Original Date: 10/07/2002
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

General Tool Company is pursuing an activity to improve its internal efficiencies by developing an intranet platform for enhanced information management. The platform will house data essential for employee awareness as well as instructions for manufacturing and equipment maintenance.

The intranet, just like its counterpart the Internet, is gaining more acceptance as a business tool for enhancing the effectiveness of a company's performance by managing company information/data for improved internal communication. As a tool, the intranet is capable of providing information to the user in a convenient and consistent manner from a central location within the confines of a company's infrastructure.

Typically, General Tool Company (GTC) finds itself in situations where there is a lack of understanding across departments about widely available information, resources, and tools. Along with the lack of understanding of the available data, the information is fragmented and located in various areas within the company. This requires the employee to search from one location to another to get full information detail that is needed, and each user is wasting time developing different forms for the same purpose.

As an effort to make information within GTC universally available to its employees, the information technology staff is undertaking a task to develop an intranet to provide easy access to internal documents, commonly used templates, shared information, and other resources. Development activities began by compiling a list of items from input within GTC to be published on the intranet. The initial list of items includes:
Human Resource activities and benefits with links to insurance and 401K savings information
Interdepartmental workload reports
Links to machine specifications and maintenance schedules
Tooling inventory and calibration schedules
Quality information (e.g., manuals and ISO specifications)
Information System's tips and frequently asked questions
Preferred vendor lists
Monthly finance information
Available resources list and forms
Published processes and procedures
Sales activity

Once GTC completes the development of the intranet and activates the system, the company anticipates a more cohesive work force resulting in saved time, increased efficiency, and fewer errors due to better data management.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.