An intranet is an ideal solution for providing a central and secure way of accesssing internal systems and information across your entire business or organisation. Allowing your I.T. systems to be consolidated onto a single platform, giving the perception of being brought together in one place even if in reality they are deployed across a more complex technical infrastructure.
If you want to improve the way in which you engage and interact with external parties, then maybe an extranet could act as a secure internet hosted platform for sharing systems and information internally and externally.
The technology options available enable your systems and information that would normally be provided in a fragmented manner across your business or organisation to now be consolidated onto a platform that allow for secure and selective access both internally and externally.