Unit 2
Intranet, Extranet, and Internet
What is INTRANET?
• An intranet is described as an internal or local computer
network in an organization’s private network and a smaller
version of the Internet, with websites that appear and
function as a typical web-site but are only accessible to
authorized internal stakeholders (Capron & Johnson 2004;
D labay et al., 2006; Norton, 2006; O’Brien & Marakas,
2006).
What is INTRANET?
• Creating an internal networks (intranets) to ease
communications and transactions among internal and
external stakeholders may be the Internet’s principal value
for many corporations (Charoen, 2012).
• Hence, an intranet is a form of using Internet technology
within an organization and this provides fast and easy
access to information, while maintaining the integrity of the
information and secure access to the information.
What is INTRANET?
• Local Area Network (LAN)
• Wide Area Network (WAN)
What is INTRANET?
The following is a summary of the important strategies and
guidelines needed to plan an intranet in an organization:
a) With an intranet, information is stored in one location and
is accessible to all employees. Digital information is
uncomplicated to sort and, while it may be impossible to
get rid of all paper, it is possible to reduce the amount
dramatically;
b) Become skilled at how to store information somewhere: the
more one realizes where the information resides, the more
one will recognize how significant documentation is and
the more one will stress to system vendors the need to
provide advanced documentation;
What is INTRANET?
c) Be acquainted with database fundamentals: organize, store
and categorize information in an open databases. An open
database is one that supports another widely accepted industry
standard open database connectivity (ODBC). ODBC builds a
common communication tool to enable connectivity with a
mixture of diverse databases. However, databases may not
have the capacity to store every item of data and sometimes a
spreadsheet, word processing document or other file may be
more practical. Also, consider the technology extensible
markup language (XML), that may add database-type structure
to unstructured information such as word processing
documents and HTML Web pages;
What is INTRANET?
d) Employ common connectors: position data resources on
servers that provide worldwide connectivity;
e) Make use of one universal e-mail system and make it a
major communications tool for the organization;
f) Everyone in an organization should be able to share
documents, spreadsheets and databases;
g) Use modern programming language to enable programmers
to work easily, quickly and more productively (Visual basic
Java and HTML are examples of universal, widely used
programming languages (Hoffman1998)).
What is EXTRANET?
• Extranets are network connections that use Internet to
interconnect the intranet of an organization with the
intranets of a number of external stakeholders and
shareholders (Daft & Marcic, 2007; Griffin 2008).
• With an extranet, each organization moves particular
information outside of its private intranet but makes the
information accessible only to certain other organizations,
which share the extranet.
What is EXTRANET?
Competitive advantage through extranets are as follows:
(Riggins and Rhee, 1998)
a) Unique information: when the system offers valuable
information that is only accessible to authorized users of
the extranet;
b) Process restructuring: externalization exists when users of
the extranet attempt to adjust their internal business
processes according to the information offered by the
extranet;
c) Higher-level management decision support: internalization
happens when information from the extranet is directed at
the upper-level of management or decision-makers as
opposed to operational management support.
What is EXTRANET?
The list of areas of business value generation of extranets:
(O’Brien and Marakas, 2006)
a) The Web browser technology of extranets provides
suppliers and customers access to intranet resources
quicker than old business applications;
b) Extranets allow organizations to innovate different types of
interactive Web-enabled services for their business
partners;
c) Extranets can develop and reinforce strategic partnerships
with an organization’s stakeholders and shareholders;
d) Extranets can enhance collaboration by an organization
with its partners and customers; and
What is EXTRANET?
e) Extranets can enhance the process of interactive product
development, marketing and other business activities online
and that might, ultimately, yield better product designs and
delivery to the marketplace more quickly.
What is EXTRANET?
Company or organizations should take into consideration the
following before dedicating resources to an extranet:
a) Develop a precise, transparent map by management and
all executives of the organization;
b) Identify specifically who does what and who is to be held
accountable for any contribution to the venture;
c) Specify which software is to be utilized or decide to
develop an appropriate one;
d) Ensure that there is the capacity to develop connections
and hire reputable consultancy firms;
e) Plan how much time and cost will be required to execute
the project successfully;
f) Be aware of all legal consequences involved; and
g) Determine how the extranet will work and get larger.
What is INTERNET?
Internet is the global network of computers which are all
connected allowing us to share information and communicate
with each other.
Use and Functioning of the Internet
ARPANET
◦ Ancestor of the Internet
◦ Project started by the U.S. Department of Defense
(DoD) in 1969
How the Internet Works
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
◦ Transport-layer protocol that most Internet
applications use with IP
Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
◦ An assigned address on the Internet for each
computer
How the Internet Works (continued)
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN)
◦ Responsible for managing IP addresses and Internet
domain names
◦ Has authority to resolve domain name disputes
Cyber-squatters
◦ Register domain names in the hope of selling them
to corporations or people
How the Internet Works (continued)
Accessing the Internet
◦ Connect via LAN Server
◦ Connect via Dial-up
◦ Connect via High-Speed Service
◦ Connect Wirelessly
How the Internet Works (continued)
SUMMARY: Intranet, Extranet, Internet
End
