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IRS Looks to Ford as Intranet Mentor

13 November 1997

IRS Looks to Ford as Intranet Mentor

    DEARBORN, Mich., Nov. 13 -- When the Internal Revenue Service
decided it needed some guidance in managing its growing intranet, it turned to
Ford Motor Company .  It may be surprising that the IRS would choose
a manufacturing company for web advice, but with one of the largest intranet
systems in the world, Ford has a wealth of expertise in the area.
    "The IRS acknowledged Ford as a leader in effective business utilization
of our intranet," says Stevie Cote, manager of Ford's Enterprise Information
Management.  "They said sharing our knowledge would save them significant
resources in their efforts -- a win win for everyone."
    During the half-day benchmarking visit, IRS representatives met with
Ford's team of intranet experts.  The Ford team was able to offer advice about
guidelines for managing information and how to provide efficient navigation of
the intranet.
    "We chose several award winning organizations from whom we might learn
critical best practices and lessons learned.  Ford exceeded our expectations
in what they have accomplished with their intranet and the assistance they
were able to provide us," says Nick Hall, IRS director for the IRS's Intranet
System Development Project.
    Since January 1996, the number of Ford employees using the intranet has
jumped from 5,000 to 85,000.  There are more than 600 web sites in use within
Ford (more than half of those are located centrally).  About 350,000 documents
are available on-line.  Ford's intranet efforts have been recognized by
WebMaster Magazine and the Harvard Business School, which conducted a case
study on the Company's intranet development.

SOURCE  Ford Motor Company