If users can’t find what they’re looking for on the edited topic pages, intellact provides a straightforward search page that can search on keywords, time frame and sources?either by individual source, category (such as news or outside research) or the entire intellact database. The search engine then ranks and summarizes the results. BT currently licenses content for six months, which Woolf says is a good balance between saving money and having access to important information.

Neither BT nor Factiva would disclose the total or ongoing costs associated with intellact, and any ROI analysis falls into the anecdotal category. Woolf says he has heard a number of stories over the years in which intellact is credited with providing the necessary details to expedite or close a particular deal or capture the attention of a certain customer. For example, he cites a company survey in which one account director reported his sales team generated 1 million pounds (about US$1.5 million) in new business by using intellact briefings. The most compelling hard ROI thus far comes from a 1999 survey of intellact users, conducted as part of an ongoing internal marketing campaign to boost the system’s popularity. The 800 respondents indicated that intellact was saving them a total of 12 full-time employees.

The Future

Last October, intellact was moved out of BT’s U.K. Retail division and into the enterprisewide Business Services unit. According to BT Business Services CIO Tudor Rees, the switch in jurisdiction reflects an appreciation for intellact’s role in the company’s international portal. In part, it also made it easier to market intellact as a component of BT’s knowledge management offerings, from which BT’s line-of-business CIOs choose when planning their own slate of resources.

Until the switch, intellact users were essentially enjoying a free ride on the research and technology funds the U.K. Retail division spent on the system. The move to Business Services ended that scheme, and intellact now charges the BT groups it serves. So far the charges are being slowly phased in, but the ultimate goal is to get the users to completely fund intellact’s operations.

The call for cash has led to a counter call for more content selectivity. When intellact was operated gratis, nobody complained when Woolf’s staff added another news feed. Now, however, division managers are starting to get sensitive about closing the gaps between what they pay for and what they use. Accommodating those selections seamlessly is still an open problem for intellact.