Managed Web Development is bringing specializations together for TurnKey projects (see, CBC Affiliates). Whether your site is a "makeover" to second generation electronic marketing, or a new entry to take advantage of inexpensive DSL access for hosting on your own LAN, server or PC, we can manage the project as if we were one of your organization's departments.

CBC's unique amalgam of top-level executive management experience offers longer term planning capability for electronic marketing strategies. "Managing" long term Web Development from initial corporate presence sites to intranets, Extranets and virtual private networks poised for electronic commerce is starting small, but poised for the next century. "Managed" Web Development allows you to start and grow as you need - we provide the jump start with hands-on project management that integrates the needed web specializations to get you into the 21st century.

Turn Key Web Sites

Web sites appear straightforward enough: use some off-the-shelf software to create graphics and copy and you're on the Internet!  Is it that simple? CBC creates custom web sites. The directory of site samples below go beyond "Yellow Page" profiles to present unique business identities.

see, CBC Web Site Samples

CBC helps you establish and maintain a dynamic, interactive, highly visible business web site by first assessing your company's needs and then guiding you step-by-step through the design and implementation process. Whether your target market is global, national or just Northern California, CBC's web hosting and connectivity solutions provide an affordable, powerful Internet presence.

CBC clients receive the advantage of Single Fee,TurnKey Web Site Developments. Turnkey means all of it, from consultation - true business planning -  through site strategies and graphic designs to database backends and site marketing - even setting up Internet access for your LAN, single server, old or new. The link we'd suggest is the latest advance for inexpensive Internet hosting -  DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) if you're not now connected. We will even test market the site on our servers before turning the keys over - with orientation and administrative training.

Web Site Investment Ranges

A free preliminary consultation will narrow a development fee for your needs quickly - Contact us.

• Simple presence or product-sheet sites, with art and photos supplied, can start at $500 when navigation is streamlined.
• Well executed corporate information sites can start at $1,500 - $2,500, depending upon art, photos, number of pages and navigation complexity.
• Dynamic (interactive) sites tapping newly created databases for data entry or information display, plus an E-Mag  for added site dynamics, can start in the $5,000 - $10,000 range.
• Extranets, or newly created sites needing to tap established corporate MIS systems can start as low as $15,000 and range to $100,000 and more.

Also, see CBC Project Fee plans for Web Development.

Why TurnKey? Consider that a graphics designer with corporate image know-how may not appreciate the nuances of integrating electronic administration into a sales or marketing department's help desk. Or that an writer's E -Mag copy or sizzling "point of sale" headlines don't correspond with the graphics produced by the site's artist or the flow of the site's design.

What about any data capture from inquirers -- where do they go? To whom? How? Does the site fit corporate management's perspective for market positioning? Will it serve the corporate image by helping to secure an increased credit line, or will it seem a frivolous expense? What about competitor repositioning?

In a world where bright web site developers and programmers are relatively abundant, the most significant importance of a web site may be missed: Its ability to help a company plan and manage projects. Instead of constructing sites that either passively present information or do not connect a company's various parts into one whole, conscious web site developers take into account all of what a company is. That means they are able to talk to owners and managers in their terms -- with an understanding of their daily problems with marketing goals, "iron on the floor," inventory imbalances, internal communications, order taking and customer's relations. Without that understanding and integration, web site costs skyrocket. Each member of the management team -- financial, marketing, administrative -- is separated from the other by the structure of the site. Meanwhile, management becomes frustrated with run-ups in hourly charges as the developers are brought back again and again to solve a problem they cannot see.

It's CBC's ability to bring creative talents and seasoned business types together -- a team that's up to managing site development -- that makes us confident quoting first-time development projects on a single-fee basis. It's our job to bring it in on time, meeting original objectives without changing terms and conditions as time wears on. And we do mean all of it: from site strategy and creation, to administrative implementation and installation on either your or our Internet servers! Contact us for a preliminary assessment.

Consulting - Planning and Management

CBC's top-level managers can help, with everything from business planning and "Electronic Equity Marketing" to defining Internet marketing goals and the creation of sophisticated Extranets. 

Whether you are looking for equity capital, a public web site or enhanced productivity through the use of a corporate intranet, we can help guide you through the challenges ahead.

The Internet has become one of the most confusing issues business leaders must deal with on a daily basis. They have many questions, few of them with clear and concise answers. For example:

• Should all of our employees have Internet access?
• Should we have a public web site?
• Can we raise equity capital on the Internet?
• What benefits could be achieved for our business by using the Web?
• Does our business need an intranet or an Extranet? (And, by the way, what is an Extranet?)

Our consulting services will assist you in determining what benefits your organization can achieve through the use of web technologies, and develop a full cost benefit analysis.  Once you are convinced of the benefits available to you, our design and development services are available to create your site using the technology that is best suited to your environment and requirements.

Once your securities registration or web site(s) are ready, we work with you to select the most appropriate method of hosting your site and ensuring that both site and marketing support is always available. 

We believe that it is more important to select the correct tools for each client than to try to fit every business into the same mold.  Our consulting services will help your organization sort through the technology by looking at your true requirements and the cost benefits of using any of the technologies available.

We can prepare a Preliminary Analysis for Equity Offerings or an Internet Technology Application Report which will show you if there are potential profit-generating opportunities for your company through the use of Internet technologies, and which tools are most likely to generate an effective solution for your business. 

In addition to consulting reports, we will help you prepare a request for proposal for any development efforts that will be required to bring your new Internet or intranet site to life if we believe your project is beyond CBC's scope.

Before you start spending on research or development, take the time to get an informal, no cost opinion on the benefits of using Internet technologies by your company.   For more information on how to get started just use our Information Request Form or call us at 707-579-8986.

Design

The design and graphic content of your web site are critical components of your effort to present a message and image to the public. Yet, the objective remains - unobtrusive graphics to support information delivery that leads to action - sales!

   
The Challenge

A typical web site has one of two design problems:

• The site consists of elaborate page layouts and graphics, but contains no real information. Creating a well-balanced site is a major consideration in attracting and keeping your audience.

How do you avoid these problems?

The Solution

CBC Web Development Services provides the business planning and design experience needed to develop the format that will ensure a successful site. Based on a review of your business requirements, our design team creates - or assists in creating - the "look and feel" of your site, and developing the custom graphics you require.

Your site plan will include details on the following critical topics:

Site Layout Recommendations
Site layout will determine how visitors will navigate through the information that you make available.  The site layout recommendation also provides sample page layouts that will present a visually appealing and effective web site.

The Approval
By reviewing and approving the site and plan, you can be sure that the web site you are purchasing will meet your stated requirements before development begins.   Additionally, CBC Web Services can work with you you create a request for proposal (RFP)  for site development to ensure that you are always getting the highest value for the dollars you spend.

Publishing:

CBC’s E Mag Concept "Orchestrates" Web Site Visits

The online newspaper, Provocateur, is what CBC Communications Corp. calls an "E Mag." A E Mag performs a combination of functions that help web site visitors find their way around smoothly. Think of a E Mag as a host, newscaster, symphony conductor, librarian

"E Mag is a concept that can be applied to any web site," says Patrick Totty, CBC Editorial Director, "because it not only performs the functions described above, it performs another service that is a life-and-death matter for any web site: It keeps it new.

"Once people come to your web site, unless there is something to draw them back again, they’they'll visit only once or twice. But most of what you put on a web site is static - you don’t constantly change your address or product mix or message. How do you get around the fact that most things on your site aren’t new? You need some ‘dynamic thing,’ some element that’s always changing. That element is an E Mag, which can greet visitors with updates, analyses, commentaries and introductions that show what’s new with your company."

Totty says an E Mag can be as a company wants. "You can have your clients set up a private channel to your web site and send them alerts whenever there are new items or topics on your site. You can use an E Mag as a newsletter that goes out over the Internet rather than through the mail. You can include almost anything you want in an E Mag, from  items like employee birth announcements to serious position papers on your company or its industry."

A good E Mag is like a newspaper or news magazine. It not only delivers current news, it has a sort of "institutional memory" that lets it refer to past events and tell readers where to go find those sources. Its compartmentalized organization of topics and news helps people easily navigate the information it offers.

"We’re happy to show any of our clients how to set up and run an E Mag," says Totty. "We think they’they'll find that it is not only a wonderful way to keep a web site lively, it also taps energies and talents within a company that may not have been apparent before."

See: E-Mags Concept Energizes Web Sites

Knowledge DBs

Relational Database Management Systems/Data Warehousing

Knowledge Management is the art of turning Information into knowledge.

Many organizations assume that since they are providing employees and customers with volumes of information, that they are satisfying the "information sharing" requirements of their business. Unfortunately, the electronic era has made so much information available on every conceivable topic, that information overload is a common problem in virtually every business.

Knowledge Management is simple to describe, but is difficult to achieve:  It consists of a corporate structure, management philosophy and appropriate technology that can convert raw information into knowledge that  the appropriate people can quickly and effectively use .

CBC Web Services can help you develop a Knowledge Management Plan by showing you ways to use a variety of web-based technologies to consolidate information, and then turn the information into usable corporate knowledge.

Our experience in designing and deploying corporate information systems, combined with our general business experience, will help you build a new corporate asset that will move you ahead of the competition and confidently into the future.

EC Preparedness

Read Provocateur's Electronic Commerce white paper!

Creating web-based applications requires an understanding of technology and business rules. Database design is critical for use on the Internet plus verifying security requirements prior to development.

Web-based applications are gaining significant acceptance behind corporate walls for performing business functions that previously relied on more costly technologies. 

Now, as the technology improves, web applications are becoming viable outside the corporate environment, providing the ability to deliver any application to millions of potential customers. . .instantly.

Many people relate web applications to electronic commerce, which they see as the sales of hard products that must be physically delivered to a consumer.  Although electronic commerce of this type has accounted for the majority of web applications to date, new applications are appearing that provide a variety of functions, including:

• Customer/Vendor Information Sharing
• Cross Company Workflow Processing
• Financial Transaction Processing
• General Data Processing
• Data Search, View and Retrieval

The basic rule of thumb today is "If it can be done on computer, it can be done across the Internet."  Although this is a good rule of thumb, companies need to carefully evaluate the viability of any web application from the standpoint of consumer acceptance, performance and reliability, and data security. 

Once these factors have been considered, the next challenge is selection of the tools and methodologies that will be used to construct the application.  Our web application technology review will help ensure that your application is developed in a manner that will satisfy your business requirements, provide sufficient flexibility for the future, and allow maximum exposure and availability to your intended audience.

Once you have decided to proceed with development and have selected the tools to be used, the detailed design of your application can begin.  History shows that, as with traditional software development, web application failures can all be traced back to poor design efforts.  You need a design consultant who understands software development and how to deal with the unique design requirements of web-based applications. 

CBC Web Development Services can help you through the process of evaluating and developing your applications for use on the public Internet, or within the safety of your own company's intranet or virtual private network. 

In the meantime here's some exploring you can do with some reading we've copied for your convenience.

DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)
NT/DSL Installation