An Intranet is defined as a network within an organization that uses Internet technologies to enable users to find, use and share documents and web pages. In most corporations intranets are used for communication among employees since it radically decreases the time spent in routine communication tasks. Intranets are also being increasingly used to increase efficiency since it pools the resources of the company and reduces administration overheads. Intranets are also being used in education, internal recruiting, human resource applications and revamping workflow while using new technologies like streaming video to reinvent the nature of doing business. The advantages of using web applications to harness the power of the intranet is that they are:
Cost and Environment friendly with a drastic reduction in paper usage: This is a major advantage since companies can move their documents and their processes online. With these available on the Web, centralized printing and distribution can be greatly reduced. Even if printing of these documents is required, it is on-demand printing at the end-user level. This leads to a manageable and paperless environment.
Simple to use and economical with just one client interface: The Web browser, Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer, can become the universal interface to the systems and information. The result in lowering the total cost of ownership of desktop as the browser can serve as the interface to many different data sets. Also, training costs are reduced as only one interface needs to be learned by end-users.
Independent of platform: Users can communicate across various platforms so a UNIX user can communicate with a MAC user who can then communicate with another Windows user. This is possible since only a Web browser is required and HTML, the language of the Web, is understood across all operating systems.
Information now works to keep itself updated: Documents that were once in paper are now located on the internal Web. These Web documents can be kept up-to-date more often and with greater ease than their paper counterparts. These documents can even be updated in real-time from corporate databases. This leads to more accurate and timely information in the hands of decision-makers. Companies can react quicker to changing market conditions.
Global Access: Knowledge stored on the intranet can be accessed from any TCP/IP network in the world so long as the user is authorized to connect to the private intranet. Now, an employee travelling to a remote office can access corporate data available in his office file folder.
ThinkSpider’s Intranet solution service helps our clients by conceiving, planning and implementing web applications for their business. ThinkSpider’s team have experienced networking professionals who have the requisite skills to undertake large deployments proficiently.