How are the Internet, intranets and extranets changing the way training is delivered to employees?

"Our intranet is central to our philosophy of keeping our employees informed. It is very powerful. It has an index or gateway to over 500,000 internal Web pages. There are huge databases to be accessed--all of our products, service contracts, customers and so much more. We can broadcast information for immediate use. And we can constantly reinforce certain messages.

"The use of our intranet is pervasive here. Our employees' career development is enhanced by the fact that we increase their business literacy and give them a broader view of the company. As a result, they make better decisions and they do it faster. We give them visibility to upper-management plans and strategies. They can see the larger objectives.

Kim Daus
Senior communications strategist
Silicon Graphics Inc.
Mountain View

"Force Computers is in the high tech embedded computing market. We use both the intranet and Internet for information gathering from a human resources perspective and it works very well. The intranet is used to post training calendars. The human resources website on the intranet is the avenue for safety and leadership training courses offered by the company. Face-to-face, interactive training is important to our employees so we offer courses live."

Ursula Dinse
Human resources director
Force Computers
San Jose

"Since it is our business to offer classes on connectivity and using the Internet for market research and competitive analysis, our own employees must know how to use it. We also write software for clients' intranets. Keeping up with all this ensures our employees making a successful career for themselves."

Greg de Vries
President
DeVries Data Systems Inc.
Campbell

"We use both an intranet and the Internet. As an internal source, the intranet, we can teach our employees how to process new cases and learn about marketing and our company's procedures. We also use some interactive CD-ROMs for training.
"Our employees can access the Internet with regard to vendors' products and get technical information from government sites such as the IRS and the Department of Labor. Our employees like it because they have the ability to get current information in a timely manner that is authoritative. It is very cost-effective."

Peter Kuhn
Principal
IBP Insurance Service
Campbell

"We offer a Web-based course for transforming business through the Internet so companies can improve their business practices. This course has its own Web site, and everything is documented there. So a company could subscribe and train their people that way, enhancing their career development.
"We do a lot of training, and 70 percent is through the Internet. Many of our clients have small businesses, and some of their people are not computer experts yet. Currently we are working with University of California's Berkeley Extension. We are converting seminar material into multimedia training modules for their online program."

Jim Mulvaney
Director of business applications
Great Connections
San Carlos

"We have over 50 vocational training programs, so helping our students with career development is a major issue. Students can look at our voluminous job list on our intranet. Our students and the general public can look at our Web site for career services like job placement, interview tips and resumé writing."

Pat Plant
Public relations director
Metropolitan Education District/MetroEd
San Jose

"Recently we decided to add Great Plains to our selection of products, so we had to learn how to use it. They have a Web site, and we paid for access to some online seminars. There were four of us from this company who participated to varying degrees. It worked well. You cannot ask questions, but the people in the actual seminar do, and that usually is fine. One of the beauties of this sort of training is that you don't have to travel. It could eliminate airline and hotel bills. Our careers were enhanced.

"We do not have an intranet. But in thinking about one, I would want to investigate making company procedures, time sheets and updated phone lists a part of it. It would be worth investigating in a system for checking on the status of our projects. Employees could check there and even update them."

Geoff Seelbach
Product line manager
MITB Inc.
Sunnyvale