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By Peggy Watt
IntraNet, 3/30/98

Launching a browser has taken on new meaning for 75,000 employees of Ernst & Young companies worldwide. When they need research data, software updates or a colleague with certain expertise, employees set course to a place they call InnerSpace.

A celestial metaphor is appropriate for this intranet built and maintained by Ernst & Young International, Ltd. (EYI). New York-based EYI coordinates and guides the global initiatives of more than 130 far-flung and distinct Ernst & Young member firms that comprise the company's planetary system. With access via InnerSpace to more than 800 Lotus Development Corp. Notes databases in sibling firms, Ernst & Young companies now find it easier to share resources and to work as part of a global entity, says Malcolm Collingwood, EYI director of international communications services.

Planetary council

InnerSpace was the inspiration of an EYI council of several dozen chief information officers from member firms. The council's mission is to provide technical guidance to member firms, in part by setting and implementing corporate standards, Collingwood says. For example, the council urged the worldwide adoption of Lotus Notes for e-mail and helped EYI design an X.500-based message switching service to ensure that member firms could communicate after converting to Notes. And it built EYLink, an IP network running on the frame relay backbone operated by Sprint Communications Co., Deutsche Telekom AG and France Telecom, for carrying that e-mail. Since EYLink's launch three years ago, the number of messages has grown from 10,000 to more than 800,000 per month. In February 1997, the council determined that a global intranet would benefit member companies and that some well-crafted intranet applications could ease the e-mail load. The council's aim was an orbital change: Instead of the Ernst & Young satellite companies sending out missives, the council proposed letting users with browsers retrieve what they needed. EYLink now charts a course to InnerSpace. More than 30 of the largest Ernst & Young firms connect directly to EYLink, and 30 or so member companies access the network by remote dial-up. A number of smaller, more autonomous member firms don't yet have access to InnerSpace, Collingwood notes.

The 85% of employees who do have access can use either Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer or Netscape Communications Corp.'s Navigator browsers to peruse InnerSpace.

When landing on the InnerSpace home page, users are greeted with a few satellite pointers - to announcements or newly posted resources, for example. More in-depth information comes through links to Planet Knowledge, a catalog of resource links; Planet EYI, a central repository and communications hub; and Planet Services, a site for software retrieval.

Blasting off

When deciding to launch an intranet, EYI brought on board the consulting services division of Software House International, a Somerset, N.J., reseller. EYI's IT staff shared the planning with the Software House team, which handled the bulk of the programming and continues to do maintenance.

A previous relationship EYI had with Software House drove development of one application, a software ordering system that the reseller encourages its customers to adopt. Authorized employees can log onto Planet Services, shop from a catalog that lists EYI's corporate rates, and place their orders online. Parcel Post, a software distribution program, also resides on Planet Services. Users place documents on the Parcel Post site and let colleagues know the files are available for download. This saves them from having to send sizable e-mail attachments to different people. Typical parcels include PowerPoint presentations, replicated Lotus Notes databases and software updates.

"InnerSpace provides more control over who's downloading what," says Hans Friedli, general manager at Software House Enterprise Solutions and the InnerSpace team leader. "It frees the network considerably that not everything is replicated everywhere."

Planet Services went into orbit after three frenzied months of programming, primarily using Lotus Notes Designer for Domino and LotusScript for server-side scripting, Friedli says. InnerSpace runs on a Lotus Domino server, which is replacing the many Lotus Notes servers throughout member companies.

The team also wrote a handy Java applet that lets users interrupt Parcel Post downloads, then later resume the transmissions from those points in the files. "This option is important in places like Africa where people are using [low-speed] modems," Friedli says.

"InnerSpace has made disseminating information much easier [and quicker]. In the past, a document would have been sent by fax, floppy disk, CD-ROM or courier," Collingwood says.

One major database containing information about Ernst & Young's largest clients could only be updated twice a year because it needed to be shipped by CD-ROM to all sites. Member firms now update and access the database, which is updated frequently, through InnerSpace.

Alternate earths

The second resource center on InnerSpace, Planet Knowledge, acts as a transporter to many Ernst & Young databases, including those housed on member firm intranets. Access restrictions may apply, but users can usually get an abstract of information from a Planet Knowledge resource catalog. A document owner can then authorize retrieval.

"Many knowledge databases are plugged into this Web site. This is really the international information hub," Friedli says. Ernst & Young LLP's EY/KnowledgeWeb is one of the largest member firm intranets available through Planet Knowledge.

A smaller body, Planet EYI, contains data maintained by EYI for member firms. Its resources include general practice information, marketing materials, databases of competitive intelligence and internal communications. Planet EYI also includes a bulletin board system and discussion groups.

EYI is focusing on growing Planet EYI, says Philippe Kauffmann, EYI intranet project manager. Describing his job as "Dominizing" Notes databases, Kauffmann says he expects to add 200 or so Lotus Notes databases to InnerSpace during the next two months.

Other than about 250 static directory pages and templates, InnerSpace pages are dynamic, generated primarily from Lotus Notes databases.

Because Ernst & Young is a decentralized organization, member firms often maintain their own Domain Name Services (DNS), so EYI developed a global DNS to map between host names and URLs.

A user's request for access to a server maintained by a different member firm goes to the DNS service on the user's own intranet, which refers the request to EYI's global naming service via EYLink. The global DNS recognizes the server name and routes the request.

Outer limits

InnerSpace is strictly for internal use, and is likely to stay that way. Ernst & Young may one day build an extranet, but the Web team says it most likely will not let clients into the intranet. Other than that, the team sets no outer limits. It meets each week to consider changes and do status reports, and rewards users with T-shirts for making suggestions.

The intranet is barely a year old - EYI has only begun to fill this space.