Shel Holtz
HTML conversion by :
M/s. LeafWriters (India) Pvt. Ltd.
Website : http://leaf.stpn.soft.net
e-mail :
leafwriters@leaf.stpn.soft.net
| Acquisitions Editor | Lysa Lewallan |
| Development Editor | Paula Hardin |
| Copy Editor | Margo Hill |
| Technical Reviewer | Matisse Enzer |
| Proofreader | Jeff Barash |
| Cover Illustration | Sarah Ishida |
| Cover Design | Megan Gandt |
| Book Design | Paper Crane Graphics, Berkeley, California |
| Page Layout | Janet Piercy |
| Indexer | Valerie Robbins |
Copyright © 1996 by Macmillan Computer Publishing USA.
All rights reserved.
All other product names and services identified throughout this book are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. They are used throughout this book in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies. No such uses, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with the book.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, or
stored in a database or retrieval system, or transmitted or distributed
in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission
of Macmillan Computer Publishing USA, except as permitted by the
Copyright Act of 1976, and the End-User License Agreement at the
back of this book, and except that program listings may be entered,
stored, and executed in a computer system.
Except for the limited warranty covering the physical disk(s)
packaged with this book as provided in the end-user license agreement
at the back of this book, THE INFORMATION AND MATERIAL CONTAINED
IN THIS BOOK ARE PROVIDED "AS IS," WITHOUT WARRANTY
OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION
ANY WARRANTY CONCERNING THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACY, OR COMPLETENESS
OF SUCH INFORMATION OR MATERIAL OR THE RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED
FROM USING SUCH INFORMATION OR MATERIAL. NEITHER Macmillan Computer
Publishing USA NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY CLAIMS
ATTRIBUTABLE TO ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR OTHER INACCURACIES IN THE
INFORMATION OR MATERIAL CONTAINED IN THIS BOOK, AND IN NO EVENT
SHALL Macmillan Computer Publishing USA OR THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE
FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF SUCH INFORMATION OR MATERIAL.
ISBN 1-56276-427-6
The intranet is one of the hottest topics in a number of circles, from Systems departments to Human Resources staffs, from corporate boardrooms to the conference circuit. Intranets are hot because they offer spectacular opportunities to allow employees to capitalize on the resources of the entire organization to solve problems, to improve processes, and to allow the organization to do things that the organization would never have dreamed possible.
The number of resources to help you build an intranet is growing. Computer magazines have published detailed special reports and articles. Direct-mail brochures about intranet conferences and seminars are filling mailboxes. It seems that intranet-related book titles are appearing on store shelves as fast as their cousins, books about the Internet.
There is more to an intranet than the technology and system development that makes it work. Many intranets have been developed by systems professionals who were focused solely on the actual functioning of the intranet. However, attention must also be paid to the content, the organization's information needs, and how people will be able to use the intranet. If an intranet is going to succeed in an organization, it must meet business-oriented objectives. There's more to meeting those kinds of objectives than selecting the right hardware and software, installing the proper protocols, and writing the correct code.
There are plenty of other resources available to help you understand the technical issues of an intranet. This book details the advantages an intranet can bring to an organization to help that organization achieve its strategic goals and improve its bottom line. It includes information on how to apply the power of an intranet to a variety of organizational needs. This book also addresses the business issues that accompany the implementation of a successful intranet. The Intranet Advantage helps you understand how an intranet can be applied to real-world business requirements. It is important for you to understand these elements of an intranet if the servers and workstations and browsers you configure are going to produce the kind of bottom-line results most companies expect from their investments.
All employees in any organization can benefit from an intranet, so it may be of interest to everyone and help inspire interest, support, and new ways to apply the advantages of intranets. All departments or functions within an organization will have a stake in the development of an intranet.
This book is primarily geared toward systems professionals. Systems professionals need background and knowledge about the non-Systems elements of an intranet to help them work with other departments to develop a complete, content-oriented, process-enhancing, problem-solving system that directly impacts the company's ability to meet its core objectives. The best intranets are designed, developed, implemented, and maintained by a team of professionals that includes a cross-section of the organization. Of course, Information Technology (IT) must be represented. But the team leader needs an understanding of strategic planning processes, communication models, the organization's strategic plan and business objectives, the company's culture and work environment, and a variety of other subjects in addition to the nuts and bolts that make the thing go.
But the nature of The Intranet Advantage makes it a valuable resource for several other specific audiences, in addition to the systems audience, and they are: executive management, staff functions, and operating units. If all four audiences read this book, they will be able to work as a team to develop an intranet that brings the best of the system's advantages to the organization.
The senior officials of an organization, executive management, are responsible for ensuring that investments are made in places that will help the company derive the most benefit. By understanding what an intranet can do for the organization, these leaders can make informed decisions. Consequently, they can be the kind of leaders that get results. They can enhance the organization's ability to produce the best goods and services in the most timely fashion, and meet customer requirements as well.
The parts of the company that will have the most routine need to apply their efforts to the intranet are the staff functions, which include departments like Human Resources (HR) and Finance. Because HR and Finance (payroll!) touch every employee, every employee will benefit from having administrative materials on an intranet. Best of all, as you will see, HR will benefit from the intranet features too. For example, all employees need to find things in personnel manuals, but they frequently have to call HR because of the inadequacy of the paper versions. Having the manual online in hypertext helps everyone.
Operating units, the parts of the company that are directly involved in the development, production, and distribution of the company's goods and services (such as Design and Development, Manufacturing, Marketing, and Sales) will also be able to use and contribute to the company intranet. Marketing and sales will be able to make tremendous use of intranet features. Web sites will allow show and tell (with audio clips) for customers about products. Instant feedback and direct marketing to interested customers will be possible with interactive forms.
The Intranet Advantage was written to provide a detailed overview of what an intranet can do for-and to-an organization. By reading this book, you will understand the many benefits that an organization can reap by using an intranet, how an intranet can help the organization save and make money, and the implications of an intranet on an organization's structure and culture.
You also will learn how an intranet allows you to bring into your organization the same means to communicate and provide access to information that your employees are beginning to take for granted in their day-to-day interactions outside the company.
Finally, The Intranet Advantage will point out ways various departments and groups within the organization can work together to achieve all the best results an intranet can bring to an organization.
This book will help you understand how staff functions and operational departments in an organization can use an intranet to achieve its goals; how an intranet can improve multi-directional communication for improved productivity; how an intranet can apply all of the features of the Internet to managing workflow; how an intranet can save money; how a strategy should be developed that ensures the intranet will meet its promise; how an intranet can help each employee tap into the organization's well of information and knowledge.
By the time you finish The Intranet Advantage, you will be poised to lead your organization's total intranet effort; to work with your company's communications professionals, Human Resources representatives, and others to build a system that works, grows, and lasts. You will be ready to build an intranet that knocks the socks off your leaders and knocks the edge off your competition.
An author's name goes on the cover of a book like this, but the production and the events leading up to it involve the talents, skills, and support of many. I owe a debt of gratitude to all of those who were involved in bringing this book to reality. There are a few in particular I would like to recognize.
Matisse Enzer, president of Internet Literacy Consultants in San Francisco (http://www.matisse.net) has for over a year been instrumental in my acquisition of knowledge about the technical aspects of TCP/IP network communications. He is a consummate professional and a pleasure to work with. In addition to his continuing support, he served as the technical advisor for this book, and the glossary from his Web site comprises the lion's share of the glossary in this book.
Craig Settles, author of Cybermarketing and president of Successful Marketing in Berkeley, California, (http://www.successful.com) referred me to Ziff-Davis Press, for which I will always be grateful. Dan Janal, author of three books on Internet marketing (http://www.janal.com), offered regular advice and guidance.
Claire Horne, my agent from Moore Literary Agency in Newburyport, Massachusetts, guided me through the ins and outs of this, my first foray into over-the-counter book publishing. Paula Hardin, Lysa Lewallen, Margo Hill, and the rest of the team at Ziff Davis pushed me along and offered sound advice that served only to improve the words I had created.
I belong to a loose coalition of organizational communications professionals (we sometimes refer to ourselves as NetGain) who have embraced computer technology, and all of them have been important in my development as a communications-technology consultant. They include Craig Jolley of OASIS Consulting (and formerly of Lexis-Nexis) in Dayton, Ohio; Charles Pizzo of P.R. Public Relations (http://www.prprnet.com) of New Orleans, Louisiana; and Pete Shinbach of The Birmingham Group in Birmingham, Michigan. I also owe more than I can ever convey to the International Association of Business Communicators (http://www.iabc.com), which offered me my first platform to preach the gospel of online communication to professional communicators, and to Ragan Communications (http://www.ragan.com), which offered me an expanded platform to continue spreading the word.
Finally, I'd like to acknowledge my kids, Benjamin and Rachel,
who kept cracking jokes about the amount of time I was spending
at the computer while writing this book, which helped keep me
from taking it all too seriously.