Intranet/Extranet Applications

More than half of the applications we design are internet applications, but some are intranet applications. What is the difference? Internet sites are visible to the public; you can find them by searching on Google or Yahoo, or by entering a www address in your browser address bar. Intranet sites, however, are visible only to authorized personnel on the network where the application resides. 

Why build a web application which is not designed to be viewed by the public? Because web applications are a great way to provide functionality to employees without having to install software on each employee's computer. Because employees can access the application regardless of their system's operating system.

We have built several intranet applications, and will highlight just two here on this page.

One state's math league hired us to write scorekeeping software for the state math meet, where 1000 students are competing individually and as teams, and within 20 minutes of the meet being finished, they expect to have high scoring awards for both individuals and teams to be announced. In the past, coaches were frantically searching through mounds of papers, trying to figure out which person had the highest total score, and it became one of the most stressful parts of the day, and the meet coordinator often had to "stall for time," while the coaches did their searches and calculations. Now, with the scorekeeping software, high score reports are available within seconds of the last score being entered into the computer. 

One firm hired us to develop a document routing system, which allows them to have important documents digitally signed. Before the application was built, documents which needed to be signed were literally walked around the building to collect all the required signatures. If a signatory is not in their office, the document is stalled; the person collecting signatures must search throughout the plant for the missing person, or try again another time.

Often the process of collecting signatures would take days - now it is usually completed within hours, since each signatory receives an email notification each time a digital signature is required, and no one has to physically walk a piece of paper around the plant.