How to increase productivity with online

collaboration tools

By Mural Consulting for TELUS

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Learn more about intranets, extranets and VPNs

Whether you use just one or all three, these tools can dramatically increase productivity among your employees and with clients and suppliers.

Intranets

An intranet allows a company’s own employees to share and access files internally.

Fee schedules, financial data, marketing materials, proposal templates, internal forums and discussion boards are all examples of data a company would want to protect within an intranet, yet make accessible to its employees.

Unlike the Internet, intranets can only be accessed by a computer that is connected to the company’s network. To access the intranet from outside the office, an employee would likely use a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)

A VPN securely connects a remote computer to an office network, over the Internet. VPNs can also allow remote workers to access various systems located on the corporate network. For example, a salesperson on the road can access an inventory database located on a server in the main office.

Extranets

Extranets are designed to bring a company’s employees together with clients or suppliers. Unlike an intranet, an extranet can be accessed from anywhere. For example:

• Attendees at a seminar can use an extranet to access files and share comments relating to the conference’s presentations
• An advertising agency can share iterations and revisions of an advertisement, monitor progress and obtain client feedback. To protect data privacy, the agency could set up a new extranet for each client

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Introduction
Learn more about intranets, extranets and VPNs
Choosing the right online collaboration tools for your business

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