The use of both intranets and extranets have been steadily on the rise for the past several years. However, even though their popularity has increased, may people still don’t know what the differences between an intranet and extranet actually are. Both offer a surprising about of benefits when they’ve been implemented into your business.

These can include the likes of more data security, better connections between different departments and a more streamlined and productive approach to getting work done. But that still leaves open the question: what is the difference between an intranet and an extranet? The answer is actually quite simple once you know a little bit about what the both of them actually are.

What Is An Intranet?

An intranet is a private, secure platform that allows everyone inside a business to communicate and collaborate more effectively than the likes of email or phone. This is essentially a virtual workspace that allows everyone in a company to share files and collaborate on projects with a minimum of effort. A high-quality intranet will let employees organize files and projects with other people in the business, even if they’re in another building or office.

This collaboration offers a more streamlined approach to collaborating on large projects without spending too much time sending and receiving files. A high-quality intranet not only increases employee engagement but can improve employee communications. It can also provide a significant amount of benefits if you work with a large number of remote workers or if you’ve got business premises in a few different cities or countries. Because of that, employees that are spread out across a large area won’t lose the ability to securely collaborate securely with their colleagues and management with minimal effort.

What Is An Extranet?

Much like an intranet, an extranet is essentially a private network, except for the fact that it that allows you to communicate with vendors that are outside of your business. These third-party vendors can include the likes of clients, suppliers and anyone else who has business with you but doesn’t actually work within your business. An extranet allows you to communicate with these vendors in a secure digital platform.

In contrast to the likes of email, however, there are a lot of different things that an extranet can bring to your business. This can include the likes of collaboration, document sharing and secure data transfer between your business and anyone outside of the company. The importance of an extranet can’t be understated as it provides a more secure way of communicating with outside parties.

Furthermore, it helps to organize any documents that you might need to share with outside agencies. Not only is an extranet a lot more secure than email or phone, but it can end up saving you a lot more time in the long run; you won’t have to look back through files or emails to find what you’re looking for, for example. This streamlined approach is incredibly secure and can offer more customer satisfaction in the long run.