An intranet is a part of the Internet platform that facilitates internal communication, and it is inaccessible to external parties. Only employees of an organization can use the intranet to gain access to information and application software. It offers access to information and acts as a central point for gaining access to organizational data. This platform can accommodate any form of data that an organization wishes to host and publish to employees (Callaghan, 2002).
The organizational shall use the intranet for various purposes. Employees will rely on familiar Internet tools like Web browsers, newsreaders, and e-mail to gain access to the intranet.
Companies that use the intranet have noted significant returns on investment (RIO) by making information available to their employees. Different organizations use the intranet for diverse purposes.
In this case, the company will use the intranet to enhance information access, create, share, and use information across business units. Based on the nature of the organization, the intranet will be deployed to enhance accuracy, improve speed of communication, indicate information details, retrieve important data to support customer service, provide current information and save costs among others.
The organization shall ensure that only employees can use the intranet. Therefore, information shall be developed to meet unique needs of various departments. Information will be laid out to enhance internal communications, improve efficiency and save costs. On this note, the company shall consider important information that can facilitate employees’ outputs in job-related tasks. There are constant changes in mission-critical information. Hence, the organization will ensure that the intranet updates employees of such changes immediately. Useful information will be readily available for employees to facilitate business processes.
The intranet shall have information, which would not be expensive to provide to employees. It is imperative to recognize that the database must offer ease of accessibility and security to users. The organization shall provide some reference materials for its employees in general areas and specific contents about the industry. Overall, the organization will develop intranet contents based on a logical structure of departments, such as sales, marketing, human resources, accounting, research and development and customer care among others.
The organization will recognize inherent risks with the intranet platform. Users may gain access to confidential data in the organization. Therefore, the company will strive to protect its intranet platform by ensuring effective security measures are implemented. Consequently, the first security measure will involve the implementation of the Acceptable Usage Policy to guide users and ensure acceptable usages of the intranet.
The organization will also account for physical risks, which could be accidental or intentional sabotage to its intranet platform (Napier, Judd, Rivers & Adams, 2003). Therefore, physical isolation of the intranet platform shall deter outsiders from gaining access to it.
The company shall rely on modern technologies to reduce risks and prevent attacks by hackers. This would enhance privacy and security of data stored. It will deploy firewall systems to enhance the network security. Apart from firewall security measures, the company shall deploy routers to identify information packets by relying on defined criteria. In this case, the system shall accept or reject some of the data packets in the company’s intranet.
The organization will ensure that data are encrypted before transmission to others, especially data that will be sent through the Internet.
The organization would strive to ensure that all users run and update their Internet security systems and antivirus software as scheduled.
References
Callaghan, J. (2002). Inside Intranets & Extranets: Knowledge Management and the Struggle for Power. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Web.
Napier, H. A., Judd, P. J., Rivers, O. N., & Adams, A. (2003). E-Business technologies. Boston, MA: Course Technology. Web.