Does the following sound like a familiar situation?  You are at a planning meeting for the next Web development project your company is working on.  As is often the case with Website or Web application development, this project is very large, very complex and is taking longer than your team expected.  Because the project is stressful, your team starts to compromise, starts to make excuses why it is taking so long, or why it is so hard.  At the same rate, throughout the project, many new features and functions have been added to the scope of the project.  It seems this development project is taking forever!

Then, there is a pivotal point when a team member – usually someone with high-ranking status – says, “I think these (insert tasks and functions here) can wait until Phase 2.”  YES!  Although no one wants to physically show a sigh of relief, you can almost sense one.  Small smirks start to form on your team members’ faces.  Whew!  

We hear the term Phase 2 a lot at BitWise Solutions in relation to Website development projects and especially in relation to Web application projects.  We are working on very complex Web solutions and a lot of times our clients don’t have the resources to complete all the phases of development at once because of their timeline or budget.  So, in turn, someone will say, “Phase 2” and no one will dispute it.  Of course this helps us focus on key elements of the project; but I argue, is it better to do it all at once?  Is it better to spend the extra time, effort and money to get it right the first time?

If we wait until Phase 2 won’t we end up spending more time, effort, and money?  When we start phase 2, we will have to restart, reengage and spend more time managing.  Instead, it seems like if we did it all at once, we could have saved time and effort by keeping the momentum.  If we have more phases, won’t we spend more time than is necessary in quality assurance after the Website or application has been launched?  Wouldn’t it be better to spend that time looking ahead to see what might be coming and then innovate on the product with minor adjustments instead of entering costly additional phases?

No one wants to dispute Phase 2.  People think that by breaking projects into phases, it will enable the team to focus on the most critical parts of a project and we will complete those tasks so we have something to show.  But I argue, let’s not wait for Phase 2, or 3 or 4.  Let’s get it done all at once.  Let’s spend the extra time, money and effort getting it right the first time.  In my opinion, it will result in a savings at the end.   

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year in part because I love to give to others. I have been at BitWise Solutions for three years and each year this company has adopted a family in need with the United Christmas Service. It is truly a joy to collect items, go shopping, and wrap the presents for the family. But the greatest joy comes when you deliver the gifts, to see the smiles and overwhelming gratitude of the family is sooooo tremendous! Can you tell that I am a little excited about the delivery next week?  I also have a wonderful surprise planned for the mother of this family (I can’t wait).

Community involvement has always been a high priority of this company.  Since coming to BitWise, one aspect of my position, which I really enjoy, is that I am often involved in organizing such involvement. I have had the opportunity to participate in providing service to causes such as protecting against domestic violence, cancer research, education and the United Christmas Service. There are others in our office that sit on various community boards and we have given numerous charitable contributions over the years. My hope would be that the spirit of community involvement would be contagious among our employees.

The United Christmas Service has been serving families during the holiday season since the Great Depression when those with needs increased across the nation significantly and they have been assisting families in central Indiana since 1952.  As you know our current economy has caused a rise in unemployment which again increased the need for services such as the UCS to help those families celebrate Christmas. The United Christmas Service of Central Indiana would like to serve over 24,000 families this year and that can only be accomplished through the generosity of others.

While it is too late for your company to adopt a family this year, it is never too late to make a donation that can help families throughout the year. I would encourage you to mark your calendars for next October and adopt a family; the benefits of the experience are numerous and I would love to hear from you about your experience. Also, if you would like to help our adopted family, we will gladly accept donations and gift cards.  Thank you!

I know that I didn’t talk about what we do or what our services are like custom application development (oops, I just did) and many in social media would say this is a wasted blog. However, I would disagree with them for it is the human face of any company that is the most important marketing tool and ultimately will provide the best ROI- in BitWise’s case a giving heart.

A relatively new friend of mine, a smart guy named David, whom I met through Sigma Chi fraternity connections, recently asked me what I thought of human hosted sites, such as http://www.burdford.com,  http://www.phaneuf.net/ and http://www.csnh.com/. 

My initial reaction was to say that I think that the human host functionality is kind of cool the first time you visit the site that has it, but after that it gets kind of annoying.  David’s reply was that “for a [site] a user would visit routinely, perhaps the human host would be frustrating as it would get in the way of a frequent user.  I could also [imagine] it being annoying to a skilled web browser that just wants to find their own way to the information they are seeking.  But, for the new customer (you know the ones with money to spend and we are all working to attract), a well presented, informative approach by a human host can be an extremely effective way to deliver the message by ensuring the correct tone and completeness of the information presented.  For the frequent user, an easy "opt out" button would minimize frustration.” 

After more reflection, I think that my answer was influenced because most of my career in the technology field has been involved in business-to-business solutions.  However, for more “one-off” transactional Web sites that are consumer-oriented, then the human host solution may very well be a good fit, because it takes some of the benefits of video and personalizes the presentation.  However, at the time I replied to David that I would give the visitor the choice of whether they would want the “human host” to run and present the product/service.  Then, I would be more inclined to leverage a Website design that incorporates “live-chat” instant messaging with an option to opt out of the live chat and go to a call back by the firm to the visitor who was interested in talking to someone at that point.  I understand that not everyone can staff live chat all the time, but the “human host” option can “fill-in” in the interim.

David offered this interesting observation – “I continue to be blown away by the number of people that are starved for attention/human interaction/entertainment (i.e.: lots of lonely people)....somewhere in there is an opportunity….”    David is right. We are all just people looking to make meaningful connections with other people.  That’s why Facebook and other social media offerings have taken off in such a big way. 

That begs the question, if we were created to be social creatures and make connections with others, then how can we each do it personally with our co-workers? Our customers?  And, how can we make a better connection through a solid Web site design strategy?

Thanks to David for the dialogue.  I appreciate his thoughts and for those of you reading I’d appreciate your thoughts and insights around making better connections both online and off.