An extranet can allow your clients to:
- View invoices, reports and analyses in a secure environment
- Provide comments and approvals directly to you in a structured system
- View purchase history and reorder convenience
- Know what customers are active/inactive
- Actively manage customer relations
This is just a brief overview of functionality that can be used to make your business more successful. The key is to first determine what level of automation will be most beneficial to your company/clients and then create a solution that meets those needs. Below is a brief introduction to the benefits that an extranet could offer your organization.
What is an extranet?
An extranet is similar to an intranet but it is made accessible to selected external partners such as business partners, suppliers, key customers etc, for exchanging data and applications and sharing information.
As with an intranet, an extranet can also provide remote access to corporate systems for staff who spend lots of time out of the office, for instance those in sales or customer support, or home workers.
Extranet users should be a well-defined group and access must be protected by rigorous identification routines and security features.
Why would you use an extranet?
Businesses of all sizes are under increasing pressure to use online ordering, electronic order tracking and inventory management.
At the same time small businesses are keen to meet the demands of larger companies in terms of working flexibly, adopting new technologies and enabling the exchange of business information and transactions.
Extranets offer a cheap and efficient way for businesses to connect with their trading partners. It also means that your business partners and suppliers can access the information they need 24 hours a day.
The ability of the extranet to automate the trading tasks between you and your trading partners can lead to enhanced business relationships and help to integrate your business firmly within their supply chain.
Key issues to consider
Bear in mind that once you make parts of your business data available to trading partners, they will expect it to be available, up-to-date and secure at all times. Availability and security are key factors in the success of an extranet.
Is your business prepared to work collaboratively? Are you willing to share production and sales information with partners?
