These sites used to use an online shop component developed by Compaq’s headquarters in Houston, Texas in Microsoft’s ASP language. This proved to be a challenge for maintenance because this proprietary system required the site designer/maintainer to do things such as filling out an Excel-based build spreadsheet to list all links, images and cgi calls for uploading into a database which ‘promotes’ the edits, additions and deletions. Therefore we had to rely upon Compaq’s tools and team to interpret the list properly and timely in addition to all the other challenges facing a site administrator and designer.

Therefore we recommended, sold and built our own system that truly streamlined this process. A shop component and maintenance toolset we call “piper.”.

Apart from this, I’ve been tasked with improving the customer relationship, brand loyalty and after-market service aspects of these sites. I wrote a two-part 60 page proposal which outlined a series of strategic initiatives in this vein. They include:

• A section which instructs users on how to buy a computer so they won’t be intimidated by all the technology and jargon. This is applicable to any PC and does not hard sell Compaq.

• A series of Do it Yourself Shockwave Flash guides to instruct customers on how to do everything from creating a small computer network to inserting add-on cards into their computer to configuring the dip switches on a hard drive.

• An interactive calendar screensaver that allows a user to enter in a full year’s worth of ‘To Do’ lists. It also gives a different tip every day for working in a normal office environment or explaining a computer/Internet term.

• A ’bot interface to interact in plain English sentences with users so they may find exactly what they want in the way they want. It can carry on full conversations and remember user profiles.

• A series of utilities with administrative tools to help users choose computer systems based on their lifestyles (needs), compare systems within Compaq’s family lines, understand the warranty and support process before they buy (based on scenarios), choose the best periperhals to go along with a particular system set-up, a RAM configuration guide, etc.

The sites are in countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, India, Indonesia and the Philippines and follow a global look and feel for brand consistency.