policies. An Intranet can very effectively be used as a 'portal' which guides staff to company documents, data directories, contact management, sales campaigns and any other systems they need to use. Everything the staff needs is found in one central location.

Linking up with other software

Intranets can be linked up with other programs and systems that are used by the company. These can include accounting software, contact and sales management systems, 3D graphic design applications, job management systems, manufacturing and stock control, installation management, and distribution control systems. Data can be freely exchanged with most other programs using an open database connectivity (ODBC) or similar standard.

This gives the intranet the ability to join unrelated systems together intelligently, linking sales management systems with the customer database from the accounting system, or linking a job management system with the stock control and purchase ordering systems to automatically obtain new parts when supplies run low.

There are many ways this technology can be used to make a company's disparate software solutions into a more integrated system, saving on human resources that would otherwise be needed to orchestrate the relationships between those systems.

Why use an Intranet?

There are a number of sound business reasons for using an intranet, some of which show immediate benefits, and others of which provide a longer term return on the investment:

• Increased staff efficiency: The intranet provides quick and easy centralised access to all the data and systems needed.
  
  
• Low licensing costs: Unlike the usual 'license-per-seat' software model (in which each client computer needs an expensive software license), the intranet model uses a license for each server but does not require client computer software licenses. This provides both short term and long term returns on investment.
  
  
• Less maintenance time: Because client computers have no special software installed for the intranet, less maintenance is required for each one. Software upgrades affect only the server, so even if you have 500 client computers, only the servers need to be updated.
  
  
• Lower upgrade costs: In the long term, less client computer upgrades will be needed because the intranet itself uses only a web browser. This is what is known as a 'thin client' installation.