| A
real definition of an extranet is... an external intranet,
but one that in some cases may include your business
trading partners in addition to your staff. It
connects people within your company with people who
are outside your company--all within a secure, password-protected
network that can be accessed from anywhere.
Extranets are
one of the most practical business uses of the Internet's
universal connectivity. The extension of a company's
intranet out onto the Internet, e.g. to allow selected
customers, suppliers and mobile workers to access the
company's private data and applications via the World-Wide
Web. This is in contrast to, and usually in addition
to, the company's public web site which is accessible
to everyone. The difference can be somewhat blurred
but generally an extranet implies real-time access through
a firewall of some kind. Such facilities require very
careful attention to security but are becoming an increasingly
important means of delivering services and communicating
efficiently.
An Extranet Can
Help ...
- Staff members
- Departments
and teams
- Managers
- Partners
- Supplier chains
Companies can
provide unbelievable support and value to their sales
forces, brokers, suppliers, and so on. They can save
millions of dollars a year, depending upon their activities,
and they can increase sales by millions of dollars as
well.
Extranet
Portals
Extranet Portals improve communication between the organization
and its customers, suppliers and partners. Examples
of extranet portals are: business to customer (B2C)
which extend the organization to its customers for the
purpose of ordering, billing, customer service, self-service,
etc.; and business to business (B2B) which extends the
organization to its suppliers and partners, transforming
the supplier and value chain process and relationships.
Some Extranet
uses
- Project management
tools for companies and collaborating third parties.
- Sharing proprietary
ideas with select a select group.
- Online training
for resellers
- A way of using
high volumes of data using Electronic Data Interchange
(EDI)
- Sharing product
catalogs and inventory levels exclusively partners
- Collaborating
with other companies on joint development efforts
- Providing services
offered by one company to a group of other companies.
- Share news
of common interest exclusively with partner companies
Business
to Customer Extranet portals
The focus of a business to customer portal is to improve
a company's ability to acquire, serve, and retain customers.
Companies are competing for access to customers and
building loyalty and long-term relationships. Developing
customer intimacy, relationships and excellent service
are vital components of sustaining competitive advantage.
With a secure and scalable portal, businesses can deliver
key information within and outside the firewall so employees
and customers can view products and prices, track orders,
check inventory and view delivery and service call status.
The increased level of customer information and self-service
will improve customer relationships and retention. The
portal 'engine room' determines which applications each
user sees, the scheme that controls navigation for that
user between applications, and the branding of the personalized
start page. The most relevant topics for that user will
be highlighted in the portal's knowledge directory.
Each client will experience a unique workspace which
has been personalized to show them the information they
are interested in and require to interact with your
organization. This encourages a 'loyalty habit' which
helps dramatically with client retention rates. When
an organization offers its customers external access
to selected internal information, they also obtain the
following opportunities:
- Targeted marketing
- Prospect information
- Increased sales
- Innovative
field service capabilities
- Relationship
management
- Online Ordering
- Improved Customer
service and Support
- Business to
Supplier portals
Business
to Partner Extranet Portals
Companies are focusing more and more on their core competencies
and depending more on synergistic partners for market
presence and competitive advantage. Companies are looking
to reduce their costs, improve their time-to-market,
improve their overall efficiencies and generally improve
their supplier relationships.
Supplier Portals
are directed toward improving the company's ability
to identify, maintain, and manage suppliers. Organizations
are integrating and transforming their supply chain
and realizing the value of up-to-the-minute information
to manage more efficiently. Organizations are also trying
to reduce redundancy, improve time to market and reduce
overall costs. Improved information flow across the
organization and supply chain will enable employees
to make proactive, fact-based decisions to enhance:
- Ordering and
Fulfillment
- Procurement
- Planning
- Sourcing
- Inventory Control
- Logistics and
Distribution
- Manufacturing
Supplier community
information portals enable both users and external partner
at every point along the supply chain to effectively
use information to improve processes and time to market,
reduce costs and manage the business more effectively.
Organizations
need the flexibility and nimbleness to enter in and
out of partner relationships on an on going basis, based
on dynamic changes and competitive pressures in the
market. The partner community portal allows corporate
employees as well as channel partners to view information
across both the enterprise and the channel partner.
Some examples
include:
- Share Marketing
Documents
- Product Release
Schedules
- Distribute
leads to reseller channel
- Manage Forecasts
from multiple channel partners
- Collect up
to date partner profile information
- Collaborate
on joint selling opportunities
- Provide channel
with a knowledge base for both sales and technical
support
- Provide access
to partner-specific training, documents, etc.
- Schedule resources
based on demand
- Collect feedback
from partners on both sales and product issues
In general, both
organizations want to know which products are selling,
how much revenue is being generated, what the amount
of demand is and how many resources are necessary to
fulfill the demand. In addition, they want to know what
the bottlenecks in the process are and how to improve
the combined process. Companies will utilize partner
information portals to provide access to and share information
across the value chain with their partners, in order
to collaborate on selling, delivering and serving their
combined customers.
An extranet requires
security and privacy. These require firewall server
management, the issuance and use of digital certificates
or similar means of user authentication, encryption
of messages, and the use of virtual private networks
(VPN) that tunnel through the public network.
At Computer eCommerce
we know how to return a profit on your technology investment.
Make one phone call or send us an email
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