Extreme Extranets - more than just a login

Here is a brief summary of the categories I use to define online extranets:

1. Base Level – General Public Access

Many people who have extranets and restricted access web applications built make the mistake of assuming that because the information is secure only people who need to access need to know what the site is about, and restrict their site to an unfriendly login box.  At the very minimum, an extranet should provide some basic information to users on what the site is about and what sort of information to expect after logging in or registering.

2. Anonymous Registration Model

Anonymous registration is fast becoming one of the most useful tools on the web today.

It is great for organisations like local government and service industries with lots of clients that want to provide personalised or added value content but don’t want to be seen to encroach on their customer’s privacy.

It can provide:

• anonymity to users, if they desire
• protection of semi-sensitive information
• users the freedom to customise their website experience to receive the information that is important to them
• users with assistance by pre-populating feedback forms
• the ability to collect detailed profiles and statistics on the people trying to access value added content – which is great for marketers, but must be accompanied by a well written privacy policy
• an opportunity to get direct marketing permission – this is particularly important in an age when traditional direct marketing channels are subjected to higher degrees of anti-SPAM legislation.

Anonymous registration access requires careful consideration of the sort of content and who is likely to want to access it.

Effective writing to ensure that effective teaser content prompts users to register before they automatically get access to value added content is extremely important.

Be discrete though, as many users are beginning to get frustrated or deterred when too many websites ask for registration – especially when they need to remember so many passwords these days.  You may be losing these potential customers to other companies that offer the information freely as a means to sell services.

3. Content Based Access

A successful extranet may combine different types of users and groups with different types of content.

Here we present a common four level access model used on many sites:

• Universal Content – this type of content may be distributed to all users of the extranet (ie. Help, news. etc)
• Project-Based Content – this type of content may be distributed for access by a group of a few users.  Interactive features, such as posting to forums may be further restricted.
• Individual Content – certain content that can only be accessed by one individual.  For example, the Optometrists Association of Australia uses this level of access to provide individual members with details on their course attendance.
• Profiled Content – allows self managed profiling of content

4. Advanced User Based Access Models

In some cases, you may need to cater for multiple levels or access based on a hierarchical structure.  For example, if you want to give a head office full access to information, and their branch offices access only to parts of the information, then Multi-Level User Access to content would be useful.
In other cases, for, you may wish to allow certain individuals to establish their own sub-groups and invite their own users.  This mode is used by Yahoo Groups and community intranets.

The Datalink designed School Industry Partnerships in Science (SCIps) (www.scips-asta.edu.au) is an example of an extranet features this sort of User-Group Access functionality.

5. Invitation Only Access Models

Some extranets are designed to provide a buffer for potentially commercially sensitive or private information.

• Screening Registrations – this level of access is granted by screening all new anonymous registrants based on certain criteria (such as confirming some of the details you already know about them).  This level of access still grants a certain amount of anonymity, which makes it suitable for existing customers that you don’t want to distribute a login to.  It usually consists of an interface for an administrator to approve or deny new users access.  This mode is often used for collaborative online projects or tenders online.
• Manual Invitation – manual invitation often involves distributing usernames and passwords to each individual that wants to access the site, or typically means accepting new users over the phone or by email.  The most effective manual invitation system consists of a wizard type interface for creating new accounts and granting access to certain areas via permissions.

6. Automated Authentication

Sometimes you’ll have a database that you can automatically use to match up people with their own access permissions.  This can be a great way to allow your customers to update and maintain their own profile (such as their address) so your records don’t get out of date.

An experienced integrator like Datalink should be able to automatically synchronise the database and assign permissions to users to access various pages with the addition of a website username and password to each user record in your database.

Catering For Extranets of All Kinds

If you are considering implementing an extranet, Datalink can help.

Datalink’s Freestyler Customer Portal product can be easily configured for many different models of extranet use from anonymous registration extranets with a registration form through to fully automated member data driven sites.

With Customer Portal, each of your clients will get a personalised member homepage upon logging in to help you communicate 1-on-1 with them.

And we have the experience to help you design an extranet that suits your needs.

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