may be available for free or on a subscription basis. For example, Federal Express Corp. is assembling a
business-intelligence extranet that will let shipping companies providing FedEx services in countries
outside the US gain access to reports about revenues, shipping volumes, transit-time analysis, and other
performance data (Whiting 2002).
Wide area networks (WANs) are data communication networks that span an extended geographical
distance. Examples include airline or hotel reservations systems, automated teller machines (ATMs), and
networks connecting libraries. Authorised users can search for information and/or carry out transactions
using central databases.
Table 5 Garment Firms E-commerce Network Access
Network Access
Yes
Direct to Public Internet
No
12
0
Intranet
1
11
Extranet
2
10
WAN
0
12
Source: Enterprise level Interviews 2002; N=12
All of the respondents reported that they had a direct connection to the public Internet (see Table 5). One
firm had an intranet, but was using it for purposes other than B2B e-commerce. Two garment firms were
using an extranet to access firms in the global market and none had WAN access. The respondents
observed that their firms were connected directly to the public Internet because it is easily and readily
available. They appeared to lack information about the potential usefulness of extranets and WANs. Some
interviewees said, for example, that they did not want to use extranets or WANs for security reasons and
most could not offer any potentially positive benefits of extranet or WAN usage.
5.2 Frequency of Use of Network Applications for B2B E-commerce
Of four network applications that are frequently used in B2B e-commerce (E-mail, the World Wide Web,
Extranets and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)), e-mail and World Wide Web were most commonly
used by the firms in the sample. All 12 firms were reported to be using e-mail, while 11 firms were
making use of the web (see Table 6). Of the 12 firms using e-mail, four were using it ‘always’ and eight,
‘frequently’. E-mail was being used for initial and follow-up communications with suppliers and
customers. According to the interviewees, e-mail is particularly useful because the postal service is very
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