MIS382-Chapter 2 Why Have Organizations Created Intranets and What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages?

Why Have Organizations Created Intranets?

Demands on Businesses Today

1. Customer's want everything faster
2. Customer's want everything cheaper
3. Customer's want better-quality products and services
4. Business has gone global
5. All the rules have changed

How do Intrnaets Help Meet These Demands?

• Provide operational efficiencies that save time and money?
• Allow access to up-to-date information
• Improve communications
• Enable better coordination
• Allow sharing of expertise
• Tap the creativity and innovation of your people

Advantages of Intranets

1. Tangible benefits
   • fast and easy to implement
     1. server
     2. client / browser
     3. publishing and development
   • cheap to implement
   • easy to use
   • save time
   • provide operational efficiency
   • save cost
   • based on open standards
   • connect and communicate among disparate platforms
   • put users in control of their data
   • secure
   • scalable
   • flexible
   • provide the richness of multimedia
   • leverage your infrastructure and applications investment
2. Intangible benefits
   • provide better communication
   • provide access to accurate information
   • capture and share knowledge and expertise
   • provide better coordination and collaboration
   • provide for creativity and innovation
   • provide new business opportunities
   • provide new business partnerships through access by suppliers and customers

Advantages of Intranets over Client/Server

two-tiered client/server vs. three-tiered client/server

• web browser software is cheaper
• intranets are easier to set up. easier to use, and easier to manage
• internal web already has the three-tier architecture
• internal webs are scalable
• web browsers provide a common user iterface
• web browsers exist for all the different operating systems
• web publishing doesn't require programming
• web applications are more flexible

Advantages of Intranets over Proprietary Groupware

workflow - software that facilitates the movement of work through processes

Groupware - software that facilitates interaction among people working together

• web servers and browsers are based on open technology
• web servers and browsers are cheaper
• internal webs are simplier to manage and requires little training
• web tools are incorporating many of the capabilities of proprietary groupware (e-mail, discussion groups, scheduling, video-conferencing)
• web browsers can access data from web servers anywhere
• web servers integrate easily into an existing ODBC-compliant database environment

Disadvantages and Risks of Intranets

• Potential for chaos
• security risks (requires firewalls)
• management fears: fear of sharing information and the loss of control
• information overload
• waste of productivity
• not an integrated solution
• hidden or unknown complexity and cost
  • People - how do you keep your trained webmasters and publishers?
  • Processes - can you use the intranet to improve your business processes?
  • Technology - How do you determine which applications are the rights to link to your internal web?