An intranet is a private computer network used to share part of an organisation's information or operations with its employees or other trusted partners. An intranet can be understood as "a private version of the Internet" – a website or websites, maintained internally, that are only accessible to authorised users. Since they are administered internally and are created by contributions from any number of staff, they are fully customisable but some common uses include:

• A repository for Company Policies, Procedures, Forms and Logos
• A source of news about the organisation
• A shared contact list e.g. names and contact details of trustees
• A links database
• A site for company information on which to make decisions
• A site for storing and maintaining information

Key Benefits of a Portal:

An intranet has a number of key benefits to an organisation:

Productivity:

Intranets can help employees quickly find and view information and applications relevant to their roles.

Time:

With intranets, employees can delve into relevant information when it suits them rather than being deluged by emails or have to ask others for it.

Flexibility:

Intranets can serve as powerful tools for disseminating key information and applications to users that are geographically remote – outreach offices and peripatetic workers for example can ‘tap into’ information stored on central servers.

Intranets allow dispersed ‘corporate knowledge’ such as company handbooks etc. to be maintained and easily accessed throughout the company. Each department or worker can update the online copy of a document, thus ensuring that the most recent version is always available to the rest of the employees.

Internal Cohesion:

Intranets can play a vital role in creating a sense of teamwork and common purpose amongst a diverse workforce. Intranets often contain news, gossip and photos as well as bulletin boards and forums which staff can contribute to.