With the use of internet increasing by the day, the related technologies have not lagged behind in catching up with an on-line world. In fact, increasing competition in the global market has compelled companies worldwide to seek innovative ways to get an edge over each other. Consequently, a number of companies from multinationals, to small and medium local enterprises are looking at the net to cut costs and increase employee productivity. A specialised management event, `Your Business on the Web', under the aegis of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and Silicon Graphics focussed on the advantages of the intranet as a tool to economically strengthen the corporate culture.

Says Sandeep Shirodkar, business manager, Silicon Graphics, ``The use of web technology within an organisation's internal network is known as the intranet. As opposed to the internet, intranets cater only to the internal users of the organisation and enable companies to employ the same types of servers and browsers used for the World Wide Web for internal applications distributed across the corporation.''

For a company, the more obvious advantages of such a network would be the savings on faxes, phone calls, paper and time. Overall, it improves the logistics of the company, by reducing the communication costs and enabling quick responses. It will also facilitate e-mail and video conferencing. To put it simply, a corporate intranet will connect the offices of an organisation in different locations and provide real-time information wherever and whenever required.

Adds Dewang Mehta, executive director, National Association of Software & Service Companies, ``Intranet can reduce the telecommunication expenses by almost 50 per cent. Already a number of companies like the Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd, Maruti Udyog Ltd, Brooke Bond, Bennett Coleman & Company Ltd and the Taj Group are using intranet to reduce cost and time of operations and provide easy access to information within the organisation.''

Contrary to popular belief, an intranet network is quite an inexpensive proposition. Says Shirodkar, ``It can work within the existing infrastructure of the company. In fact, it can be operational with an investment of as low as Rs 1 lakh. This would be the most fundamental of the infrastructures. By and large, the cost would vary with the needs and the size of the organisation. In the long run, the advantages that the company reaps from such a network far outweigh the initial costs.''

Corporate intranets can provide information in a way that is:

o Immediate

o Cost effective (saves money)

o Easy to use (no training required)

o Rich in format and versatile

While ensuring information availability throughout the enterprise, intranets also lead to compelling advantages such as:

Freedom of choice: Web technology is based on open standards and therefore does not lock companies into limited costly, choices.

Cost-effectiveness: At less than Rs 2,500 per user on an inter-departmental basis or company-wide basis, they cost far less than most other communication or workgroup systems. Silicon Graphics saves more than $1 million per annum using intranet technology. Results from International Data Corporation's, return on investment (ROI) study of Netscape intranets found the typical ROI well over 1,000 per cent-far higher than usually found in any technology investment.

Ease of use: Among the most fundamental innovations driving people to use web technology is hyperlinking. Hyperlinking allows users to easily navigate and find information by simply clicking a word or graphic. With intranet clients (such as Netscape Navigator) a single front end is used to access all internal and external resources-so users don't need to learn multiple software packages.

While there are no limitations to the use of intranets, the companies can more specifically benefit by:

Communications between departments and project teams. This eliminates the cost of producing, printing and sending corporate information. It also helps in better team work and reduces duplication of work.

In sales and marketing applications an intranet can give immediate access to pricing charts, competitive information and sales lead, list of key customers, programme calendars documenting marketing activities and sales forecasts. It also enables on-line training and sales presentations.

As regards customer services and support applications, intranet can aid team members to share up-to-date status reports on problems so that all team members can respond to customer calls and also train on-line to respond to customer queries and complaints.

With all the advantages of corporate intranet, there can be questions on security and the disadvantages of unlimited access even within the organisation. Experts explain that this problem has been ironed out with `firewall' protection-an intranet security arrangement which can be installed at one of the locations.

The spin-off of such a system is high profitability at lower costs without any limitations. As Shirodkar puts it, ``Intranet provides enormous possibilities and tremendous opportunities, the limitations are only your imagination.'' So keep pace with the times and see how intranet can help your company in gaining a competitive edge.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.