Have you thought about expanding your reach and servicing more of your clients’ needs? Establishing a relationship with an experienced IT firm might be the smartest business move you make this year. But what should you look for when hiring a tech firm?

Customer support
Make sure the IT team has the best interest of your customer in mind with every decision. If your customers are used to getting quick phone response from you, but you get a slow email response from your provider, it could make your customer lose confidence in your ability.

Fist you need to decide how your relationship with your customer and IT provider will work:

• Will they be contacting the customer on your behalf? Or will you be the only point of contact.
• Sign a non-compete agreement and work out the details of how any future sales will go. For example if your customer contacts the IT company directly to perform services, we provide 25% commission for 12 months.

Communication skills
We are in the communications business. Choose an IT team that can help you understand the technology that you are providing to your clients.

• Are they able to clearly explain the technology? Is it scalable? Secure?
• Are they able to provide valuable suggestions for new technology.
• Are they able to explain the technology without sounding conceited or making the client feel stupid?

Appropriate company size
When searching for an IT team that is the best fit for your needs, ask yourself, “What size should my IT team be?” Will you need backup staff with 24/7/365 support, or will a one-person shop be enough?

• An IT firm that is too large for you may not provide the level of customer service that you need. Imagine your customer calling because they need a change and your IT service provider not getting back to you for three days. That reflects poorly on your business.
• A firm that is too small might not be able to manage your project effectively. While forming a relationship with a single programmer can be beneficial, you have to keep in mind what that individual will be doing in 2 years? Will they take a job with a larger firm? Will they still be available when their work needs to be updated?

Decide what staffing your IT team should have:

• Will you need a dedicated project manager to keep the project on schedule?
• Is it easy to get in touch with the CEO if your project manager is not responsive?
• Will you need a backup programmer, or project manager to keep you covered when IT staff are on vacation or sick?
• Can they grow with your team to keep pace with you and your client as your success grows?

Dependability
We all are human and humans make mistakes – will they make it right? Don’t be afraid to ask, “So what happens if this thing fails?” When I was just starting out, I remember the first time a customer asked me, so what happens to our website if you die?” I wasn’t prepared for that, but I have since put a contingency plan in place to make sure the world keeps turning long after I am gone.

Project management
Does the IT team have a good process for managing projects. Some projects last several months and have many revisions. Make sure your IT team has proven methods for tracking progress, storing important files, passwords and data, for keeping the project moving in a positive direction. Someone has to manage the project.

Check references
Of course you wont get references from them from unsatisfied customers and, even if you do, people aren’t likely to dis their web provider, so be sure to ask specific questions:

• How long have you been working together?
• What is your strongest attribute? Let this answer come and keep digging until you get to the positive compared to the negative attributes.
• What kind of work have you done?

The truth will set you free.
Maintain transparency with your customers. My company has provided web programming services for a variety of design firms. Although direct contact between the programmer and the customer isn’t always imperative, good communication is. If there are too many steps in the communication process, then there are more likely to be errors. I recommend introducing everyone involved at the beginning of the project via phone, email or chat. Then appoint one point of contact on each team. It’s okay that your customers know that you are not the geeks behind the website. The reason they work with you is because of your style, skill, or whatever reason makes it a good fit. They will most likely be relieved to not have another company they have to deal with and that you will be there to make sure their brand and message are consistent across all marketing channels. So, build on your existing relationship and create more work.

This article first appeared in the August 2011 issue of Media Inc.

Tags: choosing IT support, creating a web team, customer service, IT support tips, outsourcing

Should your next website or software app use PHP, ASP, AJAX, JavaScript, Flash, or another technology that you’ve just heard about? Should it be hosted on your LAMP or Windows server, or reside in “The Cloud?”

I recently had a friend pursuing his entrepreneurial spirit who wanted advice on how to create a new interactive website. He has a fantastic idea and some basic understanding about current Internet technologies and asked if he should use a wiki, blog, HTML, custom PHP, or an out-of-the-box solution to run his website.

Over the years I have had many clients come to me with technology questions. Some people read an article and get very excited about the “Technology Du Jour” when their time would be better spent focusing on the user experience and scope of the project lifespan. Others get very involved in the technical details, when defining the big picture would address their concerns.

As a rule, I steer clear of potential clients who know that they want to use Flash, or AJAX. The success of the project rarely depends on the type of tools but rather on the expertise of the person using them. I learned this from my father – he was a successful auto mechanic who guaranteed his work and would be cautious of a customer that brings his car in and asks for a new brake master cylinder to fix the squeak in the front end. It is always best to fully evaluate the challenge at hand and then look for the best solution, rather than try to make the solution fit with a particular technology.

When approaching a new project, as developers, we always keep the user experience in mind. We first focus on what the project is trying to accomplish and then determine about how to get it done later.

As he eloquently explains in this video from the Business of Software conference, Jason Fried uses a similar approach to develop and manage 37Signals. [Watch the video]

I use this same approach when developing new software such as a shopping cart, CMS, or online registration system. We build it in stages and add features as we go. I encourage this approach for any project that does not require a big rollout or specific launch date for a “finished” product. We systematically build momentum by achieving small milestones without getting bogged down with the details.

As for my friend, since he doesn’t have much of a budget and will be working on the project outside of his “day job” – I recommended doing as much as he can himself, so that when it is time to pass off the project to a professional firm, he will have a good understanding of what is needed. A clear vision written on a cocktail napkin can be more effective for jump-starting a project then hours of researching what features a particular technology can achieve. To coin a phrase–Just do it.

Best wishes on your web development project!
~ Frank

Tags: basecamp, business strategy, technology, Totera

I guess I didn’t think this was “big news” and should have posted this tip earlier.

Mashable shared that Bing is going to show Twitter results along with regular search results in your browser.  The problem is they’re currently being choosy about which Twitterers merit indexing; currently it’s only the big Twitter accounts/users. Works well if you’re wanting only information from “celeb tweeters,” but not if you’re really searching for information.

So, check it: I’ve been viewing search results for all applicable Tweets in FireFox for some time now.  Here’s what I see when I Google this great Internet programming, design and marketing firm I know about *insert gratuitous plug here*:

*infomercial time*  And, here’s how you can get this wonderful feature, too!

1. You must be running FireFox as your web browser.  Download FireFox here.

2. Grab yourself a little Greasemonkey.  Add Greasemonkey here.

2.1. Restart FireFox.

3. Get geeky on Userscripts.org.  Click the “install” button here.

4. Restart FireFox and make sure you are running Google as your default search engine.

How cool do you feel now?

Donna Winter

Project Development and Marketing Coordinator

Totera Web Systems

*originally posted 07/01/2009

Tags: firefox, google, search engine results, twitter

Links are crucial for sharing information, educating your readers about your blog topics and increasing your topic validity in the eyes of the almighty search engines (if done correctly…but that’s a whole other topic).  Not all links are short and pretty and most often it makes more sense to use a few descriptive words or an image to be clear about what you are linking to.

I get a lot of questions about adding links to images and custom text in blog posts.  What that means is, how does one go from:

just using a URL in as a link http://totera.com,

to having specific text Totera Web Systems or,

an image link to the URL?

It is very easy once you know how, so give it a shot!

I am writing these instructions using Quick BlogCast as the basis, but the instructions are nearly universal for most blog software, word processing applications (Word, Word Perfect, Open Office word processing, etc) and WYSIWYG and HTML editors used in website content management systems (CMS).

1. Add the text or insert the image you wish to have link to another URL (website address); I am going to link the words “click here” in the sentence below.

Example text: I am going to link to a surprise website and you will have to clickhere to find out what it is!

2. Use your mouse to select the text (like you are going to copy/cut it–it should be highlighted) or click on the inserted image (it should show an editing box around it) you want to use as the link.

3. Once the text or image is selected, click on the hyperlink icon in the toolbar. 

It will open a box in a new window:

4. Insert the URL (link, web address) and whether to have the link open in a new window and click “ok.”

5. You should now have this:

Example text: I am going to link to a surprise website and you will have to click here to find out what it is.

If you want more information on using your Quick BlogCast software, you can always visit their getting started guide.

Donna Winter

Totera Web Systems

*originally posted 03/31/2009

Tags: blogging, how to, hyperlinking

Our support staff often asks for “Screenshots” of a particular web page. I thought it would be helpful to include instructions in our blog. As always we look forward to your feedback and suggestions.

Screenshot Instructions

Taking a screenshot (or screen capture) can be helpful in troubleshooting certain problems. Taking a screenshot involves capturing an image of a window or screen and then placing that screenshot into a graphics program for saving. The directions below apply to PCs running on Windows, and use the Microsoft Paint program, included in all versions of Windows, as the graphics program to save the file.

1. View the window or screen that you wish to capture.
2. Do one of the following:* Press the Alt key and the Print Screen keys at the same time to capture the active window

   * Press Print Screen to capture your entire screen

3. This places a copy of the active window or screen you “captured” onto the Clipboard of your computer.
4. Click [Start] in the Windows Taskbar then Programs > Accessories > Paint.Note: You can use any graphics editing program you wish as long as you can save the file. If you do not have Microsoft Paint, you can download one of the many freeware image editors available.
5. Select Paste from the Edit menu.
6. Select Save As from the File menu to save the image to your computer with a descriptive name and in a location you can easily remember. You can save the image in GIF format or BMP.
7. Attach the file to an email and send.

*originally posted 11/18/2008

Tags: how to, print screen, screen shot