The Executive's Basic Guide to Intranets

3. How Does an Intranet Actually Work?

In a sense, having an intranet in your business is like having your own private Internet, World Wide Web and more: a universal e-mail system, groupware, electronic libraries, an application sharing system, a low-cost remote access method, and a corporate communications network all wrapped up in one.

Once TCP/IP technology is implemented across the enterprise, a variety of dedicated Web (HTTP) and Mail (SMTP) servers can be added to the network and data can be converted to HTML --the universal language of the Web-- and published to Web servers, where anyone with a Web browser like Netscape Navigator or Microsoft's Internet Explorer can readily access it at their workstation or remotely via a laptop from a home office or while on the road. HTML templates can be created to provide a simple, easy-to-use front-end interface for searching, adding data, or generating reports from older legacy systems.

The Web servers can be used to store and display information and materials (i.e. brochures, annual reports, sales presentations, employee manuals, training and educational material, and other collateral) containing complex images or multimedia such as video clips, audio clips, and animations that can be quickly and easily downloaded to an individual's desktop and used in a variety of ways. A whole library of videos can be made available on demand via special video servers. And tools such as Java, Javascript or ActiveX can be deployed to add or extend the simple interactivity of HTML.

Imagine you are a sales rep for a national company that sells widgets. Your company has a full-fledged intranet in place that allows you to log-in remotely whenever you want and gain instant access to all the information you need to make a typical sales call. Now you no longer have to schlepp an assortment of brochures and other sales materials around with you everywhere you go because the information you need to answer a customer's question is right at your fingertips.

With a click of your mouse you launch a Web browser which automatically initiates your remote access connection to the home office. You are prompted for a user name and password. Once you are logged in you are on the Sales and Marketing home page which provides you with a list of links to the various other segments of the intranet you may need to access.

Click on the link to the company's inventory management system to look up the stock availability for a particular model or group of items. Next you can view a profile of the customer's past buying patterns, and use information about their credit to instantly calculate the terms for promotional discounts or special deals you can offer. When you are eady to close a sale, you can fill out the forms required to place and submit the order right there on the spot! While you are waiting for a P.O. or Order Number to be generated, you can quickly check your email for any urgent or important messages. Oops! Looks like the deadline for changing health and benefit plan information is tomorrow. You click on the link in your e-mail message and it takes you to the Employee Benefits site where you enter your name and social security number to get a summary profile of your benefits. You bookmark the page so you can easily return to it after you are done with your sales call and use the form at the bottom to submit any changes.

By the time you leave the customer's premises the order you logged has made it's way into the home office's order tracking and billing system and has been processed. When the order is fulfilled, an invoice is automatically generated and sent to the customer. At the same time, your sale is automatically logged into the sales incentive award program and your monthly, quarterly and year-to-date results are updated and ready to be displayed whenever you want to check them.

Instead of spending your afternoon trying to follow up on customer questions you weren't able to answer that morning, you are ready to make a few more sales calls or download the powerpoint slides you need to pull together a presentation for that big new account you're calling on tomorrow! If you need to enhance your presentation with some current market statistics, you can log onto the Internet as well and search for additional information.

This is just one example of an intranet in action, but you can see how it can simplify and streamline paper-intensive business processes, making your employees more productive and better prepared to address your customer's needs. The more efficient a sales rep can be while making a sales call, the more sales calls he or she can make and/or close, which translates directly to your bottom line!

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