SP 7

Our first SharePoint version 7 has been deployed and it’s our new extranet server; which begs the question, just what is an extranet? If an Internet site is for anyone, and an Intranet site is only for people within our organization, then the extranet is the place that fits in between. It is a site where people can securely share information with our suppliers, vendors, partners or others. So, for example, this is a place for a partner at National Easter Seals to share documents, presentations, and other files with people in our own development department. This is a place where a Regional Vice-President can share a document with a partner at Regional Center in preparation for a joint presentation. This is the place where a program director can park a non-sensitive file that she wants access to from home. It is a place where one of our vendors can view a purchase order, or potentially track payment information.

What it is not is a place where information covered under the privacy act, or HIPPA is to be stored. No medical information about our participants, no medications, no diagnostic’s or addresses or phone numbers… and no non-public information on our contributors. Summary information is fine, but the type of details that are of interest to identity thieves must be avoided. This site is only secured by username and password, which is a much weaker form of protection from outside scams and hacking than the information we hold on the SharePoint server that is tucked safely inside our firewall.

On the other hand, it is available publically, so you can log into it from anything connected to the internet, which can be very useful. It is not, however a part of our domain, so while we have single sign on, using Passfaces, to everything inside the firewall, from Email to SharePoint, that log-in will not work for the extranet. You will be prompted for a username and password no matter what machine you are accessing it from.

Getting access to the extranet is going to take a tad more than just calling I.T. and asking for a new user. We have a form to fill out, which includes terms of use. These terms are an important acknowledgement, whether the user is an ESSC associate or a partner in another organization; that the user understands that information shared on the extranet should be restricted in order to avoid abuse.