Web Management Issues: Ownership, Access, and Control

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Web Management Issues Ownership, Access, and
Control

• David Strom Katherine Epes
• david_at_strom.com kepes_at_sbd.com
• 1 516 944 3407 1 703 827 6236
• PC Expo, 16 June 1998

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Summary

• Internets, intranets and extranets
• Factors that make a successful extranet
• Managing your web site
• Presentation available at strom.com/pubwork/nypcex
  po.ppt

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1 Internets, intranets and extranets

• Distinguishing characteristics
• Factors that make a successful extranet
• Tax News Network case study

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Intranets

• Intranets everywhere
• Role of Lotus Notes
• How to pick the right products
• Other technologies required
• Decision points on your first Intranet
• How to manage the transition

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Intranets everywhere

• Mentioned hundreds of times in trade pubs
• Now a "section" in most trade mags
• Weekly conferences
• Fedex example getting tiresome

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Some definitions

• Internet tools among family
• Internet in a bottle
• Non-public website for one corporation
• Joy, concern, and sheer terror

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How Intranets benefit corporations

• Quick to deploy and assemble
• Easy to mix and match components
• Promote many-to-one communications
• Enhance work flows
• Fit in on both back end (data store) and front
  end (query)

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Differences between Intranet and the Internet

• Internal access prime reason
• Uses same technologies but for different reasons
• Manage work flow and discussions, not just
  billboards
• Group and project focus, rather than on the
  individual

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Differences between Intranets and extranets

• I control desktop and plug-ins
• E communicate with customers
• I got lots of bandwidth to burn
• E better reach and influence
• I mailing lists and newsletter metaphor
• E TV channels

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Is Notes an Intranet spoiler or promoter?

• () Domino a good way to give inbound web access
• () A way to organize your web presence
• (-) Its own universe still
• (-) SMTP mail gateways only lately decent quality

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How to pick the right products

• First, pick your OS platform
• Then, determine how you will create content
• Finally, where is your data and how will you get
  to it?

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Picking the right Intranet platform

• Ease of setup/configuration
• Functionality of OS
• Integration into existing file/print services
• Scalability

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Availability of third-party tools

• Content creation tools stink
• 16 bit vs 32 bit
• Play catch up w/ new HTML tags even Netscape
  Gold!
• WSYIWIG isn't always desirable
• Graphic editors required highly skilled operators

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Where is your data?

• Front end what are your users comfortable with?
  (Windows!)
• Back end where does the data live and thrive?
• Infrastructure what connects them?

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Information delivery tools mediocre

• Not everyone is networked
• Remote access still tough
• Mail replication issues
• Dealing with dial-up parameters
• IP not on every desktop
• Gateways are still a bad word

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Other Intranet technologies

• Web servers, of course
• Graphics editor
• Link checkers
• Tracking visitors
• Search tools
• Animation tools

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Recommendations

• NT WebSite, IIS web servers
• Unix Netscape web server
• WebTrends for tracking visits
• Verity's Topic for searching
• Hold off on animation for as long as you can

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Decision points on your first Intranet

• What is your purpose?
• Who is responsible for content?
• How will servers be administered?
• How do they scale?

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How to manage the transition

• IP deployment
• Open systems expertise
• Role of IS management

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What is your open systems expertise?

• How much Unix?
• Does your email run SMTP?
• Where is your data stored?
• How much HTML?

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Who takes the lead?

• IS
• Non-IS
• Technical vs political decisions

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2 Factors that make a successful extranet

• Audience
• Purpose
• Design
• Community
• Architecture choices

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Know your audience

• Executives, middle management, staff?
• How well do you know these people?
• Intended for your customers? New prospects?

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Understand your purpose

• Increase sales
• Increase visibility
• Communicate with clients
• Enhance client relationships

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Consider these design points

• Keep the user in mind at all times!
• Ease of access
• Minimum of clutter, gratuitous graphics, menus
• Site maps readily available
• Browser version, plug-in support
• Wide or narrow, deep or shallow content
• Membership or public access

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Members-only access

• Restrict to customers, staff, management
• Keep competitors from downloading your customer
  file
• Maintain customer privacy

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Create layers of information

• Different people need to know different things
• Makes finding things simple
• Match user with appropriate content

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Create a sense of community

• Send email to group periodically
• Inform users of new content on site
• Take the right tone of voice in communications
  and content
• Maintain discussion forums to engage user
  participation

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Examine your web site from the end-user
perspective

• Can I really find the answers to my questions?
• Do I get lost in web space?
• Can I easily search the site?
• Is the level of detail interesting and
  informative?
• Will I come back to the site tomorrow?

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Integrate any back end systems

• Do you already have databases to publish?
• Where do you maintain your customer lists?
• Where do you maintain your content?

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Choose the right path

• Buy a turnkey system
• Build in-house from scratch
• Leverage existing IT infrastructure

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Turnkey products

• Document management systems
• PC DOCS www.pcdocs.com
• Notes-based add-ons
• Domino www.lotus.com
• Intranet software
• Livelink www.opentext.com
• Intranetics www.intranetics.com

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Turnkey product issues

• Expensive (US50,000)
• Not easy to customize
• Dont always work for your application
• Not always easy to use and setup
• Read my own reviews at www.strom.com/pubwork/cworl
  d.html

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Example of extranet done right

• Coopers and Lybrand Tax News Network
• www.taxnews.com
• article www.datamation.com/PlugIn/issues/1997/nov
  ember/11extra.html

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Tax News Network

• Audience corporate tax professionals
• Membership and staff sections
• Public access to small portion of site

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TNN fee structure

• Public site is always free
• Members get first month for free
• Different tax association members get discounts

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TNN content structure

• Leverages existing Notes and Informix databases
• Replication and authentication taken from
  existing IT applications
• Staff authors documents as they did before the
  extranet
• Builds upon earlier DOS-based BBS systems

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3 Managing your web site

• Picking the right ISP
• Search engine strategies
• Managing and developing web content

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Picking the right ISP

• Should I have a .com?
• Outsource the entire web, storefront, or just
  access
• Place your equipment in-house or at the ISP

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Trying to figure out the fees

• Inbound, outbound charges
• Per page or per megabyte
• Monthly fees
• Other charges maintenance, upgrades, scripts

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Look carefully at usage (variable) charges

• KB/month/disk space
• KB/Month transferred
• eCommerce transactions
• Hits surcharges
• Other things hidden charges

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Hidden charges

• Changing links from absolute to relative
• File name changes
• Adding user accounts
• File transfer charges
• Other administrative charges

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What to look for in an ISP

• Dedicated server
• Backbone connection to US
• Root access, CGIs
• Number of webs they support
• Staff experience
• References

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Find an ISP

• More ISPs are offering eCommerce solutions
• Have to use their software standards and payment
  schemes
• Could be pricey
• Just catching on in USA

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Some examples

• www.psi.net/web/ecommerce.shtml
• www.Best.com/bizcomm.html
• www.Brainlink.com/html/saleslink.htm
• www.Earthlink.net/company/webservices.html
• IBM mypage.ihost.com
• www.Netcom.com
• business.Mindspring.com/prod-svc/smbiz/
• www.Mindrush.com/
• www.outer.net/ONCommerce (OuterNet)

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Price Comparison for ISP hosting
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Price Comparison assumptions

• 10 Mb disk storage
• Single email account
• InterNIC US100 fee included for .com domain
  name

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Understanding your connection

• Do traceroute to microsoft.com

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Why switch from ISP to on-site hosting?

• More direct control
• Management needs vs. server access
• Need for multiple servers
• Combining Internet and intranets
• No longer cost-effective

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My recommendation split your needs

• Access to the Internet
• Host your content
• Maintain your corporate identity

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Search engine strategies

• What are they
• Different tools available
• How they work and dont work

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What is a search engine?

• Program, indexing tool
• Intelligent agent
• Not always accurate

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Different kinds of tools

• External tools wander through many sites for the
  public
• Internal tools for your own purposes

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Dealing with search engine behavior

• Some use ltMETAgt, some use ltTITLEgt
• Keep descriptions at top of your home page short
  and sweet
• Web Review article webreview.com/97/10/17/webmast
  er

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Keep the bots out of your site

• Exclude cgi-bin, test directories
• Create a robots.txt file that starts with
• User-agent
• disallow /cgi-bin/

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Managing and developing web content

• Find a managing editor
• Pick your plan for updates
• Stage a test web
• Consider other technologies

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Find a good managing editor

• Understands English syntax, grammar
• Detail-oriented
• Knows enough HTML to be dangerous
• Understands the differences between print and
  electronic publishing

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Standardize on the right content

• Navigation tools, icons
• Images, colors, sizes
• Type, backgrounds, white space usage
• Contact info and placement of links

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Contact information is critical!

• Same format
• Every page
• So people can find you in the real world
• Should include phone, fax, email, postal address

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Pick the right content management plan

• Divide and conquer different departments author
  different pages
• Control freak one person responsible for group
  of pages
• How do you implement change controls?
• What happens when you have multiple webs and
  locations?

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Are HTML editors useful tools?

• Not really (tags, long file names, etc.)
• Do you want to learn another word processor?
• I use a combination of Word and WordPad
• You still end up adjusting the code manually
• WYS is not always WYG!

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Staging a test web

• Check and validate your links, spelling
• See your site from different browsers
• Make sure navigation makes sense
• Mirror your web locally for backup

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Maybe consider dynamic content technologies

• Cold Fusion
• Active Server Pages
• Other database-driven webs

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Suggested sites for more information

• www.builders.com
• My own Intranet Information Page
  strom.com/pubwork/intranet.html