Question

Topic: Other

Who "owns" The Web Site?

Posted by Anonymous on 3/4/2004 at 9:56 AM ET 250 Points
I have Fortune 200 client. They have many divisions worldwide, but all of their products and services are targetted at one large industry. For years this company has operated on a decentralized basis, with each division doing it's own thing... although they are all talking to the same group of customers.

The company has a coprorate web site that serves as an umbrella for many divisional web sites. Recently, the company has been reviewing the content of the different sites and discovered that, aside from the corporate logo, there is very little consistency in terms of design, content delivery, functionality, writing style, etc.

The client is asking me if there are any research results or case studies that talk about a centralized approach to web "ownership" in large companies? They are also asking if such a centralized approach should be owned in Marketing or IT or somewhere else?

I've found a few articles, but nothing that will carry a lot of weight in the corporate boardroom. Does anyone have visibilty to any research or case studies that would help clarify the issue one way or the other?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Blaine Wilkerson on 3/4/2004 at 10:37 AM Accepted
    It all kinda depends if the different websites are meant for a specific demographic, or used to reach out to be "local" websites of particular countries.

    For example, www.sony.net and www.fedex.net have one certral website where you choose the region you desire. If you click on a few, you will see congruency which is important to the branding.

    On the other hand, If your client sells stuffed bears and BMX bikes, with a seperate site for each, you are definately in a better seat by making each site unique to the target demographic.

    So to sum it all up, if it's the same content (or supposed to be) on every site and it needs to be organized, centralization is good (for branding and continuity). If you offer multiple services to multiple demographics, centralization is bad (you don't want your BMX site looking exactly like the Teddy Bear site).

    Who should own it? BOTH no doubt. Marketing needs to design the content and IT needs to manage the network and apply all the technical programs suggested by the Marketing team.

    Here are a couple links that you may find useful.

    https://www.knowledgestorm.com/search/tabkeyword/research/Website+Analysis/...

    https://webbusiness.cio.com/archive/032300_closer.html

    Good Luck!

    - Jett Enterprises, Inc.

  • Posted by Pepper Blue on 3/4/2004 at 10:54 AM Member
    One thing to look at would be have your website redesigned using dynamic content. (If it isn't already).

    This allows information on web pages to change automatically, e.g. based on database content or user information.

    This way, you can be centralized on home page, and targeted on the landing desired landing pages.

    A person in Minnesota interested in boats will then be automatically directed to the freshwater boats i.e. canoe or fishing boat page and the person in Florida directed to the saltwater boats and ocean kayaks page.

    Because you are serving one industry I think that keeping the look is very important for branding purposes.

  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 3/4/2004 at 6:40 PM Accepted
    It should not own anything. IT is the facilitator or implementer of what the business needs.

    Marketing, too may be the custodian but should it be the owner? The head of business - which may be GM Sales/Marketing or something else - needs to be firmly on the subject. In SME's that might even mean the CEO is the ultimate authority for website direction.

    Of course the CEO/GM needs direction, advice, input & support from the other service functions like Sales, Marketing, IT.

    Just rememebr, ultimately the shareholders "own" the business which owns the assets (inc;uding the website) and everyone in the enterprise should be working for them.
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