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Use an Extranet to Streamline Communications
- July 1st, 2009
If you are reading this article you have likely heard of the internet. This is a computer communication network (-net) between (inter-) many different organizations. Its also likely that your organization has an intranet. This is a network within (intra-) a single organization.
An extranet is a network that is used to connect a company’s network with specific outside parties. It extends outside (extra-) the company’s normal network to allow it to share information with other organizations, but it is not a public network like the internet.
Using an extranet allows a business to share certain information with partners or remote employees without exposing their entire intranet to the other party. However many businesses lack the ability or the desire to administer such an information sharing arrangement on their own. One way to successfully do this is to use third party extranets as online collaboration tools.
An in-house extranet can be complicated and difficult to administer. This can be especially frustrating for your partners and employees who may decide that the effort required to collaborate isn’t worth it.
Dedicated online collaboration sites have interfaces that are designed to be simple to learn and use. This is easier on both your staff and outside partners. The less time everyone has to spend learning the extranet application, the more quickly the project can be completed.
