Intranet and Extranet

Its old platform was based mainly around e-mail, which was unable to reach its largely mobile workforce and did not allow the company email service to connect with employee’s mobile phones. Their current platform which the companies uses is an Intranet portal to support worldwide collaboration and communication of corporate strategy which is provided by Microsoft® Online Services and Microsoft on-premises software. Another advantage of using this information for this decision

The recent trend in the global business has been largely driven by the mechanism of the internet and more broadly the cyberspace. This has created a more elaborate platform for all business activities to be coordinated through an information system protocols. The information system is the management of the information data base of an organization or an institution. Information is assumed to be a significant asset, organisations strive to gather, retain and protect their valuable intellectual property to place them in a prominent business platform over their competitors.

Cisco is clearly the one of Information Age companies. Cisco gives the priority on the Information Technology. In the case study, Cisco adopted strategy of systematic acquisitions and strategic partners, which proof that Cisco focuses on cooperated information. Cisco also concerned about standardization, flexibility, extensibility, and scalability. The decisions that Solvik and his team made during this case trends to emphasize how more Cisco becomes closer to the definition of Information Age company. They applied internet and intranet which is not so popular at that year for employee self-service, communication and distance learning, customer

The major goal is to integrate Information Systems/Information Technology with the corporate strategy to use information for better governance and management. This has improved with the connectivity and networking and also the shrinking cost- performance ratios in technology. IT governance thus is a result of the complete merger of computer and communications technologies, like data processing and high advancement in networks, and integrated systems. (Bloomfield; et al, 2000) To this extent the software of the stand alone systems have to be converted to a single functional system for all requirements and the system involves the creation of a network with the following functionality:

The world as we know it has changed drastically in the past three decades, we are slowly but surely morphing into a worldwide community dependent upon computer technology. More specifically we rely on the Internet heavily for everything in our day to day lives. The benefits of expediency and the convenience afforded to those who utilize information systems their business dynamics is undeniable.

In 1995, Li and Fung had discovered the intranet as a way to link its offices to manufacturing sites all over the world. Internal communications were simplified, order progress easily monitored, and online inspections done in real-time. In 1997, customized extranet sites linked key retailers with manufacturers. Three years later, ten extranet sites existed; each of which facilitated online product development processes. The use of the internet prompted quick response manufacturing

Businesses are discovering the Internet as the most powerful and cost effective tool in history. The Net provides a faster, more efficient way to work colleagues, customers, vendors and business partners- irrespective of location or operating system harnessing this powerful resource gives companies strategic advantages by leveraging information into essential business asset. The "technology of the future" here today. This is a fact. Businesses making the transition will, and are prospering; however those that do not will most certainly suffer the consequences.

Networking communication, such as the intranet and Internet, provides a collaboration platform that allows business employees to share and edit documents and projects across the organization. Successfully introducing these components into the widget company will make business a lot easier to manage and will help increase productivity.

* Employing third party for rolling out the new technologies (once they are successfully implemented at a particular location) would reduce the pressure on the IT structure and the central IT team. This would allow them to focus more on the projects which may provide breakthrough for the

There are several ways to build up an intranet. However some common characteristics of an intranet’s architecture, in order for organizations to gain the more out of it, are:

Another positive aspect, that business and government sectors are using the internet communication service. This service have allowed business to work and invest via internet networking .For instance, currently many business companies are sold or advertise their products using networking technology to contact their costumers or other commercial sectors . This is because of the consideration that the time and the cost could be less . In fact the communication network is the main factor of any successful business in today world market . According to ONS: The internet purchases by businesses rose 64.6 per cent, from £37.9 billion in 2003 to £62.4 billion in 2004.(the office for National Statistics ).

In today’s world of business, everything is computerized and most of the companies use the Internet and information business to help keep their quality, save time and also cost. It also can reach out to more customers worldwide. For an example, with a website in the internet, it would relay the message to millions of viewers worldwide regarding the product and service that the particular company can provide and indirectly saves cost in advertising in television and print advertisments.

Apple Inc uses the intranet to provide the required platform for undertaking this process and this intranet in company enables the employees to access all required information from the comfort of desktop. From an external linkage point of view,

How does the use of the Internet, intranets, and extranets by companies today support their business processes and activities?

The very fundamental purpose of Internet is to provide an open information framework with few access barriers to information. There are several potential risks associated with the implementation of Internet in the organization. So managers should pay attention to it and avoid it.