Network Computingwww.networkcomputing.com

Online Only: Corporate Intranets

We are a staffing company with four locations that would benefit from knowing what the others are working on. We built an intranet that posts current open orders by branch so that all offices can help each other. The process was difficult since the data resides in a third-party application/database, so we built a process to generate the information via a comma-delimited report then transfer the data to the local intranet database. We also use it to track interviews and filled orders, as well as company news and information, forms and reports via ASP pages, and Office Web components.

We created an internal Web presence using a step-by-step process. To start, we gathered as many authoritative data sources on employees and non-employees as possible. This of course meant working with HR, IT, Facilities and others. I don't want to bore anyone with the political and data synchronization issues, but we finally succeeded in getting all the data into an iPlanet LDAP directory server. With the LDAP directory as a centralized authoritative source for employee data, we could then use the LDAP directory for all our applications and Web server authentication and authorization issues. Using the Oblix NetPoint product, we are able to offer self-service publishing capabilities utilizing the LDAP directory data.

The NetPoint/LDAP combination has proven to be a winning combination and has helped lay the groundwork for future IT infrastructure expansion.