See also Commercial vs Open Source | Commercial Portals | Mobile Portals | Government Portals
We setup simple Content Management System (CMS) Websites over the Internet and via a quick visit if necessary using laptop, shared computer, wifi and mobile internet access.
The site needs open source software, database, server and internet access.
Sample software we use is Joomla!, Drupal, WordPress and SilverStripe. We can setup demo portals so you can pick which of the above 4 you prefer.
All Websites require maintenance. This can be done as follows:
Add ons include:
Most open source tools are low maintenance. Large modifications are costly so we provide regular bills throughout our development cycle so the customer can decide whether or not do an update, just start again with something else or close down their site.
Add-ons must be small and simple with limited modifications to remain cheap. Any extensive programming such as would be required to develop a Yahoo! Messenger clone will be quoted for separately and it may be better to get off-the-shelf software for a one-off job.
No-one wants to pay full price for a really expensive commercial product but customers all want what the big boys have at low cost - an impossible goal to achieve so we refuse to do these enormously complex systems for a single customer who wants it just on a whim with no concept of the cost of developing and testing it.
We provide Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by coding meta data on the pages to bring relevant traffic to the site.
We now focus on cookie-cutter portals for small businesses and professional groups not community groups.
For professional societies, we install and customise such software as conference paper management system IAPR Commence.
We also maintain and update conference, activity and committee details. We backup and restore the site in case of attack. We manage domains and hosting and move the site if required to give the best deal for the society.
We setup demo open-source portals such as Joomla!, Drupal, Wordpress and SilverStripe so that the society can choose which style they prefer then let them maintain the content via their browser and we maintain the backend software, hosting and domain as sysop.
If you are a small business with a decent business plan, we can help get your business onto the Internet selling to people all around the world or just telling them about your business or pet idea in a low-cost and efficient way. This gives you a quick leg-up and saves you having to learn all the new technology.
The site need only be a few pages with pictures and contact details to enable you to start receiving orders or enquiries via search engines. This is very good for rural businesses to reach outside their immediate area and grow their business. The site can be hosted away from the rural area so need not be affected by poor infrastructure such as lack of broadband or mobile access. Even product fulfilment can be outsourced to another area so the business can grow in spite of difficulties or setbacks.
As well as standard sites, we can also setup publishing, library systems, Google Mashups and mobile location based services using government open data.
We no longer do community portals, apart from occasional updates to content, as they are too risky. The community group does not have the money to pay for all the extra support they require for the marvellous site they want for practically no cost as they have very little budget and run on volunteers. As these jobs just became volunteer work on our part in the end, we asked the customer to learn to maintain their own site instead or switch to Facebook. The stress from trying to get paid for the pain and suffering of doing a very complex site was not worth it. These customers need open source sites or free ones like Facebook they can setup and maintain themselves.
See Terms and Conditions for how we manage the project.
Contact us for one of the above solutions to enhance and grow your online business and technical knowledge.
Invest in your future!
Created: 16 Oct 2002 18:04
Last Updated: 4 July 2020 11:27