Brochure-style Websites

The simplest, cheapest means of building an online presence is through a 'brochure style' website. Typically a 3-8 page website, brochure websites are usually just that - a read-only introduction to a company and its services.

There are obvious advantages and disadvantages to this approach. On the plus side, a brochure style website can be an affordable introduction to the online world. The main disadvantage is that it is difficult and time consuming to later add on extra functionality, such as ecommerce or a Content Management System for self management.

On the other hand, the best option for upgrading from a brochure website is to start again, building the new website to suit current needs, while allowing as much as possible for future upgrades.

Small Scale CMS

We believe that generally the best and most cost-effective option for establishing a web presence is to use a Content Management System (CMS).

One of the most important features is the ability to self-manage a site. Rather than paying a web developer to update content (which really is inefficient, both for the client and the developer), the power is in your hands.

We use Joomla, one of the best CMS solutions available as our system of choice. Joomla is an open source, award winning CMS with almost unlimited scaleability. As an alternative, we also offer Wordpress as a simple CMS solution.

With the ability to log into the administrative area of your site through any internet connected computer, you can add or remove content and add or remove navigation items as the need arises. Whether this is done on a daily, weekly, monthly or even yearly basis is entirely up to you.

Another advantage of using a Content Management System is expandability. While your site initially may comprise of information pages about your organisation or business, a CMS makes it very easy to add more complicated features later such as ecommerce, support/ticketing systems, forums, blogs and commenting systems, just to name a few.

Large Scale CMS

Content Management Systems can be used to power anything from a small business website, through to online shops, and even complex social networks and intranet/extranet applications.

While not every situation calls for this scale of development, it is well within the reach of this technology, and serves to show the flexibility and power of Content Management System solutions.