If they are safe and reliable, internal communications contribute to the success of the company

By Kim Komando

One of the things I like about small companies is their ability to act quickly. To make a decision they need not go through the many administrative tasks imposed by a large company. In fact, most decisions are made when stakeholders gather around the conference table.

But there may come a time when the business grows so large that it no longer suffices. Need a continuous communication system, reliable and secure with other people in the business to ensure the desired growth. You need an intranet.

Most large corporations use intranets. When the number of employees amounted to 10,000 or more to redistribute the information becomes a major task. Intranets can provide it.

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With Windows SharePoint Services, the solution of intranet / extranet for Microsoft, you can create an online bulletin board for your company, as well as share documents.

I give you three reasons why small business should also invest in an intranet. These are:

1. The communication system suffers if more than one person involved
Even small businesses are experiencing problems with their communication system. In the case of companies operating with teleworkers, geographically dispersed workers, employees who travel continually, or companies directly "virtual" communication problems are multiplied and become more difficult to resolve.

For a company to work well, all employees should understand what are the objectives. The cadre can not be the only one who knows the short-and long-term. All company personnel must cooperate towards achieving common goals.

An intranet is the perfect place to post weekly reports, memos and goals. That way, everyone has the same information.

Toby Ward, president of consulting firm Prescient Digital Media intranets, believes that even a company with few employees may find advantages in an intranet. Though not working from remote locations, commercial sales and advisers are not always in the office.

Have an intranet can enhance communication system through the use of bulletin boards, instant messaging and chat rooms moderated by a user with appropriate privileges. How?

Imagine the example of a typical business scene. The sales staff, composed of five persons, has to make a presentation to the president of the company in relation to expected sales growth for the next fiscal year.

These five employees presented themselves at the conference room, eat something, take coffee and talk for hours. The first meeting will be a brainstorming session that will last three hours. The second begins with a review of leading ideas of the first. Participants will discuss why these ideas may or may not work. Only in the third or fourth meeting are there details of final proposals.

A panel discussion before the meetings will help streamline the task. The ideas can be debated beforehand and participants attend the meeting with more starting material.

2. Time is money

Yes, it's a cliché but it’s too true to ignore it.

The use of intranets to publish important information and make it available to all employees is important. It is useful to publish information of human resources. One of my fellow employees said that his old office once spent 45 minutes trying to find out if the next holiday was paid. The personnel manager was gone and nobody knew the answer.

Publish calendars, company policies and benefits can be guaranteed a great start. It will save time. But other than to publish basic information, the intranet can be used for much more. The beauty of the intranet is its interactivity.

Interactive forms can save time. Leave requests, supply orders, changes in social benefits, and more may be administered quickly and efficiently.

Make sure your intranet design is appropriate. You can not just post things and hope that others will know to find them. Organize your intranet so that it is as simple to understand as possible. It is save time, not to frustrate others.

3. It's better than e-mail
You may be wondering why it is not enough personnel manager send the appropriate form, or if it is not really enough to make regular meetings with employees and publish certain items on the bulletin board have in the office.

Ward explains that emailing different versions of a document or presentation it often creates confusion and sometimes information overload employees.

Take for example the same sales staff mentioned above. In the end they agreed on three main ways to increase sales. Suppose we are now in preparation of a PowerPoint presentation.

Having five people working at the same time in one PowerPoint file can be disastrous. I can hear the cries: "Who has the final version?” "Andrew, you gave me the wrong figures. I thought that was fixed", etc...

With an intranet, employees can work in a shared file and provide a central location in which to consult the latest version.

And they also save space on the server. It may seem minor, but if each user has on your computer versions of several files may occupy much space that might be better used otherwise.

Getting Started
Before setting up an intranet, make sure you know what you do with it. Find out how employees will use it. Finally, apply a good design. If you have to click four or five times to find a vacation request form, means that the design is too complex.

We must also see if maybe it is better to create a custom solution. In this case, an adviser may create an intranet according to your specifications. Thus, the intranet will look and the applications that you may deem appropriate, as the design principles that you specify. This option may cost you 10 to U.S. $ 500 per person per month.

There are also software packages such as Windows SharePoint Services, which let you customize and design without assistance most of the intranet, using the template of another person. The cost of SharePoint is 39.95 per month or U.S. $ 399 per year, regardless of the number of users.

Some packages, such as Instant Intranet Builder, use Microsoft Access as the primary database. They incorporate linking mechanisms to easily create ready to use intranets. No need to hire an IT specialist to configure and perform maintenance tasks. Depending on the size of the company, the entire package can be purchased for a minimum of $ 5 per person per month.

There are other software products available, such as InfoStreet, IntraSmart and Intranet Suite. Prices vary depending on the number of users.

What is the downside?
For the intranet can be used by employees, need someone to develop and update its content. The idea is to provide continuously updated information. The way to delegate these tasks depends on the size of the company. If you only have ten employees, one person will be enough to keep up to date information.

If the company is larger, probably be interested distribute content updates by department. Whatever the size, we will have to account for time-keeping tasks within the program of the employee concerned. And remember we are talking of computer equipment, i.e., things do not always go smoothly.

Another factor to consider is the timeframe during which employees learn to use the intranet. You may even have to be devoted to persuade some employees to use the intranet. Once the system is in place and everyone understands it, its profitability will be really significant.