Intranet Definition

What is an Intranet?

A company intranet is a private, secure Website that enables employees to communicate, collaborate, share documents and other information, and access productivity tools. An intranet is often hosted and maintained on company servers and can only be accessed by internal employees. Recently, intranets have been used to enhance customer relationships as Web-accessible extranets or customer portals. Companies have the following options to create a company intranet.

Custom-built Intranet

The first option is to create a customized, in house intranet. Although this approach allows companies to build a highly specialized intranet, it involves huge costs and effort, which makes it unsuitable for growing companies.The following facts need be considered about a custom built intranet.

• Initial costs to purchase necessary hardware and intranet software for development range from $10,000 to $80,000. Plus, maintenance and upgrade costs that are recurring and very unpredictable.
• On average, intranet application development ranges from 6-9 months.
• Expert technical support staff is needed to deploy application code and data backup, software evaluations and upgrades, and bug and security checks.
• Compare the costs of a custom-built intranet to an ASP intranet.

ASP Intranet

The second approach is the ASP (application service provider) or software-as-a-service approach which HyperOffice offers. Rather than having to set up in house servers, hire expert staff, and undertake months long implementation, users can simply access all the tools they need to build their company intranet over the web. This is commonly known as an "asp intranet" or "hosted intranet" or "saas intranet".

HyperOffice's intranet software solution is low-cost, hassle-free, scalable, and secure and brings you the following benefits.

• No Hardware/Software. With an ASP intranet solution there's no software to install, no servers to maintain...ever!
• Pay-as-you-go Pricing. Access enterprise collaboration solutions for a low monthly fee. Simply add new members as your business grows.
• Quick Setup and Deployment. Our intranet solution requires no IT support. It works across any platform - PC or Mac. Plus, we offer free support, training, & upgrades for life!
• Remote Access. Extend your intranet via the Web to access your information anytime, anywhere. A company intranet, customer portal, and extranet in one!
• Completely Secure. We guarantee 99.9% reliability through our secure, offsite data center facilities equipped with redundant servers.

Learn more about the significant advantages of an ASP intranet vs. intranet software.