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Making your organisation more efficient with a Quiet Storm Extranet

Quiet Storm can provide you with extranet solutions that will increase the efficiency of information flow throughout your organisation. An extranet is simply a website which is located on our server but is password protected so that only those granted access rights can log in to the site.

Below is a summary of the key functions of an extranet, together with the benefits. These key functions and benefits almost mirror those listed within the intranets page on this website. That is because the only real difference between an intranet and an extranet is where the system is located.

Both intranets and extranets have the ability to control what information is viewed by whom through the user group administration - for instance the Managing Director, Finance Director, etc may be able to see all information published yet a sales person within the same organisation may only view a more basic level of information.

Information publishing

This is probably where you will get the major benefit out of an extranet. Through using the extranet to deliver news and other information in the form of directories and web documents. This could be anything from the minutes of a meeting to holiday closure dates.

Quiet Storm has created several extranets for organisations, below are some of the ways in which they have been used to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

• Telephone/contacts directory - a single directory featuring all contacts. Having a central contacts database is a quick win for any extranet.
  
  The Wildlife Trusts extranet 'WildNET' has each of the main representatives throughout the 47 different local Wildlife Trusts listed. This enables anyone wishing to contact all or a specific individual at another trust can quicklly locate the person or people they need to contact.
• Policies and procedures - everything from how specific work should be undertaken to health & safety (including all of the statutory information which company directors are legally obliged to make available).
• Stake holder pension information

E-mail

Implementing an e-mail system that integrates seamlessly with the extranet, allowing information to be both 'pushed' and 'pulled'.

Email addresses are saved within our Quiet Storm contacts directory, so when creating a new email to one of the people listed, we can simply start typing their name and the email address is automatically completed. Should there be two people within our contacts directory then both email addresses are displayed so that the correct one can be selected.

Document management

Using the extranet to allow users to view, print and work collaboratively on office documents (word-processed documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc.).

The Wildlife Trusts have many messages to communicate and this used to involve saving up 47 different sets of information, either photocopied or printed and once a month sending them out to each of the local trusts. Now the information is published to their extranet, as either 'page text' or uploaded as Word, Excel, PDF or similar documents so that they can be downloaded and printed if required. This has saved time and the expense of post and unnecessary print.

Training

Using the extranet to deliver training at the desktop - from the induction of new staff to how to use specific pieces of equipment. Training manuals online ensure that everyone has access to the relevant information and if there are any common mistakes, that they are published to avoid (or reduce) the chances of them being repeated.

Workflow

Using the extranet to automate administrative processes.

Wildlife Trust Vital Stats - Each local trust needs to report their vital stats every month to the central administration team at the UK office. This is facilitated via the extranet and allows any local trust to compare its figures (new members, etc) with any one of the 47 local trusts

These vital stats could be individual store or representative's sales figures, or any number of critical business procedures.

Databases and other bespoke systems

Using the extranet as a front-end to organisation-specific systems, such as corporate databases.

This could be anything from customer profiles and spending power, to prospect filters and the measurement of lead generation tools -  i.e. who is responding to what marketing initiative, how much each lead costs, etc.

Discussion

Using the extranet as a means for users to discuss and debate issues. Larger organisations, especially those with multi-site operations find this invaluable. It means they can provide a platform where those operating in the same or similar job roles can communicate, ask advice, or bounce ideas to a wider audience before making a major decision.

An extranet can be opened up to your customers to build closer relationships, allowing them dialog directly with your engineers (or equivalent) could improve product development, again there are too many options to list them all but hopefully you will be getting some ideas.

Diary

Providing a company wide diary can help plan events or just manage who is where, when.

A diary created for The Wildlife Trusts provided the local trusts with the opportunity to create PR stories as the UK office published all the events on the main website. This meant that journalists could visit a single site to get ideas for wildlife related stories.

There are many more ways in which an extranet can be developed for your organisation to make your people more productive. Take a look at the case studies on this page to get more of an idea of our capabilities in providing this service.

To arrange a no obligation FREE consultation please complete our enquiry form - stating which days and times would be most convenient for us to call you for a brief and informal chat about your requirements.