Right now, the company makes that information available via phone or fax. FedEx's Web site, which receives an average of 26,000 tracking requests a day, is so well integrated into the company's core processes, Stephenson says, that it is impossible to isolate the time and expense involved in keeping it updated. The process involves people from across the 220,000-employee organization. An electronic commerce marketing group designs and structures the Web pages. A data protection group handles security.
Project managers develop new applications.
People from the legal and public relations departments oversee content. UPS is also formalizing its Web site process. Maintaining mission-critical applications on a Web site is more intense than maintaining the other applications up there. When FedEx's and UPS' sites receive their frequent updates and significant enhancements, the companies often have to write and test software and synchronize it with all the other applications. Such changes also introduce the enormous challenge of determining priorities.