Many large companies have corporate intranets. Corporate intranets are a private network used internally by a company for its employees and sometimes partnering businesses. Many corporate intranets are based upon web technologies and can use blogging, wiki, and knowledge portal technologies. The benefits of a corporate intranet are that employees can securely access private company information, forms can be handled electronically instead of with paper, and information can be shared more easily and quickly. Corporate intranets can be relatively expensive and few small businesses I have worked with use them. However, there are inexpensive intranet technologies that small businesses can leverage to increase productivity and reduce costs.

Creating a knowledge portal for employees can be an excellent way of disseminating information among employees. A knowledge portal can be organized by job type and contain electronic versions of company documents, policies, and procedures. This provides employees with a place they can receive answers to questions for which they would normally need to search through paper documents, ask their manager, or speak to human resources. A knowledge portal can contain training materials for new employees. A great addition to a knowledge portal can be a user created content system such as commenting, discussion boards, blogging, or a wiki. User created content systems allow your employees to contribute ideas and solutions to problems they have solved to help others in the future.

In addition to creating and sharing information electronically you can also use a corporate intranet to digitize and automate procedures. You may have a form that salespeople need to fill out to get reimbursed for travel expenses, with a form on your intranet they could submit these directly to whoever handles reimbursements without having to mail or drop off a paper version in person. Using web based forms and databases can reduce the time it takes to process items and reduces the expenses associated with paper and printing.

Using a corporate intranet presents many opportunities and solutions to problems, but can also create their own problems. Employee efficiency and productivity can be increased because they can receive answers to questions by searching online instead of asking managers and take care of business processes digitally. However, there are issues of security and motivating employees to use and contribute to your corporate intranet. A corporate intranet can benefit small businesses, especially ones that have travelling employees or remote offices. A basic corporate intranet can be developed for a relatively low cost. Small businesses interested in a company intranet must evaluate various options and evaluate how they can reduce costs and what their return on investment will be.