Download the PDF: https://www.demandmetric.com/content/supporting-stakeholders-extranets This report provides practical advice for developing secure, user-friendly extranets for your key stakeholders. Read this brief report to learn: Review this report to understand how to implement an external communication tool for employees, partners, customers, or other key stakeholders. Use our Extranet Development Checklist to ensure you don’t miss any key steps in the process. HOW-TO GUIDE What is an Extranet? Business Benefits of Creating an Extranet Security Issues Surrounding Extranets Extranet Design Best Practices How to Set-up your Extranet

1. SUPPORTING
STAKEHOLDERS
WITH
EXTRANETS
HOW-TO GUIDE

2. 2 Supporting Stakeholders with Extranets How-to Guide
This report provides practical advice for developing secure, user-friendly extranets for your key
stakeholders.
Read this brief report to learn:
Review this report to understand how to implement an external communication tool for employees,
partners, customers, or other key stakeholders. Use our Extranet Development Checklist to
ensure you don’t miss any key steps in the process.
HOW-TO GUIDE
What is an Extranet?
Business Benefits of Creating an Extranet
Security Issues Surrounding Extranets
Extranet Design Best Practices
How to Set-up your Extranet
Supporting Stakeholders
with Extranets
What is an Extranet?
An extranet is an extension of a company’s internal network that allows authorized users to access
information in a secured manner. Public access can be given to employees, customers, partners,
investors, or other key stakeholders.
Extranets generally reside on a company’s private server rather than on a public Internet server.
However, they use Internet protocols so users can navigate with a web browser. Access from the
Internet can be controlled through various architectures that are username/password specific,
thus limiting users to pages relevant to their needs, while keeping other areas of the extranet
private and secure.

3. 3 Supporting Stakeholders with Extranets How-to Guide
Business Benefits of Creating an Extranet
Security Issues Surrounding Extranets
Many service oriented companies use extranets to provide a system for customer support and to
have a single user interface to communicate with business partners. Other reasons companies
tend to use extranets are as follows:
When business data is made available to stakeholders, it is expected to be available, up-to-date
and secure at all times. It is often difficult to protect all extranet applications using the same
security infrastructure because each business application tends to have its own unique set of
performance and security requirements.
Supply Chain Integration: online ordering, order tracking, and inventory management.
Cost Reduction: companies will often make manuals, catalogues, or technical documentation
available online to save money on printing and distributing hard copies.
Accountability: past projects and draft documents can be archived, accurate time and billing infor-
mation can be documented, and a communication log can be maintained to ensure service level
agreement are met.
Collaboration between Business Partners: allowing members of a product team to work with
common documentation remotely can increase collaboration.
Improve Business Relationships: extranets provide better communications among business part-
ners.
Improve Customer Service: allows customers to have direct access to information and to resolve
their own inquiries 24/7.
Work remotely: enables constant communication and access to business information regardless
of time or location. This can also make servicing remote clients easier and less expensive than
traditional methods.
Security: provided this is a requirement for your extranet, exchanges will take place in a secure
environment with log information readily available.
Align Stakeholder Security Expectations: ensure that all users of the extranet understand that
they have a responsibility to ensure that data is kept secure.
The following is a list of key security considerations:

4. 4 Supporting Stakeholders with Extranets How-to Guide
Document Service Level Agreements (SLA): clearly document resolution times for customer
issues, based on severity, business impact, and available resources. Minimize any liabilities
regarding customer support.
Take Extranet Liabilities into Account: risks such as unplanned disasters (denial of service),
performance degradations or application unavailability, and security breaches, can cause
major problems if your business becomes entirely dependent on this system.
Review Extranet Access Controls: validate that they represent the best choices for the specific
business applications and user connectivity needs. Consider adding two-factor authentication
to increase security.
Cost Development Efforts Accordingly: All administration, integration, and management
costs should not be overlooked or underestimated.
Consider Other Security Measures on a per application basis: These include data encryption
and protection, mutual client/server authentication, and user access rights verification along
with non-repudiation.
Establish Security Policies: user access and privilege requirements must be established,
disseminated to users, and actively enforced to reduce your risk.
Review Privacy Legislation: evaluate HIPAA, Sarbanes Oxley, and other legislation to ensure
that the information you plan to provide is permitted.
Application Security Reviews: should be conducted to ensure that security policies are
working as planned. Be sure to actively check access logs on a weekly basis.
Servers and Physical Storage: must be situated in a secure environment to ensure application
availability.
Don’t Forget to Create Backups: on a daily basis.
Extranet Design Best Practices
1. Take Time to Select the Right Solution: employees must be comfortable with the solution. It
must also reflect the right amount of information you want to store and exchange with clients,
partners, or other users.
2. Consider Outside Assistance: If you don’t have internal IT skills, hire a reputable IT service
provider who can help with set-up, hosting and on-going support.
3. Monitor the Solution: monitoring can be done both internally (through employee survey) and
externally (through client feedback). Also, review adoption rates and application performance
on a regular basis.

5. 5 Supporting Stakeholders with Extranets How-to Guide
Review the Solution: after a few months, conduct a formal review to see how much money the
system has saved your organization. It is also important to consider intangible benefits like
increased customer satisfaction.
5. If It’s Not Working, Don’t Use It: don’t waste time trying to force a fit for all stakeholders.
You can always add functionality or sections for stakeholder groups on an incremental basis.
Current solutions may need to be replaced with more user-friendly or secure applications.
6. Don’t Put Everything In: too much information in your extranet can make it more difficult for
users to find what they are looking for. Create a homepage that lists the most commonly
searched for information, to facilitate user adoption rates and experience.

6. 6 Supporting Stakeholders with Extranets How-to Guide
Action Plan
STEP 1 - Requirements
3
Target
Audience
1 Requirements
7 Implementation
8 Launch
9 Training
10 Review
6 Based on Roles
4 Content
2 Goals
5
Control
Access
Make sure to use Demand
Metric’s Extranet Development
Checklist to ensure nothing is
overlooked when setting up
your extranet. It is important to
take the following criteria into
consideration before moving
forward.
Conduct ample research
into external and internal
stakeholder requirements.
Use our Business
Requirements tool to
document requirements for
each stakeholder group.
Define your Requirements
Extranet Development Checklist
V I E W R E S O U R C E

7. 7 Supporting Stakeholders with Extranets How-to Guide
Action Plan
STEP 2 - Goals
3
1 Requirements
7
8
9
10
6
4
2 Goals
5
Align internal and external goals
with senior level objectives.
Also, outline desired outcomes
and how success will be
measured.
Goals and Objectives
Target
Audience
Content
Control
Access
Based on Roles
Implementation
Launch
Training
Review

8. 8 Supporting Stakeholders with Extranets How-to Guide
Action Plan
STEP 3 - Target Audience
3 Target
Audience
1
7
8
9
10
6
4
2
5
Discuss your target audiences
and how this solution will
address their needs. Ensure
that all key requirements can
be delivered.
Select Target Audience
Requirements
Goals
Content
Control
Access
Based on Roles
Implementation
Launch
Training
Review

9. 9 Supporting Stakeholders with Extranets How-to Guide
Action Plan
STEP 4 - Content
3
1
7
8
9
10
6
4 Content
2
5
Determine what content you
would like to deliver via your
extranet and create a content
structure that is intuitive and
easy to find information.
Read our report on
Revitalizing Intranets to
gather ideas for content
that you would like to make
available externally.
Content
Requirements
Goals
Target
Audience
Control
Access
Based on Roles
Implementation
Launch
Training
Review

10. 10 Supporting Stakeholders with Extranets How-to Guide
Action Plan
STEP 5 - Control Access
3
1
7
8
9
10
6
4
2
5 Control
Access
Develop a strategy to control
access and to manipulate
data (i.e. rights given to add
records, modify records,
and delete records). This is
generally done by user, by
role, or by workspace.
User Access Controls
Requirements
Goals
Target
Audience
Content
Based on Roles
Implementation
Launch
Training
Review

11. 11 Supporting Stakeholders with Extranets How-to Guide
Action Plan
STEP 6 - Based on Roles
3
1
7
8
9
10
6 Based on
Roles
4
2
5
Address roles in your
organizations (administration,
client, employee,
management) and assign
features and functions to
roles.
Training and on-going support
must also be addressed, when
determining maintenance
processes.
Create Role Based
Functionality
Requirements
Goals
Target
Audience
Content
Control
Access
Implementation
Launch
Training
Review

12. 12 Supporting Stakeholders with Extranets How-to Guide
Action Plan
STEP 7 - Implementation
3
1
7 Implementation
8
9
10
6
4
2
5
Work with your IT department
or service provider to technically
implement your extranet and
conduct adequate testing
procedures.
Implement your Solution
Requirements
Goals
Target
Audience
Content
Control
Access
Based on Roles
Launch
Training
Review

13. 13 Supporting Stakeholders with Extranets How-to Guide
Action Plan
STEP 8 - Launch
3
1
7
8 Launch
9
10
6
4
2
5
This is done following a period of
testing. Be sure to communicate
the launch of this new resource.
Go Live
Requirements
Goals
Target
Audience
Content
Control
Access
Based on Roles
Implementation
Training
Review

14. 14 Supporting Stakeholders with Extranets How-to Guide
Action Plan
STEP 9 - Training
3
1
7
8
9 Training
10
6
4
2
5
Ensure that all user groups are
comfortable using the extranet to
drive adoption.
Conduct User Training
Requirements
Goals
Target
Audience
Content
Control
Access
Based on Roles
Implementation
Launch
Review

15. 15 Supporting Stakeholders with Extranets How-to Guide
Action Plan
STEP 10 - Review
3
1
7
8
9
10 Review
6
4
2
5
Monitor user adoption and review
goals, objectives, and metrics on a
regular basis.
Review and Monitor
Requirements
Goals
Target
Audience
Content
Control
Access
Based on Roles
Implementation
Launch
Training

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