Altitude Online: The Internet, Web, Intranet, and Extranets Being a Web service company, Altitude Online is heavily invested in Internet and Web technologies. The Web analytics tools that Altitude provides its clients are state-of-the-art and critical to their ability to harvest valuable information from the visitors to their Web sites. The Web site designs that Altitude Online provides its clients are also state-of-the-art intended to impress the most tech-savvy consumers. Needless to say, Altitude Online Web technology specialists are continuously studying new technologies as they emerge and putting them to use for the benefit of their clients. Altitude Onlines own Web site must exemplify the high standards that the company holds itself to in Web design. The company refreshes its site every 6 months with new technologies so that it continuously reflects the latest in Web design. The decision to implement a new ERP will not impact the companys public-facing online presence. It will, however strongly impact the companys intranet applications. Jon and his team needed to design a dashboard application that provided employees with access to pertinent corporate systems. The dashboard would use common Internet and Web protocols and technologies to provide employees with an interface that was familiar and easy to use. The dashboard would connect to ERP applications on the back end that span the entire Altitude Online enterprise. Besides core information systems, the dashboard would also provide access to industry news, and Web 2.0 applications that supported knowledge managements, and communication between workers. VPN software would be provided to allow employees to access the dashboard from any Internet connected device. A special mobile version of the dashboard would be developed for use on smart phone handsets.

Read about the Altitude Online case in attached document and answer the following questions.

Discussion Questions

1. What impact will the new ERP system have on Altitude Onlines public-facing Web site? How will it affect its intranet?

2. What types of applications will be available from the employee dashboard?

Critical Thinking Questions

3. Altitude Online employees have various needs, depending on their position within the enterprise. How might the dashboard and intranet provide custom support for individual employee needs?

4. What Web 2.0 applications should Altitude Online consider for its dashboard? Remember that the applications must be available only on the secure intranet.