Article Idea:
IA for Small Business
suggested by Troy Green on 2007/04/23
IA comes off as to complex, big companyish (can I make words up here?) or too ”$$$” . How can you boil it down for those aspiring webmasters or SOHO types who have a passion for UCD? I don’t know of any articles or books that explore this from “john smalltimes” point of view. I have some ideals for cooking the books but would love to explore this further with someone.
Thanks
Want to see this idea turned into a story?
4 people said yes. | 0 people said no.
Juan Ruiz
2 Reputation points
Posted 2007/04/29 @ 20:51PM with
It is a topic for an article. Most of the information avaible now for IAs is based on the Enterprise IA model and organization-wide point of view. Where is the IA for small business? how can we tackle this new market?
Patrick C. Walsh
31 Reputation points
Posted 2007/05/09 @ 07:45AM with
Just finished my MSc based on how IT, IA and KM can be harnessed in the small business sector. I would be very interested to read an article on IA in small businesses
Theresa Putkey
36 Reputation points
Posted 2007/05/11 @ 15:34PM with
I think this would be a good story, but you’d have to give really concrete ways of selling. So many times website designers say that their customers are too small for IA; potential customers say “I’m interested if it’s not expensive.” It’s quite frustrating that IAs don’t sell themselves to small and medium sized businesses – it leaves a lot of work to be done by those who look for work with smaller companies.
Kate Walser
30 Reputation points
Posted 2007/06/11 @ 09:56AM with
Interesting. It seems that most small businesses looking for help are looking for the whole package – someone(s) who can do the IA and the supporting design, including graphics and branding elements, as well as the site build-out, potentially. Some folks who call themselves IAs offer the whole kit and kaboodle. Others focus on the IA piece and don’t offer the design/build-out capabilities. From a small business’s perspective, when they hear “IA” vs. Web site design, etc., they’re likely to say “uh-oh, I just want someone who will build a site for me.” Small businesses can’t necessarily afford to pay for the labor or the start-up/management time of separate contractors – e.g., finding, hiring, and managing an IA firm, a design firm, and a development firm. Might be interesting to compare small business to large business IA efforts and use that to develop the pros/cons list of a small business using different persons/firms for the different pieces vs. looking for a one-stop shop approach. Relative costs (or “cooking the books” if that’s what you meant by it) would be interesting also. Also, might be helpful to define “small business” here as opposed to a medium or large business. Is “small” based on number of employees or sales/revenues?