INTRANETS AND EXTRANET
INTRANET
An intranet is a private network , accessible only to an organization's staff.
Generally a wide range of information and services from the organization's internal IT systems are available that would not be available to the public from the Internet.
A company-wide intranet can constitute an important focal point of internal communication and collaboration, and provide a single starting point to access internal and external resources.
In its simplest form an intranet is established with the technologies for local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks(WANs).
FEATURES :
1. Internal company network that uses Internet standards (HTML, HTTP & TCP/IP protocols) & software.
2. Accessed only by authorized persons, especially members or employees of the organization.
3. Two levels of Security required:
Internal- It can be imposed by Public Key Security & Encryption Key.
External- Through Firewall.
USES
Intranet user-experience, editorial, and technology teams work together to produce in-house sites.
Most commonly, intranets are managed by the communications, HR or CIO departments of large organizations, or some combination of these.
Most commonly, intranets are managed by the communications, HR or CIO departments of large organizations, or some combination of these.
Because of the scope and variety of content and the number of system interfaces, intranets of many organizations are much more complex than their respective public websites. Intranets and their use are growing rapidly.
- Increasingly, intranets are being used to deliver tools, e.g. collaboration (to facilitate working in groups and teleconferencing) or sophisticated corporate directories, sales and customer relationship management tools, project management etc., to advance productivity.
- Intranets are also being used as corporate culture-change platforms. For example, large numbers of employees discussing key issues in an intranet forum application could lead to new ideas in management, productivity, quality, and other corporate issues.
- In large intranets, website traffic is often similar to public website traffic and can be better understood by using web metrics software to track overall activity.
- User surveys also improve intranet website effectiveness. Larger businesses allow users within their intranet to access public internet through firewall servers. They have the ability to screen messages coming and going keeping security intact.
BENEFITS :
1.Workforce productivity:- Intranets can help users to locate and view information faster and use applications relevant to their roles and responsibilities.
- With the help of a web browser interface, users can access data held in any database the organization wants to make available, any time and — subject to security provisions — from anywhere within the company workstations, increasing employees' ability to perform their jobs faster, more accurately, and with confidence that they have the right information.
- It also helps to improve the services provided to the users.
- Intranets allow organizations to distribute information to employees on an as-needed basis.
- Employees may link to relevant information at their convenience, rather than being distracted indiscriminately by email.
- Intranets can serve as powerful tools for communication within an organization, vertically strategic initiatives that have a global reach throughout the organization.
- The type of information that can easily be conveyed is the purpose of the initiative and what the initiative is aiming to achieve, who is driving the initiative, results achieved to date, and who to speak to for more information.
- By providing information on the intranet, staff have the opportunity to keep up-to-date with the strategic focus of the organization.
- Examples of communication - chat, email, and/or blogs.
- Example of where an intranet helped a company communicate is when Nestle had a number of food processing plants in Scandinavia. Their central support system had to deal with a number of queries every day. When Nestle decided to invest in an intranet, they quickly realized the savings. McGovern says the savings from the reduction in query calls was substantially greater than the investment in the intranet.
- It allows cumbersome corporate knowledge to be maintained and easily accessed throughout the company using hypermedia and Web technologies.
- Examples : Employee manuals, benefits documents, company policies, business standards, news feeds, and even training, can be accessed using common Internet standards (Acrobat files, Flash files, CGI applications).
- Because each business unit can update the online copy of a document, the most recent version is usually available to employees using the intranet.
- Intranets are also being used as a platform for developing and deploying applications to support business operations and decisions across the internetworked enterprise.
- Users can view information and data via web-browser rather than maintaining physical documents such as procedure manuals, internal phone list and requisition forms. This can potentially save the business money on printing, duplicating documents, and the environment as well as document maintenance overhead.
- For example, the HRM company PeopleSoft "derived significant cost savings by shifting HR processes to the intranet". McGovern goes on to say the manual cost of enrolling in benefits was found to be USD109.48 per enrollment.
- Information is easily accessible by all authorised users, which enables teamwork.
- Standards-compliant web browsers are available for Windows, Mac, and UNIX.
- Many companies dictate computer specifications which, in turn, may allow Intranet developers to write applications that only have to work on one browser (no cross-browser compatibility issues).
- Being able to specifically address the"viewer" is a great advantage.
- Since Intranets are user-specific (requiring database/network authentication prior to access), business know exactly who they are are interfacing with.
- Every user has the ability to view the same information within the Intranet.
- When dealing with the public in any capacity, laws, specifications, and parameters can change. Intranets make it possible to provide your audience with "live" changes so they are kept up-to-date, which can limit a company's liability.
- The intranet can also be linked to a company’s management information system, for example a time keeping system.
DISADVANTAGES OF INTRANET:
- Management does need to stop control of specific information, this problem can be minimized but with appropriate prudence.
- The other disadvantage of Intranet is security issue :Unauthorized access.
- Intranet gathered everything in one location which is really good but if it is not prearranged then you will spoil everything.
- The cost of intranet is very high but has lots of advantages after implementing.
APPLICATIONS OF INTRANET:
1. Sharing of company policies/rules & regulations.
2. Inter office e-mail.
3.Access employee database.
4. Distribution of circulars/Office Orders.
5. Access product & customer data.
6. Sharing of information of common interest.
7. Launching of personal/departmental home pages.
8. Submission of reports.
9.Corporate telephone directories.
10. Web publishing of corporate documents , Web Forms and Web-to-database links.
Most organizations devote considerable resources into the planning and implementation of their intranet as it is of strategic importance to the organization's success.
The planning would include topics such as:
The planning would include topics such as:
- The purpose and goals of the intranet.
- Persons or departments responsible for implementation and management.
- Functional plans, information architecture, page layouts, design.
- Implementation schedules and phase-out of existing systems.
- Defining and implementing security of the intranet.
- How to ensure it is within legal boundaries and other constraints.
- Level of interactivity (e.g. wikis, on-line forms) desired.
- Is the input of new data and updating of existing data to be centrally controlled or devolved.
EXTRANET
An extranet is a website that allows controlled access to partners, vendors and suppliers or an authorized set of customers - normally to a subset of the information accessible from an organization's intranet.
An extranet is similar to a DMZ in that it provides access to needed services for authorised parties, without granting access to an organization's entire network.
When part of an intranet is made accessible to customers and others outside the business, that part becomes part of an extranet. Businesses can send private messages through the public network, using special encryption/decryption and other security safeguards to connect one part of their intranet to another.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INTERNET , INTRANETS AND EXTRANETS
ADVANTAGES
- Exchange large volumes of data using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
- Share product catalogs exclusively with trade partners.
- Collaborate with other companies on joint development efforts.
- Jointly develop and use training programs with other companies.
- Provide or access services provided by one company to a group of other companies, such as an online banking application managed by one company on behalf of affiliated banks.
DISADVANTAGES
- Extranets can be expensive to implement and maintain within an organization (e.g., hardware, software, employee training costs), if hosted internally rather than by an application service provider.
- Security of extranets can be a concern when hosting valuable or proprietary information.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INTERNET , INTRANETS AND EXTRANETS
| BASIS | INTERNET | INTRANET | EXTRANET |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. SIZE | Largest with hundreds of thousands of network. | It may span from hundreds to thousands of computers. | It is the smallest. |
| 2. NETWORK TYPE | Global network | It is private network. | It is a private network. |
| 3. USE | It can be used by anyone. | It is limited for use on the organizations computers, | The extranet is an extension of the company’s intranet. |
