10/07/96 HOW TO KEEP THE CORPORATE WEB FROM TANGLING

HOW TO KEEP THE CORPORATE WEB FROM TANGLING

CORPORATE WEBS, A.K.A. intranets, are hot. But with all the different Web pages, authoring tools, programming languages, file formats, and servers involved, building and maintaining complex applications--such as an employee-benefits signup system--can be a big hassle. There's often no central point of control for the entire project. Just updating one Web page can send side effects rippling throughout a system--say, by changing the CD rate in the page used for planning 401(k) contributions. Plus, Web projects usually involve teams of people working on incompatible computers.
Enter Wallop Software Inc. in Foster City, Calif., with a program that maintains detailed directories of each page in a Web site, listing its links to other pages, the various elements in it, and where each is physically stored on the intranet. The program, called Wallop, also remembers what program was used to create each element--Adobe Photoshop for a photo, for instance--and makes sure that the same tool gets used for updates. The program, which runs on Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems, is being tested at several companies, including communications-equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc., prior to its general release in November.
EDITED BY AMY CORTESE By John W. Verity