I-Net

I-Net is a term used to describe how companies today are using Internet technology for the Internet (public access), Intranets (in-house web sites) and Extranets (combination of in-house and limited public access to in-house web sites)

Easy publication of information is one of the main selling points for companies to use I-net technologies today. Information, which had limited exposure to in-house and public audiences, can now be economically shared and maintained. The management and control of the information can now be more de-centralized with I-net technologies. The tools available make publication by every business unit a real possibility for companies today. The days of sending information to a printer, then making copies, then manually distributing it through inter-office or the postal system or over-night delivery are quickly coming to an end. We are faced with information being published to large audiences almost from the moment of conception. Documents will be saved to I-Net servers rather than traditional file servers. Once saved to the I-Net server, it is available to all the audiences, which have access to the server. The various audiences can receive notification of the information updates and easily retrieve the information through their web browsers.

The goal of an I-Net Project is to incorporate I-Net technologies into the in-house network infrastructure. These I-Net technologies help the company to enhance user communication by giving more flexibility for publishing and sharing information between corporate users. This Internet technology also provides an advanced platform for more rapid application development for company business applications. The Intranet technology is available to all network users and is a part of the standard desktop technology that is provided to all network users.

Intranet electronic publishing increases the speed and breadth of information flow across geographic and organization boundaries to a degree unobtainable with paper. The Internet web technology, at the core of an Intranet, makes electronic publishing easy, inexpensive and accessible to the average employee. It improves information access by the rapid sharing of information that previously would not have been available electronically and by the mixing of information that otherwise would not be likely to mix.

For a company to take advantage of the cost savings and to effectively utilize the new I-net technology will require a re-examination of most if not all the current publication methodologies in place in the company. Oversight of the new publication methods will be necessary to assure compliance with corporate standards and policies. This oversight is best accomplished with a steering committee which will provide guidance, direction and control over the emerging proliferation of new views of legacy information and new applications of information distribution and collection that were not previously possible. In fact several organizational units will need to be established to most effectively take advantage of the new technology. Next Page