Technology

Intranets: Brave New Worlds?

by John Collins

At the heart of all information is the word. It doesn't matter if you wrap it in silicon, package it in neon, or slap a couple of fins on it and call it a fish, it's still our little friend the word when the curtain falls, communicating ideas, thoughts, numbers, whatever. Now, with the surge in popularity of the Internet, we're slinging words to the edges of cyberspace and back in the twitch of a gnat's wing, communicating information faster and to more people than ever thought possible.

Those of you behind the bastions of corporate network security may think you're safe from this mad melee of word tossing, but you're wrong. The technologies used on the Internet are inexorably creeping over the corporate firewall, as organizations around the world create internal networks based on those technologies. While the development of such "Intranets" may seem to be a relatively straightforward move to adopt a highly successful, proven technology for external communication and turn it inward, it actually signals a significant evolution in the way organizations will be using, producing, and finding corporate information (which, after all, is still only words).

Today, government and other large organizations typically create Intranets to publish static information: newsletters, human resources policies, technical service and support information (e.g., user documents, manuals), and other bits of corporate information that can be easily converted from existing formats. Such Intranet publications, accessible to a broad audience, can save scads of money in distribution costs, can ensure that everyone has the latest and greatest version of vital documents, and can allow burgeoning Web-page developers — or Web Wonks, as we lovingly call them — to create their utopian visions of the world for all to see. But the typical Intranet doesn't really change anything: it remains little more than a central resource for managing corporate communications. It's just a faster pony.

The true impact that Intranets will have on the way that organizations do business — even the way their owners and employees think about business — has yet to be felt, though the ground is rumbling in some circles. Intranets are becoming more than just fast billboards; a move is afoot toward true interactive platforms, where Intranet technologies are used not just to publish information, but to run applications, to work with customized and directed information, and to interactively perform administrative tasks. This evolution will move along two tracks: the information track and the application track.

Intranet as Information Repository

The information track is leading to the day when every individual in an enterprise shares his or her information and knowledge with every other individual.

Currently, if a software developer in the Hong Kong branch of a multinational corporation figures out a better way to program a particular piece of code that he uses repeatedly, he pats himself on the back and moves on. Or maybe she documents it in her project log, talks about it at the next project meeting, passes it on to the two other programmers on the team, then goes to lunch. Picture, if you will, a world in which it is second nature to pop over to the "Best Practices" forum on the Intranet and, in much the same manner as chatting with a colleague, post a quick message about the new technique. The technique becomes part of a corporate knowledge base that is indexed and categorized, and can be retrieved by anyone within the organization. But how do we get there from here?

Today, posting information to a corporate Intranet is typically a specialized task. For the information to be displayed properly and in a consistent fashion, source material must be produced in a certain way, converted to HTML (hypertext markup language, the format of most Web documents), placed within a hierarchical menu structure, linked, tested, shaken, stirred, and so on. These tasks fall within the realm of the Corporate Webmaster (Wonk), involve a time lag, and have resource implications. Until the actual owner of the information can bypass most of this red tape, an Intranet is an imperfect (and often unused) method of quick knowledge transfer.

Joe Desktop and Sally Boardroom — decidedly un-Wonky types — don't want to learn HTML programming, nor should they have to. Fortunately for them, HTML is evolving from strictly an information structuring language to an information formatting language (though some would call this a step backward). Notwithstanding whining purists, the change is allowing common desktop tools such as MS Word, WordPerfect, and Word Pro to more easily map their functionality to HTML, making conversion to that format more seamless. As a result, information originators can use whichever tool they are familiar with, convert invisibly to HTML, and virtually self-administer the posting of information to a corporate Intranet.

For the entire ideal to be realized, Web-site management tools need to improve, as do the search engines and servers. The big guys (Microsoft, Netscape, and that gang) naturally recognize that ubiquitous Intranet use equals big bucks, so you can believe that every effort is being poured into making this dream a reality.

Intranet Interactivity Via Applications

The other Intranet track is applications. Think of some basic applications available on the Internet today: conference registration forms, search engines, "shopping carts", trivia games, and naked video chat rooms. These "one-on-one" applications do not make their results available for public viewing; they are produced on the fly (no pun intended) for each custom session. Now, put on your wishing hat, take these basic applications several steps further, bring them into the organization (except that last one), and imagine giving employees the power to direct their own health plans, retirement investment plans, and annual leave applications over a corporate Intranet that boasts all of the security and privacy features that sensitive work requires. While this vision may not be particularly pleasant for soon-to-be-redundant health and investment plan administrators, it's pretty good news for the individuals responsible for the bottom line. The boon is not only the reduction of administrative overhead: employees who self-administer their benefit plans will understand those plans better, will likely use them more effectively, and will no doubt feel that their employer is giving them more control over their destinies.

Decentralization applies to more than administrative functions. As users become confident in an Intranet as an information source, they will also become more accepting of Intranet-delivered training and support; as Intranet applications become more robust, they will touch on more critical functions, such as accounting, project management, network management, and others, facilitating either centralized management of distributed resources, or decentralized management and monitoring of central resources. Whatever the case, the result is a more efficient use of people and information.

How Do We Make It Happen?

As with most new technologies (or new applications of old technologies), the early adopters are paving the way, suffering all the scraped elbows and bruised knees of beta releases and new versions every week. Despite the apparent morass of products and tools on the market, dipping at least one foot in is not a bad idea: you'll build a base of knowledgeable Webmaster types (a veritable Wonk army), and you won't have to play catch-up when the brass says: "Why aren't we doing this Intranet thing?" Current Intranet capabilities offer real advantages that, given the market drive, are only going to improve. Just be sure to leave your options open: don't lock into one vendor's vision of the future; buy into your own.