Brilliant Thinking

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Smaller businesses often think about maintenance after the site is built. However, it should be considered before the site is built so that there are no surprises later on. There are 2 options when it comes to maintenance - do it yourself, or outsource it. So, which is best?

Outsourcing

Some businesses shy away from outsourcing maintenance because it can be an unknown cost, plus there can be issues with availability of the web agency to make the changes. Often, the availability issue is due to the client’s fear of a proper support agreement and the client deliberately avoids having one. Without a support agreement, there is no guaranteed resource when the client requires it (see Why do I need a support contract?).

Do it yourself

The other option is to do it yourself. Unless you are a developer, wish to train as one or employ somebody in this capacity we would recommend that you look at the option of content management systems (CMS). These may cost slightly more in the build phase of the project, but a CMS will save you many headaches during the live phase of the project. The main reasons for this are:

• A CMS separates your content (words and pictures) from the coding of the site
• A good CMS allows you to add and delete sections and sub-sections
• A good CMS maintains the integrity of the site

Without a good CMS, you are required to edit the whole page, which allows you access to the code and structure of that page. If you make a mistake you risk breaking your site, for which you will need to call on your web company to fix it. While systems such as Adobe Contribute offer inexpensive alternatives for CMS, they should be used in conjunction with your web company because you will need some support if you need to add/change the structure.

See also Clients, Content Management & Brand.

So which is best?

Unfortunately, there is no answer to this one - your situation will dictate which works best for you. Some people find outsourcing through a support agreement works best, while others like the immediate control a CMS offers. The choice will also be affected by the way your web company works. For example, we are moving towards fully content managed sites by default, with less emphasis on support agreements for general content maintenance.

The bottom line is to make sure you think about maintenance before you build the site - if your web company doesn’t raise the issue, make sure you add it to your list of things to discuss!

My background in the Internet stretches back to 1996, and since then I have observed many trends start, develop, and come to an end. Looking at the evolution of an organisation and its web presence (in a similar sense to the SW-CMM - software capability maturity model), we can abstract a generic model for the “maturity” or evolution of a company’s web presence. This model can be mapped onto a simple graph which can be used as an indicator to highlight the level of complexity (and thus cost) of the required web solution. I call it the Internet Maturity Model and it looks like this:

Level 1: Organisations generally start with email as their first involvement with the Internet. It is a business critical system and relatively straightforward to set up.

Level 2: The next step is usually to create a marketing website - an on-line brochure - advertising the companies services and providing a means to contact them.

Level 3: Some companies need to trade on-line, providing catalogues of items which visitors can purchase with their credit cards. Trading can take a number of forms, but on-line shops are the most common.

Level 4: The fourth step is to start to automate some of the company’s processes and translate them to the web. These can range from accounting processes, to recruitment, to property management, in fact almost anything that can be done in a series of steps. There are many challenges here - including the nebulous change management - which is why it appears as almost the most complex step on the chart.

Level 5: Business transformation - or finding new ways to solve old problems - is the most complex step on the chart because it can often require the use of new methods, technologies or techniques that may not be fully proven.

A third dimension to the Internet Maturity Model

The above presents a very black and white view of where an Internet solution sits along the spectrum of maturity or complexity, but there is a third dimension (or vector) which needs to be considered when designing a solution - the people who are going to use it.

The technical ingenuity that can been built in by the creators or developers of the system quite often baffles the person who is going to be using the system which creates negative results. You only have to ask these same users about blogs, podcasting, RSS feeds, wireless systems, blue tooth and edge devices and you can watch their eyes glaze over in terror!

This “People Maturity” (their awareness of and comfort with technology) needs to be taken into account before designing a solution. If their “maturity” cannot be accommodated in the desired level of application, it may be better to reduce the desired level until the users are ready for the next step.
(This article was originally published around the turn of the century on our main website and has been moved to the blog for posterity).