Extranets
An Extranet is a computer network that allows controlled access to external users for specific business purposes.
An Extranet can be viewed as an extension of an organisation’s Intranet that is extended to users outside the organisation, for example partners and customers, to share documents and resources that need to be accessed.
How could an Extranet benefit your business?
They can be especially useful if you share large documents as it enables access to these without the long delays that are common when sending large files by email. They are also great way to communicate and collaborate.
Business benefits include a secure way to share information in a closed environment. Extranets can involve key outsiders, all of who must be given access to the system in order to use it. Whenever communicating gets too tough – too many documents, destinations – or too big (uploading and downloading large files), Extranets can ease your pain.
Another benefit is that the Extranet content will always be current and up to date, as opposed to printed materials.
To determine whether an Extranet is the right solution for your business consider what data you share with customers, vendors, suppliers, consultants etc and analyse the benefits of having this information available online via an Extranet.
Some examples include:
Are Extranets hard to set up?
This depends on your level of expertise. You can buy and install software, hire an IT specialist to modify software to suit your company’s needs, build your own system, or buy into an established hosted server and pay a monthly fee to have someone else manage it all for you.