Re: Intranets - Don't go there?

[Elna Tymes <Etymes -at- LTS -dot- COM>]

Steven Connell wrote:

> In discussing PDG vs. HTML, Arlen wrote:

> For every case study of companies which saved money putting up an
> intranet, there's another of a company who built an intranet and nobody
> came.

> My company is at a crossroads for setting up an intranet, Lotus Notes, or
> both.  I'd like to know who some of these companies are, Arlen, so I can
> ensure my company doesn't build a site that no one comes to.

I don't know where Arlen got his facts, but yesterday Netscape released
a whitepaper done by International Data Corporation (IDC) that shows
that a typical ROI on an intranet is well over 1000%, and that it comes
within six to twelve weeks.  The study goes into detail as to how ROI
was calculated, how trends are developing in this area, what methodology
was used for the study, and then gives some case studies from Cadence
Design Systems, Booz Allen & Hamilton, and Silicon Graphics.

We have been specializing in developing intranets for our clients, and
in our background research we've found data that says that 96% of the
Fortune 1000 either have or are deploying intranets (Forrester
Research), that roughly half of the 250,000 servers on the WWW are
devoted to intranets (Wall Street Journal article a couple of months
ago), and that both Netscape and Microsoft admit that most of their
sales in the internet software area are to corporate internal networks,
not to private individuals.

I'll posit as a response to Arlen that companies who post intranets and
have nobody come are like people who build a better mousetrap and then
forget to publicize it.  You have to TELL the folks that the stuff is
there, and you have to SHOW them how to use it!

We just did a demonstration of an engineering-oriented intranet for
Genentech, and they're thrilled with what we showed them, partly because
it uses technology they've already got in place (they've had an intranet
for over a year now and ours would simply hook into the existing
structure).

Think of introducing an intranet as a little like introducing email --
when you didn't have it, you didn't see how you'd use it.  Once you have
it, you can't imagine life without it.

Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems