Developing the learning network using extranets

The commercialization of the Internet has led many to believe that companies are entering a new era of electronic commerce. New ways of using the Internet should result in new forms of electronic collaboration between trading partners. While attention has focused on the use of the World Wide Web to reach consumers and the development of internal intranets, it is the development of extranets, the business-to-business application of Internet technology, which is emerging as a critical component of the strategic use of electronic commerce. We discuss two types of extranets and show how they can be used to extend the existing notion of the virtual organization to create what we call the learning network. We draw on several industry examples to illustrate how gaining strategic value from extranets is based on three key factors: the uniqueness of the information; the extent to which users of the information alter their business processes; and the level of management the information is intended to support