By: Diane Currie
Hints and tips on effective web project management.
Publishing information and operating services on the world wide web can be a very effective method of maximizing resources, reducing costs and reaching an expanded marketplace. If you are planning on putting together a web site, already have one and are wondering what to do with, or are just considering the possibilities, then read on, I have some helpful hints for you.
First of all, publishing a high quality web site requires a team effort and time to create. It isn’t difficult to master the basics of hypertext markup language (html, the format of web files), and slap something quick and easy up on the net. But that’s what your company will end up looking like. Quick and Easy. Designing and managing a web site is a group effort. Before you begin, assess the skills you have in your company to devote to the project. Do you have people with the design and graphic art skills, the technical systems knowledge, the programming skills and the project management background required to run an entire web project? A typical pitfall I have seen is to assign the project to the computer programmers/IS department only which often results in a technological fast site with all the latest bells and whistles, but with a graphically horrifying interface. Or, conversely, assigning the project to the art department and getting beautiful, full colour artwork with 300K worth of data on every page that takes forever to load and is not secure or backed up regularly.
Ask yourself a few questions before you get started. What message am I trying to get across? What do I want to achieve? A good web development company should ask you these questions, and maybe even pose a few more, or provide you with options or ideas you hadn’t even thought of. Remember, the Internet and the web are developing exponentially. A web expert can help your company stay on top of things, while making you feel comfortable with the technology. Remember, just because the technology is capable of doing something, doesn’t meant you ought to do something. The Internet continues to evolve into an interactive, dynamic medium. If you browse the web today, you may find about 5% of the sites offer dynamic information such as stock quotes, changing weather patterns, or live video feeds and even fewer that offer customized databases and user interfaces. But, the web is growing from these rudimentary forms of dynamic and interactive sites into a new generation of networked services and applications. For example, Oracle Corporation has just released an Oracle web server which allows the programmability of relational database technology to be delivered over the web. With many large corporations operating their business applications such as inventory, order taking, reservation systems, and billing on Oracle databases - watch for the growth of dynamic, secure database applications running over the Internet in a web-friendly interface. With the growth of Sun Microsystems JAVA programming language, which allows developers to create web sites containing machine independent, embedded applications, watch for more customizable, animated, software-like web sites. With these technical developments, Internet web publishing is starting to more closely resemble the software publishing industry than the traditional print, radio, TV or film industries. Web sites are becoming animated, they are talking, they are searchable, customized, cross-referenced, and highly interactive. In many cases, they are generating sales and advertising revenues. It could be that your web site that you had originally envisioned to be a simple electronic brochure, could develop into a major business application tool for your company. Spend some time to ask questions and investigate options.
You should probably separate your cost into a setup and design fee and a web hosting fee. A well designed web site takes time to create. If you want a customized site that is a representation of your business, then expect to pay between $50-$75/hour for web developing and regular programming rates ($100-$120/hour) for database development and customized programming. You will probably want the company to quote on the development of the project - make sure you understand what it is they are quoting on. Ask questions. In addition to the site development, you should ask for the web hosting fee to be separated out and quoted separately. Web hosting is the service of maintaining the web software and system, backups, network connectivity, statistics, file transfers. It may or may not include email addresses. This is a very important part of the equation that is often overlooked. Does the system you are doing development on have a future? Is it well protected, reliable, and regularly backed up? You may create a graphically beautiful site with a great user interface, but if your web hosting service is unreliable, it will limit the usefulness of your site. Look for solid, technologically reputable web hosting companies with the resources to keep with the technology.
Managing information is a critical part of developing a presence on the web. Your site should focus on the content - if you are focused on technology first and content second, you are doing it backwards. Establish a process for gathering information, converting it to a web readable format, and transferring it to the web hosting site. Keep the web structure flexible enough to accommodate changes and growth. The job of preparing the information for the Web requires both a knowledge of the content and a knowledge of web technical issues. This is particularly true if you are running any value added services such as search engines or databases. Many organizations assign a webmaster to coordinate this effort and complete the tasks required to maintain and build a dynamic site. You might consider a developing a web team consisting of representatives from marketing and sales, product development, programmers and management to set policies, develop processes, create design standards and coordinate information flow. Don’t forget your web site could include links to email addresses, customer feedback forms, product order forms and sales information, mailing lists for future newsletters, etc. It may well become a very integral part of your company’s communications.
Lastly, don't forget to market your site along with the rest of your company's products and services. "If you build it, they will come" might have been a great concept for a ball field in Iowa, but it doesn't necessarily work for web sites. Make sure your web site location is on your business cards, brochures, posters or TV ads - whatever your current marketing plans are, your web site should be included. But, in addition to traditional advertising, make sure you promote your site on the web - make Internet announcements (in the appropriate places), ask other related web sites to link to yours. If your suppliers, customers or allied companies have sites, offer to make reciprocal links. Consider listing your site on web business directories such as Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com) or buying "banner" ad space on popular web sites. Web advertising and promotion is vital to the s