carspecs.com is a UK company especially formed to facilitate the production of web sites that supply information on any and every motor car currently in production anywhere in the world.

Such web sites allow visitors to select and compare vehicles with their features, options and prices before deciding which to buy.

Dealerships and manufacturers use the system as well as public Internet sites that anyone can utilise www.autobytel.co.uk for example.

In the latter half of 1999 carspecs.com enlisted a number of consultants to improve the efficiency of the system and develop a set of software tools others could use to develop their carspecs web sites. Matthew Ashton (Ekos co-director) undertook to create all the documentation explaining how to set up and customise a carspecs web site.

 This task involved:

• reviewing the logical design of the car database
• reading through the thousands of lines of code that manage the data and create the web site
• identifying the issues site developers would need to understand
• identifying the sections of code developers would need to alter when tailoring their site
• designing a set of manuals for site developers
• Writing those manuals for distribution from the carspecs.com web site.

It is no exaggeration to say that without Matthew’s contribution, the project would have failed. Only with appropriate manuals could any web developer install and configure this highly complex technology. Matthew has been asked to return in 2000 to undertake a similar role when the carspecs.com technology is further enhanced.