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2. The Web Center: A Case Study in Strategy and Power 25system-wide plan for Internet strategy. It was clear to Stevens that Jackson thoughtlittle of the blue ribbon panel, which she said had met only twice and had come upwith overall principles that appeared to apply Greystone recommendations to researchand academics. The most significant recommendation from this particular panel wasfor the formation of a department to centralize resources for the health system’s Webinitiative.When the CSC consultants came to evaluate the health system’s Web strategy shortlyafter the Web center was established, Jackson said that the focus became the intranetas well as the use of a portal system to organize Web content. She became a strongsupporter of the portal system and, consequently, pushed for the Web content to gothrough the marketing department before being placed on the Internet. Greystone hadmade the recommendation previously that this department should be in charge ofediting or “scrubbing” the content and that one full-time marketing employee couldbe responsible for this task. Jackson was finding her efforts to take control of the Webcontent difficult because “marketing doesn’t have the authority to scrub all the contentwithout a mandate.” Consumer health paper brochures were required to be reviewedby the marketing department, but the Web allowed any clinical department to publishcontent easily on the Web without ever consulting the department. According toJackson, because the marketing department lacked this control, the quality of thecontent would suffer.Another issue regarding the Web content that concerned Jackson was the Web’s rolein institutional “branding,” that is, the institutionwide movement to create a uniformlogo or brand appearance to provide a unified presence for Metropolitan College and,in turn, MCHS. To remain competitive with other health systems, MCHS would needto establish this uniform look and feel on its Web site and on the various departmentpages. Jackson felt it was her department’s role to ensure that the Web system wouldbe aligned with the institution’s new mandate for a MCHS brand.Stevens found that Jackson definitely considered the portal system and Web contentthe first priorities for MCHS and the Web center. She also felt that site redesign wouldbe part of this process. The intranet came next on her list of priorities for the Webcenter. As expected, Jackson’s priorities for the Web center were different fromChandler’s.In terms of the organization, Jackson stated that it seemed that there were “toomany issues and [that] people are bumping heads on every issue.” In addition, shebelieved there was “no way that a central group could manage all the Web content,”thus, her push to take control of this component. For Jackson, it made sense thather department would have the final say on what would be published on the Web.She believed the Web center’s function was to provide the technical side of theWeb system, while the marketing department would have control over all aspects ofWeb content.Stevens assessed Jackson’s role in the Web initiative. He realized that control overthe content of the Web system, especially information having to do with clinical careand consumers, was important enough to Jackson to warrant creating a separate strategyfor the Web system by hiring Greystone. She supported the portal system becauseshe believed it to be the best way to disseminate information on the Web. For her, expediencywas paramount. She wanted the redesign and increased functionality as soon aspossible. Her role as marketing director had not changed with the introduction of theWeb initiative. Her job was still to attract patients to MCHS, and improvement of theWeb system with input from the marketing department was one way she was going todo this.