Unfortunately, it didn't happen that way. But things are changing. With an intranet, the most recent information can be at your fingertips the minute you launch a Web browser. Randall C. Kennedy is an Internet developer and a frequent contributor to PC Computing. Early groupware products such as Lotus's Notes were too expensive and complex for most companies.
Intranets are different.
There are many freeware and shareware Internet tools you can use to build one, even if you don't plan on providing Internet access to your employees. Also, intranets run on standard protocols supported by just about any computer, including PCs, Macintoshes, and Unixworkstations. And you can keep employees interested in your intranet by using hot new Internet technologies such as Macromedia's Shockwave and Sun Microsystems' Java. Even better, what you learn from developing your intranet can later be applied to those external Web sites your customers are beginning to expect. Intranets use the same technology as the Internet, so you also gain easy access to external information.