There are some evident reasons for all the intranet activity. Intranets are fast and scalable. The buy-in for an intranet is usually low, especially for companies that already have the necessary infrastructure in place. Most companies already have the physical environment to support an intranet and plenty of bandwidth to go around. Web browsers and servers are suited for in-house applications such as phone directories that are costly to maintain and update in paper form.
Intranets can provide a variety of functions.
The simplest ones act as little more than corporate bulletin boards. Others can be foundations for moving information, such as e-mail. Intranets may also support daily business functions, such as delivery status and order processing. As companies begin to feel comfortable with those models, they move to the transactional and process-centric intranet usage. It strips away an organization's concerns over standards, proprietary tools and network protocols.