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Extranet SSL VPN

What is an Extranet?

An Extranet is similar to an Intranet but it is made accessible to selected external partners such as business partners, suppliers, key customers etc, for exchanging data and applications and sharing information.

As with an Intranet, an Extranet can also provide remote access to corporate systems for staff who spend lots of time out of the office, for instance those in sales or customer support, or home workers.

Extranet users should be a well-defined group and access must be protected by rigorous identification routines and security features.

Benefits of an Extranet

An Extranet can offer a range of benefits to your business from lowering costs, to producing faster results and improving the quality of service to customers.

Benefits can depend to a large degree on your reasons for introducing the extranet in the first place. However, the types of benefit that organisations using extranets typically experience include:

  • More integrated supply chains through the use of online ordering, order tracking and inventory management
  • Reduced costs by making manuals and technical documentation available online to trading partners and customers
  • More effective collaboration between business partners - perhaps members of a project team - by enabling them to work online on common documentation
  • Improved business relationships with key trading partners because of the close collaborative working that extranets support.
  • Improved customer service by giving customers direct access to information and enabling them to resolve their own queries
  • A single user interface between you and your business partners
  • Improving the security of communications between you and your business partners, since exchanges can take place under a controlled and secure environment such as a virtual private network. See our guide on how to get the most from your network
  • Shared news of product development exclusively with partner companies
  • Flexible working for your own staff, as an extranet allows remote and mobile staff to access core business information 24 hours a day, irrespective of location