Here are tips for delivering a better user experience and increasing adoption rates:

1. Offer valuable content: If you want customers to use the extranet, you need to provide content that's useful and compelling. The right solution should enable the delivery of large files such as documentation or software updates, as well as high-quality streaming video for training or e-learning purposes.

2. Monitor performance: Through network monitoring, reporting, alerting, and various diagnostic tools, you can gain unprecedented insight into network conditions that impact the user experience. Make sure the solution you choose gives you the information you need to help assist customers, partners, and suppliers to quickly resolve their issues.

3. Make sure your site scales: You don't want users to have problems accessing your extranet due to increases in traffic. Choose a solution that can scale on demand by leveraging a distributed network of servers, smoothing the traffic peaks and valleys your enterprise might face.

4. Always be available: One of the advantages of an extranet is that customers can use it anytime, anyplace. But if your site's not available due to a network problem, your operations will be less productive. Choose a globally distributed server network that can minimise, or even eliminate, outages that prevent you from being available 100% of the time.

5. Maintain high levels of security: Your partners and customers share highly sensitive information over the extranet. You need to make them feel safe and secure. Look for a solution that provides SSL protection while integrating with security controls that customers already have in place.

6. Provide a consistent and predictable performance: When your extranet users are located around the world, you need to provide consistent and predictable performance on a global scale. A globally deployed network of servers, along with routing and connection optimisation technologies, will allow you to deliver superior performance to anyone, anywhere.

7. Deliver fresh content: Since extranet users are moving crucial business processes online, it's essential to make sure you're always providing the freshest content possible. That means your customers need total control of their content on the network, including the ability to determine storage and management rules, and purging stale or incorrect content from the servers.

8. Know your users: Who's using your extranet? What applications are they accessing? How often are they doing it? The more you know about your users, the more accurately you can respond to their needs. Your solution should allow you to collect information, write detailed reports, and better serve your customers, partners, and suppliers.

9. Improve accessibility: If your extranet is front-ending a number of highly sensitive applications, users that are forced to authenticate to each application separately will feel frustrated. Choose a solution that can simplify access across all applications without compromising security.

10. Encourage collaboration: When partners can work together on an extranet that's fast, efficient, and reliable, you're adding significant value to your business. Choose a solution that fosters online collaboration by supporting the applications that greatly improve performance and efficiency.

For more information visit the BPM / Doc. Mgmt / Portals Research Pavilion

August 2005