Objectives of knowledge management

Service level 
agreement (SLA)
A contractual 
specification of service 
standards a contractor 
must meet.
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Chapter 3
Managing digital business infrastructure
Managing internal digital communications through intranets and extranets 
In Chapter 1 , we introduced the concept of intranets and extranets. 
Intranet applications 
Intranets are used extensively for supporting sell- side e-commerce from within the mar-
keting function. They are also used to support core supply chain management activities as 
described in the next section on extranets. Today, they are typically deployed as web- based 
services supplemented by messages and alerts delivered by email or when users login to a 
company network. A marketing intranet has the following advantages: 
● 
Reduced product life cycles – as information on product development and marketing 
campaigns is rationalised we can get products to market faster.
● 
Reduced costs through higher productivity, and savings on hard copy.
● 
Better customer service – responsive and personalised support with staff accessing cus-
tomers over the web.
● 
Distribution of information through remote offi ces nationally or globally.
Intranets are also used for internal marketing communications since they can include: 
● 
Staff phone directories.
● 
Staff procedures or quality manuals.
● 
Information for agents such as product specifi cations, current list and discounted prices, 
competitor information, factory schedules and stocking levels, all of which normally have 
to be updated frequently and can be costly.
● 
Staff bulletin or newsletter.
● 
Training courses.
Intranets can be used for much more than publishing information, as shown in Box 3.7 . 
Web browsers also provide an access platform for business applications which were tradi-
tionally accessed using separate software programs. This can help reduce the