Requirements for Sterling Industries

1. Background

Sterling Industries are a medium sized multinational (some 9 sites) manufacturing group of companies. They employ 1024 employees worldwide and have a Group turnover of £76M in 1997-1998. Some of the companies in the group have already got primitive web sites. These can be found at:

Bloom Engineering Company, Inc
Lakers Process Engineering
Combustion Corporation
Sterling hydraulics web site
Sterling Mechanical Seals - South Africa

Sterling have approached Keyhaven to help them with their Internet strategy. HOOP have become involved to provide technical expertise. The document has been written following a meeting on 10/12/1998 attended by the following people:

David Blunn - Financial Director, Sterling Industries Plc
David R Diggins - Group Managing Director, Sterling Industries Plc
William P Wyatt - Project Manager, Sterling Industries Plc
Ed Ross - Keyhave International Ltd
Tim Joyce - HOOP Ltd.

2. Business Need

Sterling have identified 2 specific business needs:

2.1 Public Web Site

Sterling see the need for a web site that represents Sterling Industries Plc. This site will give an overview of the Group and provide links to the sites for individual companies.One of the sites listed above recently generated a sales lead from the far east that led to a £100K order. Sterling can clearly see the marketing value of a Public Web Site. It is anticipated that each of the companies in the group will need to have their sites reviewed.

Sterling have been involved in some high profile projects (e.g. the Thrust II project), and will be able to leverage this exciting content on the Public site. They do not feel the need to provide a full inventory of stock or products at this stage, although this is obviously something we will look to achieve in the future. Some of the companies in the group have significant quantities of product information online already.

As projects tend to be large and involve considerable pre-sales consultancy and the site is strictly targeted at business, an ecommerce facility is also not required.

The site will need promoting both online and off-line. Sterling have a good grasp of the problems of finding high quality information online, and will invest money (and expect results) in search engine promotion.

2.2 Extranet

Sterling see significant value in an intranet / vpn / extranet system. Particularly in the following areas:

• Keeping the sales force up to date
• Access to the stock control system
• As a marketing tool
• Providing a central database of projects
• Providing messageboards to facilitate communication between individuals in the Sterling Industries group.

Considerable work has already been done on the projects database. A standard format has been agreed for projects, and an access database has been created. This is currently being maintained by the MD's secretary. Sterling are very keen to get this database online, so that it can benefit the entire group.

The messageboard facility is also a project of significant merit. TimJ has demonstrated the messageboards on the Iglu.com and Paneris systems. Sterling are keen to implement Messageboards.

3. Users and Services

The following users will be serviced by the Public and Private web sites.

1. Prospective purchasers of manufactured widgets. These will be serviced from the main Sterling website and it's subsidiaries. These users need to be able to either find the part they want, or feel confident that Sterling can supply the product. Sterling will need to make a judgment as the the value of providing a full catalogue online as opposed to "selected highlights". Purchasers will need to be able to easily contact the relevant sales office at Sterling.
   
2. Prospective customers of significant engineering projects. These will need to feel confident that Sterling is a professional and competent company. This will be achieved through a high quality of design, and a well chosen set of case studies. These customers will need to be easily able to contact the relevant sales office at sterling.
3. Management of Sterling Industries Companies. The management around the world require access to the centralized projects database so that they can review similar projects when planning new ones. They will also make use of messageboards. They will require their own private 'management' board.
4. Technical employees of Sterling Industries. Technical employees would benefit greatly from being able to exchange ideas with their colleagues around the world. A messageboard system will be used to facilitate this.
5. Sales staff at Sterling Industries. Distributing up-to-date information to traveling sales staff is currently a problem. An area will be created where the latest sales literature can be posted, for download by the sales staff. There is a reasonable argument for making the area available to the general public.
6. Search Engines. To ensure maximum visibility, search engines will need to be able to index the entire public site.

4. Constraints

It would be sensible to divide the project into 2 parts, the public site, and the private systems. The public web site is probably of higher priority and should be tackled first.

Sterling are in the process of upgrading their internal computer systems, this means that not all relevant employees have access to email and the web at the present time. It is anticipated that the web site will help drive the companies to 'get wired'.

A ball-park budget figure was requested by Sterling, this was given as between £8K and £15K.

The next stage is to refine this document to the point where we can produce a Functional Specification. It is anticipated that a further meeting to discuss the requirements is required.
 

Document Dated: Wed Dec 16 11:59:19 1998
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