For those of you who find some, or hopefully all, of what we did interesting, I thought I would take this opportunity to not only introduce the new design, but also give you some background on how we created it. Let’s start with the homepage. To the right you can see a static image of our “Metro” theming, if you go to the actual page you will get a better idea of what’s going on.

The blocks on the top and bottom give you more information when you hover over them and are clickable to their respective areas. We are making an assumption that, with so many of our target audience using smartphones, what might have seemed confusing a few years ago, is more intuitive today. We contemplated using “live tiles”, but thought it would be too much going on for the browser version and saved that for the mobile version, which I will talk about in a bit. The six panels in the middle show a portion of a title, which we hope intrigues the visitor to hover over them at which time they slide open to highlight a featured solution or service. We have also placed our social media connector links at the top of this and every page in the site to encourage sharing.

As of this writing, this site has over 70 pages of content, not including the blog, so our challenge was to try and present a lot of information in such a way that a visitor would get neither lost or overwhelmed, at least not too much.

The internal pages all share the same layout to make navigation easier. Across the top are the same main navigation buttons leading the the primary sections of our site. To further aid in navigation, we have a breadcrumb line just above the navigation band so users know where they are at all times.

We also color coded each section. When a visitor is in the Consulting section for example the top of the sidebar reminds them of that, also all of the links and hover effects are in the “Consulting” color, orange. The sidebar also has sublinks to the other main areas of Consulting for the different services we offer. On each of the main page content headers we used a large image of a person or people in a setting that felt appropriate for the area. For the sub-sections we used a color coded header without an image so we did not overuse the image idea.  Moving down the sidebar, we are using a quote rotator to flash testimonials throughout the site. The footer, which is on every internal page, shows visitors our most recent posts to the blog which are dynamically updated, we also give them an opportunity to signup for our newsletter asking for no more than an email address, we reiterate our contact information, and lastly we show our upcoming webinar schedule, which is also dynamically populated.

One area where the sidebar is different is on the Verticals subpages. We made the assumption that if you are involved with, for example, Banking, and you clicked on the Banking vertical link, you probably were not interested in the other verticals. So on any vertical subpage, instead of showing links to the other verticals, we instead show links to blog posts and/or case studies that were tagged with “Banking”.

I mentoned that we have over 70 pages on this website, but in addition to a lot of pages, many of these pages also have a lot of content, the banking page is on the verge of having too much text for someone to read at once.

People are funny, if they get to a page with too much information, they will usually click off, but if that information is broken up and served in pieces, they usually will consume it. So we employed a few tricks as you can see in the content body section of the Office 365 page on the left. First off, we broke a large amount of content into collapsable sections. The visitor is only asked to consume a small amount of content, and at the end is presented with a headline for another small section of content. Before you know it, they could have read the Gettysburg Address.

We also linked our marketing and demo videos to icons which launch the videos in frames floating over the content so it feels like less content.

I want to briefly talk about our Contact page as there is a lot more going on there than meets the eye.

The basic layout is the same as all the other pages, but in the sidebar we added the social connector links and our phone number and info email. The Contact form looks pretty normal, but it’s what happens after someone submits it that gets interesting. First of all, submitting this form does a lot more than just send us an email alert and add them to our mailing list, it also adds them to our Microsoft Dynamics CRM system as a new lead. In our CRM we can create all kinds of workflows that trigger automatically. For example, if our contact form included a dropdown box for people to make a selection for say… their particular industry, CRM could have triggered a workflow to add them to a special list for that industry, and maybe automatically sent them an email with links to any case studies we have on that particular industry, etc. There are all kinds of very granular things that can be done here.

In addition to these CRM capabilities, we also have built into our site some tracking capabilities. Each page of our website contains tracking code, not unlike Google Analytics code, but this code sends data to our CRM. Every visitor to every page of our site is tracked… yes if you are reading this, it’s too late. But not to worry, at this stage all we know is your ip address and what pages you looked at. But if you were to submit the contact form, or even the newsletter form, bammo, all of your viewing history gets connected to your lead record in our system. We can see exactly what pages you looked at and for how long. So don’t even try and act like you don’t know who I am when I call you.

Okay, enough about the browser based version of our site, let’s talk about the mobile version. As I said at the outset, this was one area I was never happy with so we wanted to get this right.

We really liked the way the Windows Phone operating system looked, we recently upgraded all company phones to the new Lumia 900 (which is awesome by the way). The operating system is very intuitive and easy to operate, so we flat-out ripped it off. If you go to our site on any mobile device you can see how it works. We incorporated some of the live tiles, without overdoing it. Very quicky a user can see the 6 main areas we want them to get to on a mobile device. The mobile version of our site has fewer pages and less content on each page understanding that a mobile user usually is just perusing, and if they are really interested will probably go back to our site when they are at their desk for more information. So the whole site is somewhat abbreviated.

Again the interior pages of the mobile site all have the same look and feel and are color coded like the main site. One of the things that you have to think about in designing for mobile is the fact that there are no “hover” effects on a mobile version, so you cannot rely on that technique to guide visitors. There is also not a lot of real estate for a navigation system on the internal pages, so we used a “menu” button which drops the navigation down over the page.

We contemplated making an app, for about a minute, and decide a mobilized website was the better way to go. It only requires one version to be viewed on any device.

So there you go, I hope you like what we have done, if it inspired you at all here is a list of the pieces. Unfortuantely, you cannot simply install all these pieces and have a similar site as we heavily modified everything, but if you are good at HTML and CSS you can probably figure it out, if not, I would not bother trying, instead call us, lol.

Platform: WordPress Version 3.3.2 Free

Base Theme: U-Design $35.00

Plugins:

Jetpack Free

Microkids Related Posts Free

Related Posts by Category Widget Free

Testimonials Widget Free

WPtouch Pro $49.00

Contact CRM and tracking aspects: Contact Us

Forceworks

Over the years, Microsoft has proven to always be “late to the party”, but once they arrive, they historically seem to just take over. Anybody remember Lotus 123? The number 1 selling spreadsheet application untill Excel got its legs. Where is 123 now? How about Wordstar or Wordperfect… you get the idea.

Each front has ramifications that interest me. On the Apple front, Microsoft has fired off the latest Windows Phone and Skydrive, aimed squarely at the iPhone and iCloud. On the Google front, in addition to the Windows Phone squaring off against Android, Skydrive is a pre-emptive strike on G-Drive. But these are minor skirmishes compared to the Google Docs vs Office 365 battle for supremacy in the productivity realm. Then we have the salesforce.com front and Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM Online sniper attack.

None of these wars are won, in fact far from it, but Microsoft is a slogger with an army of over 750,000 partners carrying their banners into battle. We too, have been assimilated. We recently put aside our salesforce.com banner, and picked up the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online banner.

Why? The bottom line… cost. As you probably know Software as a Service operates on a subscription model. Instead of a large upfront Capital Expense for software, you incur a small monthly Operating Expense for software. At Forceworks, we believe this is the best way to access software, and we are committed to the SaaS model. So, back to our decision: Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM is just plain cheaper than salesforce.com… on every front. The monthly, per user, subscription cost is less than half, but that is only the obvious part of the cost difference. Most companies will eventually want to customize their CRM to better conform with their business processes. This is the main line of work that Forceworks provides. The cost to develop on Dynamics is orders of magnitude less than on salesforce.com. Clients not only get the customizations at a lower cost, but also, they can get done much faster so the client can put their investment into action sooner. What’s the catch? We have not found one yet. We have yet to run into a situation where Dynamics was unable to perform some task or function that salesforce.com could. In fact, quite the opposite. Just take the Outlook integration for example. Dynamics integrates with Outlook natively, right out of the box. Salesforce.com requires third-party extensions, at an additional cost, just to provide a half-assed integration with Outlook. I could go on, but suffice it to say, we have been converted.

On the Google Docs front, I have to first confess, I was never a Google Docs fan. I liked the anywhere access part of it, but I dd not like the tools. Having used Microsoft Office for too many years, I was just too comfortable with the fully featured products. I mean you can’t really compare any of the Google applications to any of the Office applications. Comon, Google Presentations vs PowerPoint… Get real. Then last year Microsoft catapults Office 365 right into Google’s camp. Again, changing to a SaaS model offered via the cloud. Google’s troop’s knees are knocking now. Exchange via the cloud vs G-Mail is a no-brainer. Plus, Microsoft is approaching this from a hybrid standpoint. Where Google is all or nothing (no connection=no work done), Office 365 includes the full desktop versions that continue to work offline.

Okay, I know I am sounding less like a Cloud Evangelist, and more like a Microsoft Evangelist, but from where I sit, Microsoft is doing a lot of things right, and I have seen what they have done in the past when they were late to parties.

Forceworks

Quick Overview:

• Available to Office 365 Enterprise subscribers
• Hosted by RIM directly links to Exchange Online service
• BlackBerry Business Cloud Services offer mobile access to synchronised email, calendar, contacts, tasks and memo pads.
• Integrated Administration through the Office 365 Admin Portal.
• Online access to employee self-service smartphone security functionality to remote wipe or lock a device in the event of theft.

More Information is available at www.blackberry.com/cloudservices

Forceworks

There is a reason so many companies are using software and servers that are 1, 2 or 10 versions behind the current ones. Fear! Fear of cost, Fear of downtime, Fear of data loss, Fear of losing your job in the wake of an upgrade catastrophe. Are these fears legitimate? Absolutely, as all of the above can easily happen. Do you have a choice? Can you keep using what you have indefinitely? Probably not.

How about some Anxiety Therapy? To overcome any fear you need to face it. But let’s not face it with yours. Let’s use an example of another organization… stings less.

A few years ago I was a Volunteer Counselor with SCORE. SCORE is a national  organization that is funded by Congress to help small businesses for free… a noble and excellent organization.

Now SCORE was founded in 1964 and I think some of their data systems were just as old. SCORE provided their chapters with a database system for logging their client meetings and chapter administration, but over time, many of the over 400 chapters had developed adjunct systems of their own. Most had a website of their own and many had other calendaring and contact systems they had implemented. SCORE had evolved into what seemed to be 400 separate organizations. So the higher-ups in Washington lobbied Congress and received a grant to develop an entirely new “modern” system and move all the chapters onto it. I was invited to Washington to head the Testing group on the team charged with this undertaking. Armed with a boatload of cash, SCORE settled on Drupal for their CMS and Salesforce for their backend system.

SCORE had a legacy database of millions of records in an antiquated system, one that the more than 12,000 volunteers hated, but were at least knowledgeable of. We were to recreate this system in Salesforce. We were also developing an organization-wide website in Drupal where each of the chapters would eventually do away with their own websites and instead have a subsection within the Drupal CMS for their chapter sites. Just to add a little complexity, let’s add the fact that SCORE originally stood for “Service Corps Of Retired Executives”… so the average SCORE volunteer was not particularly tech-savvy.

In the original plan, we were going to bring over a few chapters at a time, and over a period of many months we would have everybody on the new system. The problem, was with the migration from the old database system to the new Salesforce system. Since they were going to migrate in phases, they could not turn off the old system and keep fully audit-able records (a requirement of Congress). Users would have to enter their data in both systems until the transition was complete. Needless to say, this did not go over well with the volunteers, in fact it sparked just short of a complete revolt. So a decision came down from somewhere that the only solution was to move everybody at once, and on a certain day everything would be switched over.

Can you imagine the Chaos? Well I could, and I decided my “volunteering” was going to become a full-time job so I left the project to watch the Titanic from the shore. The day came, the switch was flipped, and the predictable turmoil ensued. Within a week SCORE had been forced to switch back to the old system. Millions of dollars had been spent and they were right back were they started! I have not kept up with where the project is today, so I cannot say if they ever figured it out, but in any event some clear lessons should have been learned.

So what are the lessons? Granted, this was an enormous undertaking… no doubt far more complex than your switching one CRM for another, but the biggest lesson still applies to you. Where the SCORE project failed was with the concept of:

Old System > Migrate > New System

What else could they have done? How about:

Old System > integrate > New System > Phase out old system

Where SCORE’s logic was flawed was with the idea of just “flipping a switch” from an old system to a new one. Instead, what they should have done was to integrate their Old and New systems. Synchronize the data sources and let them run in tandem. There would be no loss of data as both systems would actually have all the data. This way chapters could transition over time, and eventually, after everybody was comfortable using the new system, they could have just phased the old one out.

Integration is the key and you will be hearing a lot more about that concept from me and others is this space because “Integration is the antidote for Migration Anxiety”.

Forceworks

Some of you younger whippersnappers may not remember the days when data was stored in file cabinets. That’s not a metaphor, I mean actual metal file cabinets. It’s true! In the olden days, we used to have rooms full of them.

We had a cabinet for employee records, another one for customer records, and others for tax records, financial records, payroll records, marketing records, sales records, active projects records, closed project records, old Elvis Presley records… let’s just say lots of cabinets.

If I wanted to get an accurate picture of a particular client relationship, my secretary, Doris, would go to about five different file cabinets and copy pieces of paper and staple them all together and hand it to me.

Then one day, software showed up and we started keeping records in folders on hard drives. Of course we did not trust software so we still kept records the old way also. ironically, technology actually added to our workload. My, how far we have come.

Now we have multiple applications for every aspect of our business, and most of our data today is stored electronically in various databases. There is only one file cabinet left for those items that for some reason we still feel we need a hard copy. We have applications for everything: project management, ERP, Payroll, CRM, Business productivity, website CMS, email, document management, etc, all neatly storing their respective data in various databases and electronic folders.

But something else has changed to; now if I want to get an accurate picture of a particular client relationship, I have to do it myself, because Doris has been deprecated . No problem, I am now a technology whiz. I’ll just pop open my CRM and click on the client name. Ah, there it is, all of my info on Acme Corporation. There’s my list of contacts, all of my marketing letters, all of my communications… wait a minute, where is the info on that project we are doing? Oh yeah, that’s right, I need to login to our Project Management System for that… there it is. I wonder how much we have billed this client so far on this project?… umm, where is that information… ah-ha, it’s in our ERP, let me login to that. Where is it…. hmm, looking…looking… ah there it is, they misspelled the client name. Wait a minute, this still shows the CEO as Bob, but Bob left last year. CRM shows Bill is the CEO. I am starting to miss Doris.

All this technology, and I still have the same problem as before. All these data repositories are the same as the old file cabinets… separate. Suddenly the door busts open and here’s this dude in a blue cape screaming “I AM INTEGRATION MAN !”. Seriously dude… a cape? “Sorry” he says, and takes off the cape, and sits down and says what I need is to be able to integrate all these silos of data. “Let them talk to each other” he says and I picture my Project Management application hollering over to my ERP system and saying, “Hey ERP!, Bob is out and Bill is in at Acme… get with the program”. And ERP says, “oops, sorry, I’ll change it so our data matches and I’ll also let CRM know when he gets back from the gym”.

I kick back in my chair and imagine all of my silos of data talking to each other, comparing notes, becoming “one” really, and gossiping about the old metal file cabinet, “those handles are so 70′s”. I open my eyes and look up to see “Integration Man” putting his cape back on and walking out the door… he turns slightly and I see emblazoned across the back of his cape… “Forceworks“.

Forceworks

The Microsoft Partner Research Panel is made up of a limited number of Microsoft partners who are invited and agree to participate in the research program. Forceworks will be sharing opinions about Microsoft products and programs with the company. Forceworks’, as well as other select partners’, insights and suggestions will help shape Microsoft offerings.

Forceworks

Tampa, Fl, MARCH 01, 2012:  Forceworks is pleased to announce the addition of two members to its Advisory Board: Brent C.J. Britton and Ron Laker.

Brent C.J. Britton, an IP Lawyer and M.I.T. Graduate, is well known in local technology circles as a speaker and Founder of Gazelle Lab. “I have known Brent for many years” said Steve Mordue, Co-Founder of Forceworks, “the opportunity to tap into his wisdom is an invaluable asset for us”.

Ron Laker is the former CEO of Trademark Metals Recycling and current CEO of Next Century Studios. “Ron is a proven, successful business leader who revolutionized an entire industry” says Chris Bianco, Co-Founder of Forceworks, “we could not be more thrilled to have access to Ron’s insight and guidance as Forceworks continues to grow”.

ABOUT FORCEWORKS

Forceworks is an industry pioneering consulting firm, helping mid-sized to enterprise organizations accelerate the adoption of Cloud Computing. Forceworks has forged partnerships with the nation’s leading “Software as a Service” providers. The firm specializes in teh implementation, integration and customization of Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics and Salesforce.com. For more information go to www.forceworks.com.

Forceworks

“Software should work like electricity”

This was the opinion of Brent Britton, a technology lawyer and Forceworks Advisory Board member. “I plug a lamp in and it works, I don’t even think about what’s going on behind the outlet”. At lunch, with Chris and I, Brent had blurted out the perfect analogy for Software as a Service.

It’s true, we take electricity for granted, we get a bill every month for what we used, but other than that we pretty much ignore it. We certainly don’t sit around contemplating its source, or how it gets from that source to our outlet.

But it was not always that way. One of the reasons that so many old factories were built next to rivers was electricity. Due to either cost or lack of availability, many factories had to generate their own power on site with water wheels.

Eventually, modern power plants were developed, powerlines were stung, and it was easier and cheaper just to connect to the service provided and shed the maintenance and operation of the on-premise solution.

Today’s Software as a Service solutions offer the same benefits. Whatever those factories’ purpose was, you can be sure it was not electricity generation. Just like, whatever your business’ purpose is, I am sure it is not I.T. management. If anything, I.T. is a distraction from your purpose. What if your mission critical software just worked… like electricity. You paid a monthly bill, logged in, and your software was just there, 24/7, on any of your devices, from any location, with no effort on your organization’s part?

This has been the promise for cloud based software solutions for years now. I feel for the pioneers that blazed the trail before us… SaaS was a tough sell in the early days. I’m glad I waited until it was a no-brainer to jump on the train.

Forceworks

Cloud has become a four letter word.

Frequently when we meet someone and mention “cloud” computing, I see their teeth grit. “I had a horrible experience with the cloud” they say. After a few more questions, it becomes obvious that what they were involved in was not “cloud” at all, but rather something they were told was cloud.

Let’s say that you had never eaten steak before (apologies to the vegans, but it’s just to make a point). I told you that I was an absolute expert in steak, a true connoisseur, and I would hook you up. We meet up and I am taking you to the best steak place in town. As we pull up, it is obvious that I know what I am talking about, you can tell just by the name of the restaurant… “Steak ‘n Shake”. Don’t get me wrong, I like a Steak ‘n Shake “Steakburger” every now and then, but to compare that piece of meat to a bone-in ribeye… well, let’s just say it is not the same. Not the same at all.

The word cloud has been applied to just about everything in technology these days. According to Wikipedia:

Who is to say what is, or isn’t cloud? All I can speak to is our definition, which is similar to the above. I think the biggest differentiation is “Where is your data?”. Is it down the street at some local hosting company? Or is it somewhere safe and solid. Our “Cloud Services” are one of two places; on Salesforce.com or Microsoft. Huge data centers, with global redundancy, run by the biggest operators on the planet. I know I feel better. The issues of data safety and security are not a concern for me, how about you?

Let’s just take an easy example to illustrate the cloud confusion: Hosted Exchange. Given the complexity and cost of on-premise Exchange, it is not surprising that a lot of companies have looked at the hosted option. What a lot of people hear from are local, or even national companies offering Hosted Exchange as a service. Basically, they have installed Exchange on their servers and they manage it, instead of you. This is all well and good if the company you contract with is a big operation, with appropriate controls and backups in place. But for every big operator with the right setup, there are hundreds of fly-by-night operators running cobbled together systems in their garages. In the world of website marketing, you cannot tell who is a big operator from the fly-by-nighters by looking at their website, the internet is the great equalizer in that way. Hosted Exchange is basically a Software as a Service Cloud offering. What many people do not know is that Microsoft recently started offering Hosted Exchange directly via their Office 365 product. I have a feeling this has a lot of the other guys more than a little worried. I mean, who would you feel more comfortable with, a third-party hoster, of any size… or Microsoft, the people who created it?

Microsoft is one of many global technology companies to embrace the cloud delivery model, it is their primary focus right now. Along with Salesforce.com and Oracle, SaaS is the fastest growing technology today. Yes. if I were a third-party hoster, I would be nervous too.

As businesses move over to “Cloud” solutions backed by these global operators, with flawless operation at massive cost savings, I expect “Cloud” to move off the dirty word list.

Forceworks

“In today’s hyperconnected world, customers need to be able to access their business-critical data on the device of their choice from wherever they are,” said Dennis Michalis, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, in a statement. “These advancements, combined with the strength of the Microsoft platform, make Microsoft Dynamics CRM an obvious choice for any business.”

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Q2 2012 service update also includes enhanced social functionality and new enterprise-class features, and adds multiple Web browser options for users, including Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, running on PC, Macintosh, and iPad devices.

Using the cloud-based, cross-platform, native mobile client service, users will be able to sync their information and sales pipelines offline, helping them stay connected on the road.

Through the xRM application development framework of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, users will also be able to mobilize their extended CRM applications by having seamless integration between Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile and their existing Microsoft Dynamics CRM environment.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile will be available at a starting price of $30 per user, per month and supports the use of up to three devices per user.

Building on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM November 2011 service update, the new release will include more social capabilities with Activity Feeds that give people the ability to like and unlike status updates, improved status filtering, and the capability to view all statuses relating to a particular record view.

CWR Mobility partnered with Microsoft to enhance the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile product.

“Consumers and businesses are more dependent on advanced mobile solutions and distributed environments than ever,” Michalis said. “CWR Mobility’s Mobile CRM solution enjoys strong acceptance among Microsoft Dynamics CRM users, and with this partnership and the new Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile solution, we are delighted to deliver the most advanced cross-platform solution for mobilizing CRM in the industry for our customers.”

“Until now, Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers requiring cross-platform native mobility were obliged to rely on CWR Mobility as a third-party vendor,” added Mark H. Corley, CEO of CWR Mobility. “By adding the advanced capabilities of CWR Mobility’s mobile solution to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft will make it much easier for businesses around the world to get closer to their customers and stay there.”

Microsoft will offer Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile to customers with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online deployments as well as customers with on-premises Microsoft Dynamics CRM with Internet Facing Deployments (IFD) who would like to run their mobility solution in the cloud. The cloud-based service will provide a cross-platform native mobile client solution for Windows Phone 7.5, iPad, iPhone, Android; and BlackBerry mobile devices. Microsoft Dynamics CRM partners will be able to offer this solution to their customers in these deployment scenarios.

CWR Mobility will continue to offer CWR Mobile CRM to Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers with on-premises deployments as well as Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 deployments. CWR Mobility partners will continue to be able to offer these solutions to their customers in these deployment scenarios.

As CWR Mobility continues to evolve the capabilities of CWR Mobile CRM, these enhancements and updates will also become available in Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile.

Among the many capabilities combined in this single solution are the delivery of the familiar Microsoft Dynamics CRM user experience in native mobile applications that run on users’ own devices, constant access to CRM data regardless of network connectivity (online, offline, and hybrid modes), automatic background synchronization, productivity features such as mobile dashboards, mapping and navigation, integration with native mobile applications, multi-device access, and easy deployment through popular mobile application marketplaces. IT features include a multiplatform, metadata-driven and server grid architecture that is managed entirely from within Microsoft Dynamics CRM, enables zero IT-touch software upgrades, allows for scalability, fail-over, load balancing and data center operation in the most demanding environments, and provides multi-tenant hosting support, robust security and support for LOB/XRM applications.

Forceworks