What Exactly is the Intranet and Extranet and how can they help your Company?

It was not too long ago that business communication with customers, clients, and even your own staff was very difficult and tedious, so much so that document sharing could only be done if the file was small enough to be delivered. However, over the past decade technology has advanced at such a rapid pace that these issues are almost non-existent in today’s business world. Introducing Intranet and extranet, these are currently leading technology that allows customers, clients, and team to have access to your company 24/7. New business owners might be intimidated by these new words, after all, most people only know about one avenue, and that is the internet. Therefore, we are going to look into what makes these new technologies unique, how they benefit a company and of course our final thoughts on them. 

The first thing we want to point out is that intranet and extranet are two very different things, although once they are successfully implemented into a company, the advantages and possibilities are endless. These two technologies will aid to streamline your day to day operations as well as make your clients or customers that much more satisfied when they do business with you. Although many like to pin these technologies as the intranet vs extranet argument, they are both beneficial in their own capacities. 

What Is Extranet? 

The extranet is merely an external private network that can only be accessed by your clients, vendors and or specific customers. In addition, the extranet will also play a significant role in the communication you have with your clients and or customers. This private network allows your customers to quickly contact you via email or video call to go over critical order details. On the other end, extranet also organizes any and all files pertaining to activity between you and your clients, a very important feature when large amounts of funds are being transferred or invested in. One way I have found to have made it easy for me to tell the difference is to simply remember the first part of the word which is (Extra) or outside. Extra can also be the extra assistance that you provide to a client or customer. 

What Is Intranet? 

If you’ve ever had a job in a company that often requires its staff to complete certain amounts of projects every month than you’ve most probably have worked with Intranet technology. Intranet technology is often used in a private setting by companies that allow its staff members to communicate instantly and share private and critical project information about the company amongst themselves. Much like Extranet, Intranet is also a private area only accessible to the company and certain employees. Intranet like extranet is used to help streamline the day to day operations of a company, especially companies which have remote employees. 

What does the future hold? Although these two technologies have been within their own separate sectors, technology has once again help innovate the way we use intranet and extranet. Future plans have been unveiled that software is currently being worked on that will combine these two technologies and produce a product to companies that will help them have access to both clients and staff within one program.