# Presentation: 817915

## WebCo Means Business on the Intranet

**Jennie L. Negin**
**Sandia National Laboratories**
**December 8, 1997 **
**jlnegin@sandia.gov**
**Sandia is a multiprogram  laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.**

## WebCo -- in the beginning

**The Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) Internal Web -- an internal tech transfer -- a grass roots effort leveraged by the CIO**
**The Web created a new market and expectation for services -- an opportunity for intrapreneurship**
**Seed $ in FY95, cost recovery in FY96 **
**We call ourselves WebCo because “we mean business!”****	**
**aka Organization 4817, Web Services and IS Training**

## WebCo is:

**A web products & services business **
**An internal start-up**
**A virtual company, adding value through experts**
**Recovering costs a year at a time; morphing as needed**

## WebCo is the Company for 

**Hyperthinking **
**rethinking for the web**
**considering user**
**chunking information**
**Hyperlinking**
**moving from one document to another with ease**
**Making your information profitable**
**information objects**
**reusable information**

## How we fit into the IS food chain

**We are suppliers to Web Ops & manage the top levels of the intranet including the information & second-level help **
**We are partners with applications & data base developers, data modelers, human factors & systems **
**We use a systems development “lite” cycle**
**and sell this ability to others**

## WebCo’s Products & Services

**Web pages/homepages **
**Authoring & converting documents**
**Enhancing web pages with graphics**
**Forms**
**Applications & on-line help**
**Training**
**Consulting**

## WebCo’s Value Added

**We apply & leverage technology, not R&D**
**We offer a one-stop shop**
**comprehensive**
**integrates words, pictures, forms, code **
**The dollar sets the priority**
**We have a “proprietary” position -- Shhhh! **
**we approach from hyperthink**
**we ****balance effectiveness & efficiency**

## Effectiveness

**Design with the user in mind**
**Understand & account for different user styles -- holistic Vs hierarchical**
**Add value -- bounded search & index, archive, rethink paperless, chunk or whole**
**Recruit the right information**
**Enhance the look -- use statistics, surveys**
**Stay agile -- lite cycle, processes**

## Efficiency

**Minimize the burden of both paper and web**
**styles, templates, single source publishing **
**Apply just enough standards and CL&F**
**Balance pull Vs push **
**subscription service, attention getters  **
**Provide training for users & providers **
**Provide levels of publishing services **
**do it all or make it easy**

## WebCo’s Challenges

**Being an intrapreneur -- thinking like an entrepreneur is counter culture **
**Only one web service center allowed**
**Some project work helps grow staff**
**To do business, you need great processes**
**WebCo has to walk the talk**
**The intranet resists productionizing**

## WebCo’s Market

**The market was created by applying the Internet technologies internally at Sandia**
**The market includes 8500 employees, 800 organizations, 1130 projects & programs**
**We serve both mission-related and support segments**
**We plan to keep our eye on the business **

## WebCo gets business from:

**Publicity -- internal publications, Info Day, bookmarks, customer “thank you” -- rolodex card, key chains**
**Announcements in Weekly Bulletin**
**Articles in Lab News, newsletters**
**Word of mouth, referrals**
**Connections & networking**
**Our intranet ad**
***The power of our People!***

## WebCo’s Competition

**Other internal providers **
**any HTML author in the line -- secretaries, scientists**
**traditional graphic arts department**
**External providers**
**stay reasonable**
**add value (like FTP to our servers, know internal information)**

## WebCo’s People

**Staff available due to internal change**
**What they look like**
**passion for the web -- love computing and/or information**
**risk takers - at Sandia?**
**self taught, self starters, creative **
**Staff from other organizations are asking for jobs in WebCo**

## WebCo’s Key Individuals 

**Four authors plus a student**
**HTML, graphics, FTP**
**Five programmers plus student**
**Perl, CGI, Java, JavaScript, NetDynamics, Domino, etc.**
**Two user interface/graphic artists**
**Two training, on-line learning experts**
**One office manager/secretary**
**One manager of people & information**

## WebCo’s Board of Directors

**Web Ops team of the Information Utility**
**CIO**
**Our Director**
**Overhead committee**
**IIS (Integrated Information Systems) Communications team**

## Our Annual Report to our Stockholders

**FY97 was a successful year**
**Our budget was $720K**
**we had 200 customers**
**We added three people to staff with plans to add two more in FY98**
**We have a stockholder message **

## WebCo Success Factors

**Know (or don’t know) the boundaries of your business**
**don’t confine to authoring -- the web calls for integration of pages, images, forms, etc.**
**leverage what you learn -- information & knowledge are richer when shared**
**take the information management seriously -- effective & efficient information will make the web user more productive**
**operate like a business -- have sound processes & know your value added**

## WebCo Success Factors

**Be the expert by doing**
**know the intranet including pages done by others**
**try the new technologies to see how they fit into your offerings**
**walk the talk -- use the web for your organization**
**Partner with technologists**
**the new technologies will help your business, help anticipate change **
**trade off for hands-on customer-based work**

## WebCo Success Factors

**Partner with major information providers**
**their problems will become everyone’s problems **
**they’ll keep you ahead of the curve**
**if info isn’t there, recruit it**
**Partner with the Library**
**they are the experts at putting information away and being able to find it**
**increase success of search and index**

## WebCo Success Factors

**Keep your eye on the future**
**everyone will be doing HTML in the future**
**look for trends -- like low rigor document management**
**become the web systems integrator**
**remember the word processing centers**

## If I were selling stock in WebCo, would you buy?

**If I were selling stock in WebCo, would you buy?**