Nampak, a packaging manufacturer, has enhanced its corporate intranet by exploiting the security and connectivity of the GoZone to obtain critical applications and content from several of its trading partners.
The intranet, called The Works, required connectivity for the Nampak group companies to several key-business partners - including banking, insurance and risk management service partners - which provide employee benefits to Nampak.
According to Paddy Slattery, IT manager at Nampak, OmniLink in conjunction with Nampak developed solutions with several trading partners to connect them to the GoZone portal service. Nampak uses the OmniLink VPN backbone as its corporate wide area network (WAN).
"Effectively, this extended the Nampak intranet into a secure virtual extranet. The partners can now provide Nampak-specific content and applications in real-time to Nampak employees through The Works. Connectivity to the partners` content and applications is seamless. To users, it appears as if this resides on The Works.
"It has provided us with a robust mechanism to connect current and future Nampak partners to our intranet while minimising our administrative load. Indeed, we have achieved instant entry to a business-to-business e-commerce environment, with minimal investment in technology or the difficulties usually associated with installing the infrastructure required to link to trading partners," he adds.
GoZone GM Janice Kallmeyer says the cost of implementing in-house secure trading zones and physical connectivity can be exorbitant, as these technology platforms are state-of-the-art technology and linked to dollar/rand exchange rates. The GoZone makes this capability very affordable.
"As a result, the cost of entry into the e-business environment in the conventional manner - by installing dedicated leased lines to each business partner - seldom shows returns in an acceptable period. In addition, the lack of availability of skilled resources to implement e-business environments and secure trading zones are at a premium, often inhibiting the implementation of e-business strategies," she explains.
Implementation of the first phase of the GoZone/Nampak project was completed on time and within budget in just eight weeks, connecting an initial test group of 523 users to the extranet.
"The infrastructure is now in place to provide a platform for Nampak`s ongoing e-business strategy; GoZone and Nampak are currently working on several other projects," she says.
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