British Telecom Manages Online Inquiries
With a workable revenue model in place and a popular information destination behind it, why keep the money flowing strictly within the family? BT is giving some thought to sharing the fruits of its information-gathering labors with an inner circle of suppliers and customers?for a fee, of course. "Over time, we believe the service may have potential outside of BT," says Rees.
Rolling out intellact far beyond BT’s staff will likely have to wait for an overhaul of the system, planned for later this year. Among the projects is a replacement of the Web layout and personalization engine developed by BT Labs. The team also plans to expand the range of Internet-based sources, offer distinct page designs to different BT divisions and outsource the responsibility for managing and maintaining the server hardware. A multilanguage interface and live translation of content are also possibilities.
While the upgrades will be welcome, users like Levy really love intellact for its instant access to information; in the end, that’s enough to make the system worth its weight in copper (twisted pair wire, of course). "I like to work where I can almost give same-day service to queries," says Levy. With intellact "the information is there, and it’s enough to enable us to make the right decisions."
