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July 12, 1999

XML Offers Intranet Help

Standard lets Wells Fargo rework site

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ells Fargo & Co. this month will launch an intranet that will improve the quality of information provided to thousands of employees.

The bank says it's using the Extensible Markup Language, an emerging standard for Web development, to create an intranet for its Institutional Trust Group that can be more easily updated than a previous intranet, which was built on HTML. Because XML lets users save any type of document in XML format without additional coding, nontechnical staff can quickly add or update intranet information, helping the bank serve its customers better. With the old system, IT staff had to recode data into HTML whenever additions were made.

The intranet will provide branch employees with access to information and forms related to Institutional Trust, a division that oversees retirement plan services. Employees will also be able to search for data, receive E-mail, and access the Web. Most important, XML created a full-fledged knowledge-management system out of the intranet, so that employees can share and receive the most current information, says Robert Bean, VP of retirement plan services and product development at Wells Fargo, which recently merged with Norwest Corp., where Bean oversaw retirement plan services. "Knowledge management means providing our services, sales, and operational people with information at their fingertips, so they can provide the highest levels of service to our clients,'' says Bean.

For example, authorized employees will be able to create Word documents or PowerPoint presentations describing new client services and save them as XML documents. Once saved, files will be routed to an Excelon XML server from Object Design Inc., where they can be instantly updated. Employees can then access those intranet documents for clients.

XML can deliver information to any device, whether a desktop computer or a personal digital assistant, says Tom Koulopoulos, president of the Delphi Group, a consulting firm. "It allows you to be connected, wherever you are, to the knowledge management system," he says.

Wells Fargo created the intranet for about $200,000, with help from consulting firm Micro Modeling Associates. The biggest challenge was the work required to integrate existing documents into the new system, says Ben Moore, a managing associate at Micro Modeling. IT staff spent weeks creating XML tags for those documents. Considerable recoding was required to make the tags, but the new system is set to create tags automatically for new files saved in XML.

Says Moore, "If you want to see all documents related to Midwest sales, the system doesn't have to search all the documents. It just searches the tags."

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