Purpose

• Intranets provide a central point of access for organization members, such as company employees, to find the tools and information they need to operate within the enterprise. Intranet portals can reduce or eliminate the need for traditionally printed resources. Electronic presentation of and access to resources can provide efficient control of applications and information at an enterprise level.
  
  

Construction

• Whether custom-built or purchased from a software company, intranet portals often have the same appearance as Internet websites. Users typically access a homepage, where they can navigate to applications and static content created in a variety of formats. Content can include PDF documents, web pages and spreadsheets, among other forms.
  
  

Content

• Content included in intranet portals varies, depending on the organization. Typical corporate portals can include such resources as email applications, calendars, instant messaging applications, customer data bases, employee manuals, work-related guidelines and interoffice forms.
  
  

Access

• Residing within a closed network, the majority of intranet portals allow access only within the organization, or remote access by members using a password system. Typical means of accessing intranet portals can include computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and web-enabled cellular phones.