In the early days of the web, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s domestic and global business units rushed to stake their claim in online territory, launching about 200 websites, each with its own infrastructure and applications. Most companies did the same. But now, the Internet land rush is over, and companies are civilizing their online frontiers by consolidating. Today, after a year and a half’s worth of work, 75 percent of Goodyear’s business units are using a single platform.

Goodyear’s Web consolidation project is part of a corporate strategy to run IT globally, rather than locally. Eric Berg, CIO and vice president of e-commerce, wanted the company to be able to roll out new e-commerce applications worldwide without having to customize them for multiple platforms. That consolidation has cut Goodyear’s cost of operating and upgrading its websites in half. Meanwhile, James Fessel, an equity analyst with PNC Advisors in Philadelphia, notes that the consumer market targeted by those websites?individuals or corporate customers who buy new tires for their vehicles?is Goodyear’s most profitable group of customers. And efficient e-commerce can only improve the productivity of its dealers.

Taming the online infrastructure of a global company doesn’t require a CIO to come out with guns blazing. Instead, it demands diplomacy, a good grasp of the core business and a rigorous focus on value. Here are some tips from Berg on how to get the job done.

1. Sell the concept companywide.

With support from Chairman and CEO Sam Gibara, Berg convened a global e-business team of IT and marketing representatives from the company’s nine strategic business units. Everyone already knew the Web was a strategic sales and marketing tool. But when the e-business team told top managers how much they were spending on redundant hardware and software, it was clear they could save money by sharing an infrastructure.

Sponsorship from the top was critical to rally employees around the goal. "There were many people that were skeptical about whether or not [the project] could be successful," Berg says. "We were trying to do something complicated on a global basis that cost some money."

Rui Moreira, Goodyear’s regional e-business manager for Latin America, says high-level support sent the message that executives expected results. To further make the point, most of the funding for the consolidation came from corporate, in contrast to other IT projects, for which the business units shoulder the investment.

2.put business needs first.

It’s one thing to agree on broad principles. Company managers, especially the marketing and product managers who oversee Goodyear’s seven tire brands, had to be sure they could live with the details. Mainly, they wanted assurance that adopting common technology wouldn’t mean they lost control over the content of their sites too, says Andy Traicoff, the North American tire unit’s general marketing manager. Web content that sells tires in Boston doesn’t do the trick in Buenos Aires. In the United States, the Akron, Ohio-based manufacturer markets the safety and reliability of its products, but in Argentina, it emphasizes performance and technological innovation.