Intranets and Extranets - The Climate For Intranets And Extranets

THE CLIMATE FOR INTRANETS AND EXTRANETS

In an economy increasingly based on digital information, intranets and extranets are becoming central tools in the effort by businesses and other organizations to streamline their operations and maximize their available resources, both physical and intellectual. Increasingly, intranets were a given for large companies. According to The Journal of Business Strategy, between 1997 and 2001, 90 percent of major corporations implemented an intranet strategy. In the early 2000s, extranets also were rapidly becoming an expectation rather than a bonus.

InformationWeek reported that IT managers generally had high expectations for their intranets and extranets, noting that 80 to 90 percent of all IT managers expected a positive return on their investments in such network systems. The lowered costs of doing business with other firms was the most obvious and immediate advantage posed by the implementation of intranets and extranets, though the efficiencies of data flow throughout and between firms was an important subsidiary advantage.

Security, of course, was a primary concern with intranets and extranets, since their purpose was to invite some but exclude others. Access can be secured by a variety of techniques, including traditional identification and passwords, or by other methods such as digital certificates or IP address recognition. A favored method of managing the access of internal data systems by outside parties is to employ enterprise directories. Enterprise directories are a relatively easy way to manage outside access because their hierarchical structures can serve to provide layers of authentication, determining what kinds of information can be made available to what kinds of partners. Because the layers of access restrictions for extranets can be complex—for instance, a company may choose to provide open access to all partners for product testing information, but to only certain partners for confidential sales information—extranet security is labor intensive and requires skilled IT managers and security experts.

In addition to basic information sharing capabilities, intranets and extranets play a prominent role in corporate communications, both inside and outside the firm. With advanced audio and video technologies wired for Internet capabilities, intranets and extranets can facilitate secure real-time conferencing, seminars, and other discussions. This enables executives and workers to communicate directly and immediately, and allows them to transfer information on a moment's notice, thereby making such meetings much more efficient.

Intranets and extranets also favor the model of corporate organizing that was on the rise in the Internet age of the 1990s and early 2000s. Instead of relying heavily or exclusively on top-down communications structures—whereby instructions and ideas are announced by executives to lower-level workers—companies can utilize intranets and extra-nets to encourage creativity and decision-making among their lower-level employees. This facilitates cross-departmental collaboration and results in a constant dialogue among all members of an organization, thereby maximizing the knowledge at the firm's disposal.