Intranuts on the Net

Finally, the intranet—the Internet’s‘ baby, supposed to have been born and brought up in a closed enterprise environment—is actually here. Here, in India. Some of the Indian enterprises have already implemented intranets and are savoring the benefits that this new technology has brought to their organizations. There are some companies that are on the verge of completing their intranet implementation. Others are planning, and some are very seriously contemplating the issue. One thing is for sure, intranets have certainly succeeded in buying the mind share of the corporate-wide information technology implementers.

Netscape’s intranet
Anyone interested in implementing an intranet needs to look into the issues involved therein. And these issues are not so much technical as non-technical and managerial. And the best way to get the feel of the various issues is to get in touch with someone who has had a first hand experience of it and also to browse the Web extensively.
You must have visited the Netscape site a hundred times. But have you ever clicked the “Enterprise Solution” but ton on the home.netscape.com? It clearly says: “Most companies deploy intranets with the goal of creating universal information access. Web-enabled applications make critical data instantly accessible across functional areas. Employees can submit IS help desk re quests or quickly find other employees in an on-line company directory. These same solutions can also be extended to your customers and business partners in an extranet.”
The Netscape page contains a whole lot of information about the company’s intranet product profile and application demos. Netscape can boast of the highest installation base as far as intranet implementation across US companies is concerned. Some pages at the site that can prove useful are Intranet Deployment Guide and Intranet Deployment Study.

Intranet webzines
In case you are very particular about having an independent view about intranets, there are many webzines on the Web that are purely dedicated to intranets and related issues.

For instance, if you direct your browser to www.innergy.com, what you will find is the Intranet Design Magazine, published biweekly by Innergy, Inc. 1DM is a full-fledged magazine on the ‘Net. Featuring all the aspects of an intranet, from both vendors’ and users’ point of view, it offers intranet buffs the latest in formation about new products available and features of successful intranet implementations.
UK-based www.blueice.co.uk/index.htm is another site which has got everything one wants to know about corporate intranets. Some of the topics that the site deals with include Intranet Basics, Intranet Examples, Intranet Technology, among others.
Hosted by NTG International, Inc., Intranet Hand Book Page is a very specialized webzine. You can find this webzine at www.ntg- inter.com/ntg/intranet/intra_in.htm. Claimed to be regularly updated, this site offers extensive articles and thorough white papers on intranets. Moreover, the webzine also has all the details about various intranet products and workshops and seminars that the NTG International organizes. Also available are case studies of a number of corporate sites where intranets have been implemented.

There is another useful site you can not afford to miss. And it is none other than the Computerworid site itself. Go to www.computerworld.com/intranets index.htmi and you will get enough food for thought for your plans about imple menting an intranet in your company. In fact, this site is a larger replica of the Intranet magazine that comes as a monthly supplement with the US-based Computer world.
If you still want to know more about intranets, you can direct your browser to www.strom.com/pubwork/intranet.html, which has a long list of intranet-related sites. The site categorically says: “We continue to collect sites that offer some perspective on building intranets, net works that lever age IP and Internet technologies to better connect customers and businesses. If you know of any additional resources, let us know.” The site—called Intranet Resources—has a list of intranet product charts, intranet-related books and the site suggests Netscape, Microsoft, and Lotus as the three primary sites one should start with—as far as intranets are concerned.
Meanwhile, some of the other useful webzines are located at www.iserv.co.za/ and www.cio.com/WebMaster/wm_irc.html.

Discuss intranets
After visiting so many of the intranet webzines, the next logical step involves discussing the issues with those who are either implementing or have already implemented an intranet. There are a number of Web sites that provide open platforms for discussing intranet issues—right from products to application development to management issues and so on.
I found two interesting Web sites for discussions on intranets. At these sites you can find various intranuts talking about intranets. If you check out www.intranetjournal.comlijx/, you can take a look at hundreds of aspects of intranets being discussed such as web casting on an intranet, intranet de sign, intranet-based training, export control on an international intranet, legal department on an intranet, page a person on an intranet, and intranet for knowledge management and employee communications.
You can participate in the dialog, talk about any issue you want to clarify, and the topic is picked up by hundreds of people involved in the on-line discussion.
Another interesting site for intranet discussion is www.intrack.com/intranet/cstudies.shtm. The site has a Discussion Board, and slide presentations of many successful intranet sites presented by user groups. Click on the Discussion Board button and you will find a list of all the subjects being discussed. When I visited this site, some of the discussion topics listed were intranet applications, employee newsletter on intranet, intranet conflicts on Unix machines, pushing documents on an intranet, and intranet cost and necessities. On the same discussion platform some on had asked: “Should intranet URLs end with .com?” If you have an answer to that question, go post your answer.
If you are still nuts about intranets you could also check out www.intranut.com/index.htm. And if you want to take a look at the Indian intranet case studies, these have also been published in IS Computerworld-check out my home page at www.linkindia.com/ osama/case study.htm.