Introduction

Effective communication, both internally with your staff and externally with your partners and
customers, is a key requirement in today's business environment, Ahmad, I. and Sharp, D.E.
(1999). This guide looks at the potential benefits of intranet and Extranet to a business
organization.
What is an intranet?
An intranet is a private - internal - business network that enables your employees to share
information, collaborate, and improve their communications, Ahmad, I. and Sharp, D.E. (1999).
In essence, an intranet is a business' own private website. It is a confidential business network
that uses the same underlying structure and network protocols as the internet, and is protected
from unauthorized users by a firewall.
Intranets are secure and easily accessible via a web browser. As such, they enable businesses to
be flexible and control office overheads by allowing employees to work from almost any
location, including their home and customer sites.
Examples of intranet
Intranets typically look like a private version of the internet. They use HTTP or other internet
protocols to allow sharing of the organizational information and computing resources among
employees. You can also use an intranet to facilitate teleconferencing and working in groups.
Intranet content and features
Intranets can host far more than just company information and policies. Types of content and
features commonly found on intranets include:
Administrative - calendars, emergency procedures, meeting room bookings, procedure manuals
and membership of internal committees and groups.
Corporate - business plans, client/customer lists, document templates, branding guidelines,
mission statements, press coverage and staff newsletters.
Financial - annual reports and organizational performance. IT - virus alerts, tips on dealing with
problems with hardware, software and networks, policies on corporate use of email and internet
access and a list of online training courses and support.
Marketing - competitive intelligence with links to competitor websites, corporate brochures,
latest marketing initiatives, press releases, presentations.

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Human resources - appraisal procedures and schedules, employee policies, expenses forms and
annual leave requests, staff discount schemes, new vacancies.
Individual projects - current project details, team contact information, project management
information, project documents, time and expense reporting.
External information resources - route planning and mapping sites, industry organizations,
research sites and search engines.
Benefits of intranet to a business organization
Intranets are extremely useful as a business tool. Few of the key intranet benefits include:
Better internal communications - intranets can act as communication hubs for staff. You can
store corporate information such as memos, staff news and announcements centrally and access
at any time. Sharing of resources and best practice - you can create a virtual workspace and
community to facilitate information storing, sharing and collaborative working. An intranet can
also act as a training platform when providing online training content to staff. Improved
customer service - better access to accurate and consistent information by your staff can lead to
enhanced levels of customer service (Independence, KY: Cengage Learning).

publishing - delivering information and business news as directories and web documents;
document management - viewing, printing and working collaboratively on office documents
such as spreadsheets or databases, it also provide training - accessing and delivering various
types of e-learning to the user's desktop.
Workflow - automating a range of administrative processes, including dealing with holiday
requests, staff performance reviews and appraisals, meeting room and equipment booking, etc.
front-end to corporate systems - providing a common interface to corporate databases and
business information systems. Email - integrating intranet content with email services so that
information can be distributed effectively.

It is a good idea to give your intranet a different image and structure from your customer-facing
website. This will help to give your internal communications their own identity and prevent
employees from confusing internal and external information.

What is an extranet?

An extranet enables your business to communicate and collaborate more effectively with

selected business partners, suppliers and customers (Independence, KY: Cengage Learning). An

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extranet can play an important role in improving business relationships and supply chain
management. An extranet is a private network similar to an intranet, but typically open to
external parties, such as business partners, suppliers, key customers, etc. The main purpose of an
extranet is to allow users to exchange data and applications, and share information.

Benefits of extranet to the business organization

Extranets can offer a range of benefits to your business from lowering costs to producing faster
results and improving the quality of service to customers.

Communicate and collaborate more effectively - with clients, customers and stakeholders via
a secure network. integrate supply chains - e.g. consolidate processes such as online ordering,
order tracking and inventory management it also helps in reducing costs - e.g. make manuals and
technical documentation available online to trading partners and customers it also improve
business relationships - because of the close collaborative working that extranets support.
Improve customer service - e.g. give customers direct access to information and enable them to
resolve their own queries

Simplify processes - e.g. use a single user interface between you and your business partners by
securing your communications - exchanges take place in a controlled and secure environment.
Share news - for example, of product development exclusively with partner companies. Work
flexibly - extranet allows remote and mobile staff to access core business information 24 hours a
day, irrespective of location.

Build customer relationships. Customers who are provided access to timely information about
product availability, specifications and cost increase their efficiency. In business-to-business
relationships, the more timely and accurate information a business makes available to their
customers, the more likely they are to retain that business. Collaborate with other companies on
joint development efforts.

Reduced margin of error. An extranet can reduce a company’s margin of error thereby
reducing or eliminating costly errors, especially with something as complex as processing orders
from distributors and suppliers. Customers can be given access to their accounts to verify order
history, account balances and payments.

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Timely and accurate information. On an extranet a business can instantly change, edit, and
update sensitive information such as price lists or inventory information. Compared to typical
paper-based publishing processes, an extranet offers a unique opportunity to quickly get
information into the right hands before it’s out-of-date.

Reduced inventory. One of the greatest advantage of a business-to-business extranet is its

impact on supply-chain management. By linking the inventory system directly to a supplier,
businesses can process orders as soon as the system knows they are needed, thus reducing the
stock a business keeps on hand and generally making the procurement process more efficient.

Flexibly. A well designed extranet allows remote and mobile staff to access core business
information 24 hours a day, irrespective of location. This allows employees to work remotely or
respond to critical requests for information after normal working hours. As businesses expand
globally, the ability to work across time zones is enhanced by the establishment of an extranet.

Reasons to use an extranet

An extranet can be a useful tool for the following business needs:

 using online ordering, electronic order tracking and inventory management internally or
externally, with selected partners

 working flexibly to meet the demands of larger companies, by adopting new technologies
and enabling the exchange of business information and transactions

 facilitating a cheap and efficient way for businesses to connect with their trading partners
and suppliers, and allowing them access to the information they need 24 hours a day

 automating the trading tasks between you and your trading partners, in order to
strengthen business relationships and integrate your business firmly within their supply
chain

An extranet can also be used by staff working remotely, e.g. those in sales or customer support,
or home workers.

Conclusion

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Whether a company is managing an intranet or extranet, both systems can raise security issues.
With increased access comes an increased opportunity for security breaches. In particular, the
security of extranets can be a concern when hosting valuable or proprietary information. Unless
sufficient security precautions are taken, data can be breached and altered, without either the
sender or the receiver being aware of the interception. The growth in the complexity of networks
has increased the possible points of attack, both from within organizations and from outside the
company. Fortunately, the means of protecting against hackers have also expanded in line with
the technology.

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