 
  See your link here
|
For more info on a specific newsletter, click the title. Details will be displayed in a new window.
Subscribe to
Computerworld 40 years of the most authoritative source of news and information for IT leaders.
Intranet Helps Workers Navigate Corporate Maze
or
Other Management Stories
|
|
|
|
June 4, 2001 (Computerworld) --
It receives 1.3 million page views per day, but it's not Yahoo or America Online or even CNN.com. It's an intranet created by Charles Schwab & Co. that enables Schwab's 23,000 employees to access detailed information about benefits, training, computer support and scads of company information.
The genesis of the intranet was in 1996, with the introduction of Schwab's "White Pages," an employee directory that was Web-enabled at a time when a lot of companies hadn't even launched home pages for their Internet sites.
"As a company, we're very committed to using technology to benefit our customers and to provide good services to our employees," says Anne Barr, vice president of the intranet initiative known throughout the company as the "Schweb."
That effort spawned the Enterprise Directory initiative, which the company began in earnest in mid-1999 with a "sneak peek" pilot version of the White Pages that was accessible from the home page of the intranet, says Barr. During that time, Schwab shifted from a homegrown version of its White Pages to a packaged application from Cupertino, Calif.-based Oblix Inc. to support those pages.
The Schweb delivers a plethora of benefits to both managers and employees at the San Francisco-based discount brokerage. For starters, it provides managers with online access to accurate information about employees. Because the directory is online, it's a lot easier to update and maintain than a set of desktop applications, notes Barr.
The intranet provides employees with more personalized information about themselves, their roles and the organization than they'd otherwise be able to obtain from the company's human resources department. "The other benefit is that it helps employees find the information that they need faster and to serve customers faster, more effectively," says Barr.
Indeed, these types of self-service intranets are a boon for big companies like Charles Schwab, where it can be a bit daunting for a new or even seasoned employee to find answers to questions about benefits, training and more. "Just being able to navigate your way through a company - especially for a new employee - can be overwhelming," says Barbara Gomolski, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in Fallbrook, Calif. "From a productivity standpoint, people can save a lot of time about who to go to, who does what, etc. - especially these days, as organizations want people who can hit the ground running."
There are now 30 applications that link into the Schweb, including the Learning Intranet, an application that helps manage training for Schwab's 14,000 customer-facing employees, and eTimesheets, which employees use to manage their own vacation time.
The productivity benefits alone from the use of the Schweb are huge. Charles Schwab is saving hundreds of thousands of dollars annually by having employees fill out benefits forms online using an application called eForms, says Barr.
|
Print this Story |
|
Send Us Feedback |
|
E-mail this Story |
|
Digg this Story |
|
Slashdot this Story |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| All Zones Business Continuity Zone The File Data Management Zone Security Management Zone The SAS Zone Business Intelligence and Analytics Zone The Enterprise Search Zone Software as a Service Zone The Security Zone |
|
See your link here
|
 |
||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
|
Turning information into a Competitive Advantage
Download this Technology Briefing, free, compliments of Dell. 
Get this white paper now!
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services.
- Microsoft feared Mac vs. Vista comparison in '05, insider e-mails show
- Hosting firm takedown bags 500,000 bots
- Downed Hadron Collider faces $21M in repairs
- More top stories
 The Enterprise Search Zone
With an estimated 40% of the world's information now residing behind a firewall, employee productivity is driven by the ability to quickly find key information no matter where it's stored across your organization. At Google, we believe in a simple premise: all of the information you need to be productive at work should be available through one search box, giving users real-time access to content across the enterprise and delivering a single, integrated, secure set of search results. Learn more in The Enterprise Search Zone See All Zones |
Moving to Windows Vista: The Promise, The Reality
IDG survey says...that while migration to Windows Vista looms inevitable, the road is fraught with challenges from application compatibility to integration issues to upgrade costs. Fortunately one company is stepping up with solutions and services to help manage Vista in a mixed environment and to automate key aspects of that management chore. View this webcast.
See more Webcasts |
Sponsored Links
CIO
Computerworld
CSO
DEMO
GamePro
Games.net
IDG Connect
IDG World Expo
Infoworld
The Industry Standard
ITworld
JavaWorld
LinuxWorld
MacUser
Macworld
Network World
PC World
Playlist
Copyright © 2008 Computerworld Inc. All
rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium
without express written permission of Computerworld Inc. is prohibited.
Computerworld and Computerworld.com and the respective logos are
trademarks of International Data Group Inc.
|
