OD Media | News

Cloud applications, delivering more over the web...

The “cloud” maybe just a buzz word to many, but in reality it will change the way we connect devices, the way we view and consume content and essentially, change the IT landscape...

Cloud apps can take on two forms, the first being the traditional website type application. So by this we mean an application / experience which is delivered to the user via a web browser. Your website is in essence, a cloud application. Get it? The second form is that of apps. Now you are probably quite familiar with “apps” on your mobile phone, and when we talk of “apps” we mean not just mobile apps, but apps that can be easily distributed and installed on other devices, such as your PC, tablet, phone or laptop.

With the release of Windows 8 in 2012, the way in which consumers / user interact with applications and websites will change, taking on a similar form to the way we consume applications and websites on a mobile phone, via an app. Many eCommerce experiences will be making the move over to desktop “apps”, running in Windows 8 “metro” environment (metro is the new look and feel for Windows applications). These are still cloud based apps, as they reside in the cloud, as the services and components they utilise are all in the cloud, but they can work in a disconnected state and provide many more features and user rich experiences.

eCommerce websites and websites in general will not be going anywhere. But, to deliver the best experiences and to have a better connection with your potential customers, you will deliver an “App” to the user. An app they install and use, an app that keeps them up to date and an app that offers the best experience of your company. Windows 8 provides a new revolution in how we use applications, the web and the cloud...

OD Media is lucky enough to get early exposure to Microsoft technologies and the new Metro environment within Windows 8, making us the perfect company for you to choose to deliver your cloud based web and application experiences... Roll on 2012 and the brave new world of the cloud and apps...

Content, Content and Content management

OD Media has been delivering content management websites for a number of years now, and with all our experience we have come to learn that there are “good content management” technologies out there, but there are also “great content management” technologies out there.

Sometime ago, we switched to using Microsoft’s .NET MVC technology for delivering websites. This may all sound a bit technical, but what does that mean to you, the person looking to get a new website. Well, what it means is that we can deliver a very powerful, and yet very flexible content managed website in a matter of days....

Quick building

I know we have seen the adverts on TV or online, where an end user picks a template, adds their logo and hey presto they have a working content managed website, of sorts. Well these solutions do exist, and they do a great job for certain companies. The problem is, they are limited to just presenting some basic information, in the format that is set out by the solution, and that’s it.

However, what we can do is deliver you:

· A website that is designed exactly how you want it

· Integrate with other services and sites to add additional functionality

· Improve on the user experience by leveraging Silverlight / Flash technologies

· Integrate your website with other areas of your business

· Provide you with full and very powerful content management tools that are easy to use

· Provide dynamic and manual SEO capabilities for your website

· Provide a website that can scale and meet all your needs

· Deliver great functions such as RSS subscriptions, all out of the box

And we can do all of this rapidly!

How do we do it?

Well we use our team of designs to design your website, that’s the look, the feel, how users interact with it. Once we have done that, we get your feedback, make any changes you may want to make, and then get your approval.

From here our IT developers take over, and they put our designers hard work to good use, integrating it with our content management engine. They also build in great features such as RSS subscriptions and feeds, and integration into other websites / services. A great example here is integration with a survey engine, or news letter engine provided by a third party.

We then release a “test” environment, which is essentially your new website up on the web, but only available for you to test and play with. Once you are happy, we flick the switch and you are live and ready to go...

What can I control?

We split up websites into three parts,

· Design

· Implementation

· Structure and content

Essentially, to provide real content management, business users need to take control of the structure and content elements that make up your website. And that’s exactly what we let you control.

We provide rich tools that allow you to:

· Update pages content quickly and easily

· Add new pages to the website

· Re-structure where content is found on your website

· Update all levels of navigation on the website

· Create new forms of content (images for example) and store them where you wish

· Re-structure elements on a page, these are typically shown as “widgets” which you can drag around the page and re-distribute on the page as you wish

· SEO your content, including your page titles and URLs

More information?

For more information contact us and we can provide you with a full demonstration (online) of some of the features our content managed websites can deliver you

Printing services

As a specialist company in “digital media”, you may be surprised to know that we have a number of quality printing services that we provide, via a number of partner companies.

Not only can we design your flyers and adverts (ready for use online or in actual print), but we can now have these printed and ready for distribution in a matter of days, that’s right days.

So here is an example...

Let’s say you want to have 10,000 A5 flyers designed and ready to be given out within 10 days. Well, not a problem. Our designs get to work immediately; they deliver a number of designs and include any wording you need. Quickly you agree a design and we work on a final version, which you then review and sign off. We then “zap” over the final designs in digital format to our printers, who get everything set up and printed within 3 days...From there, the physical flyers are couriered to your premises along with your final invoice...All done, dusted, in less than 10 working days...

Design Design and ... Design

What is the first thing you notice about a flyer, an advert or a website? It’s usually the visual things, the design, the colours, the feel of it. If it hits the right notes, then you will read it and have a look around the website. If it hits the wrong notes, then more often than not, your message has been lost straight away.

Here at OD Media we are fully aware of the impact good, and bad, design can have. As such we always get feedback of any our designs from a number of sources, these include:

· Panel of end users / customers

· Peer to peer review

· Copywriter and SEO specialists

By working in this way, we ensure that all the designs we deliver hit the right notes...

Content Managed websites

Content management websites are powerful things, they allow business users to take ownership of published content, on the web, without the need to get IT involved. These types of websites have grown and grown, and there are many companies out there, and even hosting companies that sell “template” type websites that you purchase and configure yourself.

Beware

One of the big problems with content management websites is the amount of “restriction” they place on you as a user. There are many solutions out there that are based on “other peoples solutions”, and as such, place restrictions on what you can and can’t do. Many of them have a particular way of working, many of which presume that each page you place up on the web is a form of “product”, and as such mean you must associate a “price value” to that product, even if in-fact what you are adding is simply an about us page.

Balance

Getting a balance between business content, design and implementation is key to the success of any good website. Because of this, here at OD Media we use a content management engine that leverages Microsoft’s .NET and MVC web technologies.

In a typical project, our designers design the website for you, the customer. Our IT developers implement this with the content management engine, and include such features as RSS feeds and capabilities to add / implement with other features. The result is a website that is flexible to your needs, in terms of:

· Configuring your menus and the website structure

· Allowing SEO specialists to maintain keywords, metata data conte content copy

· Allowing business users to take ownership of key information and published content

· Allowing designers to update and re-design the look and feel of the website, while maintaining content and flexibility

· Allowing IT developers to add additional functions and integrate with other solutions quickly and easily

For more information on ODMedia’s content management solutions, please contact us. We are able to provide you with real time demonstrations over the web.

HTML 5 and your mobile

It’s true that HTML 5 will enrich the way we use the web, but is it everything we want / expect?

Well, probably not. HTML 5 will allow us to deliver richer web experiences, for when we visit a website via our PC, Mac or tablet computer. For accessing the web in these ways, HTML 5 will allow us to deliver experiences similar to some of the features that Flash / Silverlight can provide, however, without the need for any plug-in / installs on your machine, neat right?

What we have to remember is that Flash and Silverlight will still deliver many more features and functions compared to those provided by HTML 5, but those features and functions will be reserved for a relative minority of websites / web applications. Think of HTML 5 as an upgrade to a standard HTML, php or Microsoft .NET website, providing some neat animations, controls etc.

The big win though for HTML 5 is on our mobile devices. Websites on our mobile devices can be a bit of a pain, even if we have a dedicated “mobile” ready website. Basically, our screens are too small to show everything we need, and things get, well a little clunky. Step in HTML 5. This is where we can expect a massive difference, allowing websites to look sleeker and provide a far better experience to the end user.

End of apps?

No no no no no no no. Essentially “apps” are the best option, they take advantage of the mobile device processing power and they allow designers and developers to design real applications with great experiences. HTML 5 simply can’t compete here. So while many say HTML 5 apps are cross platform etc etc, think of them only as great web experiences. To get the most our of a mobile experience, you have to build a mobile app. You won’t beat a typical iPhone App with an HTML 5 based website...

Apps for Windows Mobile 7

Yes, it is here, Windows Mobile 7 and now the race is on to deliver any number of applications for the platform that can be downloaded by the user. Already there are Twitter, FaceBook and YouTube applications available, but what else? Orange alredy has its own Orange Wednesdays app available to Orange users. So what could you offer?

If run an eCommerce website, or a company that provides serices via the web, then perhaps you should look at the possibilities of delivering your very own App so that users on their Windows Mobile can interact with you in a rich fashion via their phone...

Here at OD Media we have been working with Microsofts Silverlight for some time, this puts us in an ideal position to help you deliver applications to the Windows Mobile platform, as these applications will be delivered using the Silverlight technology.

If you are interested in mobile phone applications, then please get in touch with a member of staff.

Get a smart website

Lets face it, who doesnt know someone who claims they can, do websites? Be it your nephew, an A level student or a graphic designer, there are many people in the web space market who build and deliver websites, or islands as we like to call them...Why an island, well they are websites, but they are like a small island of limited information, often containing limited content about your organisation. Unfortunately in today’s market the consumer wants and more importantly, expects more from companies.

If you want a good online website you need to have more than a web island (no matter how flash it looks). Consumers want to be able to find out anything and everything on the web, they want to know your full contact details, locations, key staff members, all the categories of products and services you provide, every single product and service you provide and on top of that, what after sales and customer care you provide, what other customers have bought from you and what they think. Now that’s a lot of information, and it’s a big website, especially if you stock thousands of items and or provide many different services.

So the trick is not just a website, it is ensuring you have a rich and smart website, one that is not an island of information, but one that branches out to other online content, providing users with a far richer experience... You need a website a website that integrates with your back office systems and processes ensuring YOU don’t have to place stock items on line, YOU don’t have to provide service information, YOU don’t have to download web orders, YOU don’t have to get a web developer to modify the website, YOU don’t have to constantly check website details, YOU don’t have to...well we could go on....

Get smart websites

Here at OD Media we believe in building smart websites, websites that look great, provide all the information a possible visitor could want, while requiring zero or minimal administration and maintenance by YOU. We also intelligently link your website to your social media activity and other online sources of information, ensuring you are not a content island, rather part of the world wide web of content...

Why not ask about our smart websites and integrated solutions, a member of staff will be more than happy to talk to you about your very own requirements...

Websites, not just about online sales...

In the current economic climate, more and more organisations are looking to their online presence to try and attract a new revenue stream of customers. However, websites are not just about the online sales they can generate. More often than not, a good website will generate online sales, but will also increase your in-store and over the phone sales too....Why is this?

When we shop, we have to remember we could be doing one of many possible things. So, are we actually looking to buy the product right now or are we looking for more information on a range of products, a form of research? Are we looking for local stockist of that product, or providers of that service? Is price our only concern? Are we looking to purchase multiple items, and if so, would we prefer to buy them all from the one company? Are we even looking to pay for our goods online, or would we prefer to talk to a human being either over the phone or face to face? Are we looking for information on after sales care and other factors?

You see there are so many things to take into consideration when thinking about our website users. Here are some key points to remember though:

If a customer cannot find your business online, then you have lost a customer

If a customer can find you online, but can’t find what you stock or provide, then you have lost a customer

If a customer finds what they are looking for, what makes you different to other suppliers?

If a customer finds more of the items they want with you, then you are ahead of the game

If a customer has confidence in your website and company, then you are more likely to convert shoppers to buyers online

If a customer wants to talk to a human being, and they can, then your website will convert online shoppers, to over the phone and in-store buyers

It is hard to put a real measure on the value of a good website, for sure online sales count, but that isn’t the only measure you should use when thinking about your website. In many ways it can be easy to calculate the value, or cost, of not having a good online presence. If a customer cannot find you online in today’s market, then they simply won’t purchase from you. Having a local bricks and mortar store, simply isn’t enough...

Why not find out what OD Media can do for you in utilising the potential of the web, to increase your overall sales.

Not just product, brand...

As an online consumer, many of us find the products within the brands we like, and then make a purchase based on the information we have to hand. Branding is key to the success of not just products, but to organisations too, including their online presence, and the web experience this provides consumers with.

Organisations spend vast amounts of time on their logo, the look and feel this portrays in an effort to build their brand. However, websites take this further. Your website needs to build on the brand identity, after all a website is more than just an extension of your marketing, its to an extent, your company store or shop in the virtual world of the web...

Here at OD Media, we don’t just specialising in building stuff for the web, we also specialise in ensuring your brand is built within the web, the look and feel you portray, the way in which you interact with customers online, the end user experience, the whole nine yards...To do this we provide a number of services that compliment your website, these include:

Graphical Branding (colour schemes, logos, additional images)

Brochure design

RIAs (Rich Internet Applications)

SEO (search engine optimisation)

SMO (social media optimisation)

Digital media presentations

Social media interaction management (leveraging Twitter, Facebook and blogging engines)

eMarketing and eMarketing management (cost per click campaigns)

For more information on our web services, why not talk to a member of staff...