Technology Blog

Are You Ready For A Content Management System?

Comments Off Written on February 20th, 2011 by
Categories: Front Page, Technology Blog
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The evolution of websites has included several clear phases in capabilities and company strategy. The phases have been driven by advances in technology and software advancements. It’s clear that there is another huge shift taking place now and this is a great time to take advantage of the shift in cost and capabilities.

Phase 1 – The Emergence of the Web
Company Owners - “What is the web? What is a website? We gotta have one too.”
Website Technology - Flat HTML websites
CMS Techonlogy - No real good options

Phase 2 – Faster Internet Access
Company Owners - “We can put our marketing materials online?”
Website Technology - Better graphical tools produced web based brochure sites
CMS Technology - Some great content management systems, very expensive

Phase 3 – Custom Websites
Company Owners - “We need a custom site.”
Website Technology - Databases and custom developers. Expensive to produce and support.
CMS Technology - CMS still very expensive, developers make most content changes.

Phase 4 – The Emergence of the Affordable CMS
Company Owners - “We can manage our own content and it won’t cost a fortune?”
Website Technology - Many CMS options with lots of available plug-in components.
CMS Technology - CMS are affordable and development times drastically decreased.

We are in Phase 4 now and many companies are realizing the benefits of having a site built around a content management system. It is now more affordable to build a site around a content management system than to build it from scratch. Here are some benefits of using a content management system:

  • Ability to easily manage your own content
  • Easy to add in new functionality to enhance your site
  • Built for tremendous search engine optimization (SEO)
  • Social networking built-in, integration with Facebook
  • Easy to create a community around your product
  • Cheaper to produce and maintain
  • Standard technology that can be updated to latest versions
  • Easy to add blogs, connections to Twitter, and YouTube video
  • Interactive website, no longer just a brochure that rarely changes
  • You don’t have to rely on a developer to change your site content

It is a new time for companies and their approach to the internet. It’s time to build a community around your product and capture the flow of information and traffic before your competitor does. It is a different model now and your customers are looking for more than a brochure site to give them basic information.

With changes in CMS technology, you can easily take your internet strategy to the next level with a platform that will support your current needs but be able to scale with you as you grow. It’s now very affordable to put a CMS in place customized for your needs.

Other benefits include being able to edit your content in a Word-like application where you don’t need to know HTML or any other web technology formats. It’s WYSIWYG so what you see is what you get on the site. You can also change to a new design and use your existing content. Upgrading to a new site look and feel is easy and painless!

The CMS systems are open source and they are available to use without license fees. Open source means that you don’t have expensive software purchases up front or have to worry about the costs of upgrading to the latest version or yearly software costs! They also mean your time to market is much quicker and less expensive than deploying a website has ever been in the past.

The new CMS options are tremendous and open up exciting capabilities for any size business. They can make smaller companies appear larger and compete with much larger competitors on a level playing field. The companies who realize this huge shift and take advantage of these capabilities first can capture markets before others in the industry move in this direction.

NewSouth Interactive can help you brainstorm opportunities in your industry and build an interactive website that takes your web strategy to a new level. Contact us and we can start planning your new site today.

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The Future of Outsourcing and Tips For New Outsourcing Industries

Comments Off Written on November 22nd, 2010 by
Categories: Front Page, Technology Blog

The world of information technology has been utilizing outsourced and offshore resources for years now and the market has become much more mature.

Now, other industries are dipping their toe into the waters of outsourcing work, and there are many things you can learn from experienced IT managers who have discovered the best ways to outsource work. The future will hold new industries and new countries becoming involved in outsourced work.

Here are a few industries that can and are benefiting from remote teams:

  • Translation
  • Accounting
  • Human Resources
  • Marketing
  • Auditing
  • Help Desk
  • Engineering
  • Backup and Security
  • Consulting
  • Drafting
  • Architecture
  • Legal
  • Back Office Tasks
  • Transcription
  • Medical (including medical tourism)

There are many industries that could benefit from outsourcing repetitive tasks.

IT managers involved in managing outsourced teams have discovered that you can have successful offshore projects, but there are aspects of working with outsourced teams that aren’t for the faint of heart.

Here are some things I’ve learned from working with remote teams of designers and developers. These principles are important whether you are working with technology vendors or with other industries.

1. Not all outsourced teams are equal.

Sure, it’s tempting to consider outsourced work a commodity, but it isn’t. Good developers and designers still work faster and better than average developers and designers. The same is true for other professionals. Errors cost money and lose clients.

2. Finding good teams is more difficult than it sounds.

Having great teams makes all the difference in the world. If you don’t know who the good teams are, find someone who does. It can be even more difficult when you deal with larger organizations because you may not know exactly who will be actually doing the work. And make sure the company is a great partner that you can trust.

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Peter Malkin’s Amazing List of Music Business Tools

Comments Off Written on October 27th, 2010 by
Categories: Technology Blog

The music business evolves and becomes more and more technical every day. It used to be so simple. You get a band together, get a couple of gigs, build your networks, and you are on your way to stardom.

The music business has been overturned multiple times in the last few years and new technology advances continue to change how music is produced, distributed, and promoted. Trying to stay up-to-date with all of the different aspects of online music tools and sites is a dizzying tasks with important new sites popping up almost daily.

Music industry veteran Peter Malkin recently released an epic video about the many tools available online for musicians, music lovers, and music promoters.

One of Peter’s final points is to get out there and do it the old fashioned way, but his list of sites is so expansive and valuable that it makes you thinks he favors a blend of the old and the new.

As Peter ticks off almost 100 tools, my initial thought was it would be great to have all of those tools available as links to check out. Peter didn’t have the links listed so I took some time and gathered the list and URLs for each tool.

If you aren’t in the music business but love music, there are quite a few gems in this list for finding and listening to music.

Here is Peter’s excellent but mind spinning video. Links to all of the sites Peter mentions are listed after the jump.

Make sure you check out Peter’s Blog too.

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