Gathering data and identifying information
Website is competitive and challenging
where we need to offer maximum information to the user at a very short time,
because our competitor’s website is just a click away.
The best way to approach is to present with
graphics and bullet point information.
Citing the proverb “A picture worth
thousand words”, we must find innovative and creative way to present
information to convince the customers. Present information graphically
(Infographics).
Present crisp information rather than pages
of data. We need to collate and process data to find useful information. For
example, assuming your product runs efficiently and saves energy, don’t share
the data sheet of the product on the first sight but a nice infographic of the
rounded percentage of energy saved using your product instead. This will
attract the user to read the data sheet and buy the product for its good
reasons.
Gather information from various departments
with a planned procedure. It is the most challenging and hardest part of the
entire process. You need to educate various departments about the quality of
content you require. You may not process all data on your own as it requires
intensive functional / domain / field / product knowledge. The process could
become easy when there is a print brochure. However, digital space is more
demanding where your information should be more appealing and detailed (video
presentation for an example).
Information
Gathering – Plan & Execute
Take this to be a separate project. Plan
the information structure and get it approved from the Marketing Team, Product
/ Category Manager, Brand Manager or the CIO / CTO / CEO. The authorization
level differs to organization industry and organizational structure. However,
the roles I listed here would give you an idea.
Consult with few of the department heads to
identify time taken to prepare the information required. Plan a reasonable
average mean time and add 10% to 15% buffer to it.
Circulate the request for information along
with the structure/template, dead-line to submit information and an example to
all the departments. Share a helpline number and email to contact you for
clarifications.
Offer them contact details of photographer,
video specialist, and any other resources required to prepare the contact.
Once the information is collected, send it
to proof reading and copyrighting. Include marketing team for enrichment of
content. Include business analyst to identify key points to prepare infographic
and bullet points. Share the points with creative team to develop creative elements
for the web pages.
Once the content is prepared, contact a
consultant to help you co-ordinate with technical partners. Prepare a Request
For Proposal (RFP) with the help of the consultant and approach couple of
technical vendors. Have a meeting and discuss the project. Share the RFP and
collect their proposals. Call them for a pitch and choose the one with
innovation, strategy, standards and the one focus on long-term relationship.
Experience is another factor to consider
while choosing a technical partner but not necessarily, your consultant could
help you identify the reliability of the vendor. In case of going with a fresh
vendor, try to get some demo work done as proof of work.
Do not negotiate for the lower cost, it
always ends in poor quality output, negotiate for guaranteed quality of work
with specifications and negotiate for reasonable cost. The quality is invisible
until it causes damage. Most companies try to find cheap providers to execute
the task which is harmful to the entire corporate security in later stages. Also
it increases maintenance cost over a period of time. Plan your investment and
find the right provider. I’m writing an article on Corporate Security and Web.
I’ll share the link here once I finish the article.
Document the project execution from beginning
till the end of project. The document should include the contact person, their availability,
contact information from both the ends. Specify the project timeline with
milestones clearly defined and penalty for extensions. Sign a SLA and NDA with
the provider.
You may enter the billing agreement on hourly
basis or project basis. Your consultant could help you to negotiate in this
area. Mostly it depends on the service provider engagement model. However, as a
customer you have the right to demand the way you want to be billed.
In a typical business model you may share
20% upfront on SLA agreement as advance, 40% on demo release and 35% on final
release. The 5% could be hold for the service extension period / warranty
period (say, 3 months from the date of final launch).
Maintenance
Post launch you need the technical provider
to offer maintenance. The maintenance should include backup / restore
operations, minor changes to the static content, security protection (virus
attacks, SQL Injection attacks), Any application error due to non-compliance of
requirements document, database maintenance, work with hardware/hosting and
networks provider to ensure quality of service and manage technical tickets
posted on the website.
Maintenance cost are negotiable based on
the size of the website and work involved. However, in a typical scenario 30%
to 35% of development cost will go in to maintenance.
It is recommended to go with CMS based
solutions to reduce maintenance cost for bigger projects. CMS solutions can be
used by non-technical users to update website content. However, it could limit
the flexibility in development of your requirements.
Security
Audit & Testing
Appoint an external audit agency to evaluate
the implementation and do security testing to ensure information security. The
security of information is at risk if you ignore testing procedures. Any
unauthorized intrusion could lead to change in the information at your
corporate website without your knowledge. It is strongly recommended to work
with a 3rd party security testing company other than the vendor who
developed the website.
Do proper documentation and sign an SLA and
NDA with the security testing vendor. Your consultant could help identify key
points to include.
Security testing should be done
periodically as the internet evolves rapidly. Also perform testing for every
major change in the website at application level or in the web server.
.. will be continued
