Vibrant MCSE BOOT Camp Notes :

Enhanced Effectiveness

Less tangibly-but at least as significantly-intranets can improve the overall effectiveness of the sponsoring organization. Intranets, virtually by definition, encourage the exchange of information across traditional boundaries-both organizational and geographic. Properly managed, such enhanced exchange becomes the springboard for substantive collaboration among previously fragmented sectors of the sponsoring organization. Creative use of an intranet can expedite an organization's evolution from a hierarchical, top-down model to a more nimble, interdisciplinary structure, by promoting coordinated interaction.

One international law firm, for example, uses its intranet to strengthen its environmental practice. The intranet permitted the firm's environmental specialists to exchange-in a secure environment-information about current cases and emerging regulatory and legal trends affecting them and to solicit their colleagues' counsel, quickly and privately. Bringing together practitioners in each of its offices enabled the firm to capitalize on its collective expertise, improving both their attorneys' knowledge and their marketing leverage.

In one specialty chemicals company, the R&D and marketing departments reside in different countries, creating barriers to customer-responsive product development. This company used its intranet to facilitate continuing interchange between the two disciplines, establishing a system that includes regular update meetings online, R&D participation in customer surveys, and routine exchange of departmental news. This system has enabled the company to factor customer requirements and preferences into the product development process at the earliest stages. As a result, customers effectively have input into product R&D-meaning that the company's products are better targeted and better received. At the same time, customers have better access to the company's R&D expertise by means of a sales force that is better informed about new technical developments.

An international public interest organization links together hundreds of chapters via an intranet that members use to keep abreast of regulatory and social trends. Many of these chapters are small, with highly localized agendas and rely primarily on volunteer staff. They lack the resources to monitor global issues, sponsor symposia, or attend conferences. Their intranet offers local chapters access to one another's experiences and strategies and helps them distribute information across the full range of the membership.

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