Mellon Bank

www.businessbuilder.mellon.com

Mellon’s Business Builder site includes links to 10 local and national business publications such as The Washington Post and Baltimore Business Journal.

Since last spring, Mellon Bank (Pittsburgh, PA; $49 billion; 715,000 ATM cards) has been offering a “business branded” Web site for businesses in the Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C. area at www.businessbuilder.mellon.com Besides typical business banking articles, for example, Five Advantages of Leasing Business Equipment, the site is full of useful third party resources for area businesses such as:

•  Newsstand with links to 10 key business publications (screenshot above)

•  Networking with links to the local chamber and other sources of business info

•  Local Events, a comprehensive listing of business-oriented events (34 listed for Nov. alone)

•  Information & Links, one of the best lists of Web-based small business resources we’ve seen

The bank plans to introduce other localized versions of Business Builder in its primary markets of Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. Mellon’s approach could also work with consumer segments, offering residents, of say Philadelphia, a focused list of publications, events, and area resources.

One housekeeping chore: If they haven’t already, Mellon should secure the domain name rights to businessbuilder.com from Internet Business Solutions, a Web presence provider with an array of domain names stockpiled.

Contact: J. Stewart is Project Manager,(412) 234-8244, stewart.jm@mellon.com .

Mellon’s business events calendar puts the data entry burden on the event promotor with a simple Web-based form at www.mellon.com/businessbuilder/events/eventform.Html It’s similar to the calendar outlined in OBR 2/98.