Muhammad Saad Zahid

Case Study At Du Pont Co.’s (www.dupont.com) $4 billion performance coating grope, the critical issue was content management. “We have a very large number of documents for marketing: brochures, press releases, warranty information on products and general support content for our distributors and car repair body shops”, explains Catherine March and, the groups ebusiness strategy manager. “Our salesmen were driving around with 23 kg of obsolete literature in their trunk.” Du Pont opted to deliver the information through a web-based intranet/ extranet portal, using technology from Bow-street, a portal s/w and web development tools company. Du Pont wanted the ability to customize information about its half a dozen coating brands. It also wanted each of its 2500 distributors and repair shops worldwide to see the information displayed in almost 4000 different site views; which the technology would allow it to do. Since the content capability was initiated, Du Pont’s site has grown rapidly. The body shops can now get training, bench marketing tools, and can paint color formulas via the portal. There are also job-posting and resume services. And for the distributors, Du Pont is researching adding order-tracking and order accuracy capabilities soon. Questions: a. What are the business benefits of the web portal? Make a critical assessment. b. What is the importance of ‘content management’ for enterprise web portals? c. Can a small business develop and maintain such a portal?

Q 1: What are the business benefits of the web portal? Make a critical assessment.
Answer: Portal unifies information, applications and services from heterogeneous systems to promote efficient collaboration, intelligent decision making and appropriate responses to critical business events. The solution is based on open standards and scales to meet your future needs The body shops can now get training, bench marketing tools, and can paint color formulas via the portal. There are also job-posting and