http://marketingsource.com/articles/ Articles at marketingsource.com Articles Library en-us http://marketingsource.com/articles/computers/software/some-common-problems-with-cause-the-it-projects-to-fail.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/computers/software/some-common-problems-with-cause-the-it-projects-to-fail.html Mon, 28 Feb 2011 01:04:27 -0600
The word IT means information technology and the world is full of miracles made possible by information technology. It Different IT projects come up on the scene daily, some get popular and others fail. Generally people do not give a lot of credit to the success of an IT project as it is assumed that IT projects have the best technology involved due to which chances of errors and mistakes are few. But the failure of an IT project is a big question and brings out lots of issues.

Mostly people think that the IT projects fail due to the complexity and intangibility of the software. But this is not true in each case. Major IT projects have failed due to the following problems:

Human resource management

IT projects need the best technical workers at all level. To find the right person for the right job is the most important thing for the success of any IT project. An IT project needs skilled workers at all levels. Suppose an IT project needs a business analyst, data base analyst, developer, project manager, IT professional etc. if any one of them is inefficient and does not contribute to the success of the project the project is likely to fail. Most IT projects do not perform resource management processes hence they fail.

Inefficient Project management

Project managers are an important part the projects nowadays. However, other organizations have also started practicing project management but the origin of project management is related to IT projects and still project management is being practiced in most of the IT firms. One of the basic reasons for the failure of IT projects is poorly managed project. Project managers are the one responsible for handling the entire project. They are the one to make critical decisions and provide accurate information. If the project managers do not perform their role properly then the IT projects fail.

Poor decisions by the Executives

The executives are the one to make the important decisions regarding the organization. They should keep themselves updated about all the ongoing activities in the organization. Moreover, they should also know the special traits and job descriptions of each of the employee. Most executives do not know about the problems prevailing in the organization. They lack the decision making ability. Whenever a certain situation comes up they come under stress and make poor decisions which bring the whole organization under stress.

]]> http://marketingsource.com/articles/computers/software/about-embedded-software-outsourcing.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/computers/software/about-embedded-software-outsourcing.html Mon, 28 Feb 2011 01:02:43 -0600
What is embedded software?
An Embedded Software is a collection of programs that are not meant for computers, but other electronic counterparts like cellular phones, automobile systems, robots, airplanes, missiles, television, toys, pacemakers, etc. Embedded Software is generally written for microchips that are different from general purpose Central Processing Units (C.P.U). In other words, Embedded Software is only meant for special purposes electronic equipments.

Embedded software outsourcing
The outsourcing of such embedded technology software is known as Embedded Software Outsourcing. Outsourcing is in general the process of passing the contractual work to a third party in order to reduce labor costs, operational costs and to improve the quality of the process under execution. Since most of the companies are based in developed countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, where labor costs are high and workforce is low, the Embedded Software development processes are generally outsourced to English speaking and technologically developing knowledge centers like India and Ireland, however for most of the work on Embedded Software, the countries preferred are India and China.

Embedded software outsourcing is done to these countries since they are efficient in their work and are highly professional in their approach. The embedded software outsourcing companies in these nations take high work load and the people of these countries do not mind working overtime in order to reach the client’s deadline and requirement. More so, the work is quite cheap in these nations and the quality of work is very high, these countries are fast developing knowledge economies of the world due to which Embedded Software outsourcing option is best with these nations. The process of outsourcing has led to the development of these Information Technology centers and they look after most of the American and the British processes and embedded software till today.

Embedded software generally requires very small memory to run, since the companies in India specialize in operating systems and languages, they provide high quality end to end solution to its design, development and testing, such that the components meet specific customer requirements.

The domain of embedded software includes:

Aerospace and Defense
Automotive
Consumer Electronics
Industrial Measurement and Control
Servers and Storage
Networking
Process Control Systems
Defense
However, there seems to be major hitches in the process of outsourcing embedded software projects to other countries due to technological mismatch and compliance issue, but due to some technological exchange the problem is solved and the process quality is maintained.

]]> http://marketingsource.com/articles/computers/software/top-fatal-outsourcing-mistakes.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/computers/software/top-fatal-outsourcing-mistakes.html Mon, 28 Feb 2011 01:01:28 -0600
In the face of the global recession, outsourcing has emerged as a viable solution to help companies continue to innovate while allowing existing, yet limited resources to focus on activities that advance business goals. In order to gain the most out of those engagements, companies should avoid common missteps that may be taken during the onset of an outsourcing relationship. Easy to avoid, yet costly to fix, these mistakes do result in added time to market and unwanted spending. Common mistakes include:

1. Mismatching outsourcer goals and provider capabilities. The most successful outsourcing engagements match the business and technical goals of the client with the culture and strength of the provider. A clear understanding of outsourcing objectives and their close match to the attributes of an outsourcing provider is a must for a successful outsourcing endeavor.

2. Having an IT organization not designed for high-performance outsourcing.
It is imperative for the client’s IT organization design to support the management of outsourcing engagements. Successful outsourcing relationships are collegial endeavors that depend on shared vision, excellent communication, and transparent, compatible processes between the outsourcing client and provider.

3. Outsourcing your weaknesses. Outside viewpoints and expertise are beneficial for developing strategies and plans for overcoming weakness. However, managerial weakness is never a good starting point for outsourcing, as client organizations are still responsible for managing successful results in an outsourcing effort. Therefore, clients should only outsource functions where key management metrics, processes and success performance measures are well understood.

4. Underestimating the importance of effective communication. Without clear roles, responsibilities and collaboration in place, the client and outsourcer teams may adopt divergent strategies that can dilute or dissipate the value of the outsourcing engagement. Instead, clients should insist upon, and outsourcers should participate in, regularly scheduled “transparency” check-ins. This ensures that each party is following the intended workflow and helps to avoid unnecessary confusion, delays, rework and missed opportunities for early success.

5. Not setting clear, measurable objectives. From the onset of the outsourcing relationship, the scope of work and deadlines should be clearly outlined, defined, and agreed on by all parties involved. Without these elements in place, key project components can be delayed and the overall goal of the engagement overshadowed by missed deliverables, added expenses and more.

6. Not addressing business risks or devising a plan B. Companies today are at a significant disadvantage if caught off-guard by business risks that actualize into real problems. While outsourcers are well-versed in effective risk management, the most successful engagements happen when contingency plans are readily available and actionable should risks become real during the engagement process.

]]> http://marketingsource.com/articles/web-based-solutions/google-may-keep-chinese-web-services-alive.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/web-based-solutions/google-may-keep-chinese-web-services-alive.html Mon, 28 Feb 2011 01:00:17 -0600
Google is considering a plan to keep many of its operations in China, even though it is resigned to closing its flagship search engine over a censorship dispute with the Chinese authorities.

The company could keep operating its Beijing research and development centre, advertising sales offices and mobile phone and browser businesses. Some Google web services may survive, including its Chinese music search business and the popular Chinese version of its knowledge market site, Google Answers.

Google has held off from carrying out its threat to shut down its Chinese-language search engine and close its offices rather than bow to government censors. It delivered the ultimatum on January 12 after alleged cyber attacks aimed at its source code and at the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

The closure of the google.cn site would have limited immediate impact on the company’s multibillion-dollar profits, analysts said. It is thought that the bulk of its estimated $300 million revenues in China in 2009 came from export-oriented companies that would need to keep advertising on its sites abroad even if Google.cn closed.

But the longer-term implications of cutting itself off from the world’s biggest pool of internet users — there are almost 400 million in China — have given Google pause. There is huge potential in China, particularly around mobile phones — the company’s latest area of expansion.

Retaining business operations in the country could also provide a springboard for a relaunch of its search site should relations with the authorities improve, analysts said.

People close to the negotiations said that the company was considering how much of a presence could be maintained. It is proceeding cautiously and does not wish to place its 700 employees in the firing line from Chinese authorities angered at the company’s high-profile defiance of its censorship.

Google employs sales staff and engineers in offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. It launched its Chinese-language website, Google.cn, in 2006, agreeing to comply with local laws requiring censorship. Its flagship English-language site, Google.com, which is also available in a Chinese language version, is not required to submit to similar censorship, but the Chinese government filters content through its own internet firewall. Popular websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube are blocked.

Analysts said it appeared that Google was aiming to reach a pragmatic solution. Whit Andrews, an analyst with Gartner, said: “If I were a shareholder, I would feel that it does not make sense for them to forgo all future profit based on their frustration with censorship. There are an enormous number of businesses they can continue to pursue that are not touched by the censorship question.”

He added that web applications such as Gmail, Google Documents and other services had enormous potential.

Earlier this week Patrick Pichette, Google’s chief financial officer, said that its Android mobile operating system “should flourish” in China. Google postponed the launch of two mobile phones in China that used the platform amid the uncertainty around the initial announcement. But since then China Unicom, the country’s second-largest mobile carrier, has said it will sell Android handsets.

Google has high hopes for its Chrome browser in China and is due to launch its Chrome operating system for personal computers worldwide by the end of this year. China is expected to be a key market.

Google could spin off its China music portal, a free, advertising-supported service launched last year in partnership with four global music companies and 14 independent labels.

A group of 27 Chinese advertising agencies that sell advertising space on Google’s search pages has sent the company a letter calling for talks over compensation for possible business losses if the internet giant pulls out of the country.

The biggest winner from Google’s closure of its google.cn site is expected to be Baidu, whose search engine already has a 58 per cent market share by revenue in China, says Analysys International. Google has about 36 per cent of Chinese search revenue. Google’s shares have dipped while Baidu shares on the Nasdaq have surged. The closure of google.cn might affect Google’s ambitions in the burgeoning mobile search market. China Mobile, the world’s biggest phone company by subscribers with 527 million accounts, uses Google for mobile search and maps and may be forced to go to Baidu.

Google’s exit from search could also benefit Microsoft, which is pushing its Bing search engine. Other Western internet companies, including Facebook, have declined to get involved in China over fears about censorship and regulation.

Yahoo! closed its search business and put $1 billion into Alibaba Group, a Chinese e-commerce group, in 2005 in exchange for a 40 per cent stake. Alibaba, which runs Taobao, China’s largest online retailer, criticised Yahoo! in January for supporting Google’s stance over Chinese censorship, underscoring local sensitivities.

]]> http://marketingsource.com/articles/web-based-solutions/web-site-design/web-design-common-myths-and-facts.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/web-based-solutions/web-site-design/web-design-common-myths-and-facts.html Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:57:26 -0600
Every web designer has been bound with certain do’s and don’ts passed to them by others. In the web design industry, there are various myths and misconceptions associated with web-design that has been consciously or subconsciously circulated in the public. Different people create various benchmarks as an upcoming trends from where myths began to form. In fact, website design riddled with diverse range of myths from which some based on outdated facts and some are completely wrong.

Web Design: common Myths and Facts

Content is the King: No doubt that "Content is the King" of the World Wide Web but it’s also true that "picture speaks louder than words". Content can be supported by animation and sound to enhance overall look of website. So, it is advisable to use content with animation, sound and applets together carefully and intelligently to make website more appealing.

Successful website: Fast, Cheap and Good: The biggest website design myth is that an individual can get a web portal fast, cheap and good. The fact is one cannot get all the three together. There is a possibility a person get website design at fast turnaround time and cheap rates but need to make compromise on quality standards. On the other hand, an individual can get good web portal at cheap rates but won’t at fast turnaround time.

Customer is always right: A customer may not always correct when it comes to designing a web portal. The reason is simple – a customer is not aware with the latest trends and techniques. A professional web expert should always suggest to his client with the best solution and make them satisfy through high-quality work.

Creativity by birth: It’s not true – nothing comes from birth. In the web-design industry, a person with creative understanding, considerable hand-on experience, solid knowledge of design principles and creative thinking can create impressive artworks.

Beautiful website is the best design: It’s a fact that every website should look good but it’s not necessary that every good web design is best. Apart from aesthetically appealing factor, there are many other bells and whistles that make a design of a website perfect and complete. Best website is the one that communicates the brand ethos to the public in the right way.

Use excessive graphics: It’s always good to use lots of appropriate images with right content various pages on website. But remember that too many pages can affect loading speed of a web page of a site. The trick to escape from this problem is simple – include "height" and "width" HTML attributes on images so that text will load first. Save images in.jpg format and save web images, clip art, etc in.gif format. Sometimes, too many graphics become alarming thing and entices the eyes of the visitors. So, beware from using too many graphics.

Above, some really common myths and misconceptions related to web-design have been highlighted with the fact. An individual can consider the above discussed factors to get answer to all the myths correctly when it comes to website design.

]]> http://marketingsource.com/articles/web-based-solutions/four-steps-for-selecting-your-web-development-technologies.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/web-based-solutions/four-steps-for-selecting-your-web-development-technologies.html Wed, 08 Dec 2010 21:16:26 -0600

By Justin James, ZDNet.com

One my friends is thinking about starting a programming project, and he asked me "How do I pick my technologies?" with an eye towards performance as well as getting the project done. This person has been writing code on and off for a while, but he hasn’t worked on any substantial projects. He isn’t wedded to any particular technology, and he has the luxury of a clean slate for this project. While he does have a preference for deploying to Linux due to his experience with it, this is not a final decision.

In this column, I share the advice I gave him. I am not going to recommend any particular technologies, but rather show you my approach for making technology and architectural decisions.

Step 1: Loosely design your application

Agile methodologies have become very popular, and some folks believe that means you don’t try to think beyond a two week timeline. But there is a lot of value in preparing a loose design of your project. All you need to do is use a tool that has flowchart capabilities (such as Visio) to provide a high level overview of the logic. You do not need to get bogged down in details like "validate that this field contains at least five characters" or data layouts. But you do need a general idea of what parts of the application will be handling what responsibilities.

Some examples of things that should appear in this diagram include:

* Any major batch processing tasks.
* Where data is stored (files, databases, "the cloud", etc.) and which components retrieve it and expose it to the rest of the application.
* Where significant processing occurs (in the database, in a business logic layer, a Web service, the client, and so on) and what it does.

Step 2: Identify resource usage and characteristics

Once your diagram is complete, we can use it to identify resource usage. The resources that you want to be aware of are CPU, RAM, drive space, and bandwidth. Are you transferring a large amount of data to or from an external Web service? That is going to be a bandwidth resource on the connection between your application and that service. Perhaps you are doing an intense calculation within your database — that would be CPU use within the database. And so on.

Step 3: Determine performance critical areas

Once you know where the resources will be used, you have found your potential performance bottlenecks. These are the places where your technology choices will have the biggest impact. If it turns out that you are storing very little in a database, you have more options for the database. Perhaps you will be performing CPU heavy algorithms in the business logic layer, which points out that you will need a language and platform that supports high-speed calculations. This is a chart I’ve made which will help you see how this affects your decision making.

Step 4: Scale your needs

Another thing that you can learn from your diagram is where your application needs to scale. If the bulk of your processing needs occur in the client piece of the application, your server architecture can be much more modest, for example.

You will also be able to see what kind of scaling you need. Most databases have clustering capabilities, so if you have a choice, it is often easier and better to push things that need to scale (especially if they require a shared state between requests) into the database where scaling is already handled, or to consider technologies higher up in the stack that also have clustering or scaling built in.

Conclusion

By starting your development process with a lightweight sketch of the application’s logic, you will be on the right path to select the best technologies for your needs. There are lots of non-technical considerations (such as your budget, experience in particular technologies, and so on), but you need to start somewhere, and this decision making process will help you narrow down your choices and highlight any problem areas before they come up.

Tags: development, technology, web

]]> http://marketingsource.com/articles/computers/software/the-five-pitfalls-of-outsourcing.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/computers/software/the-five-pitfalls-of-outsourcing.html Thu, 25 Nov 2010 04:36:01 -0600

IT outsourcing is now well into its third decade, having passed through generations of technology and platforms: mainframe, client/server, and now into the cloud.

An extraordinary amount of experience has created substantial documented learning that should benefit any company considering outsourcing some or all of its IT and network infrastructure, technology helpdesk or application development and maintenance.

Yet companies frequently ignore the lessons of the past, and routinely duplicate the mistakes of our “outsourcing forefathers”.

What is it about outsourcing that encourages such odd, self-defeating behaviour?

And why is it that people in this field often first need to be burned before they become willing to invest the time and energy required to get it right?

Here, in ascending order of magnitude, are the reasons why new outsourcing customers get burned.

Pitfall Number 5: How hard could it be?

Outsourcing is not something that requires an advanced degree. We have been executing the IT function for years now, and it’s time to have another company do it for us. We know what we need. We have hardware, network, software (home-grown and licensed) and some knowledge as to how it all fits together for our enterprise. The likely providers – IBM, HP, Accenture, CSC, Infosys, TCS, and so on – generally have more competence in the area than we have. We have procured services many times before – this is just another service. And this time it involves our no longer doing something we were historically doing (and probably badly at that). What’s the big deal?

Those of us who have spent 20 or so years in the field know that this approach guarantees problems. Outsourcing is harder than you think. You can’t just lop off a process or function and expect it to run any better than it did. First, you must decide why you are going to outsource. If it is because you are not good at IT yourself, or you think someone can do it cheaper, please see the other pitfalls!

Then, even if outsourcing is right for you, there is a great deal of knowledge that your own staff has about the function, how it relates to your business, and how to manage it as your business needs change.

This knowledge has to get to the outsourcing provider. It must be maintained and nurtured during the multiple years of the term. It must be available to you if you ever want to bring the function back inside. And, speaking of that, do you think it would be easy to bring the function back inside? What about new staff? What about technology refreshment? What about software licences? And how do you handle risks associated with data security and privacy compliance, once the IT function has been shifted to another company?

There is a reason that successful deals take a substantial amount of time to negotiate and transition. Nothing about this business is easy.

Pitfall Number 4: The outsourcing provider will fix everything

In outsourcing, we get to transfer our IT problem to a provider who has expertise in the area. They will fix the problem and save us a ton of money. And the best thing is: we won’t have to change the way we do things.

This concept is so familiar to outsourcing professionals that it has a name, “Your mess for less”. And outsourcing professionals know that it is not the way to get the deal done. IT outsourcing providers cannot resolve your problems without your involvement and willingness to change the way you do business. And although they are generally better at the given function than you are, the way they solve your particular problem, the solution they bring to the table, will by its very nature change the way you do business. Better than doing a “mess for less” is to put in some time and energy up front to understand the reasons for the mess, and to begin a process of remediation before you outsource. Most firms that have migrated their IT platform to a shared services model before outsourcing any function to a third party have found that the likelihood of a successful IT outsourcing relationship is substantially increased.

Pitfall Number 3: What do you mean “the baseline?”

We are not sure what we spend on this function to be outsourced, our metrics on transaction volumes are not that great, and we don’t really collect performance data about how well we do it ourselves (or, we do collect performance data and there are about 150 things we measure). We know that we want improvement and cost saving, and the provider will agree to do just that.

The smart provider will do nothing of the kind. The failure to provide a legitimate baseline from which to judge improvements in cost and performance during the deal’s term is one of the main reasons why outsourcing relationships break down. Efforts to pin down this information are usually short-circuited and made hostage to the need to get a deal done quickly.

Development of an accurate baseline for defining and pricing the so-called “in-scope” functions or people is not as easy as it sounds. Often, people function in several roles – sometimes in scope and sometimes out of scope. Some underlying costs are contained in budgets other than the IT one, and may continue despite the effort to realise cost savings. Much may be left for post-contractual analysis and adjustment in pricing, scope or service levels. By then, unless the contract has been carefully negotiated, it may be too late.

Both sides may realise that the customer’s objectives just cannot be met at the proposed pricing. This leads to bad behaviour by both the parties as they try to jockey around a deal that should not have been made in the first place.

Pitfall Number 2: It’s only about money

We need to get cost savings next year. We understand that outsourcing is a way to get cost savings because the provider has a competency that we don’t have. If we get the savings, we will be satisfied.

Cost saving is important – it is still the number one reason that companies engage in outsourcing. But money isn’t everything. Deals that are struck purely for cost savings run into problems midway – even if the savings are achieved. That’s because savings calculated against a baseline are really static. Outsourcing deals need to deliver dynamic benefits to stay relevant to changing organisations.

For example, consider an application development and maintenance outsourcing based on the premise that the work will be done in India and will result in substantial savings due to labour arbitrage. The savings should materialise if the transition is done correctly, if the work is done with the same level of competence, and if overhead is not created by doing things half a world away. But, over three to five years, increases in rates and personnel turnover can more than offset some of these early benefits. And the flexibility to shift some of these workers to new applications may not be as great as it was when they were your employees.

Pitfall Number 1: We can easily manage this relationship

Once the outsourcing contract is signed and the responsibility and risk are shifted to the provider, we have very little to do. A person can manage this relationship, meet with the provider occasionally, and review performance, cost and other information as required. One of the benefits of outsourcing is that we no longer need be involved in this function.

This is the biggest reason why first-time outsourcers go wrong. Outsourcing does eliminate work. But it also creates work. And, just as importantly, the management of an outsourcing relationship requires different skills than the management of the individuals that had been performing the function. The people in your IT department may not have the skill sets to do the job. A “retained” organisation must be created to focus on relationship management, change control, and contract management in connection with the outsourcing. This may actually add personnel to the deal, and experts have estimated that six to 10 per cent of the cost of an outsourcing deal should be allocated for this purpose.

If you are not going to pay attention to managing the deal and constantly assuring it makes sense for your company, you will get burned. And should your most experienced and knowledgeable people stay with your company or should they move to the outsourcer? Which of you has more need to tap that intimate knowledge of your business developed over many years?

These are the top five, and as with any list of this type, there are plenty more where they came from. If you or your company is new to outsourcing, contact those advisers who can lead you through the process, and join and participate in industry groups dedicated to advancing the understanding of outsourcing, such as the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals, the Outsourcing Institute and the Sourcing Interests Group. Instead of putting yourself through the wringer, learn from your peers who have themselves suffered such indignities, and improve your chances of a successful first-time IT outsourcing deal.



]]> http://marketingsource.com/articles/computers/software/donanza-trends-report-shows-most-cms-sites-use-wordpress-while-the-largest-budgets-go-to-drupal-professionals.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/computers/software/donanza-trends-report-shows-most-cms-sites-use-wordpress-while-the-largest-budgets-go-to-drupal-professionals.html Tue, 09 Nov 2010 20:56:12 -0600
The Key CMS Findings in the DoNanza Universe are:

CMS Professional Project Demand is Showing Extraordinary Growth:
CMS project counts are growing rapidly, quarter over quarter, with an average growth of 49 percent. In Q3 2010, Wordpress projects in the DoNanza Universe grew by 61 percent with Joomla growing at 38 percent and Drupal at 26 percent.

Wordpress is Peerless in Terms of Demand for Professionals:
In terms of number of projects, WordPress is a clear winner, cementing its hold on the market with more than 6 times the amount of projects in comparison to Drupal. Joomla is positioned exactly in the middle in terms of number of projects.

Drupal Professionals are the Highest Earning:
Looking at the average project budget, opportunities for Drupal in the DoNanza Universe consistently came in with an average project budget of $915 that was more than twice as much as the average WordPress project with $455 and Joomla Project with a $473 budget. This makes Drupal a clear winner in terms of revenue opportunity per project.

When analyzing the type of skills required different CMS platforms call for different skills; Some platforms are easy to use, some, like Drupal, require site building freelance work, and others, like Joomla, Are into 3rd Party Development.

Demand for Site Development Skills:
"Our DoNanza Universe data verifies the belief that most people start out with WordPress on their own" said Liran Kotzer, CEO of DoNanza. "Only 18 percent of total WordPress projects are site building, while 31 percent of Drupal projects are site building. It means that with Drupal people are seeking at-home-work freelance support from the get-go and not trying to build the initial site by themselves, as with WordPress ".

Demand for 3rd Party Development Skills:
Other CMS/Blogging platform characteristics are also verified in the DoNanza data, as 29 percent of Joomla projects are 3rd party development with WordPress 3rd party work only at 16 percent and Drupal at 20 percent.
"This proves that Joomla have a very active market allowing people to create and sell the third party extensions they have created for other Joomla platform users", said Kotzer.

"More businesses and individuals will keep using CMS platforms as a way to express themselves and do business" said Kotzer. "Currently each of the platforms has its own relative advantages, and we are curious to see how the differences between them will play out in the future. In the meantime, all of us benefit from the competition by getting much more flexible infrastructures with advanced features." ]]> http://marketingsource.com/articles/web-based-solutions/why-blogging-can-set-you-apart.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/web-based-solutions/why-blogging-can-set-you-apart.html Thu, 04 Nov 2010 23:16:40 -0500
Fully Integrated Solution
A full integrated solution basically means that your real estate website is also your blog and users of your website can both browse property listings read up on local issues, property news, taxation and get property advice. Some agents are also giving outside authors (lawyers, surveyors, builders etc) certain privileges to post directly to the agents website further enhancing the user experience and of course the authors profile).

To me, if given an option the fully integrated solution is the only true option for agencies – as you only need to promote one website and chances are, your real estate website already has a decent audience.

External Blog
This is a blog (website) which exists externally from your main website. It is not the most desirable entity, but if you are an individual agent that wants to make a name for yourself outside of your agency, then this is a decent solution. For real estate agencies that want to have a blog, talk to your developer about getting a fully integrated solution. There are a number of great platforms available to you – Drupal, Expression Engine, Movable Type, Text Pattern, WordPress and Joomla.

All of these have large development communities and are pretty simple for your developers to setup. If you want to dip your feet in – you can also get a free website at www.wordpress.com (different to the software www.wordpress.org). This is probably best for the individual agent and best of all – you can one day upgrade to wordpress.org for your own self hosted solution.

New Agency Website
If you are getting a new website talk to your developer about getting a fully integrated solution, they should have no issues doing this (unless they don’t want to) and make sure you choose a platform that best suits your needs from one of these great solutions – Drupal, Expression Engine, Movable Type, Text Pattern, WordPress and Joomla.

If your web developer does not have the tools to do this – or informs you they are rolling something out in the future (almost always means never) then you may need to look for a new developer.

The great thing about all of these solutions about is that they are open and portable, so if your developer sucks you will never have any trouble finding a new one.

Be Mindful
One thing to be very wary of is companies that have their own in house CMS systems, some are half decent, most are deplorable and they nearly always end in tears (if you ever want to leave). Thankfully most developers have left those days behind them, but you still will find a few handing onto the old business model. To them it is more about trapping you into a solution, so you can never leave.

Flexible
All of the platforms mentioned here can do everything that any other CMS can do for your real estate website. All of them have tools that can easily add extra features and they all have large development communities to share ideas and code. So don’t be afraid to jump in. ]]> http://marketingsource.com/articles/computers/software/drupal-wordpress-joomla-or-custom-cms.html http://marketingsource.com/articles/computers/software/drupal-wordpress-joomla-or-custom-cms.html Tue, 02 Nov 2010 21:18:35 -0500
Understanding the business goals of the client and real needs of the users to be supported by their Web site are essential to developing a winning web solution. The clarity provided by their business goals helps us to create a clear language and organization of the content. It also give us enough ideas for a low-fidelity prototype that we could use as a way to involve our developer community in the design process. Site owner or client has to be asked as many questions.

Inclusion of the client meant that we were able to capture many of the real requirements early enough so that the scope was clear, helping to avoid problems later in the development process. Focusing on simplification made sure that only those requirements that made the most difference were included in the higher-resolution prototype.

To achieve a design (using Drupal, Wordpress or Joomla) that is both useful and usable, it is important to “Know The User”. So we engage users (and owners) from the beginning, giving them a sense of ownership and involvement that is necessary for a good working relationship. Information from the users also helps you make important decisions when addressing hosting and deployment issues. Wordpress as a CMS and Blogging System excels in simplicity and design flexibility, with a nice template you can easily manage a heavy traffic multi-user community driven portal website.

Separation of content from form: The efficiency and flexibility with which you style your content is fundamentally based on how well your content is structured. When generating content, therefore, it is essential to keep the structure of your content separate from its presentation. Using cascading stylesheets (CSS) is much easier when you insist on making the XHTML as semantically correct as possible.

In Drupal you can find methods for modularizing your XHTML structure using template files. However, we found several useful techniques to improve the structure and findability of styles within theme CSS, including:
– Splitting out styles for certain aspects and regions of the Web site into their own files
– Creating a consistent order to all styles by listing them alphabetically
– Using findable characters within comment blocks at points in the CSS to aid search

We use good tools during development process like Eclipse and Concurrent Versions System (CVS). In a group development effort, CVS proved quite beneficial in tracking code changes and allowing us to work in parallel, but it also aligns well with any version or revision updates to the Drupal or Wordpress core code.

Learn by example: Learning by example has proved useful. Spend time looking at the Drupal core includes and modules, contributed modules, and themes to see how things are implemented. Don’t be afraid to play with source code; it’s a good way to learn what others have done in their modules and themes. Experiment by adding or removing code, and see how Drupal’s behavior changes. The best part is that because you have stored the code in CVS, you can always revert back to the original files.

Joomla includes features such as page caching to improve performance, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, website searching, and language internationalization. Like Drupal and Wordpress, it is written in the PHP and uses the MySQL database by default.

Drupal is heavy on elements like Document Management and Complexity in UI Theme Designing. The majority of these items are functions or features needing improvement in the Drupal CMS. Joomla also fails to deliver in such elements as user permission, content management, multi-site management, and standard’s compliance. Joomla fails in elements that are more architecture centric.

Taking the flip side, Joomla as a CMS appears to excel in elements that can be identified as functional, while Drupal succeeds in the architectural elements. You choice depends on your priority for these elements – architecture or function. We have developed high traffic web portals and CMS solutions using both Drupal (Ex: Real Estate Times) and Wordpress (Ex: SEO Trends). We believe it is more important for a CMS to have better architecture.

Drupal Development: Our support team provides technical assistance throughout the process of installing, operating and maintaining Drupal 5.x and 6.x websites. From the beginning of your installation process through application development and ongoing maintenance, Solution Point can provide technical support to ensure project success. ]]>