Intranets Extend Their Reach

ntranets are forcing to the surface one of the sticky questions facing federal agencies: who's in and who's out. An intranet, by definition, is a network for internal use only. But ask a federal webmaster whether that means only agency employees, and you'll seldom get a definitive "yes" answer. Intranets, it turns out, are useful for linking contract employees with civil service employees, suppliers with purchasers and agencies with each other. What starts out as an internal network often sends tentacles out into the world, becoming a system that's not completely closed.

Asked about their intranets, in fact, many federal information technology managers will proudly tell you how they have linked a wider community through an intranet. Intranets have proved to be a potent weapon in the long-running battle against stovepipe information systems that can't share data with one another.

If you have used the World Wide Web, you know how to use an intranet. Information is stored on servers and accessed by a Web browser, usually Internet Explorer from Microsoft Corp. or the Netscape browser from Netscape Communications Corp. In fact, the only difference between the World Wide Web and an intranet is that the intranet is closed to the public.

The security mechanisms usually include a firewall, a secure checkpoint on the network. The firewall can be set up to keep out all outsiders or admit only those with certain qualifications, such as certain user names or types of addresses (.mil, for example, indicating a military domain). People also can be required to use a password to get onto the network, and other security devices are available as well.

For many federal users, however, most of the information on their intranet servers is not highly sensitive. It typically includes agency telephone and electronic mail directories, job openings, agency-specific personnel rules and how-to information on topics such as ordering supplies or dealing with unruly visitors.

It's the sort of information that until recently was distributed on bulletin boards and in employee newsletters, handbooks and memos from administrators. These documents still may exist, but the intranet server provides a handy repository for current versions. Update the master copy on the server once, and the correct information is almost instantly available to everyone in the organization. The money saved by not printing new editions of the employee telephone directory, for example, can go a long way toward paying for your intranet.

Paper-Free Documents

The employee bulletin board analogy is an apt one, because of the way Web users speak of "posting" documents on Web "pages." In the beginning, the Web was all about documents, and your intranet probably started off the same way, as a means of sharing written information without distributing paper copies.

Today's popular word processors, such as Microsoft Word and Corel Corp.'s WordPerfect, have Web publishing options that let you format a document easily for the intranet, so it's not difficult to get your existing files online. You also can scan paper documents into the system, although the results will be less satisfactory.

Another option is to use Adobe Systems Corp.'s Acrobat software, which produces online documents in a fixed format. Page numbers stay the same, for instance, no matter what size monitor, type of system or on-screen typography your fellow employees are using. To read Acrobat-produced documents, they'll need to download a free browser add-on from Adobe. To see how Adobe works, check out the General Accounting Office's Web site. Many reports are available in both Acrobat and text formats.

Once your manuals, directories and employee newsletters are online, the intranet can do some things your three-ring binder can't. For example, your browser will do text searches, so you can easily locate information that doesn't show up in the table of contents. It also allows you to print out items you need to have on paper, and you can refer electronic-mail correspondents to intranet information by embedding the document's network address, or URL, within an e-mail message.

Networked Transactions

But documents are just the beginning. After your agency establishes an information repository on its intranet, it's likely to move on to doing business on the network. This could mean buying and selling, also known as electronic commerce, or other kinds of transactions. One of the most common categories is self-service human resources transactions.

With these systems, available from a number of sources including, the Office of Personnel Management, employees are empowered to review and update their personnel records without having to fill out paper forms that then must be entered into a computer system. Typical transactions include change of address; change in direct deposit location, marital status, dependents or beneficiaries; and reviews of account balances for pensions, annual leave or sick leave.

If you've ever had to telephone or visit a human resources office for this kind of information, you can recognize the value of having it available on your desktop computer screen. System advantages include reducing burdens on the human resources staff, reducing data entry errors and improving employee relations.

Some agencies have rejected these self-service HR programs on the grounds that employee privacy cannot be completely protected, nor can HR officials be completely confident that the information in the system came from an employee rather than a hacker. But the same is true with paper-based systems. Forms can be filled out falsely and file drawers rifled overnight even in well-run offices. Reports of security problems with self-service HR applications on intranets are rare.

The Veterans Affairs Department is among the agencies installing a self-service HR system. Barbra Drauszewski, co-manager of the VA human resources systems project, said her agency began its prototype this spring with 28 kiosks in 12 locations. The 12,000 affected employees do not yet have desktop access to the self-service system, but at the kiosk they can share use of a PC with touch-screen and Web software to update their records. Customer satisfaction ratings were equally high for the kiosks and a toll-free phone number that employees can also use to update their records.

In August, managers at the VA prototype sites were scheduled to begin performing job classification tasks on the intranet, followed in December by staffing requests. The intranet system, which is just one piece of a stem-to-stern revamping of the VA's human resources processes and systems, will be phased in nationwide over the next two years.

Agencies also are experimenting with intranet-based electronic commerce and related transactions.

Who's in the Loop?

But these are the kinds of applications that begin to raise questions about who's in and who's out. When you're circulating policy drafts for review, you might want to include on the distribution list people outside your own organization-perhaps managers in your parent agency, a trade organization or congressional staffs. And once you're processing purchase orders and invoices on your intranet, you may feel ready to do business with contractors on the Internet.

Fortunately, the line of demarcation between intranets and the Internet can be modified without the kinds of difficulties that often arise with older data networks. You can expand your intranet to encompass people outside your immediate organization by adding the newcomers to the list of people who have permission to enter your network domain, and information can be segmented on your server so that some of it is available to certain authorized users and not others. Technically, of course, this can be complex, but it's quite doable in most cases.

That flexibility to define and redefine the users of a network built on a foundation of Internet technology is one of an intranet's chief attractions. It's the reason owners of other kinds of information networks are adding intranet capabilities and functions. One agency that aims to do so is the International Cooperative Programs Activity (ICPA) at the Army Materiel Command.

The ICPA coordinates the development and implementation of cooperative military research and development programs with other nations. For example, this summer it was working to complete an agreement with Britain on joint development of future Scout vehicles for use by both nations.

Such agreements are technically complex and politically sensitive, and usually the other military services and the Office of the Secretary of Defense are involved. That means a lot of paper moving up and down several chains of command.

Pace Was Too Slow

Before mid-1997, ICPA and the offices it works with were exchanging documents by e-mail-a big step forward compared with moving the paper, but still not fast enough. "We were taking 30 to 36 months to put each agreement in place," says Larry Beck, a program manager. "By the time we were finished with the agreement, the technology already had moved ahead [of the agreement]. We had to do something."

ICPA turned to Notes groupware from Lotus Development Corp. Notes, which is not an intranet system because it doesn't use Web technology, is designed for just the type of information-sharing that was going on between the agency and its peers. Its automated copying and routing features freed the staff from much of the document-handling work.

Users have access to all the documents associated with the matter at hand, which can mean earlier drafts, related agreements, progress updates or background papers. As Beck says, "everyone gets to see everything that's been done." And it permits electronic signatures, so that approvals can be completed online.

With Notes in place, ICPA cut the processing time for agreements by two-thirds, Beck says, bringing it down to around nine months. But not all of the 500 or so people involved in reviewing and approving the agreements have Notes, so the benefits were not enjoyed evenly. The agency installed a server to translate Notes documents into Microsoft Word format, but even then certain offices couldn't get them online.

Now ICPA is planning to upgrade to Lotus Domino if funds are available next year. The newer product is Web-enabled, so that no one on the network with the proper identification need be left out. Beck is confident employees in the military offices ICPA works with will want to use the intranet system. "We see a lot of resistance in the beginning," he says of new users, "but when they see what it can do, they become advocates."