InformationWeek

But when the sales and marketing unit for the Wilmington, Del., science and technology company--which produces such things as chemicals, carpeting, fabrics, plastics, and insulation--caught wind of Wessely's idea, it muscled its way to the front of the line with studies that showed it could save the company as much as $66 million a year if it were made the top priority.

That was a convincing argument. So the first implementation of the DuPont portal, which is built on Sequoia Software Corp.'s XML Portal Server, was rolled out early this year for the sales and marketing staff. More than 550 people use it daily to record product orders, retrieve progress reports for research products, and access customer-tracking information.

Although the R&D portal implementation was postponed, Wessely says, it's set for rollout this summer. Meanwhile, other business units are demanding their own portals, although he won't reveal which departments and product lines are at the head of the list, saying the company views portal implementations as providing an advantage over its competitors.

Wessely says the DuPont portal is going wireless by year's end. It will be equipped to send messages automatically to personal digital assistants, text pagers, and digital phones. Executives and other key personnel who are on the road or away from their desks will be able to view important reports or receive notice that such reports are available, he says.

Long-term plans call for 20,000 to 60,000 employees in 30 business units in the United States, Europe, Asia, the Pacific, Africa, and South America to use a customized version of the portal, he says. The company operates in 65 countries and has 97,000 employees.

Wessely declined to estimate the cost for the companywide rollout. However, the cost so far has been "less than $1 million," he says.

Wessely says DuPont's portal is "easier to use than a microwave. I had to look at the instructions for my microwave. I don't want anybody to have to ask for user instructions for the portal."

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