Intranet refers to inward-facing or staff-facing systems. Intranets have some similarities to Internet-based web sites, starting out as departmental or corporate email systems and evolving into a broadcast medium for managing internal information, including web-based documents as well as access to existing systems and data repositories. An intranet has two fundamental functions: provide secure, customized access to relevant, up-to-date information found in transaction systems; and let users act on that information by managing how it flows through process systems. These applications are used within and across workgroups to manage product development, human resources, sales force automation and other internal business processes.