Advanced How To Guide

Choosing eBusiness vendors and software

2.06 Specific Questions for Web Development Vendors

• 1. Do you provide the functionality and training to help us maintain our site?
  Be prepared to work closely with the developer or assign a person in your organisation to learn the details of your site. The developer or designer should not be indispensable. You should be able to perform simple updates internally. Price lists, occasional specials, tips on how to get the most from your products or services are some of the files that you may want to update regularly. If you do not have the skills or the time to do this, a maintenance agreement should be negotiated that includes this service.
  
  
• 2. Do you have the right mix of skills?
  A web development company should be able to address issues concerning your target audience, the content of your site, marketability of your products and services and the method in which you currently do business off line. Web development is first and foremost an extension of your marketing effort, rather than a technical initiative. Ideally three sets of skills will be applied to the development of your site; marketing, graphic design and technical programming (usually HTML). While two people may be sufficient, it is unlikely that a single person will effectively cover all three skills.
  
  
• 3. How/Where will my site be promoted?
  You will probably want to promote your website as well as create it. There are both technical and marketing aspects to effective site promotion. The web developer must be aware of the important information that will drive traffic to your site. Text layout, keywords, website descriptions, image placement and embedded META tag information (information on your web page that only search engines can see) are all issues that web developers must address during the creation of a website. However for the vast majority of Irish SME's, search engine results form a small part of the marketing of their website. Other online tools include opt-in email, affiliate marketing and banner advertising. Conventional advertising is also effective; put your website and email address on all your business literature e.g. business cards, letterhead, brochures, product labels and packaging, promotional items,exhibition posters etc. Also incorporate it into national and trade press advertising, radio and TV adverts, voice mail system, etc.
  
  Check out our How To Guide on Promoting Your Online Presence
  
  
• 4. How will hosting be handled?
  If hosting is not going to be performed by a specialist third party, it is important to gain comfort that your web developer offers a solid, secure solution. While many systems may be easy to install and get running, they are not secure straight out of the box. Default settings often leave systems open to well-publicised hacker attacks. It's also important to remember that security isn't complete in a single hit. It is a continuous process and you need to be sure that the web developers will keep on top of it.
  
  
• 5. What is your security policy?
  It is vital that you ask questions about the security policy when you have a website developed. A security policy will lay out the steps to take in the event of a security breach.
  
  
• 6. What's the physical security like?
  The local physical set-up needs to be taken into account, especially if you're storing important data. You need to make sure that the web developer takes this seriously. Find out where your server and data will be stored. Make sure it's in a locked, air-conditioned room. Only a select group of people should have physical access to any servers. It's no good if everyone can walk up to the machine.
  
  
• 7. What's the backup strategy?
  Find out what the backup schedule is. If you're storing critical data, then you'll want to make sure that it's backed up daily. The backup schedule should also include information on the type of backup being made, such as how often incremental backups are made, and how often full backups are made. It's vital not to store backups locally. They should be stored at secure off-site locations. Remember, if there's a fire, your backups will also go up in smoke if they're on-site.
  
  
• 8. How are transactions processed?
  For a lot of websites, the whole point is to sell goods and services to customers. While this is all well and good in theory, sensitive data, such as credit card details, needs to be kept secure. Find out from the developer how the site will handle credit card requests. Ideally, it's best if the website can perform real-time transactions, as this solves the problem of having to store credit card numbers. If card details do need to be stored, perhaps for return customer visits, then make sure that the data is stored securely.
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