Extranets can be defined as a company’s private network extended so that it can be accessed by business partners (Callaghan, 57). Extranet uses the internet protocols and can be viewed as the internet but which is only being accessed by known users. This is how the electronic commerce model of business to business works as opposed to the other model where servers are accessed by unknown users. On the other hand just in time purchasing is a new technology that uses information technology infrastructure to control the inventory and also the customers use the same system to make orders and also buy (Callaghan, 74). This exempts the vendors from using or acquiring big warehouses since they only need to keep inventory records of only what has been ordered. It is also important to note that products are produced in an exact quantity as ordered by the clients thus avoiding wastage that would have resulted in mass production of products that were not ordered.
Extranet assists just in time purchasing by availing an infrastructure that can be used by customers to make orders and also receive invoices. It also allows efficient communication between the client and the vendor or the merchant (Callaghan, 56). The speed of transactions can not also be left out since these systems incorporate enterprise resource planning systems that enable faster execution of these transitions. As mentioned earlier wastage of raw materials is avoided during production by only producing enough or as per demand. Also, warehouse maintenance cost is reduced.
To make business between the vendor and the client a success, network issues such as availability must be taken into account. By this, it means that the network should not prevent any transaction from going on and this should be done by creating a fault-tolerant infrastructure that will always be reliable (Callaghan, 12). The other thing to be taken care of is
Data backup to avoid data loss in case of any problem happening to the storage media. This ensures the availability of client information even when the system is down.
Works Cited
Callaghan John, Inside Intranets & Extranets: Knowledge Management and the Struggle for Power, Palgrave Macmillan: New York. 2002.