Definition

An intranet is an internal computer network accessible by an  organization's employees. It uses Internet technologies and protocols so  employees can access internal information through a browser without actually exposing  that information to the broader Internet.

Business applications

Generally, intranets support communication, collaboration  and information search. An intranet can save on printing costs by serving as a document repository. Intranets can also be used as an alternative to e-mail, which can help save money on storage and bandwidth.

Intranet portals also can serve as an integration point for corporate systems. For instance, you can use the intranet as a way to access  legacy systems or Web-enable internal applications. You can also integrate enterprise user log-ons and authentication systems with the intranet, giving employees one point of sign-on.

Deployment Concerns

While intranets mimic the Internet in look and feel, their actual functionality and use have fallen short of expectations.

The biggest problem: getting employees to actually use them.  A 2007 survey by  the Irish Computer Society found that 50 percent of respondents confessed they did not use company intranets.

Intranet consultant Martin White suspects one reason for the poor success of intranets is companies usually blindly deployed intranets, without first establishing concrete operational and strategic objectives. White also noticed intranets are often treated as someone's hobby, and therefore lack serious oversight and management.

Intranets also fall short in search. Business users are  accustomed to the ease and efficiency of online search tools such as Google. But online sites include coding and other features that help search engines find and catalog information, a practice often neglected on intranet pages.

Some believe social networking, RSS and other Web 2.0 tools will revitalize struggling intranets, but it remains to be seen how that will play out long term.

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