In
all aspects of life people want to be welcomed and
feel part of a community. However for a true community
atmosphere to proliferate there must be control
over community access, the basis for a community
is who is permitted in and who is not. In everyday
communities, it is not possible to walk into a neighbourhood
and immediately join, there are rituals and behaviors
to adhere to, obstacles to surmount and rules to
learn. The community need and the concept of access
is equally valuable and applicable within the on-line
world of the Internet.
For
industry this need extends into 3 specific community
areas: Employees, Suppliers and Customers. Link
through its partnership with the corporate ISP,
Web HQ Ltd, has provided expertise and technology
in developing a number of Internet based community
initiatives in all three of these areas. This development
has ranged from the development of on-line staff
satisfaction systems to the development of Aerospace
club 2000, on of the biggest industry focused portals
in the world.
Supplier
Communities.
Many
industries and organisations are reliant on suppliers
and business partners collaborating on projects
and sharing information. The Internet provides the
perfect medium to achieve this in a cost effective
and user friendly way.
No
where better can this be seen than in the development
of Aerospace Club 2000 (AC2k). AC2k has been developed
through a consortium of companies including Link
Technology and delivers focused supplier based community
portal for the Aerospace and defence industry. Offering
benefits from a range of sponsors to a current membership
base of 1200 members, AC2k is rapidly growing and
provides services such as:
-
Smart Procurement Initiatives
-
Supply Chain Project Management
-
Vendor Scheduling
-
Supply Chain Total Quality
- Integrated Health and Safety
-
Virtual University programme
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Employee
Communities
For any organisation one of their most important
assets are their employees or their 'people'. Link
Technology has recognised this and worked with a
range of large corporate customers to develop "People
Portal" infrastructures that develop and serve
the organisations employees.
Access
to a People Portal is restricted to an organisations
employees and also to their direct family. Within
the portal the company serves a range of employee/company
focused content in addition to fun and sponsor driven
content. Typically the portal is developed in association
with a campaign to encourage home PC use and Internet
understanding. The services / content delivered
to an employee community through a People Portal
include:
-
Providing
free Internet access and a prestige e-mail address
to all users
-
Enabling
simple, supported and trusted Internet access
for all employees
-
The
Development of a Strong and Positive Employee
Culture
-
Increasing
employee and family loyalty
-
Facilitating
strong communication between the employee, their
family
-
Uniting differing internal cultures
-
Rationalisation
of Internal Communication
-
Single
point, simplified access for employees to access
important electronic based organisational data
and information
-
Distribution
of corporate information
-
Delivery
of a cost-effective communication solution that
leverages advertising and sponsorship potential
from new and existing contacts
-
Education
/ E-readiness
-
Increased
ability for home / office integration
Customer
Communities
Customer communities are the key to the
success of any business. Keeping in touch with a
customer base and ensuring customer satisfaction
are vital to business survival. The Internet now
offers companies with an interesting and effective
new medium to unite their customer community and
offer them value added services and benefits.
Link
Technology has worked with a number of service based
organisations, helping them develop a true community
from their customer base and using the Internet
as a primary medium for contact and feedback. Services
delivered include:
