David Gibney Aug 22, 2016:

The network may be used by parties other than the company. For example, some logistics companies make deliveries to supermarkets using automatic reporting when stocks are low to make orders. In this case "intra-company" would not make sense.

Marc Brunet Aug 22, 2016:

re: 拠点 (2/2) In the light of this development according to which large Groups have been operating over the last 45 odd years (that's until 'Virtual Private Networks' appeared on the scene with the advent of the Internet to take over from 'leased land lines',) one alternative phrase worth considering might be: inter-business unit [network]
(would keep NWK in the singular)

Marc Brunet Aug 22, 2016:

re: 拠点 (1/2) In business contexts, most of the 拠点 you'll come across refer to the outcome of the restructuring strategy that large conglomerates adopted, borrowing from their Japanese counterparts, breaking down their internal top-heavy 'Divisions', bloated with excessive management levels, into leaner and freer ('bottom up' managed) "Business Units" (BU.s). This they applied no just to their key field operations but particularly to their Group head office's administrative and coordination services.
This means that, from then on, efficiency and market competitiveness has had to be managed at all levels of internal Group support services. The key business operations became free to outsource these support services from within or from without the Group; and each B.U. became solely responsible for its own survival.

A useful image to illustrate this change is to compare it to a switch from a 'supertanker' carrying the whole set of its divisions in a single hull to...a 'barge train' of Business Units, each of which has to demonstrate that it can float or else be left to sink and be replaced for the rest keeps going at a better pace.