For a lot of companies, finding someone else to do the work makes sense, even though the prices are steep. Mass. A strategic solution, says Bair, means taking a comprehensive view of integrating and managing intranet applications. That comprehensive overview is missing from many intranet plans, says David Sonnenschein at Sage Solutions, an intranet consultancy in San Francisco. The market will get there, but right now we see projects like corporate training and benefits enrollments. Each group develops its own intranet application and hangs it in the corporate intranet.
Some companies start out thinking an intranet is a home-grown project.
But a quick review of IS staffers' time-strapped schedules usually bursts that bubble. So does a perusal of the new technologies. Setting up a useful intranet requires technological expertise that goes far beyond the purchase of an inexpensive Web-authoring tool. Although an intranet is a network application, network managers don't necessarily make the best intranet designers. The application gives employees access to health-benefits information.