Which direction for an intranet?

Packages, open-source, hand-built?

[thesheep]

A friend asked me about setting up an intranet for his company, with around 20 - 30 people. They want to share documents, leave charts, stuff like that. They're not fixed on exact requirements yet, they just want to begin to get capability.

I'm wondering whether it will work well for them to use a commercial (or open-source) package, which has content management etc., If so, which ones are good and are they expensive to buy and set up? Can I just give the package to my friend (who doesn't know any HTML or programming) and have him set it up?

The other thing I'm thinking is maybe they should get someone to build them an intranet system from scratch in PHP, maybe include a few existing scripts as needed. In fact I might even end up doing it. I have a feeling they would end up with a better system but would it be practical / cost effective for that size company?

Any help or advise appreciated. Thanks.

[Macguru]

Hi thesheep.

Did you have a look at hotscripts?

There are 92 Groupware Tools in the PHP section.
Since I only installed one of them, I cant really compare with others.

[danieljean]

You could consider leasing a solution. There are amy Application Service Providers out there- some with excellent usability. Intranets is the leader in that domain, but I recommend you also consider others such as Silver Orange, which is cheaper and got a few kudos from Jakob Nielsen (I have no financial interests in either; google for "intranet asp" for more options).

Buying a proprietary solution can end up costing a fair bit more, and the usability of most vendors hasn't been very impressive- definitely try before you buy. As for most free/oss scripts out there... well, the usability hasn't been stellar either, and the cost of implementation can be quite high.

I'm obviously focused on usability here- but if a solution can end up saving each employee 1 hour a month compared to another solution, I think that's a fairly compelling business argument.

HTH! :)

[thesheep]

Thanks, I had a look at Silver Orange and it looks good. However, I spoke to my friend and he baulked at the cost. Turns out that he now just wants a Content Management System because all they can afford is a few hundred pounds. Just to publish flat web pages, for example from MSWord, and have them automatically added to the intranet website, with appropriate menu links etc.,

Any advice on a package like this? Thanks.