This next-generation intranet creates a collaborative medium that provides users quick, comprehensive access to everything their jobs require while capturing and managing each person?s work so that others in turn can find and use it. The new Intranet is less a resource itself that the delivery vehicle for all the resources any employee might need. New applications must be brought to desktops and old ones moved from client/server to browser/server architectures. Companies such as Visio and Softchoice have already invested in Intranets, which have contributed to improve business efficiency by for instance cutting costs.

Building an Intranet is no guarantee that employees will use it. Without coaching or incentives to change their behavior, employees won?t bother. Visio was very fortunate because when the company offered employees to signed up for optional training, all employees were confident enough that they were able to figure the program out on their own.

I agree with the author because Intranets are becoming a defining powerful collaborative environment; thus, companies can certainly take advantage of synergies. Companies can use Intranets to share information about the corporate cultures, intranet-based newsletters, sharing best practices, and proposing new ideas. In addition, the best appeal to me is the fact that one can take advantage of its interactive capabilities.

An Intranet is a good example how businesses are moving from the client/server architecture to the three-tear environment (browser/server) which was covered early in the course. It also deals with some aspects of chapter 14. The book states: "Intranets are easy to set up, involve standardized software, can be deployed on multiple platforms, and require virtually no user training". However, I must disagree with the author because of the explanation giving prior to this.