If you're trying to stay ahead of the learning curve when it comes to harnessing interactive technology, managing virtual offices and finding new ways to augment your employee-communications efforts, you need to view intranets as exclusive tools that need to be constantly nourished.
Controlling intranet costs is directly tied to how you manage these networks and how you determine what should be placed on them: the more content that's on an intranet, the more there is to manage and the more it's going to cost to have personnel maintain the site and update what's there. And sources say the confidentiality of the material that's kept on an intranet determines the security you'll need - something that can substantially drive costs up.
But months before you begin transferring content to an intranet, an intranet has to be part of your longterm business plan and you have to determine what kind of ongoing support (including outsourcing) you're going to need. If you don't take the time to hire a consultant in the beginning to help you map out how this technology's going to be used and what on-site staff and outside help you're going to need, sources say you may end up having to bring in pricy technical gurus when problems crop up.
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Intranets: Setting 'Em Up & Maintaining 'Em 1. Make sure that the content is managed by the content creators;
Source: Gartner Group |
Maintaining intranets may even require a longterm contract with an ISP or telecommunications firm that has a dedicated line to your organization to help troubleshoot problems. That is, according to Ray Laracuenta, research director of the Gartner Group, the Stamford, Conn.-based firm that authored a Sept. 22 Forbes "Future of IT" supplement forecasting an increasing reliance on Internet technology as the corporate world meets the millennium. These internal networks are quickly becoming commonplace, albeit expensive, routes to inform employees of company news, including everything from acquisitions and mergers to human-resource policies.
The Gartner Group estimates that maintaining an intranet can cost companies five to seven times the $50,000 to several million it costs to install an intranet. Although some sources say that number could be a little high, experts agree that the bulk of the costs of intranets will be in maintaining them, not implementing them.
Information, But At a Cost
What's happened to corporations, and PR firms as well, is a kind of "whew" mentality: once the intranet is planned for, the content tweaked and transferred into HTML, and the internal pages set up, execs are prone to think the work's done. But the work's just begun.
"These are growing information islands," says John Pescatore, a senior consultant with Trusted Information Systems Inc., a Glenwood, Md., company specializing in network security. "And they are quickly replacing other systems because it's so easy to add other things. But the demand on the support side increases because the paper route disappears."
It's imperative to realize that there are databases (i.e., contracts or business plans) that are better left to a document management system - stand-alone applications that can be integrated into an intranet and accessed through a browser. In short, they become a kind of repository in a niche area and they can help decrease intranet costs.
Should It Be There?
A static document such as a 500-page, policy-and-procedures manual that's rarely changed, or a phone book or benefits brochure, probably doesn't need to be on your intranet. On the other hand, it makes sense to include highly perishable documents (such as a time-sensitive news blurb) or content that's frequently altered. Another wise choice would be documents that inherently lend themselves to this kind of medium - for instance, help-desk information.
According to the International Data Corp., a market research firm based in Massachusetts, the bulk of intranet costs are tied to ongoing maintenance. Based on a 1996 telephone survey (455 network users responded), 70 percent of intranet costs are tied to personnel and training, including the hefty expense of making sure you have both in-house expertise (to keep the user accounts up to date and to maintain the content) and outsourcing, according to Kelly Kavanagh, IDC research director.
Before you embark on this route, you'll need:
- A company that will handle your firewall - your frontline security that protects your internal content from those who are accessing your Web server externally. Security can also mean authorization, containment and authentication issues.
- An application development firm to write the software or integrate the intranet's components; and
- A key core of staffers, generally in-house, to maintain the accounts on the Web server. (Gartner Group, 203/316-1222; TIS, 301/947-7153; IDC, 703/876-5043)