Extranet Solutions

Information management software

The Importance of Extranets

While many Claromentis customers focus on establishing a collaboration framework and information management software for their own staff, the nature of the modern business world offers considerable benefits in extending this beyond the natural boundaries of the enterprise.

1. Enhanced information management with suppliers

Managing information across suppliers teds to focus in the early stages on document version control - such as contracts, but is often extended using Process Manager to look at automating key requests and information flows with suppliers.

2. Collaboration with key customers

Again document version control is important, together with a strong permission system to ensure, for example, that appropriate price lists are shared across the customer base.

Importantly the recent emphasis on quality management best practices has been facilitated by sharing quality manuals and other relevant evidence of compliance directly with key customers on a read only basis. In this way a customers adherence to a quality management system such as ISO 9001 is enhanced as the supplier can demonstrate their own compliance through sharing the appropriate documents via the extranet.

In this way adherence to quality management extends throughout the supply chain.

3. Extending the enterprise through close collaboration with partners.

Few companies can compete and grow without cooperation with a range of partners, information management software has a strong part to play in this area and these requirements are ideally provided by means of an extranet. In this case the sharing of opportunity data using Sales Manager, or project data using Project Manager, are particularly appropriate, as companies cooperate together to achieve shared goals.

Extranet Summary

In all cases the extranet permission system of Claromentis ensures that extranet areas are maintained separately from each other, and that only customer staff have access to multiple extranet data, as required to work efficiently in the modern enterprise. A single web based information management framework can reach out via extranets across the extended enterprise to encourage collaboration, innovation and efficiency.