Extranets allows all the team members working on the project, be it the employees, vendors, suppliers or clients to share the design plans, documents and hence collaborate online. This aids in a better customer service and prevents unnecessary lengthening of project schedules. A lot of money is invested in any architectural venture and all the delays lead to substantial amount of money going down the drain. An extranet gives a platform to the workers to perform multi- site collaborations. Since all the data exchanges take place in real time, there are chances of less rework. With the usage of extranets increasing, special software packages have been developed specifically for the architectural firms. They support project management, e-mail management, accounting and scheduling. An extranet not only enhances the process of decision-making but also improves the relationship among clients and partners. An extranet is a private network within which document sharing can take place by specific groups of users outside the organization through a network administrator. An organization may allow authorized customers and partner’s access to the system after verifying the usernames and passwords.
The extranet: Enhanced document sharing and collaboration.