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InternetWeek USWeb Expands Outsourcing Efforts

But there were a couple of problems: The 22-person venture in Allentown, Pa., lacked the IT staff to make this vision a reality, and Codrea couldn't devote a lot of money to the project. So instead of turning to a high-priced Internet consultant, he turned to the man who sold him his first computer, Doug Pelletier, a former IBM sales representative who'd started Trifecta, a small company that specialized in porting legacy applications to Unix.

Though Pelletier had little Web experience, he was eager to expand Trifecta's activities into Internet consulting services. He jumped at the chance to develop a simple Web catalog with proprietary shopping-cart technology for Lehigh Valley Safety Supply, and the two settled on a price of less than $5,000 for the initial site. They agreed that if it were successful, Codrea would purchase additional services from Trifecta.

Lehigh Valley Safety Supply isn't the first emerging enterprise to take its chances on a relatively inexperienced consulting company. Many smaller businesses are willing to serve as subjects for young IT firms trying to build a client portfolio or hoping to get into a new area of technology. By allowing these consultants to use their projects as a proving ground, growing businesses can secure bargain prices on sophisticated systems and services. Since signing the initial contract in 1995, Codrea is in the middle of the second upgrade of his Web site through Trifecta, and by the time he's through will have paid less than $70,000 for about $150,000 worth of services, based on Trifecta's usual hourly rates.

These arrangements can work well, as long as emerging enterprises are willing to live with delays, says Perry Harris, director of management strategies at the Yankee Group. "Climbing the learning curve [together] will probably take longer," Harris says, "but it may mean you get a more customized solution in the end." But it may also mean that emerging enterprises get what they pay for- implementations that fail as often as they succeed.

Think Small
To lessen the chance of failure-or at least decrease its impact-emerging enterprises can take some important steps before signing on with an untried consultant. Codrea, for instance, cautions that it's wise to start small-the initial Internet implementation called for putting the 12 most popular of Lehigh Valley Safety Supply's 275 shoe styles online. Without an experienced hand to guide the project, it would have been too risky to initially try to get a large-scale implementation off the ground. Only when Trifecta proved it could make good on its small-scale promise-delivering a simple electronic catalog that won new customers in locations as far-flung as Malaysia and Indonesia-did Codrea opt to expand the Web site. For the first upgrade, he spent $15,000 to list an additional 38 styles, and add more robust servers.

Codrea says he was glad he chose a local consultant for the project. During the job's second phase, the companies experimented with servers, security, search engines, and beta products. As they plotted each step, Pelletier's proximity proved key to making the relationship work. For instance, Codrea and Pelletier could easily get together for dinner and uninterrupted conversations. There's also the advantage, Codrea says, that when something goes wrong, "I know where to find him."