Top 4 things to consider before you build or buy an employee intranet
Blair Williamson
If you are looking for the best intranet solution for your team, you may be thinking about an out-of-the-box intranet solution – also known as an intranet packaged solution.
Some teams may consider building their own employee intranet, and while the control and customization may be better, there is a lot of risk involved, particularly when it comes to time to launch. Instead, many companies are opting for an out-of-the-box intranet solution simply because of the time savings.
There are several things to consider when thinking about whether to choose an out-of-the-box intranet solution or build your own. The most important factors to consider are time, cost, functionality, and ownership.
Top 4 things to consider when deciding to build or buy an intranet for your company
1. Time
Like adding any new platform to the enterprise tech stack, both options will involve a lengthy change management and training process. However, buying has a clear edge over building in terms of time to functionality. The solution is already packaged and doesn’t require long-term investment of IT resources for development.
Estimates for implementation time for bought, built, and integrated intranets are as follows:
- Building: 1— 1.5 years
- Buying: 1 — 3 months
- Integrated: 3 — 6 months
Of course, these timelines will change based on the technical capabilities of your organization’s IT department, your budget, and the use of third party consultants. In addition to the time actually spent on building, implementing, or integrating an intranet solution, companies often waste valuable time in the decision-making process.
Generally speaking, buying is the best solution for companies that need to immediately improve employee experience to prevent burnout and turnover.
2. Cost
Cost is usually the primary concern among the rest of the C-suite during large-scale digital transformation. IT spending at the enterprise level takes up a large portion of operating budgets, but this is out of necessity — the digital work experience is a key factor in not only operation success, but also an employee’s decision to stay with a company.
Although the up-front costs of buying an intranet are typically more substantial than the build or integrated options, it’s important to consider other factors like:
- Initial costs: Weigh the cost of developing a custom intranet and outsourcing or hiring additional IT personnel versus the up-front cost of purchasing a pre-built one.
- Maintenance costs: Compare the ongoing costs of maintaining and updating a custom-built intranet versus purchasing one that comes with IT support.
- Training costs: Assess the cost of training employees on using the new intranet. Will you hire a consultancy or can you use the customer support team of your purchased solution?
- Infrastructure costs: Factor in the expenses associated with server hardware, software licenses, and cloud services.
Should you build or buy an employee intranet?
Download our free guide to learn the top 3 things you should consider before purchasing or building an intranet.
3. Functionality
The functionality and user experience of your intranet will determine how quickly you can recoup your investment. Even if your IT department has the skills, personnel, and resources to build or integrate essential features — like accessibility for deskless and on-the-go employees and multi-tenant, multi-platform configurations that break down organizational silos — you still need to consider other relevant factors like:
- Customizability: Determining if a custom-built intranet can provide the features and company branding to empower your staff and create a sense of community within your organization.
- Integration: Evaluating the ability of the intranet solution to integrate with existing systems and software, like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace collaborative suites, and mission-critical or ‘backbone’ apps like SAP SuccessFactors and Workday.
- Scalability: Considering if the intranet can easily accommodate future growth and expansion of your enterprise into the next 6 to 7 years. This is particularly important for companies considering an M&A who may need to quickly integrate a large cohort of new staff.
- Feature updates: Assessing if your IT team has the capacity to regularly monitor and update features. If you decide to build in-house, you will likely need a team dedicated to maintaining the system long-term. This is not simply a one-time build project, but you will need a team that can support it long term. For instance, rapidly-expanding enterprises may need to quickly, securely roll out multi-tenant authentication and mobile app access.
Building an intranet allows you to customize the platform to your exact needs, but it also means you need to constantly monitor, maintain, and update it as time goes on. It also means your in-house IT team, or expensive 3rd party contractors, will be charged with scaling features as your business grows. The risk of IT team turnover is the biggest one to consider here when thinking about the long-term functionality you will need. If a key player on your team decides to leave the company, will that put your intranet project at jeopardy?
Alternatively, buying an intranet packaged solution like LumApps gives you a fully-functional, easy-to-use tool that can be customized to your specifications.
4. Ownership and Oversight
The last major factor to consider during your build vs. buy assessment is who will actually own and oversee the project long term. Is IT going to continue to own the entire project past the implementation stage, will the Communications or HR team take over, or will other lines of business and support teams want autonomy over their respective spaces?
In any case, building or buying, your tool needs to have the flexibility to meet the specific needs of each department while still upholding key components of governance:
- Data security: Assessing the security measures of both custom-built and purchased intranet options, ensuring they meet the organization's standards.
- Compliance: Ensuring the intranet has the guardrails to help your dispersed workforce engage with one another in a productive, safe way.
- No-code: Streamlining the content management process while safeguarding platform functionality by empowering non-tech staff (such as Internal communicators, HR professionals, or LOB managers) to use, configure, and manage pages, sites, and content
- Vendor support: Evaluating the level of support provided by a purchased intranet's vendor, including customer service and technical assistance.
- Internal IT support: Determining the organization's ability to provide ongoing support for a custom-built intranet or manage a purchased one.
Should you build or buy an employee intranet?
Download our free guide to learn the top 3 things you should consider before purchasing or building an intranet.
How does LumApps intranet stack up?
LumApps can be integrated with your existing collaboration suite like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace so you can utilize accounts, passwords, and processes with which your team is already familiar.
Here’s how LumApps stacks up against the custom built solutions outlined earlier:
Time: We’ve launched in as little as 3 to 6 months, letting you recoup your ROI more quickly than custom built solutions
Cost: A lower overall cost than a custom built intranet thanks to savings on additional IT labor, training, or consultants. Our pricing adapts to your team needs – each package is tailored to company size and desired functionality.
Features: Unlimited access, updates, and support to a suite of features for improving the experience and productivity of your workforce:
- An employee data layer to serve as the foundational element for your hyper-targeting and personalization efforts
- Personalized, integrated journeys to support employees during key moments of employment and targeted campaigns to reach all employees with important messages
- Social intranet features like a CMS, digital spaces and communities, and omnichannel campaigns
- Tools for navigating a digital workspace, including search and metadata features, secure video handling, and mobile access
- Experience-driving features like orchestrated employee journeys, AI-powered digital assistants, and virtual companions
- Out-of-the-box integrations with popular workplace apps
Still not sure? Download our free guide which outlines all the options and details to consider when deciding if you should build or buy an intranet.
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