Archive for March, 2009

Web Design is Not Web Development

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

If you are considering taking your company online, consider what your specific needs are before choosing the company to implement your ideas.  Are you looking for web design or web development?  There is a distinction that needs to be made to remove the confusion about Web companies.  Web design is not the same as web development.

Web design firms are like graphic design firms for the internet.  They create visually-pleasing websites that focus on images, color, and layout.  The pages contain mostly static content such as company information and contact forms.  Most sites created by web design companies don’t actually DO anything.  They consist only of pages of information.

Web development firms are more like software companies, focused on writing computer code to give your website functionality.  This would include storing information in a database, creating charts on-the-fly to represent real-time data, and implementing secure login gateways to keep your valuable data protected from prying eyes.

If you simply want to inform the public about your company, a web design firm may be the way to go.  But if you want to give your users the ability to interact with your site, and receive feedback from your site, confine your search to web development firms.  These can be recognized by their experience with scripting languages such as PHP, ASP, or JSP to name a few.

Why Your Business Needs a Database

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

The modern age is all about information.  He who has the data, has the power.

New information is being created every second of every day from every one of your business processes.  From sales and purchases, to  inventory adjustments, employee actions, and customer inquiries, data should be organized and stored away for later analysis.  What you do with that information can determine your success for failure.  Information ignored is information lost.

So how do you retain the valuable data that is flowing through your business?  A properly designed database can store, manage, and serve all of your data at your command.  Through a web interface or a standalone software application, you can add data, modify as you see fit, and retrieve it in a myriad of forms to help you make more informed decisions.

The database itself is composed of tables - each table holding specific, related information.  Each table is broken down into fields - like cells in a spreadsheet - that hold the actual bits of data.  All of this data can then be tied together through the use of queries, or questions, posed to the database.

If you ever wanted to know on what day of the week you have the most sales, it becomes a simple matter of asking the database.  If you need to know which employee has used the least number sick days, but only out of the employees that have been with you for over two years, just ask the database.

The value of instant data at your fingertips becomes apparent the first time you need to know something, you press a key, and the information presents itself.  That is the value of a database.

Real-Time Internet-Based Inventory

Saturday, March 14th, 2009

Inventory tracking has come a long way since the days of pencil and paper. We have now moved into the realm of virtual data and all the efficiencies that provides. We can now communicate changes in stock levels the second a sale is made or replenishment takes place.

Imagine one of your salespeople gets ready for a big sales meeting.  He/she checks the current inventory level of Product A and sees 1000 units available. The salesperson makes the sale and 800 units are instantly removed from the current inventory. Another salesperson at another clients office wants to sell the same product. He/she now sees that there are only 200 units available. How embarrassing would it be for both salespeople to commit 800 units each with only 1000 available? But with this real-time knowledge, the second salesperson knows not to commit to more than 200 units.

Along with instant data comes secure storage of records. No need to worry about losing valuable data because someone lost the tally sheet, or because the desktop computer that ran inventory program crashed with a year’s worth of inventory history. Data can now be stored on secure servers in multiple locations. If one copy was destroyed due to catastrophic events, there can be a back-up in another location ready to be accessed by everyone in your company.

All of this can take place via the internet and a website. The website acts a front door to the data which can be accessed by anyone you chose with varying security and access levels. You can hide it from prying eyes or make it available for the world to view. Your choice.

Inventory data can be tied directly to manual sales, online sales, shipping and receiving, or any other system that can modify current levels. The only limit is your imagination.

Welcome to the IT.Blog

Saturday, March 14th, 2009

The IT.Blog is an internet technology weblog presented by Marblehead Software to educate businesses and individuals on how to harness the power of the internet to increase productivity and efficiency.

We will add new articles regularly, so please check back often to learn the power of the internet.