A Home for Your Intranet

A week later, that formerly peaceful corner was teeming with the sounds of construction. People scurried about like those tiny Doozers from Fraggle Rock. Day-after-day, as I jogged by, I began to see that huge hole in the ground take the shape of a house. I remembered thinking to myself, "What effort it must take to actually build something that big." You have to lay out the foundation, construct a multi-level frame, put in the insulation, install the windows and doors—I got a headache just thinking about it.

An intranet follows a very similar process and, much like the construction of a house, you have three main options:

• You can build your own
• You can contract the job to professionals
• You can buy an existing house

Building a house is not for everyone. Back in the Old West everyone considered himself a carpenter; that would explain all the slanted floorboards and broken windows. It takes a lot more than a hammer and a pile of lumber to build a sturdy home; it requires skill and knowledge. If you have neither, beware the leaky roof! On the other hand, if you're able to fashion a decorative archway out of discarded Popsicle sticks, then watch out, you just might have what it takes to put Bob Vila to shame.

Opting to build an intranet internally—that is, using company employees—grants you the highest level of freedom. You have total control over the decision-making process, project management, scheduling, funding, future growth, and all of the minute details related to the specifics of your business' operations.

Let's face it; no one knows your company's business more than those immersed in it on a daily basis. External consultants may come in and get an overall impression of how things work, but that's only skimming the surface. Every company has those subtle intangibles, those idiosyncrasies that are not written in any formal manual. Consultants often lack the intimate knowledge of these qualities required to tailor-fit an intranet to the more subjective requirements of the company.

In addition to the advantage of having a more company tailored intranet, building internally also allows you to keep the talent and knowledge of your developers in-house. Let's say 8-months down the line, you want to add a feature that would enable content owners to store searchable customer profiles on your site; it would be so much easier you tap into the knowledge of those who originally worked on the project rather than having to recall your consultants.

Now, I'd like to offer a friendly word of caution to the aspiring carpenters and architects out there. We've gotten to a point where many software companies are trying to develop Web site authoring tools so simple to use (I'm saying "simple to use" as a relative term) that little-to-no technical expertise is required. While this may be a positive thing for casual Web designers building small sites, it can turn into a nightmare for those relying on them for large scale, corporate sites.

This ease of use can lull intranet developers into a false sense of security. Having fallen prey to "eyes-wide-shut syndrome", they may come to realize that they knocked down a load-bearing wall and the house is no longer able to support itself. Is that a piano coming down the stairs?

I'll be discussing the topic of in-house developed intranets in Part 2 of this series.


Hiring Contractors to Build Your Home

You have a vision of your dream home and can picture yourself sipping wine by a warm fireplace on a rainy Sunday afternoon.OK, so you can't draw a straight line or use a circular saw without accidentally cutting off one of your fingers, but all is not lost.

You might not have the practical skills to pull off such a big project, but there are professionals out there who can help you. These professionals make a living at doing this type of work. Depending on the size and complexity of your soon-to-be home, you can hire an architect to draw up the blueprints for you, carpenters to build the house, interior decorators to design the look you're after, and security experts to install the alarm system.

Some mid- to small-sized companies may not have a dedicated IT department with enough technical expertise to build an intranet internally. In some cases, even large companies who do have an existing IT department can't commit the time and resources to an intranet project due to conflicting priorities or schedules. In these circumstances, building internally may not be a viable option.

Professional developers, or ASPs (Application Service Providers), are a huge benefit to those who are relatively new to the intranet scene. As with everything new, there's a learning curve that must be overcome before you're confident enough to be proficient. Unfortunately, this isn't a perfect world and you're often dealing with tight schedules that don't always permit the breathing space required to get over the curve.