What is an extranet and what is it used for?
Downloading an invoice, updating your details or signing up for an activity: many organisations let you do this online through your own account. You might know this kind of private online environment as an account area or customer portal. This type of online environment is known as an extranet.
But what exactly is an extranet, and what can you use it for? In this article, we explain how it works, how it differs from an intranet and how it is built.
What is an extranet?
An extranet is a secure online environment accessible to a specific group of users, such as customers, suppliers, partners or members. They log in to view information or carry out tasks that are not available to everyone on the public website.
An extranet can take many forms. A customer portal, supplier portal or member portal is often simply an extranet. A personal account area, such as the Dutch government’s MijnOverheid portal, follows the same principle: users gain access to a restricted area of an organisation’s online services.
What is the difference between an intranet and an extranet?
An intranet and an extranet are technically very similar. Both are private digital environments that generally require users to log in. The main difference is their intended audience.
An intranet is designed for people within an organisation, such as employees or internal teams. An extranet allows an organisation to give access to people outside it, such as customers, suppliers or partners.
An organisation can also use both alongside each other. Employees might work through an intranet, while customers use a separate extranet to access documents, information or other features.
How does an extranet work technically?
Technically, an extranet is a restricted section of a website or web application. Users have their own accounts, which they use to log in. Based on their account permissions, the system determines which pages, documents and features they can access or use.
You can set up different user roles and permissions. A customer might have access to their own details and documents, while a supplier or partner sees different information or features.
An extranet can also connect to other systems, such as a CRM, booking system, ERP or membership management system. This allows data to be exchanged automatically, removing the need to update it manually in multiple places.
There are several ways to build an extranet. It can be a standalone platform, part of an existing CMS or a fully custom-built application. The right approach mainly depends on what users need to do within the environment and which systems it needs to exchange data with.
How does Super Interactive build an extranet?
At Super Interactive, we build extranets using Statamic, just as we do for websites and web applications. This allows the public website and the restricted area to be managed within the same platform. Administrators can publish content for everyone or make specific pages and sections available only to logged-in users or particular user groups.
Where needed, we connect Statamic to other systems. For a community, for example, the membership management system can determine who gets access to the extranet and which details are associated with each account (Read more about connecting an extranet to your membership management system or about why your community might need an extranet).
For more complex features and integrations, we add custom functionality, such as event registrations, payments, personal dashboards or different permissions for each type of user.
Need help setting up an extranet?
Want to know what kind of extranet would suit your organisation, which features you need or how to connect it to your existing systems? We would be happy to help you find a solution that fits your organisation.
Feel free to send a message to victor@superinteractive.com.