EDITED BY MARCIA STEPANEK

If You Don't Ask, You Don't Get

Having trouble finding the info you want at your company's in-house web site? You're not alone. A new survey of 86 human-resources managers and 450 employees shows a big gap between what HR execs offer and what workers want.

The survey says workers expect ''value-added'' services such as financial data and electronic bill-paying, according to New York's Decision Tree consultancy and East Hartford (Conn.) intranet builder WorkPlus.com. Furthermore, 59% want loan applications and insurance information. One reason companies don't offer these things? Employees didn't ask.

TABLE: Web Gap

Although in-house Web sites are promoted for communications, a new survey suggests a gap between what companies are posting and what employees want to know:

                                 HUMAN-
                               RESOURCES
                  EMPLOYEES      MGRS.
SUGGESTION BOX      64%           29%
COMPANY NEWS        61            44
BENEFITS INFO       56            41
JOB APPLICATIONS    51            43
401(k) DATA         56            43


Why human-resource managers won't post more info online:


TECHNOLOGY ISN'T IN PLACE           46%
EMPLOYEES DIDN'T ASK FOR IT         32
COSTS TOO HIGH                      21
TYPE OF WORKFORCE                   20
NO BUSINESS NEED                    17


Survey of 86 human-resources managers and 450 company employees


DATA: WORKPLUS.COM, DECISION TREE

Be Your Own Jeweler--on the Net

Here's a new way the web can personalize a product: DeBeers, the 111-year-old diamond-mining company, is going digital on June 16 with a Web site, www.adiamondisforever.com, that will let consumers design their own engagement rings online.

A joint project of the Diamond Information Center, which is DeBeers' public-relations agency, and Interactive8, a New York advertising agency, the site will give visitors the chance to play jeweler. They can browse through digital images and choose a center stone, side stones, and the style and metal of the band--as well as see options on the diamond's cut, color, clarity, and carat. What's more, the site includes a search feature that lets buyers see whether their design is like one that's already offered by national manufacturers.

In addition, altar-bound shoppers who can't decide what type of ring to create can get help from a database of 7,500 designs. The chosen design can be saved on a desktop computer, printed out, and taken to a local jeweler that sells De Beers' diamonds to have the ring made--or can be E-mailed to the betrothed. Just one more way to run rings around the competition.

To read a correction/clarification about this story, click here.

How to Keep E-Shoppers from Defecting

Small web sites and online communities often want to offer visitors products to buy--but they can't afford all the gear and expertise needed to do E-commerce. Instead, they offer links to Web merchants--in return for a cut of revenues from purchasers referred to the merchants. Amazon.com Inc.'s Associate Program, for instance, gives some 260,000 sites up to a 15% cut of sales.

Trouble is, that's the E-quivalent of showing visitors the door: Amazon and others often end up owning such customers. But Web mall BuyItOnline, run by Web storefront-software maker Stumpworld Systems Inc. in Allston, Mass., aims to change all that.

On June 10, it will launch its offer to assist Web sites and communities in setting up customized storefronts with products from more than 100 BuyItOnline merchants--primarily small catalogs and Web merchants that are hungry for new customers. Moreover, the sites will offer discounts and coupons--to keep visitors coming back. Says CEO Michael Clebnik: ''We want to boost a site's stickiness, instead of sending visitors away to another site.'' BuyItOnline gets a 15% cut of sales in return for creating the storefront, processing orders, and arranging shipping--thereby giving small Web communities an inexpensive way to boost revenues.

By Robert D. Hof

Take That Dress into a Web Dressing Room

Try this on for size: YOU can now configure a virtual double of yourself to ''try on'' the clothes you're thinking of buying online. With My Virtual Model, developed by Public Technologies Multimedia in Montreal, retailers can offer cybershoppers a novel experience. The idea: Shoppers who use the Internet can apply their own body measurements to a three-dimensional virtual model, then try on clothes they're considering before purchasing. The software, designed to run on Unix systems, starts at $125,000.

Both J.C. Penney and Lands' End are using the virtual-model technology, which can replicate not only shoppers' precise physical proportions but also their face shape, skin tone, and hair style and color. ''This technology provides the shopper with an electronic mirror,'' says Louise Guay, founder and CEO of Public Technologies. ''It gives the user the freedom to explore new possibilities in fashion and style.'' The results of the new technology: increased customer satisfaction, fewer returns, and the potential for added sales--and not a bad fit for retailers looking for ways to revitalize tired brands.

Bits & Bytes Contacts

BE YOUR OWN JEWELER--ON THE NET
(Available after June 16, 1999)
www.adiamondisforever.com

HOW TO KEEP E-SHOPPERS FROM DEFECTING
www.buyitonline.com

TAKE THAT DRESS INTO A WEB DRESSING ROOM
Public Technologies Multimedia Co.
Montreal
514-523-9966
www.ptm.ca

WEB GAP
Decision Tree Consultants:
212-367-3900