Page 62 - DCAP306_DCAP511_E-COMMERCE_AND_E-BUSINESS

Unit 5: Intranet and Extranet for E-Commerce

competitors. Applications can be developed to assist the sharing of these data for the people who
require this information for decision-making.

AskMe Enterprise has developed an application on the basis of following
assumptions:

1. Employees do not know who can help them solve their business problems.
2. The exchange of workplace knowledge takes place by means of e-mail, phone
calls, or meetings. As most of the resulting knowledge stays undocumented, it
is unusable by others.
A company is expected to have the following business benefits by using AskMe
Enterprise’s application:
1. Share best practices across the organization
2. Improve business skills
3. Respond faster to key business issues
4. Replace reinvention with innovation

5. Make better decisions
6. Increase productivity

E-Commerce applications help in managing customer information, product inventory and invoicing.

Visit any organization and analyze the key benefits that the intranet has brought to the
organization.

5.1.2 E-Commerce over Extranets
An extranet can be defined as a shared Internet connection with other companies and business partners.
Some parts of an intranet are made available to the customers for specific applications. The links
between an intranet and its business partners are attained through TCP/IP, the standard Internet
protocol. Extranets provide the security of an intranet while maintaining the global reach of the
Internet. The major feature of the extranet is that it extends the intranet from one location to another
across the Internet by securing data flows using cryptography and authorization procedures. This way,
intranet of business partners, distributors, financial services, material suppliers, and customers are
connected to extranets by an agreement between collaborating parties. The business model which is
established through the combination of intranets and extranets has become significant for e-commerce
as it enables the corporations to utilize market opportunities and offer customized services and
products. Business-to-business e-commerce is emerging on extranets. The companies gain advantage
through quick transactions and access to newer markets by faster and simplified distribution of
information, products, and services.
Businesses are trying to develop secure links with trading partners and customers for years. The use of
IP to support secure intercompany virtual private networks has led to the creation of extranets. Thus,
access privileges and routing tables are overlaid on existing intranet and Internet infrastructure. The
security of transactions with permitted corporate Web sites and databases is then enabled on the
extranet. In addition to simple commercial transactions of sale-purchase, joint activities between
business partners on the extranet are enabled at lower costs over VANs.
The business uses of extranet are wide and very similar to that of intranets.

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