GI extranet: a case study in applying technology for competitive advantage
Kim Styles, Mary-Anne Goldsworthy · International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations · 2002
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.