John Linton
I first became aware that it was possible to develop a business only using a web presence in 1995 and have only used web based selling, ordering, provisioning and problem solving as a basis for any business I've been associated with since that time. Of course, in 1995 the web could only be used by someone as inexperienced and lacking in knowledge as me in very, very basic and quite crudely implemented ways - the cost alone of both hosting a web site of any magnitude and the development and maintenance costs in 1995 prohibited anything else for a person with the spending budgets and lack of knowledge I had to contend with.
Every few months since I put up the first web site to try and kick start a new business venture I have learned a little more and the dramatic development of web site creation tools and the increasing number of people who use the internet has meant that more and more companies have become reliant on using web sites as major ways of attracting, signing up and then providing service to their customers. 12 years after I first put up a web site offering internet dial up services I couldn't imagine there would be any other way of operating a technology company - and it appears neither can anyone else.
Exetel was started with a web site and a crude on line ordering system with one person answering a telephone and responding to emails (me). Without the web site there could never have been an Exetel and without the continuing efficiencies of a web site Exetel would have been unable to afford to grow beyond a tiny ISP with limited services and very few customers - it certainly could never have made any form of profit. Since January 2004 there have been two major revisions of the starting web site and constant and, virtually weekly, changes to the way the Exetel web site provides information (this doesn't include the 2 - 3 changes and section/page amendments made each day of every week of every month for the past 44 months).
It's now time to make the third major change to both the presentation of the Exetel web site and to re-design the ways the information on the pages is provided/displayed/cross referenced. The reasons for the changes being required are several - the main ones being Exetel's need to project itself in a slightly different way to a different prospective customer demographic as we begin to change the focus of our business moving forward and the need to simplify the finding of the data that is contained in the current web site.
As the Exetel web site is quite complex in terms of the functionality provided in the different pages and sections (surprisingly so if you ever take a good look at all the different functions now provided and the different back end processes involved in providing those functions) making the planned changes will be an interesting exercise and one I'm, personally, not looking forward to. However it's necessary and must be done within a, relatively, short timeframe.
In each past design/layout of the previous Exetel web sites (and in the web sites I've been involved with prior to Exetel) I have exercised virtual total control over how the site should look and work only allowing the person(s) developing the web site to use their creative ideas in very limited ways. For taking this approach I've incurred a lot of casual criticism about the look and operation of the Exetel (and previous) web sites which I've always completely dismissed on the basis that the sites (irrespective of the "arm chair" opinions of anyone else who cared to comment) delivered exactly what was planned for them in terms of new customer sign ups and the efficiencies of operating the business. It was always said when I made that comment - "oh, but think how many more customers you would have got with a decent web site" - which is one of those pointless statements that can have no meaning in a business context as it ignores the issues of a business only being able to deal with a certain number of customers at any point in time (just as there's no point in having 400 people wanting to fly on an aircraft with 200 seats).
So, it's with some trepidation that I'm considering what sort of 'freedoms' should be allowed to the person selected to develop the new version of the web site. As a starting point I used our Forum to ask people who had designed commercial web sites to give an initial proposal for the redesign and have been overwhelmed with responses (as well as being overwhelmed with comments from people who wish to make points about how terrible the current web site is!). I will pick a short list of three from those responses and ask for a detailed proposal and then make a decision on whether any of the proposals meet the needs or whether we should do the development in house or go to a US web design house.
As we are planning significant growth for Exetel, and growth in new directions, this is one of the current priorities for decision this month and is also one of the hardest decisions to be made.