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If the mystery voice on Twenty Questions announced 鈥渋ntranet鈥� as the subject, the answer would not be vegetable or mineral but animal, according to systems consultant Richard Rolfe of accountant PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

An intranet has a life of its own and if it is not fed and watered, it will die, says Rolfe. Intranets are not just computers or cables. They are nervous systems, connecting the parts of the corporate body so they can work together with maximum efficiency. If they are neglected, they will atrophy and die; if they are exercised and trained, on the other hand, they can give a company a critical edge over the competition.

As with most new ideas, there is some dispute over what an intranet is. The emerging definition appears to be that it is a private, company-wide network where browsers are used to access information held in the network. Despite the confusion, contractors and consultants are embracing the networks, finding them useful for storing information traditionally held in company manuals. So, instead of circulating lots of manuals, employers put one on the network server that employees can read on their screens. This saves money and space. The manuals can be updated regularly without having to distribute revised versions. And, unlike unsecured web sites, the information cannot be accessed by competitors.

Managers have trouble understanding what an intranet is because it is not a neatly defined hard-wired system that can be bought at PC World. Instead, it tends to be a ragbag of existing networks, new communications links and added computer servers, all brought together by a browser. Users, however, have no trouble with the concept. For them, it means access to everything they need at work using a browser that is a simplified version of the one they use to surf the web at home. All they have to do is manipulate controls no more complex than those of a cassette recorder, says Rolfe, who has developed nearly 20 intranets in the past few years.

Three easy steps

The principle is to have a browser with three controls: forward, rewind and play. The aim of an intranet is to make all corporate information instantly available to everyone who needs it. Documents, procedures, specifications and standards should all be accessible with one interface. One copy of each form can be kept centrally and downloaded. Updating the information is a simple matter of loading the new version on to the server.

New staff who used to be told to go into a room and get stuck into the manuals for a week can now get all the information on screen when they need it. The technology is not difficult or expensive to install. Rolfe explains: 鈥淲e can walk in to a company that has Ethernet [a standard network that links company PCs] and they have most of the hardware already.鈥� Each networked workstation has its own Internet protocol address, which means that an intranet is effectively already installed. So, if intranets are so easy to install and so useful, why hasn鈥檛 every construction firm got one?

People are 99% of the problem, according to Rolfe. Managers tend to be sceptical about information technology in general, but the most intractable barrier to adopting intranets is the fear of the fundamental change it will wreak in the way the company works. 鈥淚ntranets run across boundaries of empires and kingdoms,鈥� Rolfe says. 鈥淵ou can spend half-an-hour in a meeting with managers discussing hierarchies and structures.鈥�

Managers may also be wary of the long-term costs of setting up an intranet. 鈥淚f you need to spend a million to set it up, you will need to spend another million every year from now to maintain it,鈥� Rolfe says.

Once installed, prepare for some interesting and novel uses to emerge as employees begin to work out what is in it for them. 鈥淥n one project, we are installing a web camera on the side of the building, looking down the bypass, so people can see if the traffic is flowing freely when they want to go home,鈥� Rolfe says. This ability to take small tasks and make them easier is especially important in a sector such as construction, where huge amounts of information must be transmitted between sites around the world, some of them temporary site offices.

How Hyder鈥檚 intranet keeps it on track

Engineer Hyder brought in consultant Systems and Networks to install an intranet based on Lotus Notes. This is designed to allow information to flow efficiently between offices around the world 鈥� with none of the hiccups associated with the Internet.

The system, called Omnis, tracks the whole life-cycle of information, from planning through the approvals process to finalisation and archiving.

The system enables management to keep a much closer eye on progress, using a feature that issues automatic e-mail reminders of outstanding approvals and sign-offs and warnings of items coming up. The system is currently in use on Hong Kong鈥檚 Westrail metro, a complex scheme involving more than 7500 detailed design drawings generated in offices in Hong Kong, the UK, Thailand and Australia. All the project drawings are in the system and the technical discussions between offices are recorded in the database 鈥� ideal for project post-mortems.

Intranets can also make contract and form management easier. Keeping a stock of all the forms necessary for a business is a major cost, and filling them in is a bore. 鈥淲e can put all a company鈥檚 forms on a central server so all employees always have access to the latest version,鈥� says Jane Roberts of documentation consultancy Toplevel. On screen, these intelligent forms look like a paper form, with the same spaces for entering details, but they allow the user to cut and paste data from other documents and there is a 鈥渉elp鈥� function for anyone unsure about what to type.

The forms can also simplify point-of-sale procedures. 鈥淲e are working with a housebuilder to put show homes on its intranet, so buyers can fill in intelligent forms on a PC and send them straight to head office,鈥� says Roberts.