The idea is to get better bandwidth to support e-commerce and internal communications, Flynn said. It all boils down to better communications. Maybe that doesn't sound very sexy, but it's at the top of the list when either Flynn or Plimpton is asked what's the most exciting, top-priority project at the company. But just having routine things like good communications with dealers is crucial. Increasingly, it will be access to goods and services that dealers resell.
Communications becomes, really, the cost of entry into the e-commerce world.
That's about 70,000 vehicles that Prospector was responsible for putting on the highway, Flynn said. Every sale has its beginning in Prospector. That means linking together most of the company's 23,000 global employees via an intranet that runs on Microsoft Corp. Exchange e-mail and Outlook clients. Besides e-mail, the intranet holds human resources documents, product manuals and policy documents. Inc. All rights reserved.