The Benefits of an Extranet

An extranet can add value to your company by helping you communicate

and collaborate more effectively with clients, customers, and partners. Particularly in the business-to-business market, an extranet can give your company an edge over the competition and save you money by streamlining traditional business functions and cutting overhead costs.

Extranets offer small businesses many other advantages:

Increased productivity. As you automate processes that were traditionally done manually, bottlenecks will disappear and your company's productivity will increase. Critical information won't get lost in the mail or buried in an e-mail inbox, and busy employees won't miss or forget key events. An extranet can, for example, monitor business activities and trigger specific actions, such as automatically placing an order with a supplier when your inventory drops below a certain level.

Reduced margin of error. An extranet can reduce your margin of error, especially when you use it to give specific groups access to internal applications. This could involve something as simple as giving customers access to their order histories, or something as complex as processing orders from distributors and suppliers.

Flexibility. When you use an extranet to make information and applications available to partners, clients, and customers, everyone can operate when and where it's most convenient. This self-serve approach frees you from unnecessary meetings and phone tag, and it cuts down on the costs associated with in-person information exchanges. For example, an extranet may allow you to provide customer-service information outside of regular business hours.

Timely and accurate information. On an extranet you can instantly change, edit, and update sensitive information such as price lists or inventory information. Compared to typical paper-based publishing processes, an extranet offers a unique opportunity to get hot information into the right hands before it cools -- and before it's out-of-date.

Shorter time to market. If your business is not moving at "Internet speed," you risk being left behind. An extranet can help you get your products to market more quickly by making proposals and specifications available to suppliers, and giving clients and partners up-to-date information on current projects.

Reduced inventory. One of the hallmarks of a business-to-business extranet is its impact on supply-chain management. By linking your inventory system directly to a supplier, you can process orders as soon as the system knows you need them, thus reducing the stock you keep on hand and making the procurement process more efficient.

Build customer loyalty. Extranets make business easier for your customers. The more you make timely, accurate information available to your customers, the more likely it is you'll keep their business.

As these examples demonstrate, an extranet can help you spend less on supplies, staffing, and other overhead costs. Given the investment an extranet requires, it may take time for savings to become apparent. Over a period of weeks or months, however, eliminating even one paper-based process can yield dramatic savings.