Manage projects better with a private Web site

For a busy small-business owner, creating and maintaining a Web site is often a big step. So the idea of also building a "private" Web site for the limited purpose of sharing information with employees and partners might seem like a technological pipedream.

But Web sites that exist just for internal use—and beyond the reach of everyday Internet users—are not outside the realm of smaller companies any longer. Those "intranet" and "extranet" sites typically associated with large businesses, a room packed with Web servers and full time IT staffs are now available as an online service.

Microsoft Office Live Small Business is a good example. This online service includes a feature called workspaces. Workspaces are distinct online sites where you can securely store and share documents, project details and timelines, calendar information, and more with others inside or outside your company.

"If a small business is looking for a quick turnkey solution, then Microsoft Office Live [Small Business] is fast and easy with nothing to install," says Ramon Ray, editor of Smallbiztechnology.com, a site that helps small to medium-sized businesses use technology to grow.

'It’s still kind of new'

Because the opportunity to use private sites is just becoming available and affordable to small businesses, technology consultant Jason Harrison (www.harrisontechconsulting.com) says he often needs to explain the benefits to his clients.

"For a lot of small businesses, it's still kind of new," Harrison says. "But it really makes sense for certain projects that require collaboration, especially for businesses whose clients are dispersed."

Indeed, one of the key benefits of private sites is that they enable users to log on to a password-protected site to gain access to information—from anywhere at anytime using the Windows Internet Explorer browser.

Private sites offer other benefits too. With these types of sites you can:

• Let employees quickly find and view information on sites related to their roles and job.
• Allow employees and partners to "pull" information as needed rather than be swamped with e-mails.
• Create a company communication channel where you can post company policies, procedures, weekly reports, and memos to keep everybody on the same page.
• Reduce the need for meetings by allowing project information to be viewed by business partners, customers, and suppliers.
• Give approved site users access to the most accurate and up-to-date information.

Harrison sees private sites as particularly suited for professional organizations like architects, attorneys and others who must exchange and review a lot of information.

Workspaces in four flavors

Office Live Small Business anticipates many of the ways a small business might use private sites. So it provides specially-equipped workspaces in four prebuilt flavors.

• Customer Workspace. This Workspace template lets you set up a separate site for each of your active clients. Built-in features allow you to share project details, timelines, documents, and more in a password-protected environment.
• Team Workspace. This Workspace is for internal teams and has tools to quickly organize, author, and share information and comes with a document library, and lists for managing announcements, calendar items, tasks, and discussions.
• Basic Meeting Workspace. This Workspace template is designed to plan, organize, and capture the results of a meeting. It provides lists for managing the agenda, meeting attendees, and documents.
• Wiki Workspace. Wikiwiki means "quick" in Hawaiian. A wiki site provides a fast, low-maintenance way to record knowledge. Information that is usually traded in e-mail messages, gleaned from hallway conversations, or written on paper is instead recorded in a wiki site, in context with similar knowledge.

A workspace for you and your accountant

One example from Office Live Small Business is a workspace that allows you to better connect with your accountant or financial manager. This workspace lets you post financial information created in Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2008—a free download—and in other documents so your accountant can access them. This saves you the trouble of having to manually send accounting backup files as a large e-mail attachment or via postal mail on a CD.

Office Live Small Business protects financial data transmitted from this workspace, as it does with all Office Live Small Business applications, by use of the HTTP Secure protocol rather than standard HTTP. Moreover, access to all Office Live Small Business workspaces and information contained in them is controlled by assigning user permissions.

Harrison observes that small businesses are more nimble than their bigger counterparts and, as a result, can embrace technologies such as online private Web sites more quickly. So he encourages them to experiment and reap the benefits if they can.

"I tell clients, 'Don't sit back and ignore these kinds of opportunities to be creative with how you operate your business.'"

Last word: Confused about the terms "intranet" and "extranet"? Here's the difference:

• An intranet is a private or internal Web site used only within one company.
• An extranet is an internal or private Web site used within a company, but access privileges are extended to customers, partners, and others you designate.