Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Online Reputation Management – Social Media Outrage

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

There  has been a lot of outrage in the news recently over various events whether it be Jeremy Clarkson’s rant about strikers on the ONE show or the recent outcry regarding comments on the Wright Stuff. The internet and especially Social Media has been used to highlight peoples’ outrage or otherwise. We have become a nation of armchair critics and it is affecting business. So can we protect ourselves both in our business and personal lives from attacks on our reputation.

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Challenging your clients is good for them

Friday, November 18th, 2011

In any project we undertake, whether it be a content managed website or a complex business system we like to challenge our clients as to what they want versus what they actually need. But does this approach actually benefit them? We certainly thinks it does.

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Web developers and designers dependancy on libraries

Friday, November 4th, 2011

Web development seems to rely more and more on frameworks and the underlying source code seems to be getting heavier as a result.  Having worked along side website designers for a number of years I have noticed how they use pre-built kits like jQuery more and more and regularly see this listed on their Curriculum Vitae.  Is this a good thing or not?

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Should software companies charge for maintenance agreements?

Monday, October 10th, 2011

I was listening to the Radio 4 – The Bottom Line – again, recently ( I’m getting quite into R4 – must be an age thing)! The  Chief Executive of Sage was on saying that they could almost give the software away as they make their money through the service agreements; is this right?

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Invest in the un-sexy back-end systems

Friday, September 30th, 2011

I was listening to Brent Hoberman from lastminute.com fame on Radio 4 the other day when he gave some very good advice. He advised businesses not to forget to invest in the “un-sexy” back-end systems. I wouldn’t couch it in the same terms but his advice is very good.

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Facebook is watching you, the new big brother 1984?

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

A number of people, who are of a certain age, or older (my age) have said that youngsters seem to live their lives in a fish bowl; they question the need for people to tweet what they are doing at any given time. Perhaps this is why marketing directors – in their forties and over – struggle to understand social media and the role it plays these days. Facebook announced their new time line that will be launched over the next couple of weeks, that will encourage users to fill in the gaps, so is this a step to far and are the older generation right to be sceptically (phew, managed to pull that one together)!

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Staring in the face of adversity – some tips for surviving the recession

Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

If you listen to the media at the moment, we are heading for economic collapse that could potentially see the end of the euro and a number of countries – including Greece, Italy and Portugal – go bankrupt!  On the other hand, if you are trying to find a 5* hotel for a weekend break in Devon or Cornwall, you’ll struggle to find a vacancy (even at the really expensive hotels in Salcombe, Padstow, Looe and alike).  So what is going on and why are the media been so down beat?

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Designing for your target audience

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

Playing around on the new company iPad 2 recently, I have been surprised at the amount of websites that still use Adobe Flash. I don’t mean the odd use of Flash, but entire sites built using it, preventing me  from using them. Madness you say!

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Generic Top Level Domains gTLD’s – A fuss over nothing?

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

The internet is an ever changing landscape and it is a constant battle to keep up with the changes without the feeling you are getting left behind. For many businesses, who have better things to do – such as running their businesses – it is often the case that they become targets for some unscrupulous companies / individuals looking to make a fast buck through fear and uncertainty.

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What is function led design?

Thursday, August 25th, 2011

I was watching a You Tube video recently that was promoting the benefits of function led design. This reminded me of where I first came across the approach that we use at Ayrmer Software to successfully drive forward both our web and software projects.

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