Keeping perspective on web technology
Over the last three to four years we have seen an explosion of online (web based) technologies that are available to the small business owner: shopping carts, customer management, resource management, staff management, online support tickets, and the list goes on. These technologies, at one time were only available to large and medium size companies but are now trickling down to the small business. This trend is due to an improvement in development frameworks, modularization and standardization of components, and decrease in the cost to implement these advancements. However, despite this advances, there is still a wide gap between what a large corporation can do with its resources and what a small business can do on more limited resources. This gap creates expectations both from the client and the business owner as to what can be done and the resources required to implement that specific technology.
We all have shopped a places like Walmart, or Amazon.com. It is impressive in that everything a customer does is managed, saved and analyzed. This information is then used to help the customer purchase more, faster and easier. What is not realized is that companies like Walmart or Amazon have large development departments and teams that are constantly working to add features and manage those features. They spend in the "tens of thousands of dollars" a day, week or month (depending on the size of the company) to deploy that fancy shopping experience.
But even with all of that "muscle and money" it can not work out as expected.
WalMart, has always been a leader in the using of technology in their company. Their web site follows that trend, with a huge budget and department dedicated just to their web site and shopping cart. One would think that their online technologies are unstoppable, unbreakable, and perfect. Think again, on Cyber Monday of 2006 (Monday after Thanksgiving, and also one of the biggest days for online stores) The WalMart web site was down for over 10 hours to a loss of millions of dollars. Why? Put quite simply, because technology breaks, no matter who built it or how much money has been thrown at it.
So what does this mean to the small business owner looking to add more functionality to the web site? The first step is "Don't try this at home!". The average business owner can not possibly understand all the components and issues in implementing a given functionality. A professional web development company with a staff of people that have years of experience understanding and implementing technology based solutions.
There is nothing wrong with experimenting in the many "free" services available. Test the waters and gain some basic understanding of what can be done and how it might work for your business. BUT once you are ready to really add this to your business, it is time to get down to business and let professionals do the heavy lifting.
Getting into, and integrating some of these more advanced business technologies comes with trouble shooting, down time and bugs, not something you can handle by yourself. Unfortunately, due to the complexity of technology, not every bend in the road can be anticipated. The desired end goal should be broken down into "baby steps" and each requires through a testing period and "shake out" time before the next step is begun.
To recap: Yes, small business owners should explore web based technologies to see if it can make a difference in their buisness. However, the proper expectations are needed before heading down that path. The key is to find a web development company that you feel comfortable working with and who can advise you of different options that might work for you.
We all have shopped a places like Walmart, or Amazon.com. It is impressive in that everything a customer does is managed, saved and analyzed. This information is then used to help the customer purchase more, faster and easier. What is not realized is that companies like Walmart or Amazon have large development departments and teams that are constantly working to add features and manage those features. They spend in the "tens of thousands of dollars" a day, week or month (depending on the size of the company) to deploy that fancy shopping experience.
But even with all of that "muscle and money" it can not work out as expected.
WalMart, has always been a leader in the using of technology in their company. Their web site follows that trend, with a huge budget and department dedicated just to their web site and shopping cart. One would think that their online technologies are unstoppable, unbreakable, and perfect. Think again, on Cyber Monday of 2006 (Monday after Thanksgiving, and also one of the biggest days for online stores) The WalMart web site was down for over 10 hours to a loss of millions of dollars. Why? Put quite simply, because technology breaks, no matter who built it or how much money has been thrown at it.
So what does this mean to the small business owner looking to add more functionality to the web site? The first step is "Don't try this at home!". The average business owner can not possibly understand all the components and issues in implementing a given functionality. A professional web development company with a staff of people that have years of experience understanding and implementing technology based solutions.
There is nothing wrong with experimenting in the many "free" services available. Test the waters and gain some basic understanding of what can be done and how it might work for your business. BUT once you are ready to really add this to your business, it is time to get down to business and let professionals do the heavy lifting.
Getting into, and integrating some of these more advanced business technologies comes with trouble shooting, down time and bugs, not something you can handle by yourself. Unfortunately, due to the complexity of technology, not every bend in the road can be anticipated. The desired end goal should be broken down into "baby steps" and each requires through a testing period and "shake out" time before the next step is begun.
To recap: Yes, small business owners should explore web based technologies to see if it can make a difference in their buisness. However, the proper expectations are needed before heading down that path. The key is to find a web development company that you feel comfortable working with and who can advise you of different options that might work for you.