All businesses have a need to communicate information about their products and services to potential clients and partners. In an ever-changing business environment printed material quickly becomes obsolete and many companies find themselves having to undergo costly re-purposing exercises whenever conditions change and the sales documentation needs updating.

In this scenerio an obvious solution is to develop a web site that can present information in an attractive and well laid out manner, and that can be updated to reflect changes in the organisation's offering.

This can then be used to support the sales activities of the business. Although, this can seem like a daunting prospect to a business faced with a bewildering array of solutions and technologies, there are a range of excellent resources on the web that can be used to plan an ebusiness strategy. All of these resources will stress the importance of "having a plan" and taking it "one step at a time"! 

In order to better understand what is different about Fanore Software’s offering it’s important to re-iterate some of the key issues that face companies that wish to develop a web site.

There are many solutions that claim to give businesses an economical and effective way of building and maintaining their web site. Prices for these solutions range from less than USD9.00 per month to over 100k with service levels ranging from complete DIY solutions to web based control panels and enterprise level data mining.

Picking the right solution can be confusing, particularly for smaller businesses that do not necessarily have the in-house technical skills to properly evaluate the options available. To this end we have prepared a relatively simple primer regarding how web sites work and what is involved in building an online business.

What is a web site?
A web site is a collection of materials that are presented using a special language so that users can access the material using a standard internet browser. In general, web sites are made up of images and textual content presented in a format that users can access regardless of their operating system, location or internet connection speed.

The contents of a web site are stored on a machine, called a web server, that is always connected to the internet. This machine will have a “public” address that can be accessed from anywhere in the world. For example; this web site is hosted on our dedicated web server based in a secure facility in Dublin, Ireland.

The space that the web site takes up is usually provided by third parties called Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) who charge a fee for providing the space and ensure that the contents of the web site are protected from unauthorised access. ISP’s fee’s vary based on the level of services that they provide.

Fanore Software relies on our ISP to provide dedicated bandwidth to our machine so that we can service the volume of traffic that our sites attract. We own the hardware and have complete control over the facility that we use. We also manage our clients "infrastructure" thus shielding them from the technical complexity of securing and managing a web server.

Why have a web site?

A web site is primarily used to communicate information to the user and should provide some level of interaction so that users get real value from taking the time to access the online resource.

Generally speaking there are six web site models that add value to a company’s bottom line. These can loosely be classified as follows:

• Information & Documentation
• Business to Consumer
• Business to Business
• Portal
• Extranet
• Intranet
  

How much does a web site cost ?

Although the actual cost of a web site varies depending on it's features, there are a number of generic factors that affect the price.

In any web site model there will be an initial set-up cost and then a running cost; in order to protect the value of the investment a project should have a clearly defined lifetime and a reasonable level of future proofing to ensure that sufficient value can be salvaged when the project reaches the end of it’s useful operational lifetime.

There are a number of steps that must be taken in order to prepare a useful eBusiness model. Depending on the complexity of the project each step will take varying amounts of time and resource.

The first step is to carry out a business needs analysis. This involves reviewing the immediate and medium term goals and budget of the business, it’s target audience and typical user profile. It also takes into account the level of technical resources available in-house and the technical infrastructure available (internet connection, network configuration, operation systems, computer hardware etc.).

This process can usually be carried out in-house in conjunction with a trusted advisor or consultancy company depending on the budgetary restrictions. This usually results in a business requirements document (BRD) that can then be reviewed to maximise the return on investment.

Cost Benefit Analysis
The BRD will often contain elements that are desirable but cannot be delivered due to budgetary constraints. The next step is to evaluate each of the perceived needs and set out the financial, procedural, and cost savings in terms of  benefits and efficiencies that would accrue.

Each of the requirements that have been identified during the business analysis phase must have measurable targets in cost savings and must have clearly defined implementation costs that can be used to prioritise the order in which the eBusiness project(s) will be delivered.

Other factors must be taken into account such as grant availability, technical expertise required, support services needed, level of in-house training needed and other issues that can quickly drive up the price of a seemingly innocent business requirement.

Evaluation of Solutions

Once the cost benefit analysis has been carried out and implementation priorities have been defined a business must now begin to look at the available solutions for the issues identified. This process must take into account the entire eBusiness strategy and proposed implementation time frame, to ensure that solutions can scale and evolve in line with requirements.

This process usually requires the input of trusted third parties with the necessary technical expertise to evaluate the various solutions. Both cost and efficiency must be measured as well as the likely evolution of technical architectures that will occur naturally in the marketplace during the lifetime of the project.

Each solution must have clearly measurable cost matrices that take into account the need for hardware, software, licensing issues, end-user knowledge, computer skills, general technology trends, cross platform compatibility, support, training and so forth.

When a solution has been identified that can deliver the immediate goals and can scale with the business model the business must then review the various providers of the solutions or services that will be needed.
 
A solution should always be vendor independent if possible. This means that the business is not locked in to a particular vendor and can extend or re-purpose the proposed solution independently of the company that provides it. This greatly increases the security of the investment and requires that the proposed solution use industry standard technologies and tools that can be accessed by third parties if necessary.

The Solution

Now that we’ve outlined some of the common issues that face a business that is seeking to implement an eBusiness solution, let’s take a look at how Fanore Software range of generic models can help to address some of the more common requirements.

One of the more important issues raised above is vendor independence.

Fanore Software have developed a web application engine which uses standard methods, that are familiar to many developers, to deliver and deploy web-enabled applications.

The engine provides a framework that any developer can use to deliver a database powered solution. The purpose of using a database is to keep the presentation of information, the business logic and the actual information stored as distinct entities. This results in an application where each of the layers can be extended, re-purposed or re-branded without the need for a costly redevelopment of the entire application.

By using industry standard technologies in this way, the application can be updated with ease by third parties; this is particularly relevant in ensuring that the program leverages maximum benefits from developments in technology.

Another feature of the Fanore Software solution is it’s modular format. This allows us to deliver solutions in stages, as dictated by the business model, and to re-purpose individual elements of the application to address requirements which evolve during the life time of the application. It also means that clients can avail of our pre-built packages which can then be customised or extended to facilitate a vast range of business models.

As stated above we have a number of pre-built packages that can address many of the "standard" issues that face a business which is beginning to develop an online presence.

Pricing is structured to provide SME’s with a flexible range of options that help to reduce the initial cost of implementing a solution.