Benefits of Using Extranets

Both intranets and extranets are just like any other website except that they require user name and passwords to access the information. Extranets are distinct from intranets in that they are intended for users outside the company (whereas an intranet's users are those inside the company). Extranets are used to provide information to business partners, clients, special customers, or anyone else who needs access to information that would not be appropriate for the general public's consumption. Extranets can contain special pricing information for retailers, resellers, or wholesalers. Extranets might contain detailed product specifications and instructions, resources for product reps, or information on their product's latest features. At Newfangled we use an extranet for maintaining password protected client pages. On our client pages we post company and client contact information, links to pdf files of project related documents (proposals, contracts, creative briefs etc.), production schedules, and layouts of work in progress.

Extranets provide an extremely convenient method for sharing information with business partners and clients. In our case, our clients know exactly where to find all of the information relating to their projects. The client page can be accessed by anyone in the organization who needs to review and have input into the project. Client pages can be accessed from anywhere in the world at any time. Often we may have conference calls with people from various locations and our extranet enables everyone involved to look at the same information on the client page.

Another benefit of this approach is that the extranet's content is always current. Printed material presents the risk that old, out of date information might be in circulation. In contrast extranets "live" in only one place, and therefore the content they contain is always the most up to date. Companies can save a lot of time and money by replacing frequently changing printed versions of information with extranet versions. For example, we met with one client who had a spiral bound book that contained information about each of their company's locations. This information changed quite frequently and every time it changed, they would have to reprint, recompile, and redistribute the books. This process is both inefficient and expensive. Additionally, confusion resulting from the fact that the older books were still floating around caused misinformation to perpetuate itself. Because of this confusion, the printed source (even the new versions) would often be considered suspect as no one could be certain that the information was still correct. People had to contact the one responsible for maintaining the book to make sure the information they had was correct.

The use of an extranet eliminates the inefficiencies of this process. Instead of maintaining a printed book, the extranet contains the information. This allows the person responsible for the information to keep the extranet current, and anyone who needs the information to access it from there. Additionally, the information is always available right when they need it, rather than of having to wait for an updated book, or a returned call to confirm information.

One reason companies don't use web based extranets is the difficulty of maintaining web content. Most companies find it hard enough maintaining the content of their public website. The idea of using the web for day-to-day business communication seems unrealistic. Maintaining information that changes on a daily basis would require complete control over the site's content. The technical experience necessary to achieve this is usually outside of the skill set of a typical small to medium sized company. Automating the process of maintaining site content usually means spending huge amounts of money. It can be difficult to argue that a company should spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to make maintaining a resource book easier. An effective extranet requires a content management system. Unfortunately most CMS systems are out of reach both financially and technically for many small and medium sized businesses.

Newfangled's policy of including free and unlimited user licenses to our CMS overcomes this barrier so any company can experience the benefits of a company extranet.

Helping clients recognize the value of extranets raises their understanding of the overall value of the web as a strategic tool. Companies who maintain static websites usually fail to experience the real benefits that the web has to offer. Therefore, the web does not get high priority in comparison to other marketing and communications mediums. But when the web solves problems and provides cost-effective, powerful solutions, its strategic importance to a company grows. Extranets are one of the ways the web demonstrates its real value.

Our own Client Manager extranet has helped us capture this true value of the web. We believe so strongly in the value of extranets that we provide our agency partners our extranet system. To this end we have used the NewfangledCMS to create a client page extranet system that can be used by any agency or design firm. We make this system available to all of our agency partners free of charge (although a monthly hosting fee is required). Clients, jobs, documents, schedules, layouts, and other information can be added to the client extranet using the simple NewfangledCMS interface. Clients access these pages with assigned user names and passwords.

The client page extranet system is a valuable and useful tool. It provides our agency partners a hands-on experience of how the web can be utilized in ways many companies have not recognized.