It's time for a new website! Before selecting a company to provide your web services, there are many factors to consider. First, you will want to define, as best you can, what you are looking for in a website. Next, you will want to learn all that you can about the prospective service provider's company. Then, you will want to learn about the solutions that the company has to offer. Finally, you will want to learn about the longterm maintenance of the website and service of the company. Once you are well informed with all of this information, you will be ready to select the right web solutions provider.

1. WHAT DOES YOUR BUSINESS NEED IN A NEW WEBSITE?

What do you like/dislike about your current website?

What are the most desired actions for a visitors to take when they arrive on your site?

What image do you want your website to portray to your visitors?

What are some websites within your industry that have nice qualities?

What are some websites in any industry that have nice qualities?

Do you want to update your site with new information, news, events, photos, products, downloads and links?

Do you want to use motion graphics, video or flash?

What is your time line?

What is your budget?

2. COMPANY BACKGROUND INFORMATION

It is to your advantage to get to know your prospective service provider's business as intimately as possible. Learning about the company will help you clarify your expectations in all stages of the website design, development and maintenance process.

How long have you been in business?
11 years, since 2001

Where is your central location?
Chagrin Falls, Ohio

How many employees/contractors do you have?
Clay (Owner, Customer Relations, Designer); Thomas (Sales), Macklin (Content Management System Specialist); Grant (Custom Solutions Specialist); Josh (Video and Flash Specialist)

Are your employees/contractors local? In the US?
We are all located in Ohio except Thomas, he is in Kentucky.

How has your business evolved since it's inception?
We started providing very basic print and web design solutions, we have evolved into a full service shop providing custom solutions, management systems, motions graphics and more.

2a. COMPANY REFERENCES

It is very important to contact the references of any web design resource before you choose their services. You may learn that the prospective service provider has a history of raving, happy clients or exactly the opposite, so be sure to do your research. The most important thing about contacting a reference is asking the right questions.

Here are a few to get you started:

How easy is it to update content (text, photo galleries, products, etc.) on your website? Can you do this yourself or do you depend on the company?
Inventure creates systems that allow clients to control 100% of their content.

Did the company stick to the time line and budget presented in the proposal?
Inventure sticks to time lines and budgets.

When you email the company, what is their typical response time?
Inventure responds within a few hours, typically immediately.

When you call the company, do they answer the phone?
Clay Burnett answers the phone or returns the call within 24 hours.

Overall, would you rate the quality of your website compared to others in your industry?
Inventure strives to design and develop industry leading websites.

Overall, how would you rate the service of the company?
Inventure strives to be rated as an elite web services provider.

Can I call any clients in your portfolio to discuss your performance?
Feel free to call any of our clients to ask about our service.

3.WEBSITE DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT, & MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS

Doing some research on the solutions that a company is offering may save you time and money in the long run. If you are looking for a certain level of quality in design, make sure that level of quality is present throughout their portfolio. If you would like to have total control of the content of your website, make sure that you will have an easy-to-use system to do so. If you do not want control of your website, but want a dependable resource for updates and service, make sure that they are dependable.

3a. WEBSITE DESIGN

Who will design the website?
Clay Burnett will design the website and oversee the development process to meet your needs. Our design are 100% authentic and unique, setting you apart from your competition.

Will the designer work with us until we are 100% satisfied with the look and feel of the website?
Clay will present a unique design concept and work with your through revisions until you are 100% satisfied.

If you do not have a designer, will you use generic templates?
Inventure does not use templates unless a client specifically makes this request.

If you are using generic templates, how will ours be set apart and above of our competitors?
If you choose to use a template, we tailor the template to your brand, color scheme and style.

3b. WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT & MANAGEMENT

Will industry standard methods and technology be used in developing the website?
Yes. Depending on your needs we will use ASP.NET, PHP, HTML, XHTML, CSS and/or another technology. The implementation of this technology adheres to industry standard methods.

Will a CMS (Content Management System) be used to manage the site?
Inventure offers both standard and custom CMS options. A standard solution includes simple management tools for text, news, event calendars, photos, forms, products, and more. A custom solution can be built to meet your exact needs, no matter how complex.

If so, which one?
We install our own InControlCMS or a custom CMS. We always recommend InControlCMS or a custom CMS as we can 100% guarantee the up front and long term costs involved. We can install Wordpress or other “out-of-the-box” systems but we do not recommend these solutions as they lead to difficuly and sometimes costly maintenance down the road.

What do we need to know? (Copy/Paste, HTML, CSS, Dreamweaver)
You will only need to know how to copy, paste and upload files to control ALL of the content on your website.

Does the CMS have versions?
No. InControlCMS does not have versions. You will never pay for a version upgrade. When we make enhancements all of our customers reap the benefits immediately because our system is centralized.

Will it need to be upgraded regularly?
You will never need to upgrade InControlCMS.

What are the costs of version updates?
There are no version updates, so you will never pay for “Version 2.0”!

If not, who updates the site?
We do not offer solutions without CMS capabilities, so you will always be able to update your site.

Do we depend on the company to update the site at our request?
You will never be required to depend on us for updates, but if you need assistance, we're always here to help.

What is the turn around time for an update request?
We typically turn around content update requests within 24 hours, never worse than 48 hours.

Can we update the website using the right tools? (HTML, CSS, Dreamweaver)
You can use HTML and CSS within InControlCMS, but you don't have to.

4. LONG TERM MAINTENANCE AND COSTS

While building a website is one thing, hosting and maintaining the website is another. We have covered a few of the aspects of website maintenance in the previous section, so we'll truly focus on hosting and long-term costs in this section. Website hosting may be important to your company for a few reasons.

First, you will want your website to be visible any time, so up-time is a key factor. Second, you will want the information on your website and collected through your website to be 100% secure, so security is a key factor. Third, you will want to learn how people are using your website, so statistics are also a key factor.

Who will host our website?
Inventure is your website host.

Where will our website be physically located?
Dallas, TX or Columbus OH depending on the solution that we deliver.

Do you guarantee a certain amount of up-time?
99.99%

Will our website be backed up regularly?
Yes, every night.

Will our website be secure?
Yes. First, our Tier IV hosting facility has physical security, redundancy, battery backups, generator backups and on-site fuel storage, so it will never be hacked or go down. Second, we take preventative measure to monitor all activity across our servers. Finally, if you are accepting secure information over your website, we will install an SSL that will encrypt this data.

If we choose another service provider in the future, how easy is it to move the website?
Because we use industry standard methods throughout all phases of our process, anyone with up-to-date expertise will be able to take over a website in a seamless transition.

What type of statistics or analytics will be set up to track visitor statistics?
We install Google Analytics on all websites and it's FREE!

Do you provide email services?
Yes, we use Google's branded mail services to set up yourname@yourdomain.com and it's also absolutely FREE!

5. CONCLUSION

Now that you have this information, define what is most valuable to you and your business and go for it!