Obviously that is not true for everyone, but major returns can come from an investment in an intranet or extranet simply because the investments are low and the payoffs can be high. Determine the functions that you can automate over a corporate intranet or extranet. Here is where to look for some high payoff possibilities.

Look for Two People Involved
There are lots of places in business where we find one person reading to another person. Sometimes that is from a manual or at other times from a computer screen. A good example is what happens when someone needs to find out the policy for hiring temporary personnel. That usually results in a phone call, some research, and then a sharing of information over the phone.

Put the basic policies on your corporate intranet. That way people can get at them when, and as they need them. You can even make that more effective by adding links to relevant definitions or other parts of your policy manual.

Look for Frequent Updates
One big advantage of posting material on an intranet or extranet is that the material you post there is always the current version. That is why frequently updated material is an excellent thing to put on your net. And, when material such as a product data sheet, or a corporate phone directory is on the net, it can be updated easily.

Look for Frequent Sharing
In most businesses there is material that is shared again and again. Take that information and make it available over the Internet to the public, internally to employees, or to selected trading partners with an extranet. Every time you do that, you save on the process of looking up the material, as well as the printing, paper and transmission costs necessary to get it out.

Look for Excess Paper, Postage, Phone, or Fax Costs
You can find great opportunities for cost savings just by looking at your budget for these items. Then see which information activities you can put on the net-increasing usability and decreasing cost.

Take some time right now to look around your company, find some areas that you can automate, and then set about getting these on an internal network. The cost savings and results on profit can be dramatic.