While Intranets assume some commonality of purposes and platforms across participants, Extranets can make no such assumptions. This leads to significant but often hidden issues of interoperability, which are as much to do with market awareness and understanding, coupled with management and operator decisions, as with technical barriers. Failures of interoperability lead to lost business opportunities in the case of enterprises, lost work or social opportunities in the case of citizens, and sub-optimal performance of public services, with associated cost over-runs.
Success in implementing and using Extranets calls for skills and know-how that are in very short supply in Europe, which is at a disadvantage compared with the United States, where there is a much larger critical mass of users, suppliers and advisers. Relevant market data, particularly about user characteristics, behaviours and expectations, are also much more readily available in the largely monocultural market of the USA than in the culturally fragmented European market. Other leading trade areas, particularly Japan, are accelerating their adoption of networked economy methods much faster than Europe.
Urgent action is needed to raise European awareness of Interoperability issues across Extranets, to improve access to relevant information and competence, and to devise and disseminate best practice approaches and guides.
For enterprises, "new connections" means new customers, often in new markets, or new kinds of connections with existing customers - for example the shift from meeting customers in High Street shops to meeting them "online". It also means new suppliers and new kinds of business relationships - for example a global search for new sources of supply to meet novel market demands, or participation in a virtual enteprise. It can also mean new employees and new kinds of employment relationships - for example using telework to employ people across regional or national boundaries.
For citizens, "new connections" means new work opportunities, connecting online to potential employers and effectively marketing online one's experience and competence. It also opens the door to new kinds of work opportunities - for example in the rise of self-employment, participation in telework or telecentre networks, portfolio working, virtual enterprises etc. It can also mean access to work opportunities "at a distance" for those in areas of high unemployment and low economic activity.
For both enterprises and citizens, each "new connection" means communicating for the first time with another organisation or person, with whom there has been no prior relationship, and therefore no prior agreement between the parties about matters such as communications protocols, message formats and contents, etc.
The "open Internet" enables data networking between people and organisations without any prior mutual agreement or even any prior contact. Widespread adoption of Internet protocols means that any user anywhere can have a high degree of confidence that basic data communications can be established with any other user. All that is needed is an address for the other user. The World Wide Web enables individuals and enterprises to establish an online presence at global level; by establishing a website any user can present information about themselves in a form that is accessible by any other user, again without any prior knowledge of the other party.
For all users, successful "transient connections" are essential to achieving desired results first time and avoiding the adverse cost, productivity and relationship impacts of failed or unsatisfactory connections.
Use of these technologies is transforming patterns of relationships across the whole spectrum of social and economic activities. But for every success there are failures and disappointments. There is an urgent need to enhance European competence and confidence in the new technologies by raising the success rate for "first time" and "transient" connections.
In the remainder of this Guideline the term "new connections" is used for brevity.
For enterprises (and for individuals working in various kinds of virtual enterprises), Intranets are a primary mechanism for leveraging costs, productivity and organisational effectiveness. Extranets are a primary vehicle for leveraging growth and profitability, since they enable access to new markets and customers as well as enhanced and more cost effective services to existing markets and customers.
Considerable attention is already being paid to Intranets, with a proliferation of consultancy reports, suppliers marketing appropriate added value products and services, conferences, workshops and seminars etc. Mature supply channels and organisational infrastructures already exist that can add Intranet capability to an existing base of in-house systems and networks. Extranets are more novel, with no experience base. Although there is widespread promotional activity and media hype, especially surrounding the World Wide Web, there is relatively little attention to the details and nuances of how to develop Extranets that will cost-effectively meet well-defined purposes.
Success in Extranetworking depends on many factors. This guideline focuses on interoperability across Extranets. Interoperability is the basic building block without which satisfactory online working cannot occur. Problems with interoperability inhibit all aspects of online working. In particular they inhibit early success for enterprises in establishing an online presence, and early success for individuals in becoming effectively connected to the global networked economy.
Interoperability has two aspects: technical interoperability, meaning that the connection works and data can be transferred; and purpose interoperability, meaning data is transferred in a way that satisfies the needs of both parties. Both have to be addressed for success in Extranets.
Common causes of failure include:
An immediate conclusion is that:
Any proposed solutions must therefore be strongly market-based and dynamic, evolving as the market evolves.
European enterprises, managers and individuals therefore require considerable additional help to understand and respond to Extranet interoperability issues compared with their USA competitors and colleagues.
2. Extranets: the key to profitable growth in the global networked economy
The Internet is simply a transport mechanism. Electronic mail, discussion lists, the World Wide Web etc are also simply mechanisms that enable effective communication across the Internet. Value is only added when these mechanisms are used successfully for purposive communications. Its convenient to distinguish between two main environments in which such purposive use occurs:
3. Issues
Superficially, proliferation of the World Wide Web is a great success story. In practice, many individual users suffer frustration when they attempt to access information at websites that are difficult or even impractical for them to use, while many enterprises suffer disappointments and disillusionment with their investment in a "web presence" that doesn't deliver the benefits they anticipated. Users also suffer frustration and disappointment in other aspects of Extranet use, for example when they receive mail contents that are encoded in ways they cannot easily unscramble and use; or when they find potential suppliers or business partners whose approach to an online presence inhibits an effective dialogue with speedy and satisfactory transactions.
4. Success criteria for first time interoperability
The main success criteria are superficially simple: the "other user" must be able to:
5. Causes of failure
An important characteristic of the Global Networked Economy is that there is seldom any strong motivation for the user to overcome barriers in using a particular website or other online service - there is usually a proliferation of choices. If the user encounters a barrier he or she is highly likely to "move on" rather than persevere, even when the barrier is one that the website or service owner regards as trivial. This underlies the importance of "right first time" connections and transactions.
6. Baseline best practice
As a start point for more detailed guidelines on best practice, these basic rules are suggested:
interoperability across Extranets is as much about market awareness and managerial choices as it is about technology and technicalities.
7. Developing market-based best practice
Successful exploitation of Extranets will depend on:
This approach ("market-based best practice") calls for four main issues to be addressed:
Additionally the rapid evolution of Internet technologies creates a "moving target" problem. Sophisticated, "leading edge" users rapidly acquire the latest, most powerful systems and applications and build expectations that this power and sophistication will be matched by the services and suppliers they use. Concurrently, the mass market of users "follow the herd", belatedly adopting whatever achieves market success. And there is always a "tail" of users who for a variety of reasons lag behind the mainstream. An Extranet managed by a single company may need to cater for all three types.
8. European considerations
European individuals and enterprises who seek to implement effective Extranets face additional interoperability issues:
9. RTD considerations
RTD efforts tend to focus on technical aspects of interoperability - technical issues of today and technical solutions for tomorrow. But whatever enhancements emerge from the RTD process, the market will continue to support different generations of technologies, applications and services. Many users - in Europe and world wide - will still depend on earlier generation applications and variable access performance. RTD attention therefore needs to be paid to:
10. Recommendations
To be produced following receipt of comments and subsequent endorsement of main principles of this Guideline.
The main "open issues" affecting this Guideline are to do with:
State of the Art
See gat-g1aa attached.