This article throws light upon the top two types of Intranet. The types are: 1. The Internal Web 2. The External Web (Extranet).
Type # 1. The Internal Web:
The Web consists of the external web, the extranet known as the Internet and the internal web, known as the Intranet. When you look at the sheer volume of information stored by corporations today—including reams of printed information like computer documentation, procedures, specifications, and reference documents—you quickly see the argument for taking information on-line.
Users can no longer wade through a shelf full of documentation and companies can no longer justify the cost of printing all this information without any guarantee that users are actually reading it. Much of the information provided is not used because it is too hard to access, and when it is accessed it is often out of date.
Intranets are already being used by many companies to deliver private corporate information to internal users. An intranet is any internal network (LAN or WAN) that supports Internet applications— primarily web applications (hypertext transfer protocol), but also other applications such as FTP (file transfer protocol).
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Typically, your network must have TCP/IP connectivity before an Intranet will be possible. If your network has TCP/IP, you can easily install web servers and browsers that work the same way they do on the World Wide Web on the Internet.
There are a number of corporate information resources and transactions that are potential candidates for an intranet. This issue will become clearer if we look at the very high volume of documents that are generated by a company. Every major company has reams of business information that it must distribute to internal employees or external customers and suppliers.
Documents:
Examples of the types of documents that companies traditionally distribute are:
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1. Policy and procedure manuals
2. Quality manuals
3. ISO 9000 work instructions
4. Test Certificates for products
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5. Employee benefits programs
6. Orientation materials
7. Software user guides
8. Hardware manuals
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9. Quick reference guides
10. On-line help
11. Style guides and other standards
12. Training manuals and tutorials
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13. Seminars
14. Company newsletters and announcements
15. Scheduling information
16. Maps and schematic drawings
17. Computer reports
18. Customer data
19. Sales and marketing literature
20. Specifications
21. Price lists
22. Product catalogues
23. Press releases
Some of the documents output by the company may fall into more than one category. The new technology gives us a way to put all of these documents on-line for instantaneous access by authorised users.
Electronic Resources:
Companies also have a number of electronic resources stored on computer files that are traditionally distributed on floppy disks or by copying across network nodes.
These may include:
1. Test data
2. Customer data
3. Spreadsheet templates
4. Documentation templates
5. Software applications and utilities and
6. Programmer toolkit components
In the past, many of these resources may have been hidden away in rarely accessed cavities of the network. The new technology gives us a way to catalogue these resources on-line for user review and automatically copy them—through a single mouse-click—across a network to any authorised user who requests them.
Interactive Communication:
Finally, there are various kinds of two-way communication within a corporation that can be facilitated by the new technologies.
These include:
1. Surveys and feedback
2. Program notification and enrolment
3. Progress inquiries and reporting
4. Memo distribution, comment, and reply
5. Spontaneous data entry and data collection
6. Interactive database queries and
7. Product promotion and ordering
The new technology gives us ways to communicate with employees, customers, or suppliers, present information that requires feedback; capture the feedback and process the feedback data automatically through databases or scripting mechanisms. It also supports spontaneous user searches of information archives or databases.
Type # 2. The External Web (Extranet):
Just as there are many internal uses for web technology within large organisations, there is an urgent need for organisations to find better ways to communicate with external customers and suppliers. External web communication can take some of the burdens out of sales, marketing, customer service, and supplier relations by allowing these people to silently poll your website and obtain the information they need.
In many cases, the person accessing the information might not have taken the time to make a phone call, and may find it easier to “click over” to your site. In other cases, the web access provides a way to “automate” customer contact, thus boosting the productivity of the sales and support of the organisation.
When planning an external website, you have to consider the wide range of information that may need to be accessed not only by current customers, but by potential future customers, future employees, and future suppliers, as well.
The type of information that companies are putting on the World Wide Web to satisfy these needs, are explained here. Notice that there is a significant difference between the types of information listed here and the information included on the Intranet.
Sales and Marketing Data:
Currently, marketing is the leading role for commercial websites on the Internet. It makes sense that the first thing you want visitors to see are the services or products your company provides.
A list of the types of information that may be provided is given below:
1. Product brochures, including features and benefits.
2. On-line electronic catalogues displayed using full-colour graphics.
3. Product specifications.
4. Current product promotions and discounts.
5. Real-time product pricing.
6. Frequently asked questions about your products.
7. Ordering information, including on-line real-time ordering and billing.
8. Product manuals (of interest to those who want complete details on features).
9. Interactive registration for products or services.
10. Complete list of dealers or sales contacts.
11. Product distribution via download (e.g. software, information services, published works).
12. Product multimedia demos with video (requires high-speed connection, at least 128 kbps).
Rather than grouping according to the categories listed above, it might make more sense to have a general catalogue of products on a single page, then provide a parallel set of information for each product.
That way, a customer who is interested only in a particular product could click on that and get a sales brochure, a complete set of specifications, Frequently Asked Questions, manual, and so forth— without having to wade through all the other product information at your web site. Another approach is to provide extensive cross-links to other parts of the site via navigation buttons on each page.
Customer Support:
Significant attention should be paid to the role of customer support in a website. This may require an analysis of your customer support operations: although chances are you can ask any Customer Support Representative or Manager and they can tell you in a second what support questions are most frequently asked. Whatever it is, those frequently asked questions should be a prominent part of your website.
Customer support options could require the following information:
1. Customer support contact numbers, for those who prefer to call.
2. Product release notes and upgrades notices.
3. On-line warranty registration forms.
4. On-line literature request forms.
5. Details of warranties and support agreements.
6. Product troubleshooting and maintenance procedures.
7. Frequently asked questions.
8. Product manuals.
9. Interactive problem-report and product evaluation forms.
10. Customer complaint forms.
11. Accessory catalogues and on-line ordering forms.
12. Product test certificates.
The question may arise whether access should be limited to registered customers. If this is desired, you could make warranty registration the front-end, using a form similar to the self-mailer cards now provided with most commercial products.
Web technology supports customer log-ins and password access security mechanisms. Password access should be promoted as a privilege of product ownership rather than an inconvenience.
Supplier/Dealer/Sales Support:
A website can be an excellent place to provide information that will help suppliers, dealers, or a far- flung sales organisation stay in touch with company operations. For businesses that serve as distributors or resellers of other companies’ products, a website can provide an excellent way to link customers directly to supplier information.
Assuming your suppliers have their own website (or that you have arranged a co-operative website through a partnering process), you can easily provide links from your own pages directly to supplier pages without having to duplicate the effort of supplying the information yourself.
This sort of “pass-through” will increasingly become a feature of commercial web usage. The following list shows the types of supplier information you may want to include in a website.
Notice that much of the information included here is the same as the customer information, but with a different emphasis:
1. Supplier/dealer support contact information (phone numbers, addresses, etc.).
2. Details on Value Added Resellers/dealer programs, special promotions, discounts, etc.
3. Pass-through links to supplier web pages, industry web pages, conferences or other sites.
4. Product release notes and upgrades notices.
5. Market surveys and focus group studies.
6. Competitive cross-referencing.
7. Wholesale pricing.
8. Downloadable and printable product literature, including white papers, case studies, testimonials, specifications, customer registration forms, etc.
9. Downloadable canned presentations (e.g. PowerPoint files with downloadable PowerPoint viewer).
10. Downloadable on-demand electronic files or other materials requested on a case-by-case basis (password protected and encrypted, if necessary).
11. Product troubleshooting and maintenance procedures.
12. Interactive problem-report forms or request for service.
13. Complaint form.
Naturally, supplier/dealer/sales support may require more in the way of password protection and encryption, depending on the competitive factors in your industry. A separate web server may not be needed, however.
You can provide at the same site a different URL address not linked to customer pages that suppliers and dealers can access directly. Unless they know the exact URL, most customers would not be able to access the supplier/dealer information.
Employee Recruiting:
Many companies have made employee recruiting a prominent part of their websites. As private citizens increasingly have access to the Internet, this may be an ideal way to gain new recruits, as well as a way to save money on classified advertising and other recruiting expenses.
The information content in this part of the website should closely reflect the kind of job descriptions and contact information normally seen in the classified ads of the newspaper.
Evaluating External Web Usage:
For anyone who has an external website, it is important to determine who is using it and how it is being used. The main way to monitor web usage is through regular analysis of the server log. There you can see, with utter clarity, the payoff on investments in web technology.
Slowly at first but then with increasing frequency—you can see the “hits” add up and determine easily how successful your web site is and which parts of it are most popular with visitors. For every person who accesses your home page, there is a time-stamped entry that indicates their domain name (or IP address) and the page that they looked at.
Web Technology can also be used to unify the organisation. Large organisations with far-flung operations may find that internal uses of web technology result in a proliferation of servers and access points. Digital Equipment Corporation, for example, has hundreds of web servers installed throughout the organisation.
This is probably the most desirable model, since it is not likely that a central department could (or should) control all the information that goes into a web. At the same time, if everyone goes off and “does their own thing,” it may result in a web that is a hodgepodge of information with great variation in style, quantity, and quality.
If engineered correctly, an internal web can provide an excellent way to unify the far-flung operations of a company and increase the ease, frequency, and quality of inter-departmental communication.
But this will not happen on its own, without careful planning and attention by some group that takes responsibility for developing an overall web strategy and making sure the web strategy mirrors and enhances the corporate strategy.
This central group may enhance strategic goals by doing the following:
1. Promote the use of web technology within the organisation.
2. Train employees in how to use the technology.
3. Develop templates and style guides that will help create a more consistent interface and level of quality.
4. Evaluate and critique the contribution of different departments to the overall web system.
5. Advise departments on innovative ways to apply web technology to specific applications.
6. Provide the technical expertise where needed to develop interactive forms, CGI scripts, and database interfaces.
7. Keep track of new additions to the Intranet, possibly by certifying websites and providing a check- in/check-out mechanism that provides a way to monitor changes in web structure and content.
8. Provide higher level menus that tie together the various corners of the web and provide organisation- wide users with a way to see and access the entire content of the web.
9. Assist in managing the overall web.
The Internet, quite naturally, provides the ideal model for how an Intranet should operate. On the Internet, the creators of each web site are responsible for creating and updating their own content.
Likewise, within an organisation, it makes more sense for each department or product group to be responsible for maintaining its own information. Because of the way web servers work, each different location may need its own server to make local documents accessible to the rest of the network.
Since each department has its own configurable server, it is also possible where necessary to hide or protect sensitive information that should not be published organisation-wide. This is done through the use of access control files placed in the folders or directories where the content files are stored.
Understanding Web Technology:
The breakthrough application was a freeware product called Mosaic, now being licensed to major vendors for repackaging in various forms. Netscape Navigator, now the most popular browser, was created by the same people who invented Mosaic.
If one goes to the Help/About menu in Microsoft Internet Explorer, one can see that it is also a direct descendant of NCSA Mosaic. The fact that web is a client-server application is a crucial aspect of its nature. Client-server simply means that the work is done by two interdependent pieces of software: a client to request information and a server to provide it.
The breakthrough nature of this technology is due to several factors:
1. Global access:
You can request documents from servers located anywhere on a global TCP/IP network like the Internet, or a private one like a LAN or WAN.
2. Ease of use:
Files are served at a click of a button through a simple hypertext link. A web is a series of interlinked hypertext documents (or data sources).
3. Flexibility:
Web clients can access many different server types (Web, Usenet, gopher, ftp, etc.) and can recognize any file type (via file extension). WWW servers provide flexible interface to other applications, including on-line databases.
4. Open systems:
Any software that follows the published protocols can be used as a browser or server.
5. Cross-platform:
Web browsers situated on UNIX, Mac, or PC platforms can all access and read the same data identically, without separate versions needed to be created for each platform.
6. The main mechanism for formatting and displaying documents in a web browser is a mark-up language called HTML, which stands for Hypertext Mark-up Language.
HTML is derived from the Standard Generalized Mark-up Language (SGML), which has been used for years as a medium for open document interchange by industry and government. The following is a detailed discussion that will help you understand HTML and the issues related to it.
7. Understanding HTML
8. HTML provides a relatively simple way to mark the formatting components of the document so that it can be displayed properly by a viewing tool like Mosaic or Netscape. For example, a document might begin like this
< title > Product Overview</title>
<h 1> Understanding the Product</h 1;>
9. First envisioned in 1992, the viewing tool can look at HTML coding in web documents (using the “View Source” option in most browsers).
The beauty of HTML is that it also supports imbedded hypertext links that automatically give button-click access to any other document or multimedia source available on a network. Through various internal mechanisms, a web browser can access and display any type of object found on computers, including
a. Electronic text marked with HTML code, which includes most of the standard document formatting conventions (headings, bullet lists, auto-numbered steps, bold/italic, etc.),
b. Full-colour graphics (including imbedded hypertext links),
c. Video files,
d. Sound files,
e. PostScript, PDF, or other externally viewable files,
f. Interactive forms marked using HTML codes.
Originally, only the formatted HTML text, ASCII text, and compatible graphics files (GIF, JPEG) were displayed within the browser window. Other types of files automatically triggered the appropriate viewing software that can read and playback richer information formats like video, sound, and PostScript.
However, special software “plug-ins” are increasingly available which make it possible for Netscape to display other data types directly inside the browser window.
Though much of the required software was originally public domain and therefore inexpensive, commercial software companies are already developing even more sophisticated viewers and access tools for this market that are available for a price.
URLs and External Files: The power of HTML lies in the ability to specify a Universal Resource Locator (URL) as a link to documents in a web. When you click on a hyperlink, there is always an underlying URL that transports you to “another place” on the web. Actually, what is happening when you click a URL is that your web browser (also known as a “client”) is accessing a server somewhere.
The server is typically a WWW server, but it can also be a gopher server, ftp server, telnet server, WAIS server, or others. The web client has all the mechanisms inside of it to access the specified server and retrieve files from it.
The server and the files being served may exist on any computer linked to yours via internal or external networks. The linked computer could be located anywhere in the world and the link could be any type: Internet, leased line, sub-network, or satellite link.
The only requirement is that the network must use TCP/IP as the underlying protocol for all communications. The incoming documents are identified by their file extensions.
In any web browser setup there is a file (e.g. the INI file in Windows or the .mailcap/.mime.type files in UNIX) that cross-references file extensions to document types. Most web browsers can now display internally (i.e. within their window), any plain text or HTML file, plus any inline image using GIF or JPEG formats.
If the incoming file is not a text or HTML file, or if it contains images other than GIF or JPEG, the file or its images will be handled as an external file. You can still view these files, but they must be viewed using additional (usually free) software called a helper application (if the display is outside the browser window), or plug-in (if the display is inside the browser window).
For example, there are many common helper applications and plug-ins for Quick-time movies, MPEG video files, Acrobat documents, and sound files such as RealAudio. Microsoft offers a free external viewer for MS Word files that could be used with Netscape to view Word files over a web. Any viewer program that is freely available can be used for external viewing of files accessed via web browsers.
All you have to do is define the file extension and the application in the appropriate configuration files (INI or .mime.type/.mailcap). When developing a website with non-HTML documents and images, you need to take helper applications into consideration.
Every user who is supposed to read a non-HTML document must have the appropriate helper application installed locally on their machine. For instance, if you plan to make PDF documents available via a website, your users should have installed a local copy of Adobe Acrobat.
Having pointed out the power of HTML, one must look at some of its limitations. Some critics of HTML make the point that HTML documents have limited formatting capabilities and that it is difficult to code and implement, especially in large-scale documents.
This argument is becoming weaker as organisations like Netscape Communication forge ahead with new-generation browsers that support advanced HTML standards.
Prerequisites for Adopting the New Technology:
Ideally, any company wanting to use the new technology should have a number of components already in place. Though these requirements are not essential and can be added in tandem with the new technology, companies that already have most of these elements will have a significant head start, since they can avoid the turmoil of setting up extensive networks and training users to use point-and-click environments.
An existing network, either a Local Area Network (LAN) or Wide Area Network (WAN) supporting TCP/IP and client-server technology.
1. Easy users access to on-line GUI desktop interfaces such as Macintosh, UNIX/Motif, PC/Windows, and others. Not all users need a computer at their fingertips, but easy access to a shared “reader” terminal is a minimum requirement. For instance, a terminal could be dedicated to this purpose in the staging area of a warehouse.
2. Appropriate software to handle TCP/IP communication, display HTML files, and play back multimedia file types like sound and video (if needed). Most of this software is available in the public domain, but more commercial versions are available for a price.
Most of this software is easily installed by a system administrator, or can be configured for automatic download and installation. Netscape or a similarly advanced web browser should be a minimal software requirement.
3. Dial-in access over high-speed modems (minimum 14.4 kbps) for use by authorised users who are not directly connected to the network. Internal users will access web servers directly through their high-speed LAN connections.
4. Built-in security mechanisms such as passwords or permissions that keep unauthorized users out of sensitive areas.
5. While these extensive requirements would have posed a problem only a few years ago, most major companies now have most of these elements already in place. Keep in mind that these requirements are for Intranets only. Making a system available for WWW access involves additional requirements.
6. A Phased Approach to Implementation.
7. Since conversion to the new technology cannot happen overnight, imagine a phased scenario in which various components of the system can be brought on-line a bit at a time.
Most users actually express a preference for a system that is constantly being changed and updated, since it gives the user an idea that they might actually find newer, more up-to-date information each time they view the system—rather than “dead” static documents that never change.
Implementing an Intranet:
While implementing an Intranet in an organisation, a phased approach is obviously necessary. To bring a system on-line in phases, the following steps are recommended.
However, readers must remember that the checklist given below may not be totally exhaustive and before implementing an Intranet, the situation in the organisation should be considered first of all:
1. The initial design should be plotted out completely and either flowcharted or storyboarded for easier visualization of the hypertext flow. Collaborative design can be done through on-line flowcharts or wall displays.
2. A “demonstration project” can be implemented which brings on-line small pieces of the eventual system to demonstrate the potential of the technology to managers and concerned user groups.
3. Special care should be taken to design a front end (home page and opening menus) that is both intuitive and quick to access.
4. Sophisticated colour graphics with gimmicks (for example, a sound bite from the company’s Chairman or Managing Director) can be used to give the front-end a professional and impressive effect.
5. Graphic icons and visual/colour motifs can be developed to give a consistent look and feel to the interface or to indicate transition to different domains.
6. Embedded graphics should be tested on both high- and low-resolution monitors. Text is automatically revised to user preferences, but graphics are not.
7. Home pages can be designed that are tailored to specific departments or work groups. Access to the correct home page is accomplished through customization of resource files or menus.
8. Planning should occur as to exactly which elements should go on-line first, second, third, etc. Obviously, company management will have its own priorities and these should be taken into account.
9. Crucial data such as computer reports can be brought on-line immediately by simply dumping it to a formatted ASCII file and making a hypertext link directly to the file. While this will not produce a sophisticated visual appearance, it will provide immediate access.
10. Published information such as MS Word or Frame Maker documents can be brought on-line quickly by linking them through MIME types to their original authoring tools, or to convenient and inexpensive external viewers like Adobe Acrobat. Ideally, however, all content should be converted to HTML format for easier browsing over the network.
11. Sales brochures could be scanned in and presented as solid blocks of graphics. This is not a good idea if some users are using dial-in access over modems, if disk space is at a premium, or if these cause intolerable slowdowns in network traffic. But this is a good way to make highly visual content available quickly.
12. For quicker access, all links can be made directly to the current location of the source document by pointing to a specific network node and pathname.
It is not necessary to retrieve all the on-line files and store them in a central location, though this may eventually be desirable for control purposes. If files are not centralised, some plan should be developed for making sure linked information does not move without notification. Each department may be asked to maintain a centralised set of brow-sable files.
13. The same person or group that planned and designed the system should also continue to develop it until a consistent style has been established or a critical mass has been reached. Templates and scripts can be developed to make it easier to add components to the system. A style guide or detailed instructions can be written to ensure that consistent methods are used even after the initial developers depart.
14. Once the system is installed and working, procedures should be put into place for keeping the system updated and dealing with user problems or bugs in the system design.
Typically, a “webmaster” is appointed to perform these duties. A support group may also be needed if on-going content authoring is required. However, web-publishing tools are becoming so easy to use that many departments can now author and update their own materials.
15. In some cases where there are large groups of authors that you don’t want to retrain, you may want to consider having automatic conversion tools that take the daily output of the group and convert them automatically to the web environment.
For instance, a tool like HTML Transit will automatically take a set of source files in Microsoft Word, convert them to HTML, extract all the graphics and store them as GIFs, build a hyperlinked table of contents and index, add navigation buttons at the top and bottom of each page, and move the finished HTML/GIF output files to a production site underneath the web server.
Sophisticated site management tools like Adobe Site mill and Netscape Livewire also provide easy ways to manage the content at a site, check and repair broken links, and perform other content management chores.