Chapter 5 • Enterprise Systems 213Intranets and Portals
The notion of an intranet was introduced in Chapter 3:
Anintranetis a network operating within an organiza-
tion that employs the TCP/IP protocol, the same protocol
used on the Internet. In most cases, an intranet consists
of a backbone network with a number of connected
LANs. Because the protocol is the same, the organiza-
tion may use the same Web browser, Web search engine,
and Web server software that it would use on the
Internet. The intranet, however, is not accessible from
outside the organization. The organization decides
whether or not people within the organization have
access to the Internet.
An intranet presents some incredible advantages to
the organization. If an organization already has an internal
network of interconnected LANs plus Web browsers on
most workstations and an operating Web server, as most
organizations do, then implementing an intranet is a
relatively easy task involving some programming on theLotus Notes in Action
Let’s consider three recent examples of Lotus Notes/Domino applications in three quite different
settings. IMS Health, based in the United Kingdom, is the world’s leading provider of market intelligence
to the pharmaceutical and health care industries, with $2.2 billion in 2007 revenue. IMS Health provides
market intelligence, such as pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement information in different world
markets, to its customers via newsletters, a monthly magazine, and its Web site. When IMS Health
decided to redesign its Web site to make it more attractive and easier to use, the company chose to
build on its existing Lotus Domino–based content management system. Neil Turner, Senior Manager of
Editorial Publications, explained that “Lotus Domino is very popular with our IT team because of the
flexibility of the platform, which makes it easy to develop new applications and databases that are
integrated with e-mail and calendaring, as well as to support our Web site.” IMS Health worked with
Kelros, a consulting firm, to develop the new Web site, and the company is very pleased with the result.
The new site offers greatly improved search and browse functions, helping users drill down to relevant
data and get answers more quickly. IMS Health has seen a marked increase in traffic on the new Web
site and expects to see an increase in customer renewals (IBM, 2008a).
The Kentucky Baptist Convention (KBC) is a cooperative missions and ministry organization
serving over 2,400 Baptist churches in Kentucky. This nonprofit organization moved to Lotus
Notes/Domino in 1998 to provide e-mail, calendaring, and scheduling to its employees. KBC’s
headquarters are in Louisville, but about 40 of its employees travel throughout the state of Kentucky. To
satisfy the needs of all its employees—especially these remote workers—for communication, KBC
upgraded its Notes/Domino software, including Lotus Sametime, in 2008. With this upgrade, KBC
provides mobile access, presence awareness, IM, and real-time chat services to its employees. Lotus
Quickr was used to create a centralized, easily searchable library of reference records. Lotus Domino has
also served as KBC’s development platform—the IT staff has developed over 20 unique business
applications using Domino and has designed its Web site to be hosted in the Domino environment.
“The big benefit of the Lotus Notes and Domino platform is all the things that we can do with one
system,” explains Troy Fulkerson, Director of Information Technology at KBC (IBM, 2008b).
Shikoku Electric Power Company, in Japan, supplies electrical power to more than 2.8 million
people. Shikoku Electric decided to set up a new communications system for knowledge sharing
throughout the company, focusing on the need for high reliability and improved service levels. The
company used its existing Lotus Notes/Domino application, which was running on a number of UNIX
servers, as a starting point for the new system. In order to hold its costs down, Shikoku Electric chose to
implement an expanded Lotus Notes/Domino solution on an IBM System Z9 mainframe computer
rather than on numerous smaller servers. The IBM System Z9 uses virtualization technology to provide
multiple copies of Lotus Domino on a single machine. To install a new server, no hardware needs to be
added—a virtual server is simply created on the mainframe. “We believe we have succeeded in
deploying a system that is easy to use, with high reliability and security,” says Shinji Nakauchi, System
Promotion Group Leader in Shikoku Electric’s IT department (IBM, 2009).