Efficient collaboration with clients is essential for any service firm. Traditionally, collaboration has focused on face-to-face meetings, supported by email to share work in progress.

Over the past several years, a new tool has grown in popularity: the client service extranet. While face-to-face meetings remain the most effective (and essential) collaboration tool, extranets have replaced email as the favored forum for sharing and organizing the vast number of documents that are part of all client/agency relationships.

Increasingly, service firms are using extranets as a platform to share work with clients securely and efficiently. They allow clients to log into a secure workspace and access the materials that pertain to them.

An extranet allows clients to:

• Access draft documents for approval or comment
• Preview artwork or multimedia presentations for approval or comment
• Provide important background information from the client before the project begins
• Archive past projects for easy comparison
• Access time and billing information
• Access a log of all project communication
• Reduce the number of or eliminate the need for face-to-face meetings which can make servicing remote clients easier and less expensive