The BT Intranet: Information by design

British Telecom's intranet hosts an array of information products that are an integral part of the way its employees do business. The authors provide a glimpse of how BT uses concepts like media engineering to develop usable and maintainable information products-information by design. As in any large organization, BT's 120,000 employees at 3,500 sites worldwi de rely on effective internal communications to operate efficiently. The co mpany's global expansion over the past few years had stretched long-establi shed techniques, and it needed to recognize a new way of working. Investmen t in information technology had equipped BT with a sound communication infr astructure and a companywide mail system. In turn, these capabilities fuele d a rapid expansion in the amount of online information. BT employees now h andle a significant amount of process and project data and numerous interna l processes using the company intranet. The authors look in some detail at several of the information products that help an organization tb function efficiently as a global operator.