Knowledge management has become today’s corporate buzzword. It involves the acquiring, storing, retrieval, and sharing of information with employees, experts, vendors, suppliers, customers and others. Those who manage knowledge most effectively optimize their potential intellectual capital in ways that add value. In today’s competitive global environment, those companies who achieve faster, more efficient, and better methods of sharing information and communicating will retain competitive advantage. However, the Internet and World Wide Web are the means of external communication. When it comes to internal concerns, the use of an Intranet is required “An Intranet, a scaled-down version of the external Internet, utilizes Internet Protocol and common Internet applications but restricts information and resources to those who are allowed access” (Nansen 38). This analysis will provide examples of how the Intranet offers organizations, from government to the private sector, a faster and better means of communication, A faster and better means of communication and information access and sharing often leads to increased value for the organization and promotes competitive advantage as well as resource savings.
The use of the Intranet continues to grow in popularity from organizations as diverse as home-owned enterprises with employees spread across different regions to federal, state, and local government organizations. The spread of the Intranet has occurred because of reduced technology costs, greater capability and speed of hardware and software, and because of the benefits many organizations reap from their use, primarily faster and more efficient or better communication. The diversity and complexity of many modern organizations requires the use of Intranet technology in order to create the ability for rapid, convenient, and effective communication among all employees across all departments of the organization. As one...