Adobe to the Rescue

So there is this app, which seems to be impossible to name. For some reason, no one can come up with a decent sounding name. The CEO at the client’s firm came up with a name “EarVault”. Not the best name in the word, but just about the only name that wasn’t trademarked and that as the least offending. With the big government presentation coming up in a few days, that had to be the name.

The first time those words went into the application, that wasn’t a pretty site. Thanks to the geek gods of Silicon Valley for Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator products. Ten minutes with the skillful hands of someone who ones what their are doing and we have something that looks respectable.

What do you think?

Not so bad right?

(Less the blues don't quite match, the color number was precise but the inner drop shadow skewed the color as there wasn't a lot of space. Reducing the spread of the drop only made the effect look, not so cool).

Mark

The Godawful Website

There is always one of those projects that remains undone. It gets to the point that it becomes a running joke. Even worse, is that the project is core to the foundation of our business. The darn website.

The original website went up way back when. Doing so much business centered around the internet, we thought we should have the coolest site around. So those much laughed at pages were something that was hacked together in a few hours, meant to be a place holder for the real thing that was coming out in a few more weeks. Well business picked up and soon that project was put on the back burner as there were more pressing projects with clients.

Weeks became months. Months became years. There were four major efforts to get something going, always it got stuck somewhere in the process. From design challenges (a lot goes in to the design of the site), to getting some technical glitches sorted out, getting content going, getting the marketing/sales team to come up with offers, hiring/firing multiple designers, the bottom falling out of the economy, and the list goes on and on.

All along, our firm was suffering from the lack of a true web presence. A valuable communication vehicle for our customers and prospects. Not only could we not showcase our achievements, but it took a lot more effort selling when new prospects landed on our long-term temporary solution. And everyone visits the website at least once.

And it can be extremely embarrassing. Here we are, selling a integrated marketing project to a Fortune 100 with all sorts of social marketing tie-ins and the works, and our company doesn’t have a twitter account of its own. How can one not be skeptical of a firm that claims to be a pro, that is not practicing what it preaches. Imagine how many videos Richard Simmons would sell if he had stuffed his face with Twinkies.

So what changed?

Well it started with our marketing guru, Patrik, who walks in one day mentions Squarespace CMS (Content Management System - the gears behind the website). Being techies, we sign-up for accounts and tear it apart in minutes. Lack of control, too many technical limitations, etc, etc, etc. After all, a few of our folks develop the first generation of CMS, two of these companies are publicly traded with a third one being sold, so weren’t jaded in the least bit.

About four weeks into the Nth attempt, things are starting to fade, yet again. The light bulb goes off, no matter what the so-called “flaws” are with Squarespace, it was still a million times better than what we had, which was practically nothing. Besides, who but other CMs and marketing weenies are going to notice anyways?

Let’s just say from that point on, it was a matter of hours/days before something decent came around. We learned to quit fighting our egos and get it done. Much like we do for our own clients. Let’s just say, we are now sold on Cloud CMS. It will help us get from here to there, which for 99% of the world is good enough to get the job done. Now we can focus our energies on our core business of making other companies more profitable.