The Value of an Intranet in an SMB Environment

One of the fundamental means of communication that should not be overlooked in any SMB environment is the use of an intranet for internal company administration. The intranet can be as simple or as sophisticated as the web designer and business administrators choose to make it, but if it's going to be effective and used by employees, it has to be easy to navigate, understandable, and routinely updated (not once every six months, but more like daily or even several times a day).

In contrast to any external websites an SMB has, the intranet is intended for internal use and consumption only. Provided that proper security measures have been implemented, the intranet can be used for what might be considered confidential information to the outside world. Intranet uses include the following:

• Human resources services and announcements

• IT help desk support

Human Resources Services and Announcements

The human resources (HR) department can take advantage of an intranet in many ways. Any HR form that employees need to fill out could be posted on the intranet in Portable Document Format (PDF) for easy downloading and printing. Posting such forms online would prevent the problem of the HR department running out of printed copies of certain forms—a surprisingly common occurrence—and having to track down those forms someplace on a local hard disk to be printed or perhaps e-mailed later to an employee. In addition, HR is likely to have many announcements that, instead of just being tacked to bulletin boards, could be posted to the intranet. (However, some announcements might have to be put on bulletin boards due to legal requirements.)

Announcements could include company policies, press releases, or job openings that are being made available to employees before being advertised externally. Enrollment into benefits plans or even employee address changes could all be handled through the intranet and possibly even be integrated with internal databases. Similar to HR, any other department or area of an SMB's operations can readily benefit from the effective use of the intranet, provided that an effective mechanism (that is, trained personnel) has been established to keep the intranet regularly updated.

IT Help Desk Support

An intranet-based IT help desk might include an interactive web page that solicits information about problems in a more rigorous manner than if users simply sent a freeform e-mail to a network administrator stating that something on the network is not working. The required answers solicited through an intranet-based input screen are still forwarded to a network administrator via an e-mail message, but the e-mail now contains the specific information that an administrator needs to tackle the problem more effectively.

Network administrators might also choose to post a series of answers to the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) or the most frequent problems that arise in an SMB's IT environment. Because relationships often tend to be strained between the overworked IT support staff and the other employees of an SMB, the IT staff could use the intranet to their advantage to provide updates about upcoming upgrades or changes to the network, to post mini-tutorials on various aspects of applications and/or networking solutions use, and perhaps even to offer an occasional humorous insight into what life is like in the IT department.

Because the key to the effective use of the intranet by IT, HR, or any other department is keeping it updated, resources need to be allocated for that purpose. The good news is that in today's work environments, the level of computer knowledge that most SMB employees (not just IT staff) need to function effectively is quite high. Expanding that knowledge for a select few with the basic skills of web design might prove to be fairly easy and, at the same time, might be a valuable investment for an SMB to enhance its internal operations through the use of the intranet.