It’s amazing how much positive feedback we’ve had since the launch of our new Partner Program, WWW Inside. It seems as if everyone we approach really wants to explore the possibilities that partnerships offer. The problem is that it can be quite difficult instigating these partnerships. The other impression I get is that the willingness to share and collaborate in order to provide better service to clients is stronger than the need to protect and wall off their own client base from possible intrusion. This gives me a great sense of optimism about the future of our industry at large. We are a social species after all, with the need to interact and utilise the diverse set of individual skills that we have, so it makes sense to bring this through to our business environment, a traditionally cut-throat, dog-eats-dog environment. If we can move past the multitude of fears that partnering usually conjures up and instead see the opportunities for major growth and expansion that collaboration brings us, how much better would this be, both for our businesses and ultimately for our clients?

I’m looking forward to the road ahead with our new partnerships. Onwards and upwards!

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Earlier this week we invited a cross section of Cape Town’s creative, marketing, web-design and PR agencies for breakfast to mark the launch of our new Partner Program – WWW Inside. The event took place at the very trendy Lazari Cafe at the Cape Quarter, and treated guests to a scrumptious breakfast and informative presentation detailing the new program.

In short, the program is designed to enable such agencies to:

• Maximize the value they can add to their projects
• Take on larger, more technical projects
• Offer their clients high-level strategic input from a technology point of view
• Broaden their offering and sales reach

For all those who missed out on the launch, you can get the low down on the program on our website, or get in touch with us directly if you want to see the full presentation with case studies.

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You want people to have a great experience using your site. But how will you ever know? Will you ask them? Sometimes that’s effective, but how many people really have the time or inclination to fill in a feedback form or send you an email with their thoughts and experiences? Are all the people who are kind enough to do this  an accurate representation of the people that visit your site?  Your goal should be to track what people are doing on your site – where they’re clicking or where they’re getting stuck and inevitably leave your site.

You could bring focus groups into expensive testing labs and record your subjects actions on the site, asking them questions about the site and their interactions with it, but this takes time and money – time to find the right people that represent your target market and collate and document all the responses,  money to get them interested in helping you test your application, and more money to hire the necessary equipment to perform these tests. Not a particularly attractive concept in the current state of our economy. Read the rest of this entry »

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18 July 2010 saw the World celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 91st birthday in a different way. Officially proclaimed by the UN as international Mandela Day, people worldwide were asked to share in the celebration and to give back to their communities. South Africans at home and aboard were called to action to give 67 minutes of their time to perform a selfless task to assist their community. 67 is a representation of the number of years Nelson Mandela spent fighting for the rights of humanity – from his pivotal role in the anti-apartheid struggle, to his presidency and finally his work as mediator in peace talks and as an AIDS activist.

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Those who work in software development are familiar with the initial questions a prospective client will ask: “What’s it going to cost?” “How long will it take?” and “When can you start?” Simple questions, yet the answers can lead to significant stress, both for the client and us, the service provider. Give the client bloated figures, padded to mitigate your risk, and you’re likely to lose the business; Give the client what you think are accurate figures, and you begin to panic, as there is the possibly likelihood of overrunning in both duration and budget. It is not an easy situation and doesn’t bode well for a healthy, ongoing business relationship.

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Understanding and tracking user behaviour on your website is crucial to developing a seamless experience for future users, and making informed decisions about enhancements and even auxiliary marketing activities.

There are a number of powerful free tools available on the web that will give you more than enough data to accurately gain insight into what users do when they arrive on your site. Even the slightest text tweak of a landing page, or positioning of a button can make a world of difference.

Here are our top 5 tools for getting started:

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Following today’s launch of Google Street View in South Africa, RE/MAX of Southern Africa, in partnership with local web application development specialists White Wall Web, have become the first Real Estate franchise in SA to fully integrate this technology into their website.

Google Street View is a service linked to Google Maps and Google Earth that provides users with panoramic, photographic detail at street level. Areas in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Pretoria, Johannesburg and Durban were mapped out by stitching together millions of photographs taken by the Google Street View Trikes (vehicles), enabling users to view panoramic images of local streets in vivid detail, as if they were standing on the very street they were viewing. Users visiting www.remax.co.za can now see the ‘Street View’ of specific properties listed on the site.

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Soccer Time – it is (certainly) here! We’re feeling it. We’re seeing it.

Buildings are decorated, streets bannered, cars socked and flagged and many faces are soon to be painted, but online? That place which holds so much of our attention? Not so much.

It’s time to fix that… it’s time to Spread The Feva!

We’ve created the perfect way to fast-track the release of pent-up patriotism by introducing The Flag Tag. With very little effort, you too can proudly sport the online equivalent of mirror-socks!

With a 1-line addition to your site’s <head> tag (preferably with all your other JavaScript includes), one of a variety of flags can be added to your site. Visit www.flagtag.co.za now to show your true colours!

Right. Now that you’ve taken care of your online reputation, go out and buy some real stuff, take a deep breath and practice Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika – we’ve got a lot of excitement to prepare for!

(And just because this is interesting, we made a point of checking the correct orientation for a vertical flag. Doing our best to be on the ball!)

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