Let's talk quickly on timely topics to elevate your web strategy. Fellow developers will be addressed as well, but in small doses, and wherever possible, in common-speak.
Superior Exterior Systems (www.SuperiorExteriorSystems.com) provided us with a unique challenge in developing a new web presence for them, within a limited budget. They wanted not only a functional and professional design, but required that site content be easily updated. — so they could keep up with their ever growing & changing market and product lines they offer.
CGI Productions took on this challenge by designing a site which reflected their existing collateral materials (ads in the phone book and sales materials) in both color, layout and feel while integrating our ez-button content management system for ease of updating and managment of the site text. All of this was achieved within their tight budget and deadline.
The owners at SES can now update pictures and the flood of new testimonies coming in for the great work they do.
CGI Productions feels that our ez-button content management system is the best way for small businesses and managers to control their message to consumers at a reasonable price. While large scale CMS systems require hours and hours of programming, preset and complex database integration and exorbitant costs to clients. Our ez-button system is light on code, quick and easy to train clients to use, and is well worth the price. Often we hear from clients that it’s important to be self-sufficient as a means of saving money. We feel that by providing clients with this ability to manage their own content using our ez-button system, that we’re not only empowering them to be self sufficient to save them money, but it allows us to build better relationships with the client in helping them understand how their online presence is not something they should be afraid of but use to their advantage by easily editing and controlling it.
Yesterday I spent way too much time trying to chase down a problem for a new web project re-doing http://homeappraisers.com. All my cool state/county selection prototype ajax stuff was working great on my test server in all browsers, and fine on my live server as well, until my client tried it on the live server in IE.
After lots of scratching and crawling for answers, I finally discovered that the culprit was this one setting in my http.conf file.
# KeepAlive: Whether or not to allow persistent connections (more than
# one request per connection). Set to “Off” to deactivate.
#
KeepAlive On
I don’t know who turned it on when we set up that machine, but there ya go.
Turn it off if for some reason it is on on your server. Then be free to Ajax away
The rapidly increasing number of web-enabled smartphones makes them an attractive alternative to PCs. Consumers are proving to be more willing to forego upgrading their existing PCs in favor of upgrading to the new generation of mobile devices. Even with the new, lower-priced netbooks increasing in popularity, subsidized smartphones are often more economical, not to mention more portable and personal.
We have placed a strategic bet in this area ourselves, and plan to announce the launch of HomeSafari.us, a web based mobile real estate portal next month, right as the awareness of the mobile web starts to hit a flood of new verizon droid owners. Home Safari is a partnership of CGI with Realty Pro of Vancouver Washington.
Now, what does this mean to you? Or, as I like to say, “What does this spark in your imagination?” It should spark a sense of opportunity in having your website ready now. You can web enable your field personnel to report over the mobile web on task completion, GPS based location tracking, etc. You can have your customers ping you regarding their needs on a customized app WITHOUT having to build a native iPhone or Android app. You can be THE go to source for mobile video and information in your industry and market, and we can help you in both the production and marketing needed to establish your business in a leadership position here.
If your imagination is not sparked by this, then imagine the dread of ignoring yet another key market/technology trend. If you wait two years, your web presence will in the minority of sites that is not optimized for today’s smartphones. Smartphone users will have already passed you by and bookmarked your competitors. Google and other search engines will marginalize you for not keeping up in this area. Smartphones are indeed going to outsell PC’s in two years, and this is not a fad, it is a movement toward a more personal and portable online experience.
Contact us today about ways to prepare you for the future. Now is the time to have your site optimized for the new screen, and it does not have to be as expensive as you might think.
