Storm Code

Many people hear the words ‘Live Chat’ and think ‘Expensive’.  However, it is possible to have a live chat service installed on your website that will allow you to communicate directly with your clients, and potential clients.  The costs do vary depending on the business and the level of customization involved.  That being said, with your input, you can have a ‘Live Chat’ option available on your site within a day or two, not weeks as you might have assumed.

There are many benefits to having a ‘Live Chat’ option available to your clients.  First and foremost,  it allows them to contact one of your representatives quickly, and with little effort.  If no representatives are available (lets say it’s the middle of the night), then they have the option of leaving a message (which is then e-mailed to an address of your choosing).

Aside from the initial cost of setting up the ‘Live Chat’, there are very little, if any, maintenance costs.  At Storm Code, our ‘Live Chat’ setup allows you to manage the Online Support you provide to your customers from any computer.  You don’t need to outsource your technical support.  You can run it easily from within your office.

In times of economic trouble such as this, it’s important to keep costs low.  Take for example phone support.  Not only does it tie up a phone line, but the person who is giving the support is pretty much incapacitated.  They have to give their full and undivided attention to the person they are speaking with.  With online chat support that is not the case.  Computer users are used to multitasking and switching between several chat windows and e-mails.  A user giving ‘Live Chat’ support can handle multiple chats at the same time, there-by increasing the amount of support available.

Demonstrations of the ‘Live Chat’ are available.  Feel free to e-mail us with any questions, or if you would like a demonstration.

In this time of economic turmoil everyone is feeling the pinch.  Your customers are spending less money, which in turn leaves your business with less money to spend.   No company can stop spending entirely even in the most dire of times, which leads you to reanalyze what you are spending your money on.  Where is it going to generate the most sales, or be otherwise profitable?

No one can say that having a strong web presence will protect you entirely from recession, the dot-com bubble burst is evidence enough of that.  However, a strong web presence can increase your local customer base as well as increase your global customer base.  It allows you to market your product all across the globe without the need for old fashioned paper and print marketing.

That doesn’t mean you should run out and spend all your money buying ad space on Google and Yahoo.   Having a strong web presence isn’t all about getting people to your site.  You have to consider what happens after you get people to your site.

Are you offering up to date information about your products and services?  Is all the contact information current?  Is your website easy to navigate?  Does it have the functionality that will help drive your business in the 21st Century?  Is it capable of handling a large stream of visitors or will it fold under the pressure of more hits?

If you answered no to any of those questions or you were unsure of any of your answers, then it’s time to contact a professional.  Gone are the days when you could pick up a book on HTML and setup and maintain your company website.

You should be treating your website like a digital version of your Office.  It is representative of your business as a whole.  If it is well designed and developed then you instill confidence into your clients or potential clients.  Just like you would if you had a well put together and clean Office that you met clients in.  If a client were to walk into your office and it were to be a disaster, with half a wall missing and a ‘Dummies Guide to Office Renovations’ sitting on your desk, what impression would you be giving?

You need to have that same mindset when thinking about your website.

Interns can be a very powerful tool for any business.  Most interns are highly motivated, driven, and up to date with the goings-on of whatever area they are applying for an internship in.  The fact that they are green when it comes to your specific business, and perhaps your area of business in general should not deter you from taking on at least one intern a semester.

Right about now you might be asking yourself: ‘What do Internships have to do with developing my business on the Web?’.  Let’s tie that in real quick.  This entire article is working under the assumption that any intern you higher is either starting, in, or has recently finished college.  That means that your Intern likely has their finger on the pulse of the Internet in general.  This makes them a valuable resource when it comes time to put a fresh face on your website, add new functionality, or brainstorm.

Depending on the area of the internship there are several ways to make use of an Interns time that will be productive for your company’s web presence while giving the Intern some valuable business experience.   Marketing Interns should be prompted to post ads on Craigslist advertising your product or services.  IT Interns should be adding Google Analytics to your website.  The list goes on.

An ever growing amount of business is being conducted over the Internet and it pays to have someone around who understands it well.

Storm Code takes on between two and five interns every semester (including the summer).  We have learned that a properly trained and motivated intern can produce an amazing amount of work and also gain a great deal of knowledge.  If you are interested in an Internship with Storm Code please refer to our internship page for more information.

Our portfolio is very important.  It helps our clients and potential clients to get an idea of what we are all about at Storm Code.  We try to keep our portfolio fresh, with our most recent projects and our crowning achievements.  We have just updated our portfolio with four fresh websites.

How did we decide on which websites out of many we should showcase?  It’s very simple.  We wanted to pick the most diverse websites we could.  If our portfolio was full of Real Estate sites, that wouldn’t tell our clients much at all about the other areas we have developed sites.  So we decided on four websites from different areas.

Real Estate, Construction, Automotive, and Social Networking.  This gives anyone viewing it a very broad view of the type of website development projects we take on at Storm Code.   If you haven’t already taken a look at our portfolio, check it out now!

In the past ten years computers have become so powerful that small performance tweaks and good coding standards and practices are overlooked. The reason for this is because coders have very little reason to care about coding standards and practices these days. It used to be that if you wrote sloppy code or didn’t take the time to optimize your code, you saw a drastic decrease in the performance of your program or script. Now that computers are as powerful as they are, even sloppy unoptimized code performs at such a high speed the loss of performance is barely noticeable.

At least that is what someone who writes code like that will tell you. At Storm Code we follow a best practices formula for writing optimized, performance driven code. If you run a small website with just a few scripts that are not often used, then you would notice very little difference (if any) between optimized code and unoptimized code. However, as your website grows in users and complexity the performance gap between unoptimized and optimized code grows larger quickly.

Several performance enhancing techniques can be used while coding. One of these examples is the use of single quotes instead of double quotes. An Example String using single quotes and double quotes in PHP:

echo ‘Hello World!’; // Single Quotes

Content is the most important part of any website.  It can be the text, audio, video and images that appear on each page.  At a very basic level Web Design can be broken into two different parts.  On one side you have the development of the actual pages, be it HTML, JavaScript, PHP, ASP, AJAX, Ruby on Rails, etc.  On the other side you have the creation of the Content.  Most Web Design companies handle only the first part which is the development of the actual pages.  It’s usually up to the Client to develop the content that will appear on the pages.

Content can be a HUGE bottleneck.   At different times during the development of the actual code for the pages, Content needs to be taken into account.  That is why creating the Content for a website before hiring a developer is a great idea.  It allows the developer to take into account the Content when designing the web site or web application.  The Content that is provided to the web developer should not be considered the final copy.  It’s just a guideline that the developer can use to better create the site.

It also means that the Project Managers on both side (client and developer) do not have to go back and forth as much with regards to the content that will be appearing on each page.  The client will not need to scramble to create content that the developer needs in order to continue or finish development of the site.  When the project leaves the design phase and the web site or web application has been tested, the client won’t need to begin creating the content at that time.  This means the web site or web application can be released sooner.

Many times, the Client does not take into account that actual Content that will be appearing on the web site or web application until the entire development of the site has been finished.  As stated above, this means that the release date of the project has to be pushed back while that Content is created.  This can lead to poorly thought out Content.  The Web Design company should be offering the Client suggestions about the Content.  It should be optimized for Search Engines, and it should be as jargon free as possible.

Jargon Free.  That’s a very important part of content.  When writing Content for a website you want to make it as simple as possible.  The Client knows and understand the business they are promoting but that does not mean that the users that come to the website will understand.  Web sites exist whose Content is full of Jargon and overly complex text that can confuse the user.  In some cases a dictionary of terms is provided somewhere on the web site or web application to help new users under the Jargon.  If you find yourself needing or thinking about a dictionary of terms, then you are using Jargon.  A dictionary of terms is almost an afterthought to make up for badly thought out Content.   As with any rule there are always exceptions.  If Content is being designed for a specific audience, then using Jargon may be the necessary, as it would be if you were writing a technical document.

Writing good, thought out, jargon free content is just as important as having a well designed web site or web application.  It’s just as important and as having a site that is optimized for search engines.  It’s as important as any other part of designing a good web site or web application.  It should get the same time, planning and effort that the other aspects of web design and development do.

Creeping Functionality, also known as Scope Creep is often described as “Death by a thousand cuts.”. It occurs when new functionality and features are constantly being added to a project that is already in progress. It can increase cost, push back the completion date, and severely damage development strategy for a project.

How does Creeping Functionality occur? After the Information Gathering phase of a project is completed with the Project Specifications and/or Proposal having been drafted and a contract is signed to develop and complete the project. During the Development Phase the client asks the Developer to make a negligible change. The change is so small compared to the entire scope of the project that it doesn’t seem to warrant a Change Order. These changes pile up during the Development Phase and after awhile the full scope of the negligible changes becomes apparent. The idea of writing twenty or thirty or a hundred change orders to account for the total time spent on changes outside the scope of the project becomes in and of itself a daunting and time consuming task.

Why does Creeping Functionality occur? One of the reasons that Creeping Functionality occurs is improper scoping of the project during the Information Gathering phase. Features and Functionality that are considered important were forgotten or not conceived during the Information Gathering phase and are now trying to find their way into the project after a contract has been signed.

Another reason that Creeping Functionality can occur is perceived value. Everyone wants the most bang for their buck and will try to slip in added functionality or cool features that will raise the perceived value of the finished product. At times individuals that were not involved in the Information Gathering phase of the project will begin to take an interest in the project and attempt to interject their own opinions and ideas into the project scope. Developers want to keep the Client happy and making small changes that allow them to look flexible can be a persuasive path to take. However, it comes at a cost.

Creeping Functionality can go unnoticed by Project Managers on both sides of the ball until budget and scheduling problems arise and bring the problem into the light. The budget can increase exponentially as hours worked on features and functionality outside the project scope pile up. Those hours that should have been spent on building the features and functionality inside the project scope push back the completion date of the project.

This is where perceived value and actual value come into play. It’s great to get the most out of your money, but at what other costs? Is the actual value of adding a negligible feature to a project more then having the project completed on time and within budget? The answer is a resounding no.

Creeping Functionality also taints any Development Plan that was put into place in order to keep the project on schedule and within budget. It divides developer/client attention between completing the project as defined by the contract and making the website as cool and feature packed as possible. It can be overwhelming and also cause tension. It can be very hard for a developer to say no to making a small change, and hard for a client to understand why when the developer does say no.

Managing Creeping Functionality is a very important part of Project Management. Getting the Project Scope right the first time and regular reviews of the Project Scope can keep it under control as to prevent problems.

It is important for both the Client and the Developer to be aware of Creeping Functionality and how to prevent it. At Storm Code we use a phased approach to development that can not only help prevent Creeping Functionality but also increases Actual Value, as opposed to Perceived Value.

Consider the original features and functionality of the project to be List A. Any features and functionality that were discussed during the Information Gathering phase that were seen as unnecessary or outside the current project scope, budget or time line are added to List B. List A has a deadline and a budget. After the deadline the website, or web application is released and the client makes it known that they have a new website or web application and people begin going to the site to check it out. This results in exposure, sales, leads, and much more. If Creeping Functionality had been allowed into the project then the release date would be pushed back and that exposure and everything that goes along with it would not exist.

List B consists of everything discussed during the Information Gathering phase that was not inside the original project scope, as discussed above. List B also consists of all the features and functionality that were thought up during the Development phase. In other words, all of the Creeping Functionality that could have effected the budget and time line. List B is considered to be Phase 2 of the project. After the website or web application is released, work on Phase 2 can begin. A new project proposal is drafted and contract signed. A new deadline and budget is created and work begins again anew. When the Phase 2 project is completed the Client can then spread the word that their website or web application (that is now no longer considered new) has some cool new features and functionality that everyone should come check out. If everything had been piled onto List A, it’s possible that the original project may not even have been completed by this time, and if it had, that would be it. No opportunity to invite users and potential clients back to the website or web application because no new features would be coming along.

A website or application is a marketing tool and nothing speaks better about a company or individual then if they keep their website or application up to date and constantly evolving with new, thought out, features.

For more information on Creeping Functionality please read this article by Steve Holder How to Keep Scope Creep from Sapping Project Profit

The biggest reason for upgrading from PHP4 to PHP5 is the end of life announcement made. As of December 2007 only critical security fixes will be made to PHP4. No support is being offered for PHP4 after August 2008.

Now is the time to migrate from PHP4 to PHP5. You do not want to wait until the last minute. As of right now you can migrate on your own terms, and take your time. The amount of difficulty in migrating from PHP4 to PHP5 will depend on your current code base. Some features enabled in PHP4 do not come enabled in PHP5 by default. Register Globals is one such feature.

PHP5 has the core functionality to support many of the new web technologies such as AJAX. Upgrading to PHP5 before August 2008 is a must. If you have a website that is still running PHP4, or you are not sure what version of PHP your website is running you need to find out. If you have access to your web server via FTP or a file manager do the following:

Open notepad (or equivalent text editor)

Enter the following code:

<?php

phpinfo();

?>

Save the file as phpinfo.php

Upload the file to your web server and execute it.

Displayed will be detailed information about your PHP build. You will see your current PHP version included with that information. If you are not using PHP5 and you wish to make the transition, please feel free to contact Storm Code and arrange for one of our project managers to take a look at your code base and give you an estimate on cost and time.

Getting the best possible service for your money if very important. However, thinking that the lowest price means the best deal will land you nothing but headaches. One thing you should ask yourself before taking the lowest price service or product is why is it so cheap? Let me use Linux as an example. You can download many different versions of the operating system for free, and you wouldn’t be doing anything illegal! It is offered for free by the various companies that develop the builds. However, when you encounter a problem you have no support system to turn to for answers.

If you plan on paying $10 a month for web hosting, you have to ask yourself, when I have a problem, who is going to help me? Is it going to be someone that is knowledgeable and invested in my company? Or is it more likely going to be someone in a call center over-seas who may or may not be interested in actually helping you. In this business, like most others, you get what you pay for. So while the cheapest product or service may benefit you in the short term, that all goes out the window when you have to spend hours of your time trying to get someone who does not understand your business to help you fix a problem.

Another real world example would be car insurance. If you buy a brand new car do you purchase an insurance policy that only covers the bare minimum, or do you purchase comprehensive insurance so that if something were to happen you have the peace of mind of knowing that you are totally covered. Do you go with a company that’s cheaper, or a company that you know is going to make filing a claim as easy as possible if an accident does happen?

No one wants to be in a position where the company they have been paying is doing everything in their power to get out of helping. That’s why at Storm Code no matter what product or service you purchase from us, you get a Project Manager that you can call or e-mail personally. Someone that knows your business and your name. Someone who wants to help you. Someone invested.