Intranet,Internet,Extranet and the people

8/12/2019 Intranet,Internet,Extranet and the people

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/intranetinternetextranet-and-the-people 1/11

1

The use of internet, extranet, and intranets in Business & Management

Word Count: 2500

22ndApril, 2011



2

Table of Content

1. Executive Summary 3

2.

Introduction 43. Literature Review & Research findings 6

a. Definition, history and impacts of networking technologies 6

i. Internet 6

ii. Intranet 7

iii. Extranet 7

4. Conclusions and recommendations – The future of networking 9

5. List of References 11



3

Executive Summary

The use of internet, extranet and intranet combined has been witnessed at an increasing

rate over the past decade. Since technology has paved its way to modern businesses, many are

looking forward to adapt to the ever changing market conditions and utilize resources to get the

job done quickly without any possible communication barriers. Internet, extranet and Intranet aredefined as revolutionary methods of communication that have had significant impact upon

business & management. This report aims to cover various aspects of these three systems in

pages to come.



4

Introduction

Due to the undoubtedly rising speed, flexibility, & efficiency at which businesses are

operating globally, the combined use of internet, intranet and extranet have led to the explosive

growth in online transactions between buyers and sellers. Now, these buyers could be customers

or business organizations that purchase their raw materials. Either way, the transactions are beingcarried forward due to various benefits it has over the traditional methods of transmitting

information. Using this method, the internet has paved way for many emerging markets and

economies of the world to secure a good place in international market for various products and

services. Search Engine Optimization and content writing services have been increasingly getting

outsourced to Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and Philippines, etc. All transactions are now

being carried forward online.

Gone were the days when businesses had to communicate using traditional methods of

communication like letters. The revolution of intranet – an interconnected network of computers

within an organization or a private home network – has revolutionized the way bigmultinationals and companies are communicating with their employees and other stakeholders.

The use of intranet has big impact on managerial job performance amongst various

organizations. Companies are growing and expanding at the speed of light globally, due to which

they need to have a strong communication system in order to share sheer amounts of information

with their employees, clients, suppliers, & customers. Gone were the days when sharing

information had been a pain in the neck. Emails, intranet messengers, and cloud computing has

solved all of those problems by making easier than ever for businesses to transmit information

using highly sophisticated technology.

An extension of intranets, also known as extranets is a method of communication that isused to control a network of systems without the use of internet, but only from external sources.

Extranets have been increasingly getting popular by military and various intelligence units to

access data centrally located that never gets public by connecting to the internet. This essay aims

to shed light on how the use of intranet, internet and extranet has had impact on business

performance and management at organizational and global level. Businesses now need to

actively get up to date with the latest market happenings and events as they unfold. Slow and

steady concept is not there to work for businesses anymore. The competition is so stiff that if any

business fails to adjust to ever changing dynamic market trends and consumer expectations, it

would eventually become a big failure.

The combined use of this technology has led wonders to take place in today’s world,

however not without its costs. The increased usage of e-commerce, online transactions, extranets

and intranets has exposed systems and IT infrastructure at the highest possible level of cyber

crimes including identity thefts, credit card thefts, and hacking & cracking into the most secure

databases of business intelligence. This has led to amplified losses of companies by unauthorized

access to secret data of organizations and various public sector agencies including the CIA FBI



5

and Pentagon. Although steps are taken to reduce the number of cyber attacks including

designated task force to catch these thieves, yet there is a long way to exchange information

securely & safely online. This paper aims to discover the benefits and costs of using high tech

communication technology to meet consumer expectations and its impact upon business

performance.



6

Literature Review & Research findings

a. Definition, history & impacts of networking technologies

i. Internet

Internet can be defined as a system of interconnected networks across the world to rapidlyaccess information at all levels. The history of internet can be traced back to 1960s’ when ARPA

Net was developed by the US military in order to exchange classified information amongst a

system of interconnected computers at the facility. It worked quite well and since then a

revolution took place that is now known as the internet. Since 1969, internet started to get

developed with more and more computers being interconnected giving a wide range of access to

information. Emails, messengers and websites started to get developed where now people could

buy and sell various items online. This revolutionary concept was termed as e-commerce and it

all started back in 1994.

The advantages of using internet to conduct online operations outweigh any other methods.This is because internet enables companies and businesses to save cost by directly engaging with

the customers and launching an e-commerce business online. This helps businesses to directly

sell their products & services online via safe method of performing transactions. Big businesses

have saved tremendous costs while shifting their technical support and customer service online

(Dieter, 2001). The best example can be quoted for Cisco systems, a multinational networking

equipment manufacturer that saved $125 million and increased productivity by as much as 200%

by practicing the method of online customer support. The decision-making process by managers

and seniors has been drastically shortened due to ample availability of data that can be

researched for any problem online. Managers therefore, nowadays spend more time in crafting

and implementing strategy; an inevitable aspect of business that requires consistent dose of effortand time.

Internet has had great impact upon business relationships, form suppliers to customers (Jerry,

2001). The internet has made is easier than ever for businesses to engage directly with their

customers and suppliers and communicate quickly than ever before.

However this change is never without any costs. Although Asian countries have become no

less than IT hub, yet there are number of challenges businesses are facing with the deployment of

latest IT services. Enterprise Content Management and safety of e-commerce are the two biggest

challenges that can be mentioned here. The rapid development of sophisticated internettechnologies has forced many businesses to invest heavily on their IT infrastructure in order to

get in line with competitors, failing in which may result rising costs in the long run. Businesses

are finding it increasingly difficult to adjust to the ever changing market trends (Dieter, 2010).



7

ii. Intranet

Intranet is defined as an “internal networking system through internet technologies” that is

only accessed by the company itself to transfer files and share information with its workforce

(Noor, Noorzaida, & Intan, 2010). Just like internet, intranet also makes use of Web browsers,

FTP clients, LAN messengers and email messaging system to share information throughout thecorporation (PennState, 2008).

Over the past few years, the use of intranet has seen explosive growth paralleled to internet

usage. This is because as businesses grow and expand their operations, they need a safe and

secure networking environment to share files & information limited to the reach of

organizational members, including all staff members. The intranet can become a big cost if

employees are not willing to adapt to ever changing market trends and get used to it at their

organization (Malhotra, Galletta, 1999). In the past it was very difficult for businesses to

distribute company information; however intranet had been solving that communication problem

to impact businesses with profitability and competitiveness (Martha & Marco, 2010).

All systems owned by the companies are connected either wireless using routers or network

hubs to connect many computers at a time. Due to the large physical size of an average

organization today, businesses have shift from using wired LAN cables to connect systems with

each other to using a wireless networking system. This has directly impacted upon the level of

communication in organizations. Intranets have now gone warless thereby enabling businesses to

overcome the physical barriers of size when it comes to sharing information (Sadaf, 2008).

Various methods exist to interconnect corporation’s numerous departments for efficient and

effective communication e.g. Virtual Private Networking (Blurtit, 2011). Virtual Private Network is a system of interconnected computers of an organization that makes up its own

network to be accessed only by employees, staff members and authorized personnel. There are

numerous business impacts of corporate level intranet implementation (Margo, 200). It allows

cost efficient dissemination of information at lightning fast speed, improves efficiency of

manufacturing operation (Margo, 2000), archives sheer amount of data on several server

computers, and unifies the process of storing and sharing information (Margo, 2000).

iii. Extranet

There has been quite a good level of discussion upon internet, and intranet but the importance

of extranet should never be underestimated. An extranet can be defined as a collaborative use of

internet and intranet to access data of an organization form outside the physical access of a

system. The word extranet is coined by the Ethernet developer Bob Metcalf (Richard, Renee, &

Lydia, 1998). The most common definition of extranet according to Bob is “a network that links

business partners to one another over the internet.” Extranet is an extended version of intranet.

The main difference between intranet and extranet is that the former is confined to the physical



8

access of the organization, whereas the latter goes well beyond the geographical reach accessing

data safely & securely.

Extranet had not been witnessed until the 1990s and 2000s saw many companies using this

term to connect business departments with each other across the globe. Although extranet runs

using internet, in order to prevent unauthorized access to the secure data, the systems are password-protected and can only be accessed by authorized personnel including staff workers,

key executive members and employees. Many companies use extranet in order to stay abreast of

the ever changing market dynamics. An extranet provides a secure and safe method of

transmitting top classified data from one business department to the other (Richard, Renee, &

Lydia, 1998). Ford Motor Company gets benefitted from this system that gives access to

thousands of workers at various locations across the globe to access sheer amounts of data

quickly and efficiently regarding car market.

Extranet does not get implemented without costs. Since it is a much complex and bigger

system of interconnected networks, it takes much more time, effort and investment to deploy a proper working extranet environment to share data. Firms specializing in deployment of extranet

need to be hired as it require technical staff that can understand the complex details of setting up

a secure data sharing environment.

Many authors and acclaimed critics have agreed to the fact that extranet implication is

synonymous to reduced costs and improved performance (Sanna, 2004). The importance of

extranet in supply chain management is clearly inevitable, according to Vlosky & Fontenot

(Sanna, 2004). Since extranet has the ability to reach beyond physical capacities of an

organization, multinational companies involved in large scale manufacturing process can reap

fruitful results from its implementation by communicating with vendors, customers, clients andraw material suppliers; a practice that was witnessed way before extranet had been developed.

Many companies including P&G, Unilever and Johnson & Johnson had had extranet integrated

in their supply chain management to get benefits from this system in today’s highly competitive

global business environment.

Security can always be a big concern for business units. Although recent advancements in the

field of IT has led to better security for transactions and online data sharing, yet it is very risky to

transfer valuable files over extranet as external threats like cyber-attacks from intruders and

hackers can always damage the system and corrupt data transferring process. Better measures are

currently being deployed for safety over data transfer using extranet, yet there is a long way togo. Business partners are connected behind a secure firewall to get access to information and

data (Sanna, 2004).



9

Conclusions & Recommendations – The future of networking

With business development taking pace and companies in effort to gain their slice of the

cake are moving ahead with competitive strategies, it seems that the future of networking is very

promising in the long run. However, there are many challenges and questions that need to be

resolved and answered along with this progress of improved data transfer. Expectations arealways on the rise with more and more consumers, suppliers and businesses are hitting the online

world (Gigabit Ethernet Alliance, 2011). Use of fiber optics and satellite communication would

become more common but issues like security concerns need to be resolved before any progress

can be made. Security, despite taking all measures of well protected firewalls and complex

systems to ensure data protection, is still the biggest concern of IT policy makers in the future.

The next generation IPV6 internet TCP/IP protocol is a promising opportunity to make

data transmission faster and secure than ever before (Roger, 2004). Although IPV6 has now been

fully deployed and is use by many latest handheld and portable gadgets, yet its wide scale

implementation needs to be done in order to witness more efficient data transmission methods.Cloud computing and virtual private networking is now emerging as popular means of storing

and sharing large amounts of data. Companies usually do not take the risk of setting up their own

cloud environment within the organizations. Instead, organizations outsource this process to

different companies that are specialized in providing safe & secure cloud computing service. In

exchange of reasonable fee depending upon the bandwidth and data storage options selected, big

organizations can easily access and share data by using this system.

While combining the use of internet, intranet and extranet for organizations would

definitely open doors to new opportunities in emerging economies, it should be noted that these

benefits would never take place overnight. Instead it takes a steady dose of time, effort andinvestment to get adjusted to the market conditions (Dieter, 2001). Legal differences in

institutions and organizations at their levels of implementation of the latest data transferring

methodologies can place stress and constraints on the dissemination of knowledge globally. A

big hurdle in the development of latest communication methods is big chunks of investment and

technical expertise required to deploy and reap benefits, which in today’s world shows the

inability of many firms to keep up to the ever changing market trends. Not all organizations are

ready to adapt themselves to the ever changing market trends and scenarios taking place at the

speed of light.

However the potential of IT as a method to sustain competitive edge in today’s stiffglobal business environment can never be underestimated. Although the implementation of latest

technology requires heavy investment, yet the benefits far exceed the costs in long term. There

are more costs associated with poor and improperly planned intranet, internet and extranet

implementation than a properly planned strategy. Businesses can always start from zero and

reach to the heights of success by slowly integrating each component of communication one at a



10

time in their business units. This would not only save cost, but also time in the short run. A

proper model should be established for the implementation of proper networking solutions.



11

References

1. Blurtit, 2011. 1. What Is Extranet? What Are Its Example? 2. What Is Intranet? And AlsoIts Example? [online] Available at http://www.blurtit.com/q773534.html [Accessed 20April, 2011]

2. PennState, 2008. Lesson 2: The impact of the internet on Business and Industry, 2008. E-commerce times, [online] May 2008. Available at

http://www.personal.psu.edu/glh10/ist110/topic/topic09/topic09_03.html [Accessed 20

April, 2011].

3. Martha & Marco, 2011. The business impact of intranets. [online] 2011. Available at

http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/Research/mma/1999/23.pdf [Accessed 20 April, 2011].

4. Dieter, 2001. The Internet’s effect on business organization: Bane or Boon for

Developing Asia? [online] East-West Center. Available at

http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/api048.pdf [Accessed 20, April

2011].

5. Sanna, 2004. A model of extranet implementation success effects on business

performance [online] Available at

http://www.lfpdc.lsu.edu/publications/working_papers/wp66.pdf [Accessed 21 April,

2011].

6. Richard, Renee, & Lydia, 1998. Extranets: Impacts on business practices and

relationships [online] Available at http://isbm.smeal.psu.edu/library/working-paper-

articles/1998-working-papers/20-1998-extranets-impacts.pdf [Accessed 19 April, 2011].

7. Margo, 2011. Exploring the effect of a Corporate Intranet on the Sharing of Information

and Internal Relationship Building [online] Available at

http://www.impgroup.org/uploads/papers/41.pdf [Accessed 20 April, 2011].

8. Vignette, 2011. Extranet 2.0. [online] Available at

http://www.vignette.com/dafiles/docs/Downloads/WP-Extranet-2.0.pdf [Accessed 20

April, 2011].

9. Jerry, 2001. The Internet’s Impact on Business Relationships. InformationWeek. [online]

Available at http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-

cio/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=6506627 [Accessed 20 April, 2011]

10. Sadaf, 2008. The Total Economic Impact of Cisco Unified Wireless Network Migration

[online] Available at

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/wireless/ps6302/ps8322/ps6366/forrester_T

EI_of_cisco_unified_wireless_network.pdf [Accessed 19 April, 2011].

http://www.blurtit.com/q773534.html



http://www.personal.psu.edu/glh10/ist110/topic/topic09/topic09_03.html


http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/Research/mma/1999/23.pdf


http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/api048.pdf


http://www.lfpdc.lsu.edu/publications/working_papers/wp66.pdf


http://isbm.smeal.psu.edu/library/working-paper-articles/1998-working-papers/20-1998-extranets-impacts.pdf




http://www.impgroup.org/uploads/papers/41.pdf


http://www.vignette.com/dafiles/docs/Downloads/WP-Extranet-2.0.pdf


http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=6506627




http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/wireless/ps6302/ps8322/ps6366/forrester_TEI_of_cisco_unified_wireless_network.pdf
















Documents

Intranet,Internet,Extranet and the people