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chain partner Lowe's Companies Inc. The EDI was used to exchange

documents, including purchase orders and invoices.

EXTRANETS

Extranets are Intranets with extended connectivity to external

entities (e.g. suppliers and business partners). Each participant in the

extranet can have access based on the access level permissions granted.

An extranet can be set up through the Internet, or it can use a separate

network.

One famous example of an extranet is Federal Express Tracking

System (www.fedex.com). Customers can locate and track any shipment

made through FedEx using this system. Using their package shipping

service available on FedEx site, customers can enter all the information

needed to prepare a shipper form, obtain a tracking number, print the

form, and schedule a pick up. Other uses of extranets may include shared

product catalogs accessible only to wholesalers or those in the trade and

project management and control for companies that are part of a common

work project.

WEB SERVICES

Web services refer to a combination of software tools that can be

used by application software in one organization to communicate with

another application software over a network by using a specific set of

standard protocols. Three protocols are used in web services: XML,

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