Hierarchical Structure of Intranet Functions and Their Relative Importance: Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process for Virtual Organizations

The Intranet has clear potentials to provide necessary tools for building virtual organizations which are essential in the mass-customization economy. However, the functions to be included in the Intranet system, and their importance in building virtual organizations have not been examined yet. The main objectives of this study are to construct an analytic structure of Intranet functions and to measure the relative importance of the functions. In order to achieve such objectives, a hierarchical structure of Intranet functions was built based on interviews with industry experts. Next, using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), this study conducted surveys with three different groups of people: top management, middle management, and low management. Results from the surveys indicate that several Intranet functions were evaluated as unanimously more important, while others were perceived with varying degrees of importance depending upon the organizational level. This study concludes with the implications of the results to the development of Intranet systems.