NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: MICHAEL COONEY ON TECHNOLOGY UPDATE 11/17/04 Today's focus: The Extended Enterprise, Part 2
Dear [EMAIL PROTECTED], In this issue: * Network World's Extended Enterprise supplement * Links related to Technology Update * Featured reader resource _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored by Intel IT Productivity; Increasing ROI Learn how to effectively measure employee productivity, manage IT investments and reduce the Total Cost of Ownership in enterprise data management. Visit Intel's IT Productivity center. Click here to download white papers, books and IDC Research. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=88391 _______________________________________________________________ DOWNLOAD INDUSTRY WHITE PAPERS NOW NW Fusion's White Paper Library is your source for the latest industry white papers. Recent additions to the library include white papers on WLAN Security; IT Documentation; protecting the internal network from worms, Trojan horses, and other malware threats; measuring employee productivity and more. Click here to download: http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=88320 _______________________________________________________________ Today's focus: The Extended Enterprise, Part 2 By Michael Cooney We continue to look at the Extended Enterprise supplement. Today, I wanted to look at one of our awards given every year to users who best exemplify real-world extended enterprises. This year National Gypsum won our 2004 Extended Enterprise Innovator Award for visionary use of emerging connection technologies to better customer relationships. Our author ( <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ) writes that in an effort to meet this corporate standard, National Gypsum's Mike Brannon, senior manager of e-commerce, has had to keep on top of the latest trends and technologies for extending access to the enterprise. Of late, that has meant embracing SSL VPN technology, while ousting a legacy IPSec VPN. The SSL VPN has become the basis of a secure, easy and cost-effective extended enterprise for thousands of users. Launched in 2002 with a price tag of $60,000, the SSL VPN has been expanded today to include new information delivery options, such as speech access and Web services, he says. These latest efforts culminate more than five years of work National Gypsum has put toward extending the enterprise. In the process, the number of individuals who can tap business data and applications remotely has grown from 150 employees to more than 9,000 people including employees, retailers and shipping companies. The company is reaping the benefits. National Gypsum's transformation into an extended enterprise started in 1997. That's when the company set up an advanced call center in the headquarters' city of Charlotte, N.C., and started transitioning from paper orders and invoices via fax and mail to online order entry and invoicing. Rather than dealing with a local sales office via paper, customers began conducting business with the call center's Web-based agents. National Gypsum completed the transition from the regional offices to the national call center in 2001 and now delivers 86% of invoices electronically, with a goal of soon eliminating all paper in its invoicing process, Brannon says. In the next phase of its extended enterprise evolution, National Gypsum decided to give sales representatives remote access so they could place orders, check invoices and track shipments firsthand. This project began with a dozen representatives in Florida using well-established remote-access gear from 3Com and toll-free number dial-in. Because of the remote access, National Gypsum no longer needed to maintain as many physical sales offices and, by this year, had shuttered 67, Brannon says. This eliminated rent, heat and electric bills, and in some cases taxes, by removing the company's physical presence from certain states altogether. The company's 150 sales agents became teleworkers, which in turn set off successive deployments of three different remote-access technologies as National Gypsum sought new technologies to meet their growing needs, he says. There's plenty more to this story. Check it out at: <http://www.nwfusion.com/ee/2004/111504award.html> RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS Benevolent entanglement Network World http://www.nwfusion.com/ee/2003/eeinnovator.html Network World awards and honors Network World http://www.nwfusion.com/nw/awards.html Travelocity's flight to open systems Network World http://www.nwfusion.com/ee2/2003/1110qa.html The Extended Enterprise Issue Network World, 11/15/04 http://www.nwfusion.com/ee/2004/ _______________________________________________________________ To contact: Michael Cooney Michael Cooney is an Associate News Editor. Aside from his news responsibilities, Cooney handles the Infrastructure and Enterprise Application sections of Network World. Cooney has been writing for Network World since 1992. He can be reached at <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> _______________________________________________________________ This newsletter is sponsored by Intel IT Productivity; Increasing ROI Learn how to effectively measure employee productivity, manage IT investments and reduce the Total Cost of Ownership in enterprise data management. Visit Intel's IT Productivity center. Click here to download white papers, books and IDC Research. http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=88390 _______________________________________________________________ ARCHIVE LINKS Technology Update archive: http://www.nwfusion.com/news/tech/index.html _______________________________________________________________ FEATURED READER RESOURCE NEW! Website dedicated to Networking for Small Business now available The editors of NW Fusion and PC World have combined all their expert advice, authority, and know-how into a powerful new tool for small businesses, the new Networking for Small Business website. Get news, how-to's, product reviews, and expert advice specifically tailored to your small business needs. Find help with Security, Broadband, Networking, Hardware, Software, and Wireless & Mobile technology at: <http://www.networkingsmallbusiness.com/> _______________________________________________________________ May We Send You a Free Print Subscription? You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered at your fingertips each day. Now, extend your knowledge by receiving 51 FREE issues to our print publication. 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