If you're not sure what an intranet is, you are not alone. Lee reckons that executives at Asian companies are simply not as concerned as they should be with keeping pace with global rivals. He's not surprised by Crown's reason for installing an intranet. With economies across Asia sharply contracting, more and more companies are finding that an investment in a corporate intranet can provide a much-needed competitive boost. Indeed, if multinationals figure among your competition, you probably can't afford not to be paranoid about intranets.
Surveys show that the typical return on investment for intranets is in the four figures.
Returns of 1,300 percent or more are not uncommon. Surprisingly, an intranet is a pretty simple thing. It's a company-wide communications and information network based on the same technologies as the Internet. It allows employees to communicate with each other and to view, share and manipulate company information through the familiar interface of a Web browser. Best of all, intranets can be accessed from any computer platform - from Windows to Macintosh to Unix.