INTRANET SOLUTIONS FOR SMALL BUSINESS

By Megan Watzke
Many Small Businesses are Turning to Web Technology

One solution

For Virtual Vineyards, a California-based on-line wine and specialty food retailer, setting up an intranet was not an option, but a necessity. With almost half of its 13 employees telecommuting and the company's warehouse and office in separate locations, the company had to find a way to share information among scattered employees. "We absolutely rely on our intranet," said Cyndy Ainsworth, who handles marketing at Virtual Vineyards. "We started this before the term 'intranet' was even used; we just built the tools we needed and went from there."

Intranets for internal company applications

An intranet—not to be to be confused with its larger, freer cousin, the Internet—allows companies to share information amongst employees, much the way traditional offices use memos or cork boards. Using the same software and other development tools common on publicly-accessed Web sites, intranets take advantage of the point-and-click ease of the Web, but access to the site can be limited to a single company or even a specific group of employees within a firm. Password protections and other methods can be used to ensure that private information remains private.

How the big boys are capitalizing on intranets

Many large companies, particularly those with good computer support teams, have been building intranets to keep internal phone directories up-to-date, introduce new policies, publicize staff accomplishments, and share databases or other information. "The value of the intranet is letting you work asynchronously."—Steve Telleen, Intranet Partners

Intranets can help with telecommuting

For many smaller entities, intranets can become important if many workers telecommute or if the company has a few employees in separate locations. In addition, a desire to spend employee or partner time more efficiently may spur a small business to consider an intranet. Steve Telleen, director of marketing strategy for Intranet Partners of California, said he recently worked on a project to set up an intranet for just four people—including himself—all of whom worked on very tight schedules. To maximize the quality of meetings among the four, each member continually posted his or her progress on a given topic using the company's intranet. Each member of the group could then examine all the work done to date when time permitted, hash it over in a discussion thread, and work out many details—all before the first scheduled meeting. "The value of the intranet is letting you work asynchronously," said Telleen. "Our actual face-to-face meetings were very efficient because we did not have to take time bringing the other members of the project up to speed, and we could spend more time on the creative process."

How to build a low-cost intranet using Windows 95

• Provide employees with a PC and Windows 95, a modem, and dial-up Internet access.
• Open a virtual Web site with a low-cost Web site provider on the Internet.
• Create an intranet web site with inexpensive authoring tools such as HomeSite or Microsoft Publisher97.
• You can publish the server using WS-FTP or similar software and employees can use a free browser to access the material.

The cost of doing an intranet can vary

Indeed, many small businesses can benefit from intranets, but there are costs to be considered. Intranets are an investment, and can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars to start and, more importantly, to maintain. Small businesses with a preexisting technical infrastructure, like Virtual Vineyards, have an easier time setting up an intranet.

Firms that have built or tried to build intranets warn that, as a buyer of intranet tools, you must beware. Common difficulties include: buying more hardware or software than necessary; buying the right tools, but lacking the know-how to setup an efficient system; starting well but having too few resources to maintain the system.

Making the commitment

If you have conflicts with space or scheduling or some other unique characteristic, an intranet might be just what your business needs to maximize efficiency. But what can be an invaluable resource for one organization, can be a sinkhole of time and money for another. Be sure to do the research before investing in an intranet, and it might be worthwhile to save the cork board and the thumbtacks—just in case.

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