It wasn’t long ago when the mad rush to launch a World Wide Web presence held the same illusion as the California Gold Rush — once you got there, the riches would pour in.
But if you’re still not seeing the expected returns on your technology investment, don’t worry. You’re not alone. The short-lived notion that customers would flock to your virtual door in droves simply because you had a Web site has been replaced with more practical thinking. With the exception of purely virtual businesses, such as Amazon.com, business owners are increasingly using Web sites to complement more conventional business models.
“A lot of those returns never materialized,” says King Hill, director of marketing services for DigiKnow. “But that’s only because people didn’t look at it the way they should have. For me, saving money on the Web is bigger than selling on the Web.”
Hill says one way to save money is to extend your company’s Web site and develop an intranet and extranet.
An intranet, explains Chris Ramsey, creative director of The Diner Inc., is a local area network which uses Web-based technologies similar to a Web site, but is only accessible by employees within the company.
Some organizations set up World Wide Web servers on their own internal networks so employees have access to the organization’s Web documents, such as company handbooks and personnel lists. But an intranet can also be a restricted-access network that works like the Web, but isn’t on it.
The benefit of an intranet is that it enables a company to share its resources with its employees without confidential information being made available to everyone with Internet access — something a conventional Web site cannot offer without establishing restricted access.
However, once remote access and password entry is needed, the site becomes an extranet, explains Hill. An extranet is part of the company’s internal computer network, which is available to outside users, for example, as information services for customers.
Companies often use extranets to provide nonpublic information to a select group of people, such as business partners or customers. An extranet, Ramsey says, may look like an ordinary Web site, but users have to enter a password or use digital encryption to access it. Federal Express’ customers can track packages on the company’s extranet by entering a tracking number.
Both applications, says Hill, can lead to quick returns on a company’s investment. Intranets can cut down on materials duplication costs by placing shared information at one central location where continuous changes can be made with the push of a button. Extranets can help companies save money by allowing customers to find information themselves, without having to call and talk to a person.
“It’s all the promise of the Web typically delivered on a high-speed network to an audience you can control,” says Hill. “And most importantly, it will help save money. That’s the best reason to do it.”
