An intranet is a network inside an organization that uses Internet technologies (such as web browser and servers, TCP/IP networks protocols, HTML, hypermedia document publishing and database and so on) to provide an Internet-like environment within the enterprise for information sharing, communications, collaboration and support of the business process.
An intranet is protected by security measures such as password, inscription, and firewalls, and thus can be accessed by authorized users through the internet. The main purpose of an intranet is to share company information and computing resources among employees. An intranet can also be used to facilitate working in groups and for teleconferences.
Business value of Intranet: There are many facilities or business values of intranets. These are as follows –
(1) Communications and collaborations: Intranets can significantly improve communications and collaborations within an enterprise.
(2) Web publishing: The advantages of developing and publishing hyperlinked multimedia documents to hypermedia databases accessible on world wide web servers have moved to corporate intranets.
(3) Business operations and management: Intranets have moved beyond merely making hypermedia information available on web servers for publishing it to users via net broadcasting. An intranet is also being used as the platform for developing and deploying a critical business application to support business operations and managerial decision making across the Intranet work enterprise.
