Unofficial MWS blog

It is worth to talk to a prospect about what other companies can charge for the same job. Especially if you know the market, and can predict those figures pretty accurately – this adds you credibility, and gives you a chance to justify your cost. So I would go: A freelancer or mirco-company (2-3 people) might quote you less because… We cost more because you pay for.. and you really want to have this. A bigger company will charge more because… it is a better choice for you if.

When going through this exercise I am not truing to sell myself, just helping a prospect to make a more informed decision. And if they go with us the relationship opens with more trust and prospects knowledge that they’ve made the right choice.

How to get started with Blogs

Blogging has become an important feature of the World Wide Web and is now an integral part of other emergent Internet trends such as social networking web sites, online video and podcasting. The word ‘blog’ is short for ‘weBLOG’ and can be thought of as an online diary or forum, where the author can convey thoughts on any subject he or she chooses. In fact, blogs evolved from newsgroups (or moderated forums), when users began to post in a more consistent, serialised style.

“How do find what I want to read?”

In May 2007, 71 million blogs were being tracked by Technorati (blog search engine) – in December 2007, it was 112 million.  And in those figures we can immediately see the downside; with so many blogs out there, which ones should you read?

Google has a blog search facility, where you can find blog post on topics you are interested in. There are blog directories where you can browse by subject, e.g. blogcatalog.com or bloghub.com. Alternatively you can start with a list of blogs recommended by Magic Web Solutions. In fact, when you find a blog you like, you will find many other popular and worthy blogs on the same topic, as bloggers share opinions and exchange links between each other.

Using an RSS reader, you can subscribe to selected blogs and get updated entries automatically, each time your favourite blogger posts online. Google Reader is a good place to start, but there are many other readers out there and many other applications, e.g Thunderbird email client and browsers, offer the facility to display blog feeds, so that you can read them along with your emails.

“How do I start my own blog?”

Starting a blog is easy.

They are two ways: either you subscribe for an online blog service, you can be set up in minutes with such services as blogger.com or typepad.com, or you can download an free /open-source blogging software and install it with hosting provider of your choice. Blogging software also allows you to host your blog on your website.

And to maintain a blog you don’t necessarily need a PC, as it is now possible to blog from any number of devices, including mobile phones.

“How do I get people to read my blog?”

There are some basic steps you can take to increase the likelihood your blog will be read.  Firstly, tell your friends and colleagues and get them to read and post comments.  Try to find other like-minded bloggers and link to posts you find interesting.  In this way, it may be possible to have your blog site included on other bloggers’ lists (’blogrolls’, as they are called) and they will start to include links back to your posts. ‘Permalinks’ are permanent hyperlinks that link to a blog post, even after it has moved off the front page, meaning a blog post can be found days, weeks or months later.

And finally, if you are unsure about starting a blog, you may be more comfortable posting on a (business) social networking site, such as ecademy.com, where you likely to a more receptive audience for your ideas and thoughts.

“Why do I need a blog?”

We thought you’d never ask!

Many companies have seen the value of blogging and in business, blogging is now seen as a bona fide and important way of communicating with the customer base. Google, Microsoft and Skype all have blogs on myriad subjects. It provides accessibility for customers and facilitates the exchange of ideas and feedback, much more so than submitting an online form, which just issues you with a confirmatory email (and then probably never gets read). Many smaller, younger companies have found that this is an excellent way to help them launch a new product or service; their blog will keep people in touch with developments as they happen, which lets the customer in on the process, shortens the feedback process and, if the product is good, those customers are likely to spread the word to other friends and online users.

Magic Web Solutions can help you to get started: we are proficient in setting up customising and maintaining blogs based on WordPress platform, please contact us for further details.

Officially we provide support during UK business hours – 09:00-18:00. Our development team is in Russia, so UK business hours for us are 12:00-21.00 local time.

But what happens if you have an urgent problem affecting your server outside those hours?

As the support manager for MWS, I will deal with your call. Here is what happens in such a situation.

Our managers (in whatever capacity they work with you) are always mindful of what can happen if your business-critical application stops on occasions.

Let’s imagine it’s 1am UK time and you have just learned that your server is down: you know it’s 4am Russian time, but this is a problem affecting your business.

If the problem is critical, you need to call our support number (the Russian number is linked to our office, but if you’re a client you have my number too, so it’s better to call me). Support manager will take your call no matter how late it is and investigate your problem immediately.

If it’s a server failure, I will see what I can do and call one of our system administrators, who will respond and do all they can.

If it is just a server failure, which can be fixed in a short time, it will be fixed within 10-20 minutes from taking your call. If we understand there may be some other problems, for example, concerning database or software, I will then call your Project Manager. He or she will investigate the problem too and decide which developer can best help you in this situation, and estimate how long the problem may take to fix. Then I call the developer.

At this point, around 20-30 minutes will have passed since your call. If the problem is a non-critical hardware one, it will have been rectified and your server should be back online.
If the problem is more than just hardware, then there will be people working on it: your Project Manager and one of our developers. You will be informed how long this will take to fix and that we are working to resolve the case.

Normally, if the problem is not the server and there are some critical database or software problems, the site will be up in 30-60 minutes since you first called. If fixing the problem takes longer, we do everything to get the site back online ASAP and continue to investigate and fix the problem. Rarely, this might mean that we have to work on it the following day when we have access to a full complement of technical consultants.

However, usually all servers are up in maximum of 1 hour, and you can go back to sleep.

We do our best to make your business running.

You know what software is, you don’t need to be told.

But what software is it that runs your business, the one your business relies on? Which application or software package is the one that manages your workflow or helps you carry out your day-to-day business?

Software broadly falls into two categories: packaged (or proprietary), i.e. bought or downloaded ‘off-the-shelf’ or bespoke, that’s to say, custom-built.

The proprietary option may be satisfactory for you. But if you need a web application that caters to the specific needs of your enterprise, you might find the bespoke option more suitable.

“Why should I choose bespoke software?”

Packaged software will often include superfluous features that you don’t need for running your business, because it’s been made for many hundreds, but more probably, thousands of users. It’s a compromise.

Conversely, specific features your organisation really needs might not be included and any requests to the software vendors will most likely go unheeded due to the large number of requests, often conflicting, from other clients.

Worse still, you may have to change the way your business operates to use a packaged software, driving up costs and increasing inefficiencies.

And if many other businesses are using the same software, it may be difficult to gain any competitive advantage.

Bugs - many bugs are long-standing. Like requested features, appeals to fix something can fall on deaf ears, if it’s not commerically viable to fix them (and that may sound a bit perverse, but some companies have a funny way of serving their customers, trust us) and you may to wait a long wait for a patch to fix the issue. And hope that the problem is not compromising your business process, your data or your security while you wait.

And that’s another thing - patches or updates can often crash your system and really have an impact on your business. And then you’re in the hands of the company’s technical support.

“So what do I do if I have a problem?”

If you use packaged software, you may be up against a faceless organisation, which doesn’t care so much about YOUR business as it does about the number of units it has shifted and directs you to some pointless and unhelpful FAQs or charges you £1.50/min for telephone support.

Working with a development company on a bespoke application brings advantages.

You can have a direct relationship, which can bring an understanding of your business AND understanding of your needs. A bespoke application is written to your requirements

They can be more responsive to your needs and thus changes can be made more quickly,  allowing you to adapt more easily. You can control the pace of changes, rather than waiting for next release.

Besides, if the application is originally built to your requirements, you’ll save time and money when it comes to teaching your staff how to use the application.  An application developed in this way will require much less configuration work (if any) and much less training. It’s replicating your existing business process(es) and should be intuitive to your staff (if it’s not, you’ve probably gone wrong somewhere). A good custom application can also bring effiencies by automating manual tasks and a good developer can even point out efficiencies to be gained.

“But bespoke software is expensive, right?”

Bespoke software was once the preserve of large companies, but the cost of developing bespoke applications has fallen because of robust application frameworks, a vast array of off-the-shelf modules, and rapid development tool, putting it within reach of SMEs.

Of course, there are some considerations you need to be aware of:

• A good developer will not have a problem with letting you have the source code, so that you retain independence should the relationship go sour.
• A bespoke application IS a serious investment and one not to be taken lightly, thus you should carry out a cost-benefit analysis before embarking on a project.
• As with all industries, there are incompetent or unprofessional developers out there, so make sure you see examples of the developers’ work, get references and follow them up.