Benefits of intranets and extranets

Effective communication, both internally with your staff and externally with your partners and customers, is a key requirement in today's business environment.

An intranet is a private - internal - business network that enables your employees to share information, collaborate, and improve their communications.

An extranet enables your business to communicate and collaborate more effectively with selected business partners, suppliers and customers. An extranet can play an important role in improving business relationships and supply chain management.

This guide looks at the potential benefits of intranet and the advantages of extranet to your business. It describes the similarities between the two types of networks, their differences and some of the key issues you will need to consider, such as costs and maintenance.

This guide also explains how to set up a company intranet, build a secure extranet and use content management systems to manage them.