By Peggy Watt
Network World, 5/25/98

What's in a name? Not much, since it's the applications that count. That's why, until recently, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s intranet didn't have - or need - a name.

Barely a year ago, few of the 53,000 employees of the New York pharmaceutical and beauty products manufacturer were calling the intranet at all, much less by name. Most employees had browsers, but tended to point them outward, to the Internet, not inside to What's-its-Name and a smattering of static departmental pages.

Just a year later, Bristol-Myers Squibb's intranet still didn't have a name, but employees were calling it essential. Credit goes to information management (IM) efforts.

The IM group has cranked out an impressive handful of powerhouse Web applications. Automating existing tasks and initiating new, money-saving procedures using intranet applications contributed a significant proportion of the $1.1 billion Bristol-Myers Squibb saved last year through a cost- cutting initiative called Productivity for Growth.

Among the IM team's prize projects are applications that streamline cash projection reports; automate and speed transactions with equipment suppliers; track legal expenses; simplify government regulatory reports; and manage foreign currency exchange.

Name the intranet? Who had time? IM staffers were busy making a name for themselves churning out Web applications in short order. "One person refers to us as the corporate Sherpas,'' says Denise Allec, Bristol-Myer Squibb's IM director. She has indeed led the company into an Intranet Age.

Allec joined the company in June 1996 and led IM to develop its first Web solution within months. A global purchasing group wanted an easier front end to a new corporatewide purchasing system using SAP AG's software.

Most employees already had Netscape Communications Corp. Navigator browsers. To launch the intranet, IM installed some central Netscape Web servers running under Microsoft Corp. Windows NT, says Kevin Pray, associate director of executive systems.

Users could access the Web purchasing system through their browsers and view the latest information drawn from Oracle Corp. databases.

Within months, the team took the browser interface to the purchasing system a step further. Outside suppliers with whom Bristol-Myers Squibb does business can log into an extranet to access the data as well. They can check for purchase orders, update order status and enter shipment information. Bristol-Myers Squibb users, in turn, can retrieve the vendor updates.

But the Web wizards were just getting started. IM really got serious about the intranet when the financial services organization approached it about designing an easier, faster way to share and compile cash-flow projections.

Operation fast cash

Allec countered: "How about posting the financial reports on a corporate Web site?'' Basic pieces were in place, and Allec says she didn't see any sense in extending the existing DOS system.

The financial group approached Allec in March 1997, asking for a prototype by April so it could test the system for three months before going live in July - in time to meet management's deadline for implementing the first cost-saving measures under the Productivity for Growth initiative. This financial application was the first of several intranet projects designed to meet the initiative's goal.

The programmers teamed with the financial analysts. "The financial group was excited to help with design and testing,'' says Janette Bubinak, an information management associate who helped coordinate the project.

Programmers actually began coding before the business requirements were completed in order to make the deadline. The effort took six weeks.

Besides implementing an Oracle database, IM standardized on Open Database Connectivity so application code would be transportable across databases. Developers wrote JavaScript routines so the financial planners could save their reports in HTML and publish them securely.

"The business requirements best fit the Web platform,'' says Doug Beddard, IM's associate director of financial systems. The financial planners wanted to use spreadsheets, but Web pages offered more collaboration, he adds.

After a whirlwind cycle of study, development, testing and deployment - including a pilot involving eight international sites "to be sure the servers could stand up to being hit from around the world at the same time,'' Bubinak notes - the cash-projection system was up by deadline.

The IM team was on a roll. Next, it teamed with the corporate legal department to design an application that solved a problem with which the company simply hadn't been dealing. Bristol-Myers Squibb contracts with dozens of legal firms around the world for specific projects. The internal legal department wanted to get a better handle on this spending under the Productivity for Growth initiative. It came to IM in late 1996, and the interdepartmental team worked out project details.

First, the legal department required all outside counsel to submit billings electronically. Starting in mid-1997, outside firms deposited a standard form in a secure section of the Bristol-Myers Squibb extranet. By year-end, a new, automated review system was in place. Corporate counsel retrieves the billings and runs them through a Web-based application that compares the billed activities against Bristol-Myers Squibb's rules for the type, amount and fees for the work as negotiated.

The software highlights figures outside the norm, so any Bristol-Myers Squibb staff member assigned to review the billing can identify discrepancies at a glance. Reviewers also can drill down through the billing figures to find notes on the specific work and find explanations for aberrations. Then they may approve, question or refer the exceptions for consideration. An approved invoice then goes directly to the SAP system for payment.

"We hadn't even thought about putting the review system on the intranet, but it opened wide possibilities,'' says Sandy Leong, an in-house attorney who worked with IM to determine the business requirements and craft the application.

The legal department has expanded its intranet use and maintains an extranet home page for internal and contract counsel. The legal staff also has browser access to a broad selection of legal databases it uses frequently. Any such reviews previously were done by leafing through books.

Next, the legal department wants to integrate its Lotus Development Corp. Notes databases into the intranet.

Recycling helps

IM develops reusable modules, primarily using JavaScript, J++ and C++, so components of one project provide building blocks for the next job. "Our logon screens are the same, our directory hierarchies, our drill-down processes can all be reused,'' Beddard says.

That's especially helpful for repeat customers. The financial systems group returned late last summer asking IM to make budgeting functions accessible via browsers. Next, it wants all collection and reporting systems on Web pages.

Another project, under way by request of the corporate treasurer, will monitor international currency exchange rates. The goal is to help Bristol-Myers Squibb take advantage of fluctuations in market value.

The team started setting requirements for this application in January and launched a pilot in March. The application monitors foreign exchange rates and lets users flag thresholds for transactions. Eventually, 113 sites worldwide will use it for $1 billion in spot transactions, Allec says.

By now, IM has the routine down. In response to an request for help, a mixed team of IM and users identifies the business issue and develops a case and cost-benefit analysis. Participants determine basic requirements, define a deadline and start development. IM also offers advice, templates and tech support for groups to design and maintain their own pages.

"We're enabling business process improvements, and that's what we're supposed to be about,'' Allec says.

Oh, and that once anonymous intranet is nameless no more. A year ago, few employees knew the darn thing existed. Last month, many of them submitted names in a contest to christen it, just in time for this report. The moniker? PlanetBMS.