Why do you want a website?

Posted 1 year, 11 months ago at 10:37 pm. 0 comments

The great thing about building your own software is that you can do what you want with it.

For example, last week we identified a problem with information gathering from one of our clients.

The client wanted to move forward with a number of websites but getting the information we needed to build the spec and start the work was becoming arduous!

So, today we introduced a fantastic new sitemapping feature into our Content Management System that allows our clients to build the structures of their websites. In addition to this we have developed a smart question and answer application that allows us to determine exactly what the requirements for a website are.

All we do is login to the super admin section of our CMS and specify questions from a list that the client can answer from the user section of the CMS.

The question answers and the sitemap are saved as XML to our database and can then be pooled and analysed. This means we can produce a much better picture of what we need to achieve and what the costs will be. The data is editable by ourselves or by the client at any time and we’ll be able to gradually build a perfect solution around the information provided in the console.

As it happens we often find that there is very little idea of exactly what a client wants from their website when we are first approached. After all, a website can be used for many purposes and it’s a key part of our job to correctly identify what a client wants to achieve from a marketing, sales, SEO or aesthetic point of view. There are always trade offs to be made and it’s critically important that the end objective for the website is decided before work commences.

People have differing ways of providing information. Emails, CD-ROM, Word Docs, CSV files, phone calls are all used interchangably. We’re really hopeful that this simple tool will allow us to streamline information gathering from our clients and improve our capability to produce solutions that work for them.

The fact that we could concept and produce this idea into a fully working model within the week, and also have it sitting directly on our own systems gives me great pride. Already there are plans for version 2 where we hope to be able to automatically import the sitempa information into a CSS template, deliver design alterations, sign off proposals and manage shared documents.

All this pushes The Slugger one step closer to the auto-management and delivery of websites that is our long term goal.