Success Story: Hewlett-Packard (HP)

Over many years as a HP vendor and partner, we have developed a number of websites, web based systems, and software products for HP, including some for internal use. For instance, we developed a sophisticated employee directory to aid in cataloging areas of specific expertise that employees have to encourage collaboration and information sharing across organizations.

HP Labs

How often have you said to yourself: "I know there is someone in the company that knows the answer to this question, but I'll probably spend hours trying to figure out who it is?" We have developed for HP Labs a web based system that can find the company "expert" in a few minutes. Finding the right people to answer the questions can be like finding useful web sites -- you know they're out there, but you need an easy way to find them. We set out to develop a solution for finding people considered "expert" in specific knowledge areas for internal use at HP. We developed a solution using a combination of database and full-text search technology which permits an employee to maintain a "profile" of his or her skills, which can be searchable by individuals and groups within the company. System maintenance is low since employees maintain their own profiles and the system automatically "nags" them to make updates after six months. This project uses technology from Verity and Sybase.

HP Electronic Components Group

Keeping track of large quantities of data for incorporation into HTML was one of the challenges we addressed while developing the web site for the Electronic Components group. We developed a database to track the development of HTML ensuring each component was properly represented. The business of HP's Electronic Components group revolves around a product base of thousands of tiny components. HP recognized early that the availability of updated product information to potential customers was crucial and would have a direct impact on customer orders. Furthermore, accuracy of information was critical since one typographical error in a component specification could have a huge impact. We developed a systematic approach to tracking and verifying the accuracy of all information to be published on the web using a combination of database and web technology. HP was able to easily review and approve each component specification using the web. A key element of the Access HP web site, this site highlights the products and services offered by the Hewlett Packard Components Group.

HP Medical

Hewlett Packard Medical sells products and services for the health care industry including high-reliability emergency room equipment. HP Medical wanted to provide visitors with new information every day to encourage return visits to the web site as an on-line information service. Using news feed from Individual Inc., we developed an automated process to update the web site with new content daily automatically with no intervention by the webmaster. In this process, health care relevant emails received from Individual Inc. were automatically converted into HTML and updated to their web site. An index page was updated daily which provided hot links to todays news and the previous week's news. Update automation is common to many of our web sites and helps the web site provide fresh content without hours of effort.