Intranets and Extranets within Business Communication

The Intranet is used to control network access for the insiders in an organization or any scenario, whereas extranet is used to control the access of networks for the outsiders. Firewalls are used to control the access and to develop a secure protocol both in the intranet as well as extranets. The Intranet is used to provide access to the internal users and also to control the level of access. The access within and outside the organization is different.

Use of intranet

Use of internet to help pickers and packers find items in warehouse – With the growth in internet technologies internet retailers have come up. The Internet plays an important role in managing the level of stock and arranging daily posting. Data warehousing can be used to record the stock arrivals daily and to ensure the orderliness of the stock room. The Internet assists the pickers and packers by providing logistics and the interested buyers that can enter into business with the pickers and packers by visiting their website design. The Internet has enabled convenient payment options too such as COD, Debit card, gift cards etc. Delivery of the products is also assisted by the internet by using digital distribution, drop shipping or in-store pickups in which customer can select the picker and packer by the use of a locator software and the delivered product can be picked up in the locating selected.

Intranet has resulted in better communication within the organization and real-time communication that is efficient and quick. It has provided operational support, employee profiling and better transparency of work. Business decisions and support are heavily supported by the intranets. Several business functions such as increasing employee engagement, training, and learning are supported by the intranets

Use of Extranets

The resources of the organization are linked via the extranet such as suppliers and company are linked by the extranet, also extranet serves as a linkage for the organization and their customers. It helps in giving access to the company databases and information about the company such as key business decisions, annual report etc. So we can say that extranet is the key to building a relationship and linking the company with its external stakeholders.

Customized extranets- In this type, an IT firm is on hire to build customized extranet according to the specifications and the needs suggested. This involves setting up of the server, programming, and recruitment of staff that is dedicated to the extranet maintenance.

Enterprise extranet tools – this includes special tools such as Microsoft SharePoint allowing the publishing of extranets without performing things from the scratch.

Hyper-office Approach of having hosted extranets – this involves small and middle sized companies to have the hosted software-as-a-service approach to render access to extranet technologies to growing companies.

Use of Web portal – Web portal is a web page that is designed especially bringing information and knowledge from varied sources uniformly. Each source of information is assigned a dedicated area in the page through which the information is displayed. Mashups and intranet dashboards are variant for a portal. Intranet and the Extranet lead to better team collaboration, shared values, and information. In the search engine, White and Black hat SEO can be used for the optimization.