Whether to build of buy is a tough question for corporate information technology executives. This question is especially difficult when discussing the corporate intranet. According to Zona Research, corporations will spend $100 billion on intranet development by the year 2000. The decision is whether to spend these dollars internally or to spend them on vendors and consultants.
One Southeastern IT executive making these decisions every day is Melodie Palmer, a vice-president in the Internet Marketing Group for the NationsBank marketing department. Palmer, formerly with the MCI business markets division, is in charge of content management and design for the NationsBank marketing department.
Some companies, Palmer notes "see intranets as simply a repository for information. These companies probably use outside resources more heavily, since they invest little internally. However, that will change due to the fact that companies are finding that an intranet acts as a business tool, which dramatically reduces costs and productivity time."
The explosion of intranet development can be explained easily. The argument for building a corporate intranet can be staggering. Companies are looking for an open-architecture, cost-effective solution for distributing information throughout their organization. Employees want better information faster. Companies are turning in record numbers towards the intranet for this solution. Intranets are a private computer network based on the standards of the Internet. It is the first platform that is client-independent and built on open standards. Intranets can save corporations thousands of dollars by providing faster access to data, a universal interface to that data, and as result, better efficiencies.
The heavily weighted argument toward building the corporate intranet puts enormous pressure on information technology executives to deliver. IT executives must deliver a quality intranet that reduces cost and increases revenue by thousands of dollars. As a company begins to plan for intranet construction, it must decide which portions will be handled internally and which portions it should outsource.
Deciding what portions of intranet development it should outsource and what it should not, is not an easy call, even for Palmer. "In all, I feel that systems management (server, network security, standards, and basic programming) should be handled internally. Design and innovative application development should be outsourced."
According to Palmer, whether or not to outsource "depends on in-house capabilities. Some companies act as content managers but look to outside resources for back-end development and design: purchasing and maintaining the server, handling, tracking and designing the Web site."
Palmer notes that market position impacts this choice as much as capabilities. "This also depends on the company's marketing mix and attitude about intranet use."
In one of her previous jobs with an ISP and IT services vendor, Palmer notes, "We wanted to keep our internal audience (sales force) on the cutting edge - after all, (they) sell Internet access and other high-tech products. Therefore, (they) look for innovative means - with visuals and applications - to deliver information and make day-to-day operations accessible. That type of attitude fosters an internal intranet group with depth (programming, project management and design). It also fosters some dealing with outside developers to maintain that edge."
