By Peggy Watt
IntraNet, 8/18/97

The same creative strategy that helped longtime defense contractor Cubic Corp. diversify quickly at the end of the Cold War has helped the firm boot up its intranet fast.

Faced with a declining defense business, the San Diego company has spawned a half dozen technology-oriented start-ups, building on know-how already in-house. Similarly, IT management realized it had the building blocks for an intranet: A frame relay network ran through the corporate headquarters campus, and leased T-1 lines linked other nearby offices. Companywide, 3,500 clients had Web browsers, thanks to the adoption of NetManage, Inc.'s integrated communications package Chameleon, which contains the WebSurfer browser and basic IP communications utilities.

All IT needed to jump-start an internal Web, figured John Minteer, corporate manager of system integration, was an inexpensive, easy-to-implement application that had an obvious, immediate benefit.

He believed an intranet would be useful, but knew he'd have to justify added expenses to cost-conscious Cubic executives.

The first intranet applications featured the IT department. Minteer reasoned that putting support tools online would reduce help desk calls.

And, he thought, the Web browser interface could provide easier access to some information the three-member corporate IT staff used to do its job. The strategy was straightforward, but like Cubic's post-Cold War diversification, it has worked.

And it has spread. As Minteer hoped, several other departments within Cubic maintain home pages with starter applications. Likewise, several of Cubic's subsidiary companies are experimenting with Web resources. Minteer adds their links to the corporate intranet home page, which runs on a Netscape Communications Corp. Web server.

Starting simple

"Users can call up a map of all 104 networked printers," Minteer says. "They can click on a printer icon and see whether it's printing now, if it's out of paper, or if it's ready and available."

The next feature, which Minteer ex-pects to implement soon, will let users automatically download the appropriate print driver, he adds. Following that, information on application and file servers on the corporate network will be available in a similar display.

Minteer already considered Web technology a simple, consistent interface to most corporate information, but a couple of immediately useful applications such as these would help prove his case to management. "We need to justify our development," Minteer says. "We don't want it thought that the Web is a toy, so we tend to do the business-return projects first."

Minteer didn't prepare a formal return-on-investment proposal because he assembled the intranet primarily from equipment on hand. But demonstrating its business usefulness will help him expand the project.

Setting an example

Before, they had to sift through file cabinets for copies of contracts, scribbled phone numbers of support personnel and notes on previous interactions. Now, because the information can be accessed promptly and from anywhere, the staff can deal with problems more quickly and consistently.

The corporate IT staff supports about 1,400 users of the company's 3,500; IT departments in subsidiaries service the others. Several of these spin-offs also have followed the lure of the Web. In fact, one - Cubic Defense Systems, Inc. (CDS), also in San Diego - began building its intranet about a year before the corporate IT department launched its site.

Having Chameleon on almost every desktop made it easier to implement an intranet quickly because the suite contains many of the basic client utilities: browser, IP stack, telnet, File Transfer Protocol and newsreaders. Cubic adopted Chameleon throughout the company for its Network File System connectivity because each site had its own LAN, Minteer says.

Besides corporate headquarters and the primary subsidiaries in San Diego, Cubic companies and branch offices are spread across the country.

"We'd had problems handling custom PC applications across the networks and with integration issues," Min-teer says. The company installed some Windows NT servers for NT-specific applications, and found NetManage's technology ably supported the Micro-soft stack. The Chameleon foundation also supported connectivity with the Unix systems still favored by Cubic's engineering department, so everyone could be on the same network regardless of client, Minteer says.

"Chameleon provides a standard tool set that allows us to train people easily because its interface is consistent," Minteer says.

Minteer's group also supports about 20 Macintosh users as well as engineers running Unix workstations; both of those groups run Navigator, as do a few of the Windows 3.1 users. New clients get Windows 95 - about 100 are already in place - and those users typically run the built-in Internet Explorer. The diversity of browsers causes Web page editors to keep their designs simple and universally accessible.

But that's not a problem, says Jackie McPherson, a senior network specialist who taught herself Microsoft FrontPage to design most of the existing Web pages and who, like Minteer, is an intranet evangelist. McPherson designed Web pages for Cubic's corporate telecommunications department and recreation groups. They're accessible from the corporate home page "so the IT group wouldn't be the only choice" when the intranet went up, she says.

On the telecommunications page are news bulletins, equipment request forms, an online discussion group and graphical, online training for new telephone equipment. At the bottom of every page is a link to send e-mail comments to both the content provider and the IT department.

Interest is stirring in other departments now. A human resources page is in development while job listings al-ready are posted on the internal Web.

Teaching the parent

CDS launched its intranet site about 18 months ago, a year before the corporate-run site went online.

CDS uses O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.'s WebSite server and WebBoard 2.0 conferencing and real-time chat system. The latter is the attention-getting application IT used to successfully entice its approximately 1,000 users, says Jim Akin, a senior technical specialist.

However, now that the corporate offices have caught intranet fever, Akin expects the IT departments will duplicate their tool sets to allow redundancy and backup operations. His users also run Chameleon's WebSurfer, although new desktops get Windows 95 and Internet Explorer.

CDS' Web site started with IT pages offering support information. But, in Cubic style, it quickly diversified. Golf tournament scores proved an attraction, as did the chat room, software quality control specifications and other engineering resources, Akin says.

Akin encourages departments to post material, but gives them the responsibility for maintenance.

"I'm not much of a Webmaster," Akin says. "I'm the granter of licenses. As soon as a department evinces interest, I give them keys to the kingdom and tell them to have a good time."

Akin's plans for Web development primarily involve providing Web access to a number of SQL databases. "We have some databases in our components and standards group that people now can only get by walking to the department and reading through a book or logging on to a PC onsite there," Akin says. By the end of summer, Akin adds, the information on those databases will be universally accessible via a Web browser.

"The big selling point is that in the future, it will be easier for people to do business this way, especially when they are scattered across several locations," Akin says. "They can look up things in a database through a browser instead of through some client/server situation."

Back at headquarters, Minteer says he urges intranet builders to emphasize applications that have the biggest impact for the most people.

"We're trying to focus on high-use features and get people using the Web pages," Minteer says.

He's not opposed to golf scores, either; the recreation pages have lured employees to the Cubic internal Web. The intranet is young, Minteer notes, but the future is promising.