Advanced How To Guides

Developing your first website

Introduction

This is a Beginners Guide designed to take you through the steps involved in developing your company's first website. There's so much hype about the Internet that it can be difficult to know where to begin. If you are considering putting your business on the net, then the best advice is to spend time surfing yourself so that you are comfortable with the basics of the technology and familiar with the way in which other companies are using the net. Unless you develop an understanding of how the Internet works in practice and the way in which it can benefit your business, it will be almost impossible to develop a good on-line strategy. Without this understanding it would also be difficult to talk intelligently to the people who will build your website.

The Internet has a multitude of uses - you can search for answers to almost any question you can think of, send messages and documents across the world in an instant, shop for goods and services in another continent, visit art galleries, play games, chat, download free software or even gamble. And your business can benefit hugely from the Internet - by operating more efficiently, cutting costs and ultimately competing more effectively. Crucially, the Internet has become an invaluable business tool used to sell and market products, to deliver support services, to acquire customer feedback through inviting comment and surveys, to publish data and for everyday correspondence. Indeed, the Internet is fast becoming as integral to business as the telephone. Almost every enterprise, from the biggest to the smallest, has an email address and many now also have a website on the World Wide Web, the most successful and widely used part of the Internet .

Technology as a catalyst for change

The role of technology in developing of a successful Business Plan is of major strategic importance. An online presence is just one of the applications for IT. However even the development of your first website can radically affect your opportunities;

• Having a website will raise your visibility to potential customers and partners.
  For example customers looking to buy on the Internet , or to research a purchasing decision will find the websites of your competitors and may buy direct from those sites. Companies seeking partners for collaborative projects will find information on your competitors and will contact them rather than you- unless you are online. This may well be invisible to your company until it's too late.
  
• Unsuitable or inadequate technology can mean that your company is without the communications systems, which it needs to compete efficiently.
  For example, your company may have sales reps, delivery workers or maintenance workers who are travelling and need access to company information such as inventory lists, whilst on the road. In this case wireless access to a constantly updated inventory database will increase customer service, productivity and more than likely, sales. If you go for a basic brochure website at the outset, you may have missed an opportunity.
• The lack of an integrated, centralised customer and sales database may make it practically impossible to make plans to carry out the regular, effective, and large scale direct marketing that competitors conduct.
  For example, competitors who are making personalised marketing offers to their customers and to people who have visited their sites, are increasing sales while building brand awareness and loyalty. Can your company match this strategy without suitable technology? Steps to take to Develop Your First Website
  There are a series of things you need to do in order to successfully develop a website from scratch.

These include
1. Develop an eBusiness Strategy Document
2. Develop a Website Strategy Document
3. Develop a Brief for your Website
4. Get Online before your website Goes Live!
5. Manage the Development Process

Look to the Future