Others were less connected. Since employees generally work in only one category, it made sense for a running designer to be able to see information only related to running or for a tennis developer to see information related solely to tennis. The latest version of GPIN offers rich product information online, from the very earliest stages of the design and planning process. Marketing managers can enter their earliest production forecasts, which in turn flow through into a corporate forecasting tool. Color designers can view future color palettes and discuss which colors they think will work in which markets.
Executives can view confidential reports on the top sellers for a given season.
And perhaps the most popular area of the intranet is the virtual catalog, which pulls information dynamically from disparate back-end systems into a single page. Someone who wants to see all of the men's running shoes, for example, will see a page showing photos of each style in all planned colors, plus information on each style's materials, target audience and retail price. The number of employees with GPIN access has grown steadily, to more than 1,500 at this writing. But for security reasons, Caldwell has had to limit GPIN access. Much of GPIN's product information is highly confidential when it is first posted but then becomes less so as the product moves through development and manufacturing.