WWW95: enterprisewide information systems

abstract

more and more companies start to use WWW to distribute information either just inside their companies or to a - maybe restricted - group of users, e.g. their resellers or agencies. various information system managers presented their usage of WWW as an information distribution system.

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my comment

examples of companies who use enterprise Webs to distribute information are silicon graphics, boeing, siemens, ericson, mitre and many more.

one of the IS manager pointed out that the easy to use is the major strength of the WWW. "everyone, from the top manager to the janitor, can use a WWW browser", he said. that's why the top management usually gets very excited about such an information distribution system, as soon as they start using it.

some companies allow employees to have their own pages to encourage the use of the Web. although companies tend to restrict access to the enterprise Web, which means those pages are not available to the Internet community. other companies do allow their employees to have personal pages on the Internet, but these pages are different from the pages on the enterprise Web.

since many companies have a lot of information already in machine readable form available, they often develop gateways to existing databases.

i got the impression, that many companies tend to use the Internet but hide their own information behind firewalls.

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