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Project: Behind the Scenes @ ey.com

Client: Ernst & Young LLP

Role: Writing

Challenge: Maintain rapport and provide guidance to content contributors

At Ernst & Young, my colleagues and I worked with several "internet stewards" throughout the firm. These individuals were responsible for ensuring content on the site representing their business area was current, but they had to fit this task into their duties. I wrote a periodic newsletter to remind the internet stewards to check out their sites once in a while and to give them ideas for new content.

Behind the Scenes @ey.com, Issue 21

Call Me!
Wondering whether to include contact names on your site? It's a good idea. A client that had worked with E&Y in the past was considering whether to use E&Y for an arbitration engagement, and they turned to the website to find out who to call. After speaking with the partner in Litigation Advisory Services, they decided to engage E&Y. Seems obvious, right? But think if that client had come to ey.com expecting to find a name, and they didn't. Failing to live up to your potential clients' expectations is a bad way to start a pursuit.

The Heart of Rock and Roll
The server for www.ey.com is a single box at the Meadowlands office. (For the cognoscenti, it's a Compaq Proliant 6500, Quad Processor, 4x200 MHz with 1 Gig RAM.) A few ey.com sites link to other servers that hold Domino databases. The site is secured physically and technologically, with everything from special keycards that allow only authorized people into the same room as the server, to routine inspection of the log files for suspicious events. Our only hacking scare happened several months ago. It appeared that someone was using random passwords and usernames and trying to access the site. As it turned out, it was simply a bug created by the confluence of Internet Explorer 3 and the Ernst & Young firewall. In the future, the ey.com server will move into our new "DMZ." Yes, that stands for Demilitarized Zone. It's between two firewalls: our old familiar E&Y network firewall and a new outer firewall that limits the protocols that may be used to access ey.com. As you might imagine, this will further enhance the security of our site.

Workin' For The Weekend
An all-new careers section is coming. The new section will be easier to navigate and brimming with rich content about all of the possible career paths within Ernst & Young. Several new Internet Stewards have come on board to help with this effort. Since Careers is such a large part of the site (always in the top three or four most visited sections of ey.com), and since so many people are involved, we've built a special project management site on Inside/Out. An overall production schedule for all of ey.com is available.

Material Girl
Next month ellemag.com, Elle magazine's Web site, will feature a new section of personal financial planning content developed by our Personal Financial Counseling practice. We'll make note of this on the PFC home page as well. The timing is great since the PFC Internet Steward recently did a thorough update.

Goody Two-Shoes
Profile your good works on ey.com. The citizenship section in People currently features just two stories. We know there are more great stories out there. What does your office or practice do in your community that's innovative and worthy of a profile on ey.com?

Eyes Without a Face
Internet Stewards are our vital link to the practices. Things you take for granted, like white papers, an internal newsletter, or people in your practice who regularly contribute to outside media, are potential gold mines of content for ey.com. So please keep your eyes open and shoot some fresh content our way.

Do you know anyone who should receive Behind the Scenes @ ey.com, but doesn't? If so, please e-mail their names to Sharyn Horowitz and we'll get them in the loop. Also, if you have a story suggestion for this newsletter, please send it to your Content Manager.