Most companies find it easy to recognize the need to move their business online. Customers call for more timely information and easier access to online ordering as well as training and documentation. Internal operations and sales people want to leverage the cost benefits and efficiencies of electronically connecting to customers. But the real challenge is determining what to do and how to go about achieving it. DuPont Performance Coatings (DPC), a strategic business unit of DuPont, found itself in this position as it began considering the efforts to move its business online.

DuPont Performance Coatings was formed in March of 1999 by the combination of Herberts GmbH and DuPont Automotive Finishes, creating the largest automotive coatings company in the world. The company is divided into five business units: DuPont Herberts Automotive Systems, the worldwide largest manufacturer of automotive OEM coatings which sells directly to large manufacturers; DuPont Industrial Coatings, the leading supplier in selected markets in mass-production, industrial coatings; DuPont Ink Jet, the leading supplier of printing inks to companies like Hewlett-Packard; DuPont Powder Coatings, the second-largest powder coatings manufacturer worldwide; and DPC Refinish Systems, the largest manufacturer worldwide of coatings for car repair. DuPont Performance Coatings consists of numerous world-renowned brands, including DuPont Finishes, Standox, Spies Hecker, Nason, and DuPont Industrial Coatings. With more than 12,000 employees in over 35 countries in all continents, DuPont Performance Coatings is a global company with products and services in almost every market.

With no broad-reaching e-business plan, DuPont Performance Coatings began its e-business initiative by going to its customers, distributors, and partners to research what would take it beyond cost cutting and improvement of internal efficiencies. Ultimately, DPC wanted to use its Web-based e-business to create a competitive advantage and provide new value to these constituents.

DPC's management focused the effort on the needs of their customers but also remained vigilant in creating value for DPC's internal users. They didn't want the effort to be just a competitive "catching up" or simple problem-fixing, but a new method of coming to the market, communicating with customers, and potentially creating new business models.

Meeting Challenges
DPC decided to focus its first Web portal deployments on its automotive refinishing customers. In the U.S., this market consists of some 4,000 paint distributors and over 60,000 body shops. Each has particular specialties, brand preferences, and expertise requiring customized information and services. As DPC scoped out its e-commerce initiative, it rapidly became clear that bringing its ideal e-business solution to market would face considerable technical challenges.

The first big challenge was DPC's desire to build a global foundation to bring all the business units and brands together on a single technology and a single platform. After DPC's early e-business assessment, it was clear that bringing these disparate initiatives together into a Web portal was the most efficient strategy.

DPC wanted a long life expectancy for the solution. The solution needed to be able to support all of DPC's future global initiatives, so it was critical that the solution not be obsolete the day it was turned on.

DPC believed strongly that mass customization of these portals (tuned to the needs of each customer, distributor, and partner, and brand-targeted and customized for the information needs of each) would provide competitive differentiation. Closely related to this need is that the solution needed to support multiple business and marketing strategies. While the initial portal releases were targeted at particular markets and business units, the long-term goal of having a single platform required it to be flexible and adaptable to a variety of concurrent and unique business models.

DPC's solution had to support global privacy and legal requirements, as well as its own internal requirements for security and user access. Security concerns frequently rank high in e-business initiatives and DPC was no exception.

The final major challenge DPC faced was to find a solution that could be managed from a business standpoint rather than from a programming standpoint. DPC's goal was to have people in the sales organization who were responsible for the different markets and customers, and the different functional area managers, to each have control of content, input, and customer view decisions without having to rely on developers or other programming resources.

Designing a Strategy
The other possible solutions that were evaluated quickly proved impractical for the kind of unique portal views DPC wanted to offer its distributors and body shops. An ever-growing and increasingly complex code base would result in application performance issues down the road. Additionally, as the code base grew, more hardware would be required to deliver acceptable levels of performance. Plus, DPC would be forced to employ an ongoing team of highly skilled programmers to maintain the portal infrastructure.

The DPC e-Business Initiative team, with the advice of Computer Sciences Corporation's (CSC) NetBusiness Practice (e-commerce solutions for F500 companies), charted a strategy based on XML Web services and the Bowstreet Business Web Factory. DPC chose Bowstreet's Business Web Factory platform because it enabled them to:

• Decrease costs by eliminating the need to custom code, or hardwire, each new partner or customer to the portal
• Build customizable portals quickly and cost-effectively to respond to competitors' e-business initiatives
• Scale to include all of DPC's distributors and body shops worldwide, as well as all of the distributors and customers of its partners and competitors
• Avoid the scalability issues present in other vendor's solutions
• Properly capture and market the branding characteristics of each of the paint brands marketed by DPC

The portals, at www.performancecoatingsdupont.com, were built to provide auto-body shops with instant access to:

• Marketing tools and promotions
• Online training registration and schedules
• Product and safety information
• Technical manuals and regulatory compliance charts
• Business development tools, including industry performance benchmarking;
• Classified ads and employment services, and
• Industry and customizable personal interest information, such as industry links, news, sports, weather, and stock updates

Benefits of a Well-Planned Portal
DPC, like many businesses in today's leaner economy, is sensitive to the costs of a major infrastructure investment - especially in the context of what financial managers can view as somewhat fuzzy paybacks. However, the portal is already providing DPC with significant time and cost savings. Online paint ordering is relieving DPC customer service agents from keying phone, fax, and e-mail orders into an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Online marketing materials are reducing the cost of printing, managing, distributing, and disposing of paper. Online training registration is saving distributors from clerical work. Online Materials Safety Data Sheets are providing customers with instant access to up-to-the-minute information, while saving DPC from having to fax them to shops. Intangible but even more critical benefits include stronger customer relationships and increased loyalty.

DPC is beginning to leverage the portal globally in line with its original plans. The Bowstreet technology now provides a very customized view for DPC's various brands through a single point of access within North America. DPC's businesses in Europe are using the platform as a starting point for their localized initiatives. Those businesses will use a slightly different view because of their regional business requirements and marketing strategies, but over time DPC expects the platform to fully converge.

DPC recognizes that doing business on the Web is mandatory. Over the next several years it will focus on providing customized tools and industry best practices information to specific customers over the Internet. DuPont wants to understand where its customers' business is strong and where it isn't, and then create value by providing solutions that address those areas. Rather than using the Web as a one-way dispersal of information to customers, DPC is using its portal as a two-way tool for building long-term relationships with its most valuable customers, while simultaneously attracting new clients.

Author Bio:
Catherine Marchand is an e-Business strategy manager with Dupont. In her 22 years with that firm, she has held positions in research and development, color and product development, marketing, and business, all in support of the automotive collision industry. She holds a BS in chemistry from the University of Michigan. CATHERINE.A.MARCHAND@USA.DUPONT.COM