All-in-one intranet nears beta

IntraNetics, a small Massachusetts start-up, will begin beta tests next week for an intranet-in-a-box bundle designed to get small businesses up and running in a hurry.

The bundle, called IntraNetics 97, includes a set of 17 ready-to-run applications aimed at companies of 20 to 500 employees; they include a company directory, employee handbook, and expense report program.

The company is targeting the bundle at smaller companies that need internal business applications but may not have the staff to develop custom systems or support complex applications.

IntraNetics sells the package in standalone form, for installation on existing intranets, or bundled with Microsoft or Netscape Communications Web software.

The bundle requires no programming and little customization, the company said. Employee names and other information are entered through forms that store data in a central database, accessible by all applications. The employee handbook, company directory, and other applications include boilerplate copy that can easily be customized.

The standalone package costs $4,995. IntraNetics 97 for Netscape includes the Netscape mail server and Web server, 25 browser licenses, and an Informix Online Workgroup Server database and is priced at $7,495.

A similarly priced Microsoft bundle ships with Microsoft's mail server, SQL Server database, and an unlimited user license for the Internet Explorer Web browser. No Web server is included with the Microsoft bundle, since Windows NT 4.0 includes Microsoft Internet Information Server, said Rick Faulk, vice president of marketing at IntraNetics. The IntraNetics bundle runs on Windows NT and Unix.

The IntraNetics package competes with similar products from Oblix and Action Technologies.

Faulk said the bundle is slated to ship by mid-July.

A future version will be written in Java, for portability, and will support extranet (company-to-company) use, the company said.