With a workable revenue model in place and a popularinformation destination behind it, why keep the money flowingstrictly within the family? BT is giving some thought tosharing the fruits of its information-gathering labors withan inner circle of suppliers and customers---for a fee, ofcourse. "Over time, we believe the service may have potentialoutside of BT," says Rees.

Rolling out intellact far beyond BT´s staff will likely haveto wait for an overhaul of the system, planned for later thisyear. Among the projects is a replacement of the Web layoutand personalization engine developed by BT Labs. The teamalso plans to expand the range of Internet-based sources,offer distinct page designs to different BT divisions andoutsource the responsibility for managing and maintaining theserver hardware. A multilanguage interface and livetranslation of content are also possibilities.

While the upgrades will be welcome, users like Levy reallylove intellact for its instant access to information; in theend, that´s enough to make the system worth its weight incopper (twisted pair wire, of course). "I like to work whereI can almost give same-day service to queries," saysLevy. With intellact "the information is there, and it´senough to enable us to make the right decisions."