When the judges started sorting through this year’s Enterprise Value Awards entries, they were able to quickly pick the standouts?systems that changed organizationsand included demonstrable ROI. n Two other entries attracted the judges’ attention?ESAB Welding & Cutting Products and General Motors North America. ESAB’s efforts to build new online links with its customers and GM North America’s Web portal both earned accolades for being industry leaders, although the judges felt it was too early to judge the ROI. n John Glaser, one of the judges and the CIO at Partners HealthCare, says both ESAB’s and GM’s projects were "well-conceived experiments" designed to reveal the Internet’s potential impact on their core business. "They’re learning very thoughtfully in a very well-managed fashion."

Deals on Wheels

GM’s website drives qualified customers to dealerships

General Motors North America

Headquarters Detroit

Core Business Automotive industry

Employees 388,000 worldwide

Yearly sales $176.6 billion

URL www.gmbuypower.com

Ed Wiezorek wasn’t planning to buy a new truck. His 2-year-old Dodge Dakota had only 50,000 miles on it. "I don’t even think about a new truck until I’ve put at least 100,000 miles on," says the program manager for Daleen Technology, an Atlanta-based e-business software maker.

As a General Motors credit card holder, Wiezorek had heard of GMBuyPower.com, but he had not yet visited the site. Just for fun, he started poking around and found he could sort through the inventory of nearby GM dealers, configure a dream truck, check sticker prices and even request a best price by e-mail.

That most people don’t relish the car-buying experience is not a shock to auto dealers and manufacturers. To change the process, General Motors began to use the Internet four years ago. GM had two goals: to give potential car buyers more control over their shopping experience while educating themselves about the intricacies of how modern shoppers make purchases and use the Internet as part of their car-buying process.

"Traditional manufacturers had isolated themselves behind retailers, and we thought it was important to find a way to form direct relationships with our end consumers," says Dan McNicholl, GM’s CIO. While developing this direct bond, GM had to be cautious of offending its dealers or making them feel like they were being trimmed out of the process in any way.

"We showed dealers how much they’d be getting in terms of new systems with new capabilities and functionality and new customer leads, but they had to commit to the standards we required," says Ann Blakney. She is currently western director of Motors Holding (GM’s dealer investment group), but she was the director responsible for the nationwide launch of GMBuyPower.com. "They had to accept a new way of selling, which included sending potential buyers an e-mail price quote. It was very dicey for a while," she says.