While other companies have sold homegrown technologies and IT capabilities, most have been one-off deals, notes Howard Rubin, an analyst at Gartner Inc. "That's a tough business model for most IT organizations to sustain," he adds.

In contrast, in February 2005, P&G dedicated a division to focusing exclusively on reselling internally developed IT-related IP. It's a one-person shop run by Bill Metz, a 15-year IT veteran of the company. Metz is constantly beating the bushes looking for technologies P&G can remarket and customers who might be interested in them. But he's not entirely alone. As manager of IT EBD, he works closely with P&G's legal and public relations staffs.

The technologies in question are not necessarily what one would associate with a consumer packaged goods manufacturer. For instance, a colleague at P&G's IT organization in Spain recently contacted Metz about a PC-based diagnostic system that the company developed. Physicians can use the software to quickly diagnose osteoporosis by viewing X-rays on a computer screen. As part of P&G's efforts to establish business relationships with health care providers, the system is currently being used for free by a group of doctors at 230 hospitals in Europe, says Edwin Erckens, an IT manager for P&G's pharmaceutical business in Barcelona. Metz is exploring opportunities to distribute the technology to doctors worldwide.

Robert Scott, vice president of innovation and architecture in P&G's global business services division, declined to share the dollar amount of the IT EBD group's first-year revenue, saying only that its targets are modest, since it's just beginning to mature.

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