Intranet, Extranet, EDI, E-Commerce

Strategy
GROUP 1
 INTRANET

 “Intra” means “internal” and therefore describes the use

of an internal communication tool.
 An intranet can be defined as a private network used by
an organization.
 Its primary purpose is to help employees securely
communicate with each other, to store information, and
to help collaborate.
EXAMPLES OF INTRANET

 General Intranet homepage

 Public Sector Intranet example
 HR intranet
 IT department Intranet
 Educational Intranet
 Non Profit Intranet
 Real Estate company intranet
USES OF INTRANET

 Share organizational updates

 Store files
 Connect employees
 Collaborate with teams across borders
 Increase productivity
 Give employees a voice in the organization
BENEFITS OF INTRANET
 Access to organizational data and files anytime, anywhere
 Increases internal communication
 Connects employees
 Increases employee productivity
 Drives employee engagement
 Enhances collaboration
 Integrates with third-party tools
 Stores securely document
 Boosts employee recognition and rewards
 Encourages knowledge sharing
APPLICATION IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
 Streamline day to day activity by making repetitive tasks easier
to complete
 Improve internal communication with employee directories,
company news and organization charts
 Increase employee engagement by minimizing and centralizing
“locked up” information
 Collaboration is made easier as employees can share
information across the board
APPLICATION CONT’D

 Provides personalized information and content to users

based on role
 Provides easy access to important information including
policies, benefits and company updates
 Centralize and organize company data into a single
database
 Extranet
An extranet is a controlled private network allowing customers, partners, vendors,
suppliers and other businesses to gain information, typically about a specific
company or educational institution, and do so without granting access to the
organization's entire network

An extranet is often a private part of a website. It is restricted to select users

through user IDs, passwords and other authentication mechanisms on a login
page.
 Applications
In Levels of Management
1. Administrative/Top Level Management
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.
Example of decision supported: Possibility of expanding the business to a new
territory through the use of real-time data and logistics (Strategic Production
Planning)
 2. Executive/ Middle Level Management
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.

Example of decision supported: Frequency of supplying raw materials and by what quantity
(Tactical Production Planning)
 3. Supervisory/Lower Level Management
Flexibility
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.
Example of decision supported: Starting and finish times of specific tasks in each workstation,
machines or facilities (Operational Planning)
 In the Value Chain
Operations

Timely and accurate information. On an extranet you 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
get hot information into the right hands before it cools—and
before it’s out-of-date.
Example of decision supported: Possibility of expanding the
business to a new territory through the use of logistics
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.
 Service
 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
 In the Porter’s Forces Model

Competitive rivalry
With an extranet, companies are better armed to address the forces that impact the competitive
landscape:
Customers want everything faster. Speed has become a competitive weapon. Customers expect
everything instantly. Provide them instant products, services and solutions -- or else!
Since there is a direct access to the information present on the network, overall the company
efficiency can be improvised using extranet. The clients or the associates no longer has to wait for
the responses. This kind of direct access also makes customers update their information which can
decrease the scope of errors.
 Threat of new entry

 As long as there is more automation, your company can enjoy more productivity as well. An
extranet ensures that productivity never gets decreased by avoiding bottlenecks and preserving
critical information. Information’s don't get lost in the email or stay unread.
This helps increase profitability of the business by maintaining strong and durable barriers to entry
 EDI
EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange and it refers to the direct computer-to-computer exchange of
business information in a standard communication format. There are several EDI standards in use today,
including ANSI, EDIFACT, TRADACOMS and ebXML
When two businesses decide to exchange
EDI documents, they must agree on the specific EDI standard and version. . EDI allows transaction
documents, such as purchase orders, invoices, and shipping notices, to be transmitted electronically and
entered directly into the supplier's computer or to a third-party network for processing.
 Components of EDI
 Translator.

 Data mapping.

 Network

 Support and maintenance

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 Benefits of EDI
Lower operating costs

EDI lowers your operating expenditure by eliminating the costs of paper, printing, reproduction, storage, filing,
postage, and document

retrieval. It drastically reduces administrative, resource and maintenance costs.

Improve business cycle speeds

Time is of the essence when it comes to order processing. EDI speeds up business cycles because it allows for
process automation that significantly reduce, if not eliminate, time delays associated with manual processing that
requires you to enter, file, and compare data. Inventories management is streamlined and made more efficient with
real-time data updates.

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Reduce human error and improve record accuracy
Aside from their inefficiency, manual processes are also highly prone to error, often resulting from illegible handwriting, keying and re-keying
errors, and incorrect document handling. EDI drastically improves an organization’s data quality and eliminates the need to re-work orders by
delivering a reduction in transactions with errors.

Increase business efficiency

Because human error is minimized, organizations can benefit from increased levels of efficiency. Rather than focusing on menial and tedious
activities, employees can devote their attention to more important value-adding tasks. EDI can also improve an organization’s customer and
trading partner relationship management because of faster delivery of goods and services.

Enhance transaction security

EDI enhances the security of transactions by securely sharing data across a wide variety of communications protocols and security standards.

Paperless and environmentally friendly

The migration from paper-based to electronic transactions reduces CO2 emissions, promoting corporate social responsibility.

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Value chain.

Inbound Logistics

Inbound logistics include the receiving, warehousing and inventory control of a company's raw materials. Introducing the EDI you can get all its benefits in this stage for example minimising
errors by automating all the processes in this stage.

Markets and Sales.

One of the benefits of EDI we mentioned earlier was improved relationship with bussiness partners and in this stage it deals with maintaining and improving relationships with businness
partners and EDI can play a major role in this stage.

Porters forces.
1. Supplier power. An assessment of how easy it is for suppliers to drive up prices. EDI helps you in this case by increasing the number of suppliers at no additional cost since all the details are
being provided electronically.

2. Buyer power. An assessment of how easy it is for buyers to drive prices down. Here again the EDI comes into play by providing the necessary information to much more buyers at no
additional cost hence combatting the power of having a few buyers by being able to expand the companys reach.

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 The level of management.

 The EDI can be implemented in the low level management since it is at this level that is tasked with the completion of the day to day activities
and it is in this level that the EDI comes in to play the most for example invoices and all the other information that an EDI provides is used in
this level.

 EDI in supply chain management.

 Electronic data interchange (EDI) is an inter-organizational information system that is intended to facilitate computer-to-computer exchange of
data among multiple business trading partners in standard, machine readable formats through a web of business-to-business communication
network.  

 EDI plays three important roles in supply chain management. These roles are classified as:

Electronic integration, information diffusion and sharing and electronic marketplaces.

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The Impact of E-commerce on
Business Strategic
plan
E-commerce is assisting organizations to lower
costs dramatically through their supply and demand
chains, take their customer service into a different
league, enter new marketplaces, create additional
revenue streams and redefine their business
relationships.
Information systems that have a strategic impact
on a business help create a competitive advantage
for the business as cost leadership, differentiation,
focusing, innovation, growth and business alliances.
1. Improving the efficiency: access to products
and services from customers.
2. Cost saving: Less personnel and time to
maintain customer operation; decreased
material expenses.
3. Improved customer service: Offering
many new services and improve the quality,
with decreasing the time.
4. Reaching large number of customers:
Organizations able to reach new markets in
other countries. organizations can broaden
their marketplace or widen the supplier base
5. Increased sales: E-commerce leads to
increased sales, as it is easy to monitor and
adjust the demand of the product or service.
6. Improved distribution channel:
Organizations can broadened their supplierbases through the use of e-marketplaces
7. Better customer satisfaction through
unique products: Tailor unique customer
products and services to individual’s leads to
better customer satisfaction
8. Enhancing the communication: Ecommerce possess new possibilities for
communication between partners
9. Better access to information: Increased
ability to gain information about customers
and suppliers, increased information
exchange