Paul Chin
(postpaulchinonline.com)

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• Part 1 - Three options to building an intranet
  
• Part 2 - Are you ready to build in-house?

Building your own house with a couple of buddies from the local softball team seemed like a good idea two months ago. Your shortstop has some basic carpentry knowledge, your catcher "has a guy" who can supply material at low cost, your leftfielder has more tools than a Home Hardware store, and you've always wished you were an architect—key word being "wished."

Now, with the foundation sinking into the soft soil beneath and the load-bearing walls unable to withstand the weight of a nest of pigeons that decided to make their home on the roof, you begin to realize that you're in way over your head.

In my last article, I presented five core questions that you need to ask yourself before committing to an in-house intranet. After exploring those questions, you should have a better idea as to whether you're ready, or able, to construct your own intranet with in-house resources. Building in-house is not for everyone. There's nothing wrong with admitting to the fact that you can't cut a straight line or use a power tool without having someone perched by the telephone with 911 at the ready. Every company has a different set of circumstances. If you find that, for whatever reason, building in-house is not a feasible solution, you may decide to outsource the project to those who build intranets for a living.

Here in Part 3, I'll be discussing some of the key issues you need to take into account during the selection process and, eventually, signing a service contract.

Let's quickly review the pros and cons of outsourcing:

Advantages of outsourcing

Professional intranet companies specialize in developing these kinds of systems and bring years of experience to the table. They are up-to-date with the most recent technologies and can help you find the right solution for your needs. Outsourcing can cut down on implementation time since you avoid having to deal with a learning curve. They can provide training to your staff on usage and site maintenance.

Disadvantages of outsourcing

With this expertise comes a price tag. The cost of consulting and development from an intranet development firm is almost always higher than building in-house (of course, this really depends on the company you hire and the scope of your project). You won't have as much freedom or flexibility when it comes to future upgrades and enhancements. You'll likely need to factor in additional costs of re-hiring. Unlike internal employees, consultants won't be as familiar with the internal workings and business processes of your company.

As I mentioned in the very first part of this series, it requires a tremendous amount of effort to build a home from the ground up. You need architects to design the framework and infrastructure, carpenters to build what's been drawn on paper, interior decorators to design the look-and-feel, electricians and plumbers to make sure the lines and pipes go to all the right places and the alarm company to install security measures so that no one sneaks off with your priceless artwork.

Selecting the right people to do all of this doesn't mean flipping to a random section in the Yellow Pages and hoping for the best. Hoping for the best is what you do just before you roll the dice in Las Vegas. For an intranet, you need to do your homework.

The good news here is that any company with a TCP/IP-based network has already built a large portion of the house. This means network lines have been set up and security measures—firewall and proxy server(s), back-up and restore procedures, disaster recovery and data redundancy—have been established.

Before you go jumping at the first person knocking at your door, find out as much as you can about the people you're entrusting with your project. Here are five key points you need to consider before signing anything:

1. Background, credibility, experience, and knowledge
2. Talk to previous clients
3. Are they willing to work on-site?
4. Knowledge transfer and training
5. Post-production support

Background, credibility, experience and knowledge

Obviously, if you were building a very elaborate home with a large skylight, marble columns flanking the entrance and a master bathroom with its own water filtration system, you would want to hire reputable and experienced contractors who have been around the block for some time. The last thing you want is to entrust a project of this magnitude to someone who calls himself an expert just because he finished watching a 10-hour This Old House marathon.

There are hundreds of intranet-specific consultants out there ranging from large IT firms to a single person working out of a home office. What's the one common link between all of these varied consultants? They all consider themselves experts. This, of course, is a subjective issue. One person's expert is another person's novice. It's much like the saying, "All poodles are dogs, but not all dogs are poodles."

Finding credible and experienced consultants is the most important step in outsourcing your intranet project; some have set up a solid foundation in the IT industry and others have built their reputation on word-of-mouth. You can do some initial research in IT trade magazines and on the Internet but don't allow yourself to be swayed by marketing. A shiny wrapper could simply be a mask for inadequate experience.

As you go along, make an informal list of potentials that meet your needs. Factor in any special circumstances that relate to your operation such as the need for one of the NATO Clearance Levels if you happen to operate under very strict security standards (but this is a much broader discussion for another time). You can then narrow the list down to three strong candidates and put them underneath the microscope, comparing things like client base, service offerings, price and experience.