Intranet Cost Compartmentalizing: Making Sense of Cloud, Organizational and Financing Options

You’ve considered the strategic benefits that a customized intranet will offer your firm but when it comes down to the bottom line, how much will it cost?

Analyzing the final cost of an intranet will depend heavily on what kinds of features and benefits you hope to implement in your new system. It will take a time to develop the system to best suit the needs of your organization. Depending on the size of your firm, sharepoint intranet solution could cost as little $20,000 though at the most advanced enterprise levels, $250,000 is a starting point and costs rise steeply from there.

Intranet cost is based on some complex and interrelated factors. To get to the bottom of your overall cost, it might be useful to consider how some different pieces of your investment will work together to impact the final price. However, the more you view the intranet cost as an investment, the more likely you are to lean into the tough questions which will ultimately make your sharepoint intranet solution to you, your employees and your future prosperity.

The wide range of this estimate is easier to apply to your firm if you consider three important elements of your business that you are no doubt already considering:

• Cloud Costs

• Organizational Costs

• Financing Costs

Intranet Cloud Costs

A privately hosted and operated server is far more expensive than a public cloud solution using Office 365 and SharePoint. Many firms incorrectly choose to use on-premise or private servers because they feel this will better support digital security.

This assumption is often wrong if highly skilled IT professionals are not brought in to manage the system in the short, medium and long term. Maintaining a secure network requires professional expertise and skipping on this area of investment can lead to some major issues. For most firms without large and dedicated IT technicians public Office 365 based cloud solution is usually the best choice.

A public cloud is an off-site server your firm accesses via the Internet and for most firms the advantages of this type of system are immense. Implementing a SharePoint intranet for Office 365 is the swiftest and most efficient way to create a responsive and cost-effective intranet solution. Office 365 is secure and does not require advanced IT technical staff to maintain.

In working with Microsoft, there is access to a wealth of functionality at a remarkably low cost. In stark contrast to private or on-premise cloud solutions, utilizing public cloud solutions through a provider like Office 365 can be had for subscription rates between $7.50 and $19 a month.

Organizational Costs

• Planning. Knowing how and what your intranet solution will look, feel and operate like will require a detailed analysis of your firm, its organizational culture, and your future aspirations. Being able to understand how and why your systems succeed is worth the time and resources it takes to develop an effective and collective intranet solution.

• Implementation. You want your team to rally around an intranet  solution as an essential and beneficial part of their work life balance. It should not be dreaded or worse discounted. To instill a culture of communication and collaboration, it is up to the leadership to generate and support these values across diverse teams.

• On-going Support and Management.

Financing Options

Many firms offer their software solutions to other companies in the form of intranet subscriptions. For these firms, charging $5-18 per user, per month allows them to offer intranet solutions which are not as highly customizable as more personalized solutions but which are much easier to set up and implement.

These more instant solutions allow firms to explore popular intranet features of intranet-based business without having to invest as much time in the planning and implementation of a more customized plan that was built from the ground up.

Once you have prioritized your business objectives, decided where the portal will be hosted, and determined who will build it, you can figure out what an intranet will cost. The average price for an Accelerated Intranet solution often runs between $30,000 and $100,000 or more. Even though this is a one-time payment, it’s useful to keep in mind that if your platform is successful, you will likely add new applications and customizations over time.

Businesses that excel at SharePoint always discover new ways of using its tools, resulting in additional development costs later on. That’s a good problem to have because when employees are working at a higher level, you’ll be amazed at how that investment pays off.

Once you have invested time in considering how to plan and implement your intranet solution, determined who and how it will be built and what kind of cloud servers it will be hosted on, you will be able to get a sense of what the project will cost.

The average an intranet solution cost is usually between $30,000-100,000 though it is important to not get fooled into thinking this is a one-time investment. In essence yes, it is, but at the same time, if your firm is radically transformed and realizes all kinds of growth and innovation as a result of your intranet, wouldn’t it be logical to consider how you can continue to customize and add more advanced features?

At the end of the day, sharepoint intranet is only effective if your team is comfortable and engaged with it. However, if you are able to drive engagement and boost profitability, why wouldn’t you want to continue to build on a proven system?

Intranet cost may be daunting, however, intranet investment just might change your world. Instead of viewing the intranet as a cost, see it as an investment in a benefit which can help your firm to advance, implement LS SharePoint Intranet solution and realize new profitability!

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