When you sign up for an Intrante, or online office space, you get several features that are common to most all of them:

• Sharing of tasks
• Share calendars, appointments, meetings
• Document sharing for reading or for editing and updating
• Announcements section, like an online bulletin board
• Depending on Intranet vendor, other sharable features

Keep in mind, this is all online, so there is no software to install on your computer, and no network software to keep updated so all can have access.  You can set up varying levels of permission to users, letting them see or edit only what you want them to.  This gives you the ability to actually maintain files online that are specifically designated only for management, employee groups, or individuals.

In the next post about Intranets, I’ll introduce you to the one I highly recommend, as it also gives you the ability to create custom databases that can accomplish great things for your business.

However, with the generous 6+ megabytes of free storage provided by Gmail, as well as easy tools for archiving and locating emails later, you really should be giving it a try.  And, you can still have it check several of your branded accounts, even knowing which to use as your return address when you reply.  There’s a lot more, including “canned responses” for those frequent email answers you send out all the time.