Case studies at the Center
Continuing series...
Subject:
What You Need to Build a Business Partner: an Extranet
Read how at GCIS we plan ahead before building it
June 25th, 2001
If you work in the business world, then you've heard of B2B, the buzzword used to describe Internet-based commerce and collaboration between partners. While there is a broad gamut of B2B priorities for enterprises, some common examples are creating on-line collaborative partnerships; manufacturers integrating supply chain partners, and health care providers working with a web of independent doctors. So, how do companies build successful online partnerships ?
Online partnerships make up a "business partner network," a secure network created over the Internet that grants authorized outsiders varying levels of controlled access to your internal and external application resources. Technically known as extranets, business partner networks have proven to be much more effective than more traditional methods of communication such as phone or fax-and most corporations are catching on. Infonetics Research Inc. just reported that 39 percent of organizations with 1,000-plus employees use extranets today, and nearly half plan to do so by 2002.
Business partner networks include two key components: applications and the infrastructure that makes those applications work. This article focuses on the underlying business and technical infrastructure, addressing the inherent complexity in building and operating online partnerships, and identifies the key priorities for any corporation thinking of making the technology and cultural changes required. Because applications can vary so widely based upon your business needs, the goal of this article is to focus on building an infrastructure that can support any application for any of the following uses.
Corporations are already using business partner networks to have suppliers deliver just-in-time components, speed joint product development, reduce costs and cycle times, decrease inventories, increase repeat business, provide 24x7 customer service, automate order acceptance, and build online communities for purchasing... the so called e-marketplaces. Unfortunately, creating real-world, scalable business partner networks has traditionally meant complex integration, redundant effort, and months of business delay-time that is wasted with each new partner or each added application.
The GCIS difference
Before considering a business partner network, keep in mind that the easier it is for your partners
to work with you, the more successful your business partner network will be. The opposite approach
was taken with Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), which proved too complicated
and costly for most companies. Also consider the time it takes to roll out an extranet on your
own: up to a year in most cases when it comes to integrating the multitude of directory,
PKI, authentication, web authorization, and other services and
technologies into your current environment. It's also critical to understand the requirements,
restrictions, capabilities, and IT environments of each of your business partners upfront. At the
Center, all these necessary technical details are dealt with on a daily basis when we plan and
build Extranets and Intranets for all our corporate clients.
Identify the broad scope of your business partner network
Any business partner network should begin with a solid evaluation of your highest priority
applications, partners and business processes with the goal of building an infrastructure that
can support any future applications. First consider your current and future business, as well as
the partner relationships that drive your revenues and that will open up new markets in the future.
Then consider any high impact applications as candidates for your business partner network, since
any application that adds value internally can likely add value to a partner relationship. Your
business partner network should support the entire spectrum of possible applications, regardless
of whether the applications are Web-enabled. In other words, it's valuable to have a business
partner network that is application agnostic.
Corporations should consider a combined Web and distributed desktop client approach to ensure access to the broadest list of resources. To this end, review any high-value company processes that provide a significant cost savings or customer service as a candidate in your business partner network. Examples might include production statistics, inventory information, billing management, medical records, laboratory results, CAD sharing, or white boarding. The list of possibilities depends entirely on your business needs.
Create dynamic business partner networks that deliver strategic value
Many companies think of building business partner networks as primarily a technology issue. Yet,
the majority of the time and effort spent on developing an effective infrastructure is focused on
policy changes, user enrollment, or Help Desk support. The ideal service is comprised of user
management and a full suite of technical components. Following is a breakdown:
1- People:
The effort required to enroll and manage a community of partners is typically underestimated. Being
able to support individual users scalably makes or breaks a business partner network. The extranet
must provide each end user with access to the necessary resources, enrollment and registration
Web site for downloading credentials and help desk support on an ongoing, 24x7 basis, 365.
2- Policy Management:
Managing and administering policies is at the core of the business partner network. The access
policies must be determined and the directory must be populated to enable the enterprise to
securely delegate user management to its partners. A customized, secure Web site should be used to
implement all necessary changes, including enrollment, updates, and privilege addition or revocation.
Partner access should be instantly controlled, down to the individual resource.
3- Infrastructure:
Businesses should be able to effectively define and manage B2B collaboration with partners,
regardless of network and security infrastructures, platforms, application types, authentication
methods, or other variables. This means that a full suite of standards-based services needs to be
deployed. Industry analyst firm META Group reports that these should include policy management
software for granular access control, Public Key Infrastructure services to provide effective user
authentication, directory services to manage user and policy information and IP transport that
deliver superior Quality of Service. META states that there are many providers that offer a subset
of such services, but few that are strong across the board.
4- Collect Support from All Levels of Your Corporation
Traditionally, an informal division of roles between the corporate IT department and the various
business units has managed business partner networks. This ad hoc structure leads to the
unnecessary duplication of extranets, a disjointed user experience, and often times a chaotic mix
of systems, policies, and processes. Beleive us when we say that: the Center has seen it done in more
than one organization so far... As demands grow on ad hoc extranets, the lack of clear divisions in
authority may create internal challenges and competing extranet infrastructures that deprive an
enterprise of flexibility and slow new deployments.
The GCIS right way to do it...
To successfully meet emerging e-business needs, your executive management team must own your
business partner network to ensure sufficient funding and priority level. Responsibility must be
properly divided-your business units concentrate on core competencies to be leveraged while
Dextranet™ specialists, either your internal IT staff or a
third party extranet service provider such as GCIS, should handle your network and infrastructure.
Your team must focus on sophisticated analysis of business needs, partner capabilities, technology
integration, and end-user support. In addition, the business units should be responsible for
managing legal and contractual issues, and driving the funding.
Building a successful business partner network, IE: a successful Dextranet™ also requires your business partners to play an important role. They should participate in establishing the extranet's requirements and planning its implementation. Your IT department will bear the heaviest burden, as it is responsible for establishing the extranet technology standards, evaluating solutions, managing the network and servers, developing extranet applications, and integrating extranet applications with other systems. An example of an effective and rapid implementation plan should contain the following action items:
* Define business requirements and solid implementation schedule.
* Interview all key personnel on specific processes and special requirements.
* Deploy a small-scale extranet as proof-of-concept and ROI analysis.
* Build production-level service with authorization policies and delegated partners.
* Implement authentication/authorization rules; integrate with LDAP and digital certificates.
* Test initial applications; insure quality control.
* Create custom enterprise knowledge base and starter kits for end users.
* Help Desk support staff notified of specific needs & knowledge base created.
* Establish the connectivity between the customer premise and their NOC.
* Verify end-to-end service against a test plan as partners test access.
In-house vs. GCIS Approach
Delivering on this vision may create an unacceptable burden on your IT staff and create a timeframe
of up to a year to implement a business partner network. Because of the workload involved, the META
Group anticipates a growing need for enterprises to turn to extranet service providers (ESPs) such
as the Center for IP transport, application hosting, security and directory services, and ongoing
management of their extranet-based business partner networks. The GCIS ESP concept is not a new one.
ISPs and ASPs have already become well known in their respective markets. An ESP picks up where ISPs
and ASPs stop, offering a one-stop shop for managed business partner network services and enabling
corporations to quickly activate and manage online partnerships. Many companies are addressing this
challenge from different angles. For example leading companies like GTE Internetworking and MCI
WorldCom are addressing this problem from an ISP perspective, while more specialized companies like
GCIS are offering a tight focus and optimized technology for building business partner networks. The
stakes are high, with virtually every enterprise business aggressively moving forward with
B2B solutions in an effort to outmaneuver their competition.
If working with an ESP such as the Center, the performance of your business partner network should be guaranteed with service level agreements (SLA). SLAs should nail down either your enterprise's or your ESP's promises for scalability, availability, reliability, security, high performance, and quick Help Desk response times. Proactive monitoring and reporting on traffic volume, type, and activity is also recommended to help you decide which applications are improving your business. Regardless of whether you choose an internal or external solution provider, reporting on relevant metrics to generate the necessary ROI for analysis of the business partner network's effectiveness is also key to success. The speed of e-business makes traditional methods of measuring quantitative ROI difficult. Analyzing the qualitative benefits of a business partner network such as improved partner loyalty, faster time to market, and ability to provide instant promotion updates is as important as analyzing the quantitative benefits, if not more so.
Our vision on the future of Business Partner Networks
The need for enterprises to externalize and share applications in order to remain competitive and
continuously shorten product cycle and delivery times is likely to grow exponentially. In addition
to business partner networks established by a single enterprise, networks serving entire business
categories, such as e-Steel (www.esteel.com)
for the steel industry, and e-chemicals
(www.e-chemicals.com) for the chemicals
industry, are likely to increase in number. The competitive advantages of building a business
partner network bring technical and cultural challenges that are new to corporations. They require
corporations to plan for the entire scope of the business partner network upfront, while creating a
dynamic network that is replicable, scalable, and built around meeting specific business goals.
Whether built in-house or with an ESP, guarantees must be made regarding scalability, availability,
security, and most importantly-reliability. In the near future, successful online partnerships will
depend on business partner networks that never go down.
Conclusion
The General Center for Internet Services's award-winning Dextranet™
solution is a flexible and scalable Extranet application that was carefully designed in our labs with all
the preceding recommendations you have read. Our Dextranet™ solution
can be custom tailored to any size business, company, organization or any level of government. GCIS
was founded in May of 1996. We have been designing and building large corporate extranets and intranets in
sometimes very difficult circumstances and for very demanding corporate clients such as
Compaq Computers, H.S.F. On-Line Trading Inc. and Global Plastics & Chemicals Ltd. Our Extranets are
renowned the world over for their high security, ease of use and reliability. Additionally, our
Extranets are priced right and extremely competitive for any industry. As with all of our Internet
divisions and large portfolio of Web services, our Dextranet™
solutions are easily integrated in any business environment and represent the highest level of
value-added investment a company can make.
(Click here to read the definition of what exactly is an Intranet and how does it differ from an Extranet).
The General Center for Internet Services can carefully design and build flexible and powerful Extranet & Intranet portal applications and tools that will answer your most exacting and critical corporate needs in any industry. Upon contact, your GCIS technical representative will be more than happy to visit you and propose the best Dextranet™ portal or Intranex™ solutions for your company or organization.
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