InformationWeek

That was the dilemma faced by Marvin Goldstein, manager of research and analysis for ESI International Inc. in Arlington, Va. Goldstein, who was charged with developing a portal for the company's 250 employees, encountered no visible knowledge-management strategy when he arrived at the company in April. But for ESI, which provides business education and training services and depends heavily on its knowledge base, finding a way to give its employees easy access to information about the company's customers was a top priority.

To Goldstein, that meant providing business analysis, news, market intelligence, and recommended reading in a collaborative environment, through a portal. In the process, he wanted to build a full-fledged portal that also would give employees easy access to job and company-product listings, travel regulations, and other human-resources information.

Still, the small company simply didn't need the vast array of capabilities in packaged portal offerings--and it certainly didn't have the budget and staff for such an implementation. Goldstein discovered that some companies were using Microsoft's FrontPage to build their own portals. Although the system Goldstein is building can't do everything a Plumtree Software Inc. or a Brio Technology Inc. product can do, it fills ESI's needs. Not all 250 people can use it at the same time, for instance, but the system does allow for 100 simultaneous users--and that suits ESI just fine.

"When you're starting with nothing, it's hard to justify such an expensive package because people can't envision the return on investment," Goldstein notes. "There's nothing there to cause them to take that leap of faith."