Self-Service Customers

However, the cost structure may not be working in your favor. “If you follow this strategy, prepare to incur the costs of ascending a  steep learning curve, and understand that the cost of doing something only once is high,” Bourgeois cautions. “It’s unrealistic to expect best-in-breed solutions from an internal team that is doing something for the first time. Many small companies outsource big Internet projects and have internal teams work in partnership with their Web consultants over time to optimize returns on Internet investments.”

The size of the company and its commitment to its online blueprint are chief factors in the decision to outsource or “insource,” according to Rick Prendergast, vice president and managing director of Minneapolis-based Tenth Floor, a developer of Web sites, portals, and content management software. “It really is based on needs,” he says. “The pattern we’ve seen is that the Fortune 500 companies tend to insource and manage the Web on their own, while small to midsize companies gravitate toward an application service provider.”

Gelco, an Eden Prairie-based firm that provides international leasing and expense services, has a full in-house staff to oversee the company’s Web presence, but also employs Voyageur I.T. to provide web strategy. Gelco’s internal team oversees the Web site’s ad-ministration, a support team does online editing and manages the e-mail programs, and a vice president of sales and marketing supervises it all.

Voyageur’s work with Gelco is about bridging the gap between the talents of the in-house team with the strategy and implementation expertise of a Web site design, development, and hosting company. “These workers are not encouraged, or innately hired, to step back and evaluate Gelco’s Web development process,” Mc-Gann says. “Our role at Voyageur is to take these seven or eight people who are all tracking different things and make it work by keeping them accountable and helping drive their vision.”

Developers: Stay Relevant

While insourcing Web development is becoming popular, external Web developers are far from an endangered species. In fact, there are opportunities for Web development firms in helping companies to insource. “We have to be nimble,” McGann says. “We started offering training for Web editors, and we have many content management systems we can use that keep our project management fresh.”

Tenth Floor offers a Web software suite called BASE-10 that can provide a company one thing or everything, from content management and e-commerce to digital-asset management and e-mail marketing. “We work in some environments where our clients develop their Web site in-house and purchase our software suite and have us host it,” Prendergast says. “So they take on the creative, and they leave the technology to us.” Customizing software so that it’s tailored to the needs of the client’s business has also become more prevalent.