On-line PR and Intranets/Extranets

Public relations usually shares an Intranet with other departments. That's because each department has information of use to employees. For example, HR will publish the employee manual. Marketing will publish sales figures by product line. Finance will post earnings. The CEO will post memos to the organization. The training department will publish courses.

Because intranets are easy to build, there are usually too many of them. Each department or division builds it own. The result? Chaos. Intranets need:

Managing.

Security and integrity of information.

Search engines to find data in the masses of information they carry.

What is an Extranet?

An Extranet is an Intranet opened selectively to vendors, customers and others. You share intimate internal information with them to build collaboration and partnership. Extranets require:

Connectivity. You need a good Internet Protocol service providing high-quality communication.

Security. This is essential, especially with sensitive company information.

Applications for all parties.

Compatible Directory services for all parties.

Compatible messaging systems for all parties.

When Do I Use It?

Your organization may be using an Intranet. It might not be serving Public Relations purposes. Evaluate the use of an Intranet as a complement or substitute for media that you use now to disseminate information. The benefit of Intranets and on-line media is that they are more immediate than printed and faxed media and less expensive overall than media such as television. Web protocols allowing multimedia also make an Intranet an appealing medium.

It is unlikely that you can build an Extranet as strictly a public relations tool. If someone has done so, I would like to feature them on this site, especially if others can look at how you use your PR Extranet.