An organization may use the intranet in ways that are specific to it rather than conforming to the capabilities offered by a host. Many large organizations are comfortable with the hardware and labor requirements because they are able to meet them, and they view the benefits of customization and enhanced security as critical to the intranet s success. First, different types of intranets should be considered. This is beyond just hosted or in-house systems. Intranets can be classified into three different categories according to their use.
Publishing is the act of posting information on the intranet site for employee use.
Generally, this use is not effective or worthwhile for smaller organizations, as communication of organization news and procedures to a large internal audience is not a pressing problem. This includes functions such as document sharing and e-mailing to facilitate the support of team projects. This intranet use is also key in providing support to normal office-style working processes such as small meetings. Although collaboration is not generally a function one thinks of when speaking of intranets, it is increasingly being offered as an intranet tool that many organizations, particularly smaller organizations, are making use of. In the past, collaborative activities were limited to asynchronous functions, such as e-mail or any other activity that incurs a lag time.