Dow Jones Interactive Introduces Intranet Toolkit
by
Barbara Quint
Posted On June 8, 1998
Continuing its aggressive pursuit of large institutional users, Dow Jones Interactive Publishing (http://djinteractive.com) has developed tools to accommodate the technical requirements of integrating its content on corporate intranets. On Monday, June 8, at the Special Libraries Association's annual meeting in Indianapolis, Dow Jones announced release of the Dow Jones Interactive Intranet Toolkit, a collection of software tools that enables enterprise clients to integrate internal and external content on corporate networks.Using industry-standard methods, such as Java applications, the DJI Intranet Toolkit integrates data drawn from DJI's business news, 5,500 full-text publications, and other business sources, with company internal knowledge bases for re-distribution to individuals throughout enterprises. By working to provide a seamless process of delivery and integration on company intranets, Dow Jones Interactive Publishing hopes to save its large clients time, resources, and costs. The DJI Intranet Toolkit will eliminate behind-the-scenes production and administrative tasks using a server-based cross-platform Java application that processes XML-formatted articles. It can build and organize pages for articles as they arrive from DJI, e.g., by filtering CustomClips current awareness service input. Available commercially by the end of June, the DJI Intranet Toolkit will also support extensive customization. The editorial interface allows company Webmasters, corporate librarians, or other intranet editors to automatically retrieve, review, and post intranet-ready articles drawn from the DJI service. Local Web editors can preview individual articles delivered by ftp or e-mail attachment, add their own commentary, or edit out material they do not want displayed, and use the DJI Intranet Toolkit's publishing system to publish to their intranets. Once edited, articles from DJI will go into the corporate intranet. At that point, the DJI Intranet Toolkit does not post-edit or re-publish by adding comments or threads of discussion initiated by readers within an organization. According to Tim Andrews, vice president and editor, Dow Jones Interactive Publishing, they expect local groupware technology and other corporate intranet technology to take over that task. Enterprise customers will receive the Dow Jones Interactive Intranet Toolkit as part of their contracts. Dow Jones Interactive Publishing defines an enterprise customer as one contracted to spend over $100,000 a year. Negotiated contracts with large enterprise customers include specifications as to content access, number of employees receiving access, etc. The contracts also cover copyright clearances for re-distribution. Andrews told us that they will consider distributing the DJI Intranet Toolkit to smaller customers. However, they will have to charge such customers, particularly considering the potential higher impact on their technical support staff. Andrews indicated they would consider providing the DJI Intranet Toolkit to users spending as little as $1,000 a month with 20 intranet "seats." Overall, Dow Jones Interactive has performed above expectations in its enterprise marketing, according to Andrews. Today DJI reaches hundreds of thousands of seats in the corporate marketplace and is on target for revenue expectations. Andrews indicates they grow three times as fast as their nearest competitor in the worldwide enterprise marketplace, with 40 percent more users in March 1998 than in March 1997.
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