INTRANET: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF INTRANET
The Internet has
been viewed as a communication system meant for linking an enterprise with the
rest of the world. However, another important business application of the
Internet infrastructure is Intranet. Intranet is a network designed for
distributing the information resources to each individual within the
enterprise using Internet technologies.
Intranet generally consists of internal corporate web
servers made available to employees across the LAN or private dial up access.
Using the corporate databases and other repositories of information and
documents, these web servers bring diverse kinds of information to employees.
The authorised employees use a common front end web browser to browse through
the vast reservoir of information available within the company.
The inspiration for
Intranet came, perhaps from the success of e- mail within the business
enterprises. The IT resource requirements are quite simple and normally
existing hardware can meet the requirement of Intranet. On the software front,
one needs a web server with a single client – the web browser. The web server
may be configured on a LAN and may be linked over a WAN for multi-locational
access.
Interestingly, the
Intranet may or may not be connected to Internet and in case it is connected to
Internet, security measures shall have to be taken to eliminate the chances of
unauthorised access. Thus, Intranet provides access to corporate information
repository to the authorised user with a minimal cost, time and effort.
The architecture of Intranet can be conceived as an
integration of the four basic elements – corporate information services, web
server, communication links and Intranet users.
Why Intranet?
Although, the concept of Intranet draws heavily on the Internet
technology, the need for Intranet arises more from the business pressures to
transform the way business is conducted.
Some of the important
factors responsible for the popularity of Intranet are listed below:
(a) Need to cut costs:
The cost effectiveness is the mantra in the competitive world of
today. Intranet attempts to streamline flow of information and is user
directed. That saves on time and cost of communicating information.
(b) Dynamics of markets:
Today, changes take place more rapidly in the market and company
than ever before. Therefore, the information needs to be reported and exchanged
more quickly among all those associated with the company, including employees,
customers and vendors.
(c) Changing work environment:
As the business and
markets become scattered, employees have to be mobile and away from office.
Thus, it becomes imperative for the workforce to use less expensive means of
communication to remain in touch with the office.
(d) Customer support:
The increasing role of
customer support in the marketing strategy has changed the whole concept of communication
in enterprises. A direct contact of the customer with the customer support
department through Intranet directs the ‘job to specialist’ and ensures better
handling of complaints.
The related advantage is
that it also permits the sales force to look after more crucial problems than
to act as intermediary between the customer and customer support department for
the routine kind of complaints.
Intranet has a great variety of benefits, especially for big sized company, such as
it:
·
stimulates employees’
communication and engagement,
·
saves money for
regular paper flows,
·
fights bureaucratism,
·
provides secured cloud
storage,
·
offers a lot of tool
for better task performance as a complete project management system
Advantages:
The advantages of Intranet over the conventional communication
systems can be listed as below:
1. Intranet is an easy, economical and fast system of
communication within the enterprise. It offers opportunities to keep every
concerned individual informed irrespective of the location. It also helps in
reducing travel time as the communication between people in the business
enterprise can be more frequent and less expensive, particularly when the
persons desiring to communicate are located far away from each other.
2. It serves information automatically and thus, one does
have to face the contempt of not being aware of an important piece of information.
Thus, demand for information is more frequent and detailed.
3. Intranet replaces grapevine as it permits inter
employee communication with more transparency and free expression of views. It
enables employees at various levels to pose problems/questions, participate in
discussions and contribute answers to thorny problems of the company. The
concept of collective expertise can be given a concrete shape with the help of
Intranet.
4. It improves productivity of the manager. With
Intranet, the manager can spend more time in analysing information and not in
seeking information and waiting for its delivery.
5. Intranet helps in eliminating the latency of
information in the enterprise and makes the flow of information need-driven
than availability-driven.
Disadvantages:
The disadvantages of Intranet are few and can be overcome by
proper planning and support from the top management. Some of the important
disadvantages are as follows:
a.
Getting started
b.
Developing and maintaining content
c.
Training employees
d.
Convincing “old economy” employees
Other Disadvantages
1. One of the major disadvantages is the risk of security
to the corporate information resource. The intranet exposes the corporate
information resource to the risk of loss of privacy and even unauthorised
alteration. The Intranet technology is still quite fragile and the risk of
security and privacy of information on Intranet is higher.
2. Intranet poses another challenge before the enterprise
and that relates to the need to change the work culture for effectiveness of
the Intranet. The executives, particularly at the top level of managerial
hierarchy are in the habit of delegating the handling of information,
including mail to their secretaries.
Quite often, the e-mails
are printed out by the secretaries and dumped on the table of the executive by
the secretary. The practice of sharing passwords with secretaries could be
fatal for the executive and the enterprise, in case of over ambitious or
dissatisfied secretary. Another cultural change that is necessary is in the
speed of response.
As the Intranet
communications are convenient and less expensive, the number of mails/queries
is likely to increase and if these are not responded to quickly, they will pile
up and the order will give way to chaos in the enterprise.
3. Another fear that is being talked about these days is
the danger of reduced face-to-face interaction between employees leading to
im-personalisation of the enterprise. However, studies have yet to prove
anything of this sort.
The Intranet is gaining
popularity, particularly among those business enterprises that are having
branches and projects scattered over a wider geographical area. It is likely to
be the key application of Internet. “The biggest impact of web will be how companies
use it to stay in close contact with their customers”, said Bill Gates once.
However, the reliability and safety issues deserve closer examination.
Intranet and Work Groups:
Many decisions in business
enterprises are taken collectively by a group of persons. Either these persons
are directly or indirectly associated with the implementation of the decision
or their work is likely to be influenced by the outcome of the implementation
of the decision.
Such decisions are called group decisions and such persons
are collectively called ‘Work Group’. The need for group decision making
becomes more important in case of group activities or in the case of decisions
that are likely to influence the performance of different persons or organizational
units in the enterprise.
For example, the decision
regarding a proposed change in the inputs for a construction project would
influence the performance of the designing department, construction department,
commercial department and procurement department. In such a situation, any
decision on the part of the procurement or designing department only may lead
to a conflict.
Decision making by work groups has the advantage of
availability of larger number of alternatives, satisfaction of each number of
the work group regarding the decision making process and its outcome, and
better quality of decision as larger number of comments are available regarding
the proposal before it is accepted and implemented.
The process of arriving at
such a decision may be different for different decision situations. The
decision may be taken by a manager after consulting the concerned members of
the group or it may be taken collectively by discussing in details the pros and
cons of the decision and arriving at a consensus.
It could be on the basis
of the majority view as well. Whatever may be the mode of establishing the
collective view of the work group, it is essential that the adequate
communication take place among the members of the group before the decision is
taken.
The communication among the members may take place in a
meeting or it could be in the form of written or oral communication with the
person coordinating the process. Intranet is being viewed as an important tool
for improving the communication among the members of the work group.
Intranet can help in
ensuring that the information is available to the decision-maker without being
asked for specifically. Large volume of information may be exchanged from
far-flung locations without much of communication cost. Intranet promotes
exchange of information as a habit for the members of the work group. Intranet
generally provides facilities for electronic meetings and group decision
support systems in addition to e-mail among the members of each work group.
With the availability of
software for facilitating the communication in work groups (also termed as
Group Ware), it is becoming increasingly easy to ensure that work groups become
more effective in decision making process. LOTUS NOTES is one of the popular
software for developing an effective system of group decision making.
Ms.S.Sangeetha & Ms.R.Sandhiya
Assistant Professor in CA Dept
