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Ford Motor Company

In: Business and Management

Submitted By plopez
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Smith 1

Background
Ford Motor Company is one among three of the largest auto manufacturers in the United States. The “Big Three,” as they are referred to are General Motors (GM), Ford, and Chrysler. Since the 1970’s the “Big Three”, felt encroached upon by foreign-based auto manufacturers. Ford created a Worldwide Web Organization (WWWO) in May 1996 as an internal resource of web technologies. July 4, 1997, Mike Ledford, Director of Process Reengineering released a progress report of internal use of web technologies and future web use policies as the second anniversary of the release of the company’s public web site (1). Since the inception of Ford’s WWWO, their web group grew to approximately 80, supporting an internal user base of more than 80,000 and eventually greater than 120,000. Ford’s “Web Farm” supported over 300 departments with an augment rate of about one per day. Ford had Ninety-two web applications with an average project life cycle of eight weeks (1). “Ford was in the business of designing, building, selling and servicing automobiles.” Additionally web technologies were viewed as a contributor of significant value to Ford’s core business. Ford had a financial services subsidiary that acquired significant revenues and profits, but their core business was the design and manufacturing of automobiles for the consumer market. While web technologies contributed greatly to Fords success, maintaining focus was imperative. Ford Motor Company based in Dearborn, Michigan was the “second largest industrial corporation in the world, with revenues approaching $150 billion and employees numbering more than 370,000 by year end 1996”. Their operations

Smith 2 spanned 200 countries. Henry Ford incorporated the company in 1903, and had

since “produced in excess of 250 million vehicles”. With increased global competition, Ford had to continue improving

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