Just a rough sketch

1. choose applications: discussions, announcements, manage info, manage documents

2. choose server: Like MSIIS WebProgramming

3. choose database, SQL Server is a good choice
4. generate content: Using Front Page works well, Python XML libraries, libraries to generate HTML

5. generate navigation buttons: GraphicsAndImages

6. test: urllib, htmllib, xmlrpc
7. use Python to automate deployment, testing, documentation
8. ????
9. Profit!

Well, the above looks like been written by and for "Microsoft people".

A potentially more stable and definitely more free way to build an intranet is like that:

1. choose applications: discussions, announcements, manage info, manage documents
2. choose server and OS: Apache on Linux

3. generate content: use a wiki engine like MoinMoin (it is like that thing you are looking at right now)

4. teach yourself and people to do it the WikiWay

5. just use it - you will see that you can do LOTS of things with that setup without needing to extend it.