The Internet enables corporations to profoundly transform the way they conduct business. Through its vast reach, the Internet helps companies to communicate better with employees, customers, suppliers, and distributors. Corporations that use this network experience lower business costs and forge closer relationships with partners and customers. In an era of heightened competition, those companies with the best partner communications win in the marketplace.

The Internet provides a robust foundation on which business applications can be built. Four building blocks provide the benefits.

Cross-Platform Web browsers. Every device has a browser. Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer run on PCs, Macintoshes, UNIX workstations, and other alternative computing devices- including palmtops, televisions, and cellular phones.

A single network protocol. The TCP/IP protocol extends beyond the Web as the standard networking platform for all applications-such as mainframe access, database queries, and file and print services. Ubiquity. Users can access data and services from any worldwide location. Employees telecommuting from home can just as easily obtain corporate data as they can while at the office.

Security. Technology advances in encryption, authentication, and firewalls now make it possible to construct an Internet-based network that is more secure than a private legacy network.

Corporations have discovered the benefits of the Internet, and are now expanding the use of its component technologies in two new directions:

• Intranets. These are corporate networks constructed on open, public standards, allowing organizations to quickly deploy internal applications without the barriers of costly proprietary implementations.
• Extranets. Using the Internet for private communications, extranets open up designated parts of a corporate intranet to remote employees and external partners. They provide scalable, secure, managed access over the Internet to interconnect individuals and companies. And this access can be personalized based on the unique requirements of individual users.

During the last two years, Netscape, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, and others developed intranet technologies and products. New products are just coming to market that will let corporations and their telecommunication partners build extranets.

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