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.

A similar event is planned for Johannesburg in the near future. If you are in the Jo’burg area and would like to attend, you can contact us directly.

Without a doubt, the most noteworthy improvement to the site is the inclusion of address level data, which locates the listed properties on an actual map. This makes RE/MAX of Southern Africa the first agency within the South African Real Estate industry to provide this value-added technology. Previously, users could only view properties at a provincial level, which didn’t provide the user with sufficient knowledge of the area in which the property was situated. But with the newly implemented technology, users can see the exact street level address of the property for sale. Not only does this assist the user in accessing the property on sale, but it also allows them to view other available properties in the surrounding areas with greater ease.

Other significant enhancements include:

Improved usability and interface design

At first glance, you’ll notice that the new website interface features cleaner design aesthetics and improved search functionality (with new categorised search functions). This was done to improve the usability experience, cutting user search times down to the bare minimum.

Cleaner code

Another improvement is the reduced dependence on JavaScript, which ensures more pages will be indexed, leading to improved SEO, and ultimately, greater accessibility via search engines, as search engines significantly favour pages with faster loading times.

Social media integration

New additions include the incorporation of the RE/MAX social networking channels, such as Facebook, twitter, the RE/MAX YouTube brand channel, and blogs for both the CEO and Chairman of RE/MAX.

A few more features are also in the pipleline, some of which will be BIG news in the online property industry.

Take a look at the site at www.remax.co.za and let us know what you think.

I’ve decided to share some of my views on what I think are the pertinent issues this year, and the goals to achieve to that end. Thus, my top personal ‘Web Development Resolutions’ for this year are:

1. See the Year of the Web Standards?

With Microsoft finally being pressured into releasing a standards-compliant Internet Explorer, subsequently revealing that IE8 has passed the Acid2 test in an internal debug build, and hinting at a release sometime in mid-2008, we can finally glimpse the possibility of bringing web standards (at least in terms of CSS/XHTML) to the masses. Additionally, Firefox 3‘s ability to pass Acid2 natively (better late than never!) as well as Opera’s Kestrel builds with exhaustive CSS3 support (on desktop, the Wii and mobile phones), means we’ve never been able to reach as many platforms or people with the same features before. I believe this to be a ‘watershed’ year, where we’ll either see the myriad of Web Standards take off, or if they prove to be fundamentally flawed (they’re already proving difficult to implement), this may well be the beginning of complete dominance from other proprietrary solutions like Flash. There’s an emerging school of thought that standards are discouraging quick progression through lack of competition. I strongly disagree, as if one looks at the greatest problem plaguing the web, incompatibility, a look back into the past reveals that rampant browser competition in the late 90′s (IE Netscape days) resulted in far too many different proprietrary solutions for the same thing – something that still haunts us today.

2. Bridge the divide between the Client and Server Model

Although we’ve seen various frameworks like Ruby On Rails make our lives easier when dealing with user interfaces (especially AJAX), we’re still dealing with several different representations of the same data – on the page HTML, in the DOM, in the application code, in the database. Wouldn’t it be great if the client-side UI object was the same as the server-side one? Why do we need four or more languages and data models to work on the same platform? In my opinion, anyone who can conclusively create a single solution (which I believe is achievable), will elevate web development to the undisputed champion of cross-platform, accessible and efficient software design. I’ll race you there…

3. Go Mobile

Well, by now everyone is quite familiar with that prodigy of effective marketing, the iPhone. I’m sure most of you have considered the possiblity of making your applications work on it’s cut-down Webkit browser. However, consider the number of users you could reach if you could tap into the several hundred million cellphones worldwide with an internet connection. Recently I made the rather serendipitous discovery that Opera Mini 4 – which runs on any decent J2ME phone – was able to [mostly] run our AJAX-intensive WTimer application, which we hadn’t put a single second of mobile development time into. Surely, uncovering the workings of this browser will enable us to bring rich applications to not only the iPhone, but to the millions of normal mobile users out there.

4. Put old browsers to rest

Anyone else tired of dealing with IE6′s (or worse) compatiblity issues? As I aluded to briefly in our Heroes 2007 Conference, I’ve proposed a possible plan to tackle this knife in the side of web development:

• Educate and Upgrade – Politely nag people using old browsers to upgrade to new ones. The trick is to work out a method that doesn’t detract from the value of the site itself. Perhaps via a notice, which links to a tailored, step-by-step guide on how and why to upgrade. If we can roll this out on a large scale, then hopefully we can knock down the figure of 40%+ IE6 users, and spend more time doing real coding.
• Fix – There are a number of great scripts like Dean Edward’s IE7.js that can upgrade and fix a limited number of browser defects. Improving on these and chucking in some resetting CSS for example, could ease the pain of dealing with these browsers in the mean time.
• Embed – With layout engines like WebKit introducing experimental features like offline databases, we may just be better off in some situations with tying applications into an embedded desktop application (eg. Fluid) and forcing clients to download and use them, virtually eliminating the problem altogether.

Perhaps with a plan like this, we can start developing websites and applications that break through the limitations of browsers that are nearly 10 years old. In conclusion, I’m very excited about the possibilities for the direction of web development technologies this year, but also feel that a lot of juggling of the elements and ideas will need to be done to master it. We must persue every avenue to come up with solutions that help us move forward…

“The only real failure in life is the failure to try.” — Unknown

How do you feel about these issues? Any comments you have will be appreciated. All the best to everyone for a fantastic 2008!

* this article is loosely related to a real case but is primarily concerned with highlighting some principles about the value of great systems and well run projects.

White Wall Web (WWW) is involved in development projects that have a far greater affect on companies, industries and the economies of the countries in which these companies find themselves than I had ever previously realized.It has become apparent that the development of software solutions is possibly far more than just automation of a paper based processes to meet a business’s requirements or drivers. I will use a business case to explain this further.

Business Case: Company X

White Wall Web (WWW) was mandated by Company X (a new client on the block) to replace their existing software solution. The industry that Company X is involved in is highly competitive yet they are still managing to operate profitably. However the strain of working so intensely under highly stressful conditions is taking its toll on those working within the company.

Insight

Employees often have to work long hours and over weekends to deal with their workload largely due to faulty and inefficient software.

Management employees are also under high pressure to provide comprehensive reporting required for running the business which is drawn from unreliable data sources. This creates pressure and uncertainty which filters down to all levels of the company.

The current legacy software solutions in place are the source of much of Company X’s frustrations. If these software solutions could be consolidated into a single solution that centralizes all data allowing scalability then Company X could overcome its current stumbling blocks and be catapulted into rapid, sustainable growth.

The side effects for Company X’s working environment are the detrimental to employee well being and organizational culture. One indicator of this can be seen by the high turn-over rate of staff during the period of our initial consulting.

There is no doubt that the main outlet of this kind of strain for working people is their supporting family unit (I speak from experience and general logic). One can imagine that a high level of strain is currently being felt by Company X’s employees’ families and support structures.

One then wonders how far reaching the affects of a stressful working environment is. Imagine that Company X currently employs 40 people. On average let’s say that each of these employees has 3 family members (40 * 3 = 120 people). Then consider that each of these 120 is involved in some capacity in society. This is a far reaching impact of a single stressful working environment.

Now you might find this deduction seemingly far fetched but there is no doubt in my mind that there is a significant waterfall effect of stress passed on from companies to employees to society. What’s your opinion?

Also consider that this company exports it’s services and has the potential to open branches in several countries around the world. The system headaches that they currently experience make this prospect a scary one instead of an exciting opportunity for them. Export revenue is much needed for South Africa at this point in this country’s history. A better system for Company X could thus have a significant impact on South Africa’s economic growth.

We understand these dynamics and this is why we are passionate about systems that really work.

Process

WWW now has the opportunity to replace the current un-scalable solution with one that will scale and enable Company X to capitalize more fully on its great potential. So what process did we follow?

One of the requirements of the mandate to replace their existing solution was that WWW provide fixed quotations for the project in its entirety. As an agile development house, this posed some real problems for us. We know that “big design upfront” simply does not work as it promises to, but had empathy with our client who has been burned with failed projects in the passed and needs to work with fixed budgets. We found a solution…
Our approach was to apply a conventional SDLC (systems development life cycle) structure to the project prior to quoting. Utilizing the SDLC structure we divided the project up into 3 phases: Analysis, Development and Design. What we committed to was to providing a fixed quotation for each next phase of the project life cycle. The fixed quotation for each phase would be provided at the completion of the previous phase and we could roughly estimate one further phase forward.

Initial business analysis and consulting was conducted by the WWW team in which the requirements for the Analysis phase of the project were gathered. A fixed quote was then provided, accepted and WWW delivered our most comprehensive User Requirement Specification (URS) to date. The URS in short comprises of detailed documentation of all the current business processes, rules and current and future system requirements.

Growth

Following from the Analysis phase we look forward to completing successfully Design and Construction phases of this project.

This is what I see when I take a step back and review our system developments process from a macro level (the forest from the trees).

Software solutions these days are integral to all businesses and operations. Building the correct solutions strategically aligns and enables growth, especially in competitive industries. In taking company X through the development process outlined above we have had the opportunity to plan and document the foundational requirements needed to achieve this goal.

What are the spin-offs of successfully delivery on these requirements going to be for Company X?

1. Consolidation of business processes across company into one single software solution. This will help the company to align itself by allowing them to focus on delivery of core business requirements as there is no longer confusion over application of business rules.
2. The restoration of sustainable working environment stands out for me as the most valuable outcome of a successful solution. Employees will be empowered to work efficiently and manage their work requirements so that other areas of their lives are not neglected. In effect this is not only restoration of a sustainable working environment but potentially a level of restoration of employee’s private lives, family relations and in turn other knock on effects in society.

Of course IT solutions are only the tools in themselves but successful development and change managed implementation will produce these spin offs outlined above in some measure.

For a bit more on how to manage a positive change in an organization, get buy in etc. read about the discipline of Change Management.

Technorati Tags: White Wall Web, Insight, Process, Growth, companies, solving problems, Agile Development

White Wall Web (WWW), cape based web database application development company announced today that they have signed a deal to roll out their RFS software to the RE/MAX real estate franchise group in Australia. RE/MAX is the world’s largest real estate group, covering 63 countries with almost 120 000 associates in nearly 6,000 offices.

RE/MAX of Southern Africa and WWW collaborated on the building of RFS and the system was prototyped in Southern Africa. Subsequently the software was successfully piloted in New Zealand. “We currently have over 3,000 users of the software excluding web site visitors to the property listing module” claims Peter Flynn, MD of WWW.

RFS has now been licensed to RE/MAX Australia. “This is a significant contract because the Australian region has great potential for RE/MAX International. We are very proud to have been selected to manage their system requirements and I feel it is a strong vote of confidence not only for us, but the South African ICT industry in general.” Flynn is a strong believer in the benefits of ICT companies being based in South Africa regularly citing the favourable time zone for international business, lower labour costs and English as a business language.

Recently White Wall Web was awarded as one of the most promising emerging ICT companies in South Africa by the Technology Top 100 awards for their work on RFS and another joint venture product called Finassets. “I am proud of our achievements,” says Flynn, “There is a lot of work ahead for us to do as we are still a relatively young company. I believe that we are on the crest of a wave and much of the hard work we have been putting in over the past few years is starting to pay off. It is great to see satisfied clients and receive recognition for a job well done.”

The first phase of the project roll out will now begin with Flynn and Gido Snyman, RFS Project Manager, departing shortly for Brisbane to conduct onsite consulting.

Yesterday we published some nice enhancements for the public front end site using some AJAX scripting.

Read on for more details…

1. A suburb filter has been added on the home page for quicker suburb searching

The end user can either search for a suburb without selecting a region:
(libraries – prototype)

Or the end user can search for a region,

And then search within those results,

Once a suburb or suburbs have been located, the end user can select the suburb(s), select step 3 and step 4 criteria and click on “Submit”.

2. Suburbs are now categorized by “Sub Region”

3. You can now view the photo gallery directly from the one liners

Click on the photo gallery link and…
(libraries – prototype, lightbox2)

4. You can now also view more listing details directly from the one liners

This includes the Web Ref number and the Region, Sub Region and Suburb

5. On the details page there is a new improved layout with additional information

Note also a “back” link at the top, the web reference number, the status (“New Release, For Sale, For Rent, Sold etc.) the type, the Region and the Suburb.

Have a look at http://www.remax-pinnacle.co.za/

See also the listing image display which is powered by the LightBox script library whcih uses the ProtoType Framework and Script.aculo.us.

           

Andy Duncan, an ex-Thoughtworker and good friend has been consulting to White Wall Web for the past three months and helping our team to improve approaches and practices. One of the mantras that Andy D has brought to White Wall Web is “Make it work. Make it work fast.” This means first getting the application to do what is needs to do (meet acceptance criteria, pass automated tests) and then make it work fast (code and database optimisation).

This article by Russ Olsen is a great summary of some of the code considerations.

I plan to do a podcast with Andy in the near future describing how we attacked our particular speed issue on this project, so watch this space.