European business landscape to be transformed as 1998 is predicted to be the year of the extranet

European business landscape to be transformed as 1998 is predicted to be "the year of the extranet"

The European extranet market is set to take off in 1998, according to Moving Business Online a new business report launched today by Novell, in association with the analysts,GartnerGroup. This rapid growth will mean that by the end of 1999, more than 40 per cent of large organisations in Europe will use extranets to communicate with business partners such as customers and suppliers.

Moving Business Onlinepredicts that 1998 will be the "year of the extranet". The implications for UK business is profound. Extranets will give all companies, regardless of size,equal access to global markets, redefine the supply chain and dramatically reduce the cost of doing business online.

As a low-cost and secure medium for electronic commerce, extranets will fuel the growth of electronic commerce and the report predicts that by 2002, most large companies in Europe will conduct over 70 per cent of their business by electronic means and by 2001 extranets will be the platform for 40 per cent of business-to-business electronic commerce.

Besides expanding electronic commerce, extranets will transform the way that companies do business. Extranets facilitate collaborative working between business partners by enabling safe, secure and inexpensive communication of high quality information between the participating companies' computer networks.

By linking together their corporate intranets, business partners can develop close strategic relationships. And because extranets can be constructed over the global Internet, these new relationships will not be inhibited by distance or geography.

Andrew Sadler-Smith,managing director, Novell UK and Ireland, said: "While other Internet technologies have improved existing business practices, extranets open up entirely new business horizons by allowing rapid and secure communication between business partners. The challenge for businesses in the UK is to recognise how extranets can deliver them competitive advantage".

The changing business environment is producing new challenges for businesses: improved technologies are shortening business cycles, customer expectations are rising and globalisation means that competition on product, price and service can come from anywhere in the world.

According to Andrew Saddler-Smith, extranet technology can help meet these challenges,"Understanding and effectively deploying Internet technologies, such as extranets, will be key for businesses to survive and flourish in the information economy ­ but to be in a position to exploit this technology to the full,business must start taking action now".

Ken Fraser, principal analyst, European online multimedia and software group at the GartnerGroup company, Dataquest, said: "Extranets promise one of the biggest changes in the way business is conducted since the invention of the personal computer. The difference with extranets is that there will be clear and immediate cost benefits to adopting this technology".

Moving Business Onlinehas been researched and written in association with the GartnerGroup. It is based on a series of case studies of European companies currently implementing extranets and GartnerGroup research into the intranet market in both Europe and the USA.

In addition to looking forward to the growth of the extranet market, Moving Business Onlineoutlines the benefits which extranets offer to business, forecasts the impact on electronic commerce, and highlights some of the issues surrounding extranets.

Founded in 1983, Novell(NASDAQ: NOVL) is the world's leading provider of network software. The company offers a wide range of network solutions for distributed network,Internet/intranet and small-business markets, as well as the network computing industry's most comprehensive education and technical support programmes. Information about Novell and its complete range of products and services can be accessed on the World Wide Web at http://www.novell.com.

UK Web site is at http://www.novell.com/uk.