Paul Chin
(postpaulchinonline.com)

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It's important that the solution you choose match the scope of your project. Companies seeking to purchase software solutions often focus their attention on avoiding the pitfall of "under-buying", buying a package that does not meet all of their requirements. However, equally important is avoiding the pitfall of "over-buying," buying a package that does far more than what you could possibly need.

It's poor practice to believe that the software with the longest list of features (or worse, the one that's most expensive) will be right for your project. There's no reason to buy a software solution running into the thousands of dollars when you only plan to use a fraction of its functionality. This is especially the case if you intend to build a very small intranet to house simple documents rather than a full-scale, database-oriented site. Software manufacturers tend to pack a lot of unnecessary gadgets into their products to justify higher prices—so remember that bigger is not always better.

The Vendor's Install-Base and Market Placement

Software selection involves more than just reviewing the product itself, you need to know a bit about the software maker as well. A successful, proven software maker with a global presence in top Fortune 500 companies stands a far better chance at survival than a start-up who's only been implemented in the "Mom and Pop" shops. This is not to say that the startup's product is no good, but if you you're looking to invest in a long-term solution, you need to increase your chances that the company who developed the software will be around to support it in future years.

Let's say, after a period of analysis and R&D, you decide to invest in ACME Inc.'s intranet-in-a-box. This product is based on the company's proprietary development environment and tightly integrated with its site management tool. A year after you roll your intranet into full production, ACME Inc. goes out of business. By then, you have tens of thousands of documents stored on your intranet, several dozen script-driven utilities created by wizards, and a search engine with a proprietary indexing algorithm; what do you do now? Do you continue to use this orphaned software or do you find some way to extract the whole site out of ACME's development environment?

There's always an inherent danger in maintaining a corporate system on defunct software. Why? Well, you're basically making a bed in a burning house. As the intranet grows bigger and bigger, it will become much more difficult to sever it from its dependencies on the proprietary software.

Admittedly, this is a highly subjective issue and there are no guarantees. Like gambling, selecting a software package requires a leap of faith, especially given the current IT climate. However, you can increase your chances of avoiding the dreaded orphaned software by selecting an established software maker with a wide install-base, thus giving you a much larger network of support.

Software Technology

Three rules:

1. Avoid proprietary software.
2. Avoid proprietary software.
3. And finally, avoid proprietary software.

Tepees, yurts, earthships, tree houses, wigwams — these are dwellings that are quite different from anything we're used to. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with any of them, but you should realize that once you move in, you're pretty much stuck with that structure unless you move out. Have you ever tried to change an igloo into a summer cottage?

Intranets are based on an open standard: the Web. Regardless, some manufacturers lock your intranet in their own development environments. They may provide you with click-and-drag restructuring, site mapping and validation, and a library of pre-written Web scripts, but if your intranet can't be moved and maintained outside of all this, you're taking your chances.

Any intranet built with an off-the-shelf solution must be maintainable outside of the development environment. You'll be fine as long as your entire intranet solution is based on the software maker's technology across the board. However, if there ever comes a time when you want to port your intranet to another system, you may be out of luck. Trying to get your intranet out of a locked development environment will be like trying to get a model ship out of a bottle. The bigger your intranet, the more difficult it will be to switch to another system.

Software Functionality

Everyone has a different view of what their home should be and what its look and feel will accomplish. No one really moves into a house without a certain amount of work. After cleaning the floors, repairing loose doorknobs, spackling holes in the walls, repainting all the rooms, and arranging your furniture, it finally begins to look like something you can live in. This is why homes need to be tweaked to fit your own needs and requirements.

Intranet software, right out of the box, only provides you with a template. These templates are based on common intranet models; you still need to fine-tune it to your project specifications, adding things such as interactive scripts, submission forms and database connectivity.

When you go through your software evaluation process make sure that you're basing your selection on what's required in your project specifications and don't be wowed by all the toys and gadgets that are usually thrown in to pad the software. I'd much rather have a package that does a few core things well than a package that does a lot of things poorly.

The Learning Curve

Any new software you buy will require some amount of training. Whether you decide to learn it yourself through manuals, self-experimentation, computer-based training, or face-to-face training depends on personal preference. Some are able to get an overall idea of how something works by playing around with it for a while; others need to learn it through a classroom environment.

Obviously, the more the package has to offer, the longer it will take to learn everything. The good news here, if you're not as technically inclined as an IT professional, is that software makers are now designing their products for the non-techies. Intranets-in-a-box are catering more to content providers rather than Web developers, so it's getting easier for those with limited technical backgrounds./

Time to Go House Hunting

If you're planning to go intranet shopping, remember to do your homework first. Don't buy something because it seemed to work for someone else; it needs to work for you. Check to see what's on the market, look up software reviews on the Internet, and download evaluation copies of the software.

Once you've compiled a short list of candidates, compare each package with one another using the five points I mentioned above. As you go through this process, always remember that you're buying what you need rather than what the software makers think you should want or what they're trying to sell you.