Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter shall discuss the problem that the study want to address as well as the circumstances related to the study. The researcher would also provide the hypothesis that shall be examined and tested in the course of this study. This portion of the research will also define the limitation and the aspects covered as well as the importance of the study to the current field of intranet technology. The researcher shall also provide definitions of the terms used in the study.

Background of the Study Confusing Intranet with Internet is natural -- the technology, like the spelling, is nearly identical. Both require the same network protocol (TCP/IP) and both use email and World Wide Web standards. (Christensen, 1996) The Intranet is essentially a private Internet operating on your company's internal network. Intranets exploit the incredibly popular and low-cost Internet tools to gain strategic advantage over competitors, cut costs, and improve operational effectiveness. An Intranet typically has three features lacking on the Internet, speed, security, and control. The said technology has a broader bandwidth than the latter. Likewise, the system is more secured since it has a private internal network (LAN/WAN), protected from Internet users by a firewall. In addition, it could also be more manageable compared to the Internet since the enterprise network management to ensure reliability. Furthermore, the Intranet can be viewed as an information utility for the enterprise. (Christiansen, 1996) It doesn't matter whether one uses a Mac, Windows or a UNIX workstation it is plugged in to the Intranet and find what you need, from documents to email to data to audio and video. Corporate and department information is accessed via the standards of the Internet: e-mail, WWW, file transfer, and other Internet services. The information utility concept has broad appeal. It enables everyone to be a 'knowledge worker' by providing real-time information access to all published documents and data in the corporation. The rapid and near-universal adoption of Internet standards is producing an avalanche of new products and refurbished, web-enabled applications from all major applications vendors. Physically, an Intranet is formed by linking the various pieces of information and communications technologies that an organization owns or uses; interconnected in such a fashion that all the resources of the organization are readily available to anyone who needs them, wherever and whenever they are needed. (Gareiss, 1996) These resources that are linked together are not merely the physical devices such as computers or fax machines. The data that is stored in or accessed through the physical devices are resources too; as are the software applications that can operate on and manipulate those data resources.

An Intranet encourages the members of the organization to make better and more informed decisions. (Gareiss, 1996) An Intranet encourages and supports more effective use of people by people and should support faster and more efficient decision making processes. To repeat the point: An Intranet weaves together three essential components; tangible resources such as computers, intangible resources in the form of data and, most important of all, the experience and knowledge of people within the organization.

Moreover, an Intranet achieves its purposes by providing a small number of common but very generalized software tools of great power and flexibility, rather than a large range of discrete specialized power tools that cannot work effectively with each other. Intranets are therefore mechanisms for harmonization and integration. (Gareiss, 1996) The key issues here are experience and knowledge. A well designed Intranet should make it possible for an organization to gain better access to its primary resource: the knowledge and experience of the individuals who work within it. A well-designed Intranet should be an enabling technology. A well designed and properly implemented Intranet is a creative and empowering tool for the entire organization that permits any individual to bring the entire resources of the organization to bear on any specific task they undertake and to bring their own resources and expertise to bear upon the general purposes of the organization with greater effect.

The study would be assessing the intranet system of Mosscare Housing LTD (MC). It was chosen as the case study for the project due to its easy accessibility of information and largely traditional structure. There are several definitions of Intranet, but they all generally refer to network activities where protocol replaces physical items such as paper and pen. Mosscare Housing LTD is a not-for-profit organization, and is responsible for over 2,500 properties and sheltered accommodation schemes in the Greater Manchester area. It provides accommodation services for the community by developing new properties, renovating existing ones, and managing the tenancies.

Statement of the Problem The study intends to investigate the benefits of Intranets within an organization, particularly in Mosscare Housing LTD. Specifically, the study seeks to: 1. affiliation. 2. technology. Describe the characteristics of the employees in terms of age and departmental Identify the challenges and opportunities institution face as a result of Intranet

3. Assess the behavior and attitudes of the employees regarding the use of Intranet within the organizations. 4. 5. Recognize the adaptation method of MC to Intranets. Identify the factors affecting intranet usage.

Hypothesis The study intends to test the hypothesis: Has the proliferation of intranet had a positive or negative effect on working paradigms within business organization?

Significance of the Study The study would benefit several areas of the corporate system. First of all, the study would be able to benefit the Information Systems of corporations in general as well as with Mosscare. The research would be able to provide them the idea on the departmental distribution of the employees who use the technology. This would allow them to furnish additional data that would be valuable for the department who has the greatest number of employees clicking to the companys intranet. This would allow the said department to modify a section for frequently asked questions (FAQs) to allow easier access for the employees.

In this light, the management of companies in general as well as with Mosscare would also benefit from this study. The results of this study would allow the employees to become more aware of the company mission and vision through the intranets. This way, the management would be able to easily keep the employees informed of company affairs and in the same time, continue to place their moral in a high level.

Likewise, the employees of Mosscare would also benefit from this study. This study would convey their concerns regarding the intranet network within their company. This would provide them additional aspects of the intranets that would be able to cater to their specific needs. Moreover this study would do well to the Intranet technology as a whole. This would provide the followers in the field of networking and other related technologies a concrete representation on the impact of intranets on an organization.

Scope and Limitations The study would be limited to the analysis of the Intranet utilization of the company Mosscare Housing LTD. This would utilize a researcher made questionnaire that would be provided to the employees of the said company. The employees that would be given the said instrument would amount to twenty-five (25) respondents.

Definition of Terms Browser This is a program that allows the user to read and access information on the World Wide Web. Cyberspace The conceptual or virtual area where pages, data, images, and all the rest fly back and forth from computer to computer, user to user. FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions These are questions and answers that occur regularly within a user group. FAQs are a timesaving feature for all kinds of users. Firewall A protection of the internal company network against unauthorized access via the Internet.

FTP - File Transfer Protocol It is a very common method of moving files between two Internet sites. FTP is a special way to log in to another Internet site for the purposes of retrieving and/or sending files. There are many Internet sites that have established publicly accessible repositories of material that can be obtained using FTP by logging in using the account name anonymous. Thus, these sites are called anonymous FTP servers. HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol The way Web pages are transferred over the Internet or an Intranet. Icon A small picture or graphic used to represent a location in the inter- or Intranet (for example a flow-chart graphic to take the user to the departmental flow chart); an action (a mailbox as a place to send feedback); or a program (a W to indicate Microsoft Word). Internet Interconnected computer networks from around the world. Intranet Interconnected computers and networks within an organization. ISDN - Integrated Services Digital Network Basically, it is a way to move more data over existing regular phone lines. It can provide speeds of roughly 128,000 bits-per-second over regular phone lines. LDAP - Lightweight Directory Access Protocol LDAP is preferred for creating directories. LDAP provides a standard way for Internet clients, applications, and servers to access directory services using TCP/IP, regardless of the hardware/software platform. Network Lots of computers connected together. Lots of networks all over the world are connected to make the Internet. Lots of networks connected within an organization such as a university or company make an Intranet. Search Engine Software used to find information on the Web. Examples are Lycos and Yahoo. Server This is a computer with the capacity to provide connectivity (sharing) to multiple personal computers. Surfing Going from page to page, link to link, via a browser. Surfing could have been called "clicking" for the mouse clicks that make the process possible, or "linking" from the program logic, which makes the process, occur. TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. This is the suite of protocols that defines the Internet. Originally designed for the UNIX operating system, TCP/IP software is now available for every major kind of computer operating system. To be truly on the Internet, your computer must have TCP/IP software.

URL - Uniform Resource Locator It is the address of location for accessing Web pages. Clicking on an icon or "hot text" is the most common means of accessing and using a URL. Web or Net The World Wide Web (a server) consisting of a hypermedia system (linking sounds, text, pictures, video) which your computer (a client) can access. Webmaster The supervisor ensuring that the system is up and running; the coordinator of access; the relay for communications between users and hosts to sites.

Chapter 3 METHODS AND PROCEDURES

This chapter shall discuss the research methods available for the study and what is applicable for it to use. Likewise the chapter shall present how the research will be implemented and how to come up with pertinent findings.

Method of Research to be Used There are three kinds of research methods, correlational, experimental and descriptive. (Walliman and Baiche, 2001) The correlational kind of research method is used due to ethical problems with experiments. Moreover, it is also used due to practical problems with experiments. Moreover, inferring causality from correlation not actually impossible, but very difficult. This mode of study is widely applicable, cheap, and usually ethical. Nonetheless, there exist some "third variable" issues and measurement problems. The correlational research refers to studies in which the purpose is to discover relationships between variables through the use of correlational statistics (r). The square of a correlation coefficient yields the explained variance (r-squared). A correlational relationship between two variables is occasionally the result of an outside source, so we have to be careful and remember that correlation does not necessarily tell us about cause and effect. If a strong relationship is found between two variables, using an experimental approach can test causality.

On the other hand, the experimental method is the only method that can be used to establish cause-andeffect relationships. (Creswell, 1994) That is, it is the only one that can be used to explain the bases of behavior and mental processes. In this method, the subjects are split into two (or more) groups. One group, called the experimental group gets the treatment that the researcher believes will cause something to happen (this treatment is formally called the independent variable). The experimental and control groups are compared on some variable that is presumed to reflect the effects of the treatment, or outcome. This is formally referred to as the dependent variable.

And lastly, the descriptive research method uses observation and surveys. In this method, it is possible that the study would be cheap and quick. It could also suggest unanticipated hypotheses. Nonetheless, it would be very hard to rule out alternative explanations and especially infer causations. Thus, this approach was used for this study. This descriptive type of research utilized questionnaires and observations in the study. To illustrate the descriptive type of research, Creswell (1994) will guide the researcher when he stated: Descriptive method of research is to gather information about the present existing condition. The purpose of employing this method is to describe the nature of a situation, as it exists at the time of the study and to explore the cause/s of particular phenomena. The researcher opted to use this kind of research considering the desire of the researcher to obtain first hand data from the respondents so as to formulate rational and sound conclusions and recommendations for the study.

The research described in this document is based solely on qualitative research methods. This permitted a flexible and iterative approach. During data gathering the choice and design of methods were constantly modified, based on ongoing analysis. This allowed investigation of important new issues and questions as they arise, and allowed the investigators to drop unproductive areas of research from the original research plan.

The study intended to investigate the benefits of Intranets within an organization, particularly in Mosscare Housing LTD. Specifically, the study sought to describe the characteristics of the employees in terms of age and departmental affiliation; identify the challenges and opportunities institution face as a result of Intranet technology; assess the behavior and attitudes of the employees regarding the use of Intranet within the organizations; recognize the adaptation method of MC to Intranets; and identify the factors affecting intranet usage.

The primary source of data came from a researcher-made survey questionnaire, which will be given to the respondents. The respondents of this study were randomly selected employees at Mosscare.

The secondary sources of data came from published articles from social science journals, theses and related studies on modern technologies, online applications, and network technologies.

For this research design, the researcher gathered data, collate published studies from different local and foreign universities and articles from social science journals, distribute sampling questionnaires; arranged interviews; conducted surveys; and made a content analysis of the collected documentary and verbal material. Afterwards, the researcher summarized all the information, made a conclusion based on the null hypotheses posited and provided insightful recommendations on the issues dealing with the development of intranets.

Respondents of the Study

The general population for this study was composed of Mosscare employees, numbering twenty-five (25) respondents. The respondents were randomly selected.

Instruments to be Used To determine the impact of intranets in working institutions, the researcher will prepare a survey questionnaire, which will be given to the intended respondents.

Part 1 of the survey asked for the characteristics of the employees in terms of gender and affiliated department.

Part 2 determined the behavior and attitudes of the employees with the use of the intranet technology.

Part 3 identified the challenges and opportunities of the technology of intranets as perceived by the respondents.

Validation of the Instrument For validation purposes, the researcher initially submitted a survey questionnaire and after approval, the survey was given to three respondents. After the survey questionnaire has been answered, the researcher asked the respondents for any suggestions or any necessary corrections to ensure further improvement and validity of the instrument. The researcher again examined the content of the survey questionnaire to find out the reliability of the instrument. The researchers excluded irrelevant questions and changed words that were deemed difficult by the respondents, to much simpler terms.

Administration of the Instrument The revised instrument was consequently administered to the respondents of the study, which were chosen through random sampling. The researcher will exclude the three respondents who were be initially used for the validation of the instrument. The researcher also tallied, scored and tabulated all the relevant data in the survey questionnaire.

Limitations Encountered In the course of the collection of the data required by this study, the researcher bumped into several slight inconveniences. Initially, the administration of the research instrument took several ounces of sweat than expected because of the slightly stubborn personnel department, which was apparently too busy to accommodate the researcher. Nonetheless, they have provided the researcher with the approval to conduct the research, this is without assistance though. This means that the researcher has to interact personally to the respondents.

In addition, the researcher also realized that the population is slightly biased. Apparently, this is because they perceive that they would be sacked by the company if ever they say anything bad about their system. It was fortunate for the researcher that the greater majority of the population realized that they wouldnt be affected by any breach of information since the researcher assured them that it would only be used for academic purposes. Besides, placing their names on the questionnaire was not among the option providing them their much-needed anonymity.

Another problem was the schedule changes that inevitably hounded the research process. This has been a slight inconvenience for the researcher considering that he has provided a considerable leeway for the research process. Moreover, the researcher as well encountered several hassles in collating the secondary data. The secondary data was hard to collate due to a notable number of important articles. Choosing the right literature and studies has consumed a bulk of the researchers schedule. Nonetheless, the study has evidently completed containing relevant information about the technology of intranets.

Statistical Treatment of Data When all the survey questionnaire have been collected, the researcher used statistical methods to analyze all the data.

The researcher statistically treated the data on Part 1, characteristics of the employees in terms of gender and departmental affiliation.

The statistical formulae used in the second and third part of the survey questionnaire are the following: 1. Percentage to determine the magnitude of the responses to the questionnaire. n % = -------- x 100 N ; n number of responses N total number of respondents

2.

Weighted Mean

f1x1 + f2x2 + f3x3 + f4x4 + f5x5 x = --------------------------------------------- ; xt

where:

f weight given to each response x number of responses xt total number of responses

Sources:

Christensen, Robert. (1996) Intranet: Misspelling or Megatrend? Atlanta Computer Currents, May.

Creswell, J.W. (1994) Research design. Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.

Gareiss, Robin. "Intranet, Without the Internet." Data Communications, 25, no. 5 (April 1996): 39-40.

Sauders, Mark, Philip Lewis, and Dr Adrian Thornhill. (1997) Research Methods for Business Students. Pitman Publishing

Sekaran, Uma. (2000) Research Methods For Business. John Wiley & Sons, Inc

Walliman, Nicholas and Bousmaha Baiche. (2001) Your research project. SAGE Publications Read more: http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2011/06/thesis-chapter-1-3-on-the-intranetutilization-of-the-company-mosscare-housing-ltd.html#ixzz2KcReHZPt