#FocusOnBestPractices
Every website begins with a dream; picking a best-in-class platform is the first step to making your next generation dreams a reality. The next is to develop a short and long-term plan for the required functionality and new features you need to improve the customer experience.
Must have: Essential features for your organization
Examples include: Everything in use on your current site, and any features that have been in high demand from your internal and external customers.
Nice to have: New features that would make a big impact
Examples include: Features in Kentico that attracted you to the platform or other items that can immediately benefit your users
Want to know more: Exciting functionality for further discussion
Examples include: Initiatives you haven’t considered yet or online marketing techniques that you’d like to experiment with before you fully implement.
A best-in-class website requires input and guidance from key stakeholders throughout different departments of your organization. Ensuring your team members have the right expertise, are committed to the project, and work well together is critical to the overall success.
Marketing
Provides overall vision, goals and direction for the next generation site.
Information Systems
Ensures the site is developed to meet organizational standards for security, stability, and scalability.
Creative
Confirms compliance with brand standards and provides guidance for design and imagery.
Editorial
Curates current website content and creates new content to engage visitors and achieve your objectives.
Additional team members
Representatives from other departments with an interest in certain functional areas or sections.
A website redesign is a great way to push your brand forward and launch an updated logo, graphics, or other elements, but branding can also be a potential pit fall if your logo isn’t finalized or you’re going through an overall refresh. We recommend ensuring any branding work is completed before your website project starts to avoid any impact on the timeline and scope.
A website redesign is also an opportunity to revisit and refresh your website content, updating and removing old pages,creating new ones, and re-positioning how you communicate with your target audiences. The time required to create great content—and get approval from your internal stake holders—can slow things down as well. Get started on content curation before you begin the project, and consider the following to improve your results.
Every website needs a home, and a .NET based solution like Kentico comes with some specific requirements. If you’re current site uses Microsoft’s .NET and SQL server architecture, you probably don’t need to make a change, but if you’re using an Open Source solution, you’ll want to make sure its compatible.
Fortunately, there are no shortage of cloud-based, co-located, on premise, and other options. We recommend the Microsoft Azure Cloud for optimal performance, stability, and ease of management, but Amazon Web Services and other platforms are equally viable options.
If any of this sounds like a foreign language to you, contact the Information Services representative on your team for help with translation.
The majority of Kentico websites are developed by third-party vendors, but not all partners offer the same combination of service, expertise, and experience. Also, many Kentico-certified partners actually out-source the work to third-parties themselves, meaning they may not have the in-house experience they’re advertising—and you might be paying a premium on their pass-through costs. Perhaps even more confusing, Kentico developers include marketing agencies, technology companies, and even freelancers, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
While the ideal partner will vary based on your unique needs, here are a few questions to better understand and evaluate their experience and expertise.
Kentico CMS is a leading Content Management and Enterprise Marketing Solution on Microsoft’s .NET platform. It has been recognized by Gartner, Microsoft, Deloitte, and Gleanster, and is the only fully integrated, all-in-one solution that allows you to rapidly and effectively improve your customer experience.
KORCOMPTENZ is your to tal technology transformation partner, helping you engage your customers and prospects, enable your business, and accelerate your results. Request a consultation to learn more about our web and marketing technology services, business management solutions, mobile apps and custom development, and infrastructure management services.
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Drupal CMS is one of the world’s leading content management systems, powering best-in-class digital experiences, and allowing organizations to “make something amazing, for anyone.”
Kentico Xperience CMS is a leading Content Management, Enterprise Marketing, and eCommerce Solution on Microsoft’s .NET platform
