Extranets

The extranet is a critical channel for your dealer / vendor network to engage in self service, making it easier for them to do business with you. Because the dealer network often also resells your competitor’s products, you need to supply them with an experience that provides high value service.

Extranets are often designed with the view that merely translating the green screen application to a web interface is sufficient. With a poorly performing extranet, the cost of business increases, as your dealer network use the call centre instead of self service, or worse, choose to work with your competitors instead.

In general, the extranet should support core business functions and self service, but it’s not enough to just have hundreds of pages of policy and procedure — no one will read it anyway. If the extranet can’t be used to support work, then people will use other methods of managing and completing their work such as Excel spreadsheets and Access databases. The extranet needs to provide dealers with a workbench which directly supports their work activities.

How do I know I need a new extranet?

If your extranet is not delivering the right kind of self service, then you’re probably experiencing one or more of the following:

Your dealer network finds it easier to call your call centre than to do it themselves
The extranet’s usage is lower than expected
Dealer satisfaction with self service is low
Your dealers prefer to use your competitor’s extranet because it makes their business much easier to complete

The benefits of a performance driven extranet

A high performance extranet will create the following benefits:

Quickly and easily captures and distributes tacit knowledge to share successful working strategies
Reduced load on back-office functions through easy to use self service transactions
Improved performance and compliance with policy and procedure
Centralised access to applications, providing a single point of entry for all enterprise applications
Redesign of enterprise applications and integration with policy and procedure, so that people have the required information when they need it
Reduced training as the extranet provides ‘just in time training’ while staff are performing their activities
A scalable, flexible structure that allows change to be made without requiring wholesale redesign

For more information on how PTG Global can design and deliver an efficient, easy to use extranet, email us at info@ptg-global.com or call 1300 660 973.