Virtual Intranet Makes Sense for Virtual Firms

If your business is small or just starting out, it probably doesn’t have an intranet. As its name implies, an intranet is an internal private network that companies use to exchange information such as internal e-mail and phone messages as well as to post news and information relevant to people who work for the company.

Although it’s possible to set up an intranet on your company’s local area network (assuming you have a LAN), there are also ways to use the Internet to establish a virtual intranet. One site, OpenDesk.com, lets you set up such an internal network for free.

Aside from its very attractive price, the OpenDesk intranet has the advantage of being available to employees even when they’re away from the office. In fact, a virtual intranet makes a great deal of sense for “virtual companies,” where colleagues work from their homes or the road. OpenDesk, as you might expect, is supported by advertising.

Like lots of other Web resources, OpenDesk allows you to send and receive e-mail, store files and track your calendar. But there is a bit of a twist. OpenDesk is especially oriented toward the needs of small business.

You can use the site, for example, to post information that you wish to share with other people in the company. This could be news items such as a recent sale or information about a new product or information about company health plans, picnics or policies. Anything that you need to share with employees and co-workers can be posted in the intranet news area. Adding a news item is quite easy. You can write it in Word or another word processor and simply paste it into the OpenDesk news editor. Once posted, every one in the company can view it.

Everyone can also participate in an online discussion group. Simply click on the “create discussion” button on the main intranet page, post a comment or question and anyone can easily respond. It’s a great way to get everyone’s thoughts on possible new directions for the business. Speaking of people’s thoughts, you can also use the service to create polls (multiple choice only) to let people express their opinions on issues of concern.

The site also posts a company directory with the name, e-mail address and other information for each person who is registered as a member of your company intranet.

Beyond the information sharing, there are also the essential “taking care of business” forms and services that concern almost every organization. The “Business Tools” section of OpenDesk allows you to create and post check vouchers, expense reports, purchase orders, office supply requests and educational requests.

The idea of having these forms online makes enormous sense to me, partially because I’m the kind of person who sometimes has trouble finding, filling out and remembering to submit paper forms. With OpenDesk, you don’t necessarily need paper to request a check, get reimbursed or purchase supplies.

You also don’t need to type in extraneous information. When you fill out an expense report, for example, you don’t type in the name of the person it goes to. You select him or her from a pull-down list of employees who are part of your intranet. Once you submit the expense report, the Web site calculates the amount owed and forwards it to the recipient. When that person logs on, the expense report is on his or her “open desk” to be approved and paid.

The “My Organizer’ section of the site is a bit of a disappointment for two reasons. First, it doesn’t let you upload data from popular desktop software applications. Some personal information management sites such as Visto.com and Excite.com allow you to upload data from Microsoft Outlook or other calendar and address books.

Another disappointment was a lack of an obvious group calendar function. The Web site lets you send yourself an e-mail reminder of an upcoming appointment but there are no provisions to remind other people or post a public calendar that the entire group can share. Visto.com, which operates a competing service aimed at both individuals and groups, offers a group calendar and message board.

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Technology reports by Lawrence J. Magid can be heard at 2:10 p.m. weekdays on the KNX (1070) Technology Hour. He can be reached at larry.magid@latimes.com. His Web site is at https://www.larrysworld.com.