Imagine building a portal replete with search, directory, message boards and daily content in just five months from conception to launch. We did and we did it. The Fortune Group, part of the AOL/Time Warner enterprise, sought to publish a new magazine and website called eCompany, focused on the business impact of the internet. There were several challenges associated with the eCompany project:

The launch of eCompany.com was a highly complex endeavor, and it would have to be done right the first time.

Xenogene staffers were integral to the creation of eCompany.com. From being key players in the visioning process to implementing a complex and feature-rich site, Xenogene was there at every step. Some of the many site features included discussion groups, a talent pool of registered users, email newsletters, topic guides, full search functionality, and web files linking magazine articles to their online counterparts. The complexity of the site rivaled full-scale portals, yet it maintained the design elegance and beauty of the companion print publication.

The result was an information-rich portal that helped establish eCompany as a premier provider of internet business content. As editor Ned Desmond writes in the first issue of eCompany, "we didn't invest all this capital - intellectual and monetary - online just because we wanted to have a cool-looking Website; the real goal is to use the Web to help our readers." Within a year, the site was doing just that and generating traffic of one million page views per month. The design of the site was fully integrated with the magazine, resulting in a compelling brand identity. The success of the overall project enabled eCompany to acquire one of its major competitors, Business 2.0. The site design and features were so strong that they were carried over to the Business 2.0 site.