Title: GI extranet: a case study in applying technology for competitive advantage

Authors: K. Styles, M. Goldsworthy

Addresses: Gippsland School of Computing and Information Technology, Monash University, Gippsland Campus, Switchback Road, Churchill, Victoria 3842, Australia, Centre for Electronic Commerce, Monash University, Gippsland Campus, Switchback Road, Churchill, Victoria 3842, Australia

Abstract: A consortium of competing regional engineering firms has cooperated to create an extranet to support the creation of virtual enterprises, to market regional engineering expertise and to improve business communications with various government and industrial instrumentalities. The strategic advantage of cooperating with other SMEs on tendering for large projects justifies cooperation. Cooperation generates economies of scale and permits access to tenders and contracts normally beyond the capacity of individual firms. The extranet provides an accessible and relatively inexpensive communications infrastructure not affordable individually by the firms.

Keywords: extranet; virtual enterprise.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNVO.2002.001464

International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, 2002 Vol.1 No.1, pp.82-90

Published online: 03 Jul 2003 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article