Improving Employee Communications

The Internet has put a world of information at people's fingertips. Imagine if all the important information you wanted your staff and employees to have was as easily accessible. Think of the information that could be available with just a few clicks:

•  Human resources policies and procedures
•  Product specifications and descriptions 
•  Management information 
•  Sales resources 
•  Customer issues 
•  Training 
•  Collaboration 

Welcome to the Intranet. Not just for very large businesses, an Intranet can help a small company streamline internal communications and information distribution, and create a more informed, productive workforce.

Businesses that are networked have discovered a better approach: networked scheduling. Sharing calendars of company employees on a network makes booking and confirming meetings a one-step process that virtually eliminates wasted time.    

Unlike printed company newsletters, photocopied memos, and water cooler conversations, information distributed via the Intranet is inexpensive, easy to access, self-service, and "real time." Consider this very small example: how often does your company phone directory change as you add or replace employees? Instead of sending out a new phone list every month or tolerating an outdated one, you can keep a company directory centralized on your Intranet. When it is time to update, you make the change and instantly, the correct data is live for anyone in the company to access. Of course, more strategic data, like sales figures, customer wins, product developments, competitive analysis, and other information are equally accessible.

Because an Intranet is on a network, information is managed centrally, making updates faster and easier. It also means that employees that work outside your central office can stay just as informed and in-touch as the people at the next desk. But because an Intranet is protected by a firewall, only your employees have access to your private company data.

Building and managing an Intranet does not require a lot of work or technical knowledge. The Microsoft® Small Business Server includes all of the software necessary to help you set up your own company Intranet and allow for dial-in access for remote workers, exchange of e-mail, and storage of documents and business critical information. Microsoft Office enables you to easily save documents in HTML for easy conversion to a browsing environment. And, Microsoft FrontPage® Web site creation and management tool, included with BackOffice Small Business Server, makes managing an Intranet easy.
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