Jan 10
John DonovanCompany News, Technology
ASP.NET, CMS, content management, IIS, Microsoft
While the vast majority of my time is spent in the LINUX and OS/X world, I recognize that there’s a huge number of sites that use Microsoft IIS and ASP.NET for their web delivery platform. One of the things I’ve found missing for the IIS/ASP.NET environment has been a flexible, cost-effective, and reliable Content Management System (CMS) … with the emphasis on COST-EFFECTIVE. Many of these systems have placed themselves out of the reach of most small businesses.
I believe we’ve found an application that fills that hole and provides a strong, flexible package that can serve the needs of those users that *must* use IIS/ASP.NET (for one reason or another). We’re evaluating the package now and will let you know more about it here, once we’re satisfied.
Stay tuned ….
Jan 06
John DonovanCompany News
SEO, sitemap, tune-up, update
As we launch into the new year, its a great time to review our website to ensure that it is as-effective as it can be in delivering your message to potential customers. It is not uncommon for images to be stale, content to out-of-date, and links to be broken. Maybe a new coat of color would help enliven the site and give it a fresh *new* look and feel?
Do the search engines (Google, Bing, etc) know about your site and show your listing with your targeted search keywords? Has your sitemap been updated recently? Are your pay-per-click (PPC) adverts producing the results you’re looking for?
We can help you tune-up your site for the new year and put your website back to work for you. Our team of designers, developers, and search engine optimization (SEO) experts can help you get the most out of your web presence.
Contact us today for more information.
Dec 15
John DonovanCompany News
handyman, website update
I had a long-overdue coffee with some colleagues today, in-which we discussed how our businesses have ‘matured’ over the past couple of years. One of the trends we’re seeing is that business (small businesses especially) are often in-need of a ‘tune-up’ for their website. A complete redesign is sometimes cost prohibitive – especially as business owners are looking for the best places to focus their time and money, as we work our way out of this recession. However, a few tweaks and changes to your existing website can produce a dramatic improvement in its effectiveness.
We’d love to help you fine-tune your website’s look and content, so you’re getting the most return on the investment you’ve already made. If you don’t have a website for your small business – perhaps now is the time to make a small investment in the growth of your company. We can provide solutions for all business sizes – from the single home-based entrepreneur to large business … so visit our Contact Us page and drop us a note.
Oct 28
John DonovanCompany News, Technology
barcode, Microsoft, QR code, quick response code, Tag Reader
One of the more interesting things I’ve seen from Microsoft recently is the Microsoft Tag technology – which they claim will “Connect Real Life and the Digital World”. Its actually a pretty cool type of ‘bar code’ that can be easily read by your mobile phone – from a computer display, hard copy, photo, or any other medium-resolution display device. Once you’ve downloaded the (free) Tag Reader application to your mobile device – simply point the phone’s camera at the tag and you’ll have instant access to the website, text file, or vCard (contact information) associated with the tag.
While the technology is quite young and its impossible to predict how ubiquitous these tags will become …. the concept is interesting and the cost is nearly nothing to implement
. I’ve recently implemented a tag for a client which we hope will drive traffic to a new mobile portal for their organization’s site. There isn’t enough data yet to know if its working – but we’ll keep a close eye on the stats to see if this is something to pursue further.
You can download the Microsoft Tag Reader application by browsing to http://gettag.mobi on your mobile phone browser. Its available for most ‘smart’ phones for free. Once you’ve downloaded and installed the app – give our Pacific Crest Mobile tag a try. I’ll be interested in your feedback.
Oct 08
John DonovanCompany News
In addition to being a great blogging tool, WordPress is becoming a very powerful Content Management System. Besides creating a ‘blog roll’ (much like the one you’re reading), the system makes it easy to create static pages, interactive discussion forums, calendars, and a whole host of creative pages for your website.
One of the things I find very powerful in this platform is the ability to create custom database-driven content – such as lists of locations, affiliates, inventory, real-estate listings, etc. User-defined fields may be defined, organized, and presented in a number of ways – allowing the site owner to easily add and adjust the information being presented to the reader … all without having to involve the developer.
If you’d like to learn more about transforming your static website into one that you can easily control and keep updated, send us a note – using the Contact form. We’ll be happy to help you transform your tired, static site into a dynamic web presence.
Sep 11
John DonovanCompany News, Technology
I’ve just returned from WordCamp L.A. – which was a day-long conference for WordPress developers, administrators, and users. It was a great opportunity to network with a wide audience of WordPress professionals – all focused on getting the most out of this powerful content management system.
We learned quite a few new tricks … all of-which I’m itching to try out in the sandbox server. The most exciting news from the conference is that WordPress is very-much alive – with lots of active development going on and a strong developer community that is finding ways to collaborate and make the WP foundation even more powerful.
This isn’t your grandfather’s WordPress people!
Jul 29
John DonovanCompany News
We have recently partnered with David Foster – The Design Advocate to produce a new look-n-feel for the online store for a national restaurant chain. David and his firm provide full-service design consultation services for small and medium-sized businesses – from architectural drafting and design, corporate identity, branding, websites, and marketing materials.
We look forward to future projects with The Design Advocate, as we expand the portfolio of gifted designers we collaborate with.
Jul 06
John DonovanCompany News, Technology
We recently completed a project for a client that needed a solution for capturing inventory transactions at a remote location. We reviewed a number of handheld scanners and settled on the Metrologic Optimus SP5500 handheld scanner. The beauty of this device is that it is completely self-contained – so able to scan, store, and upload barcode data in a standalone device.
Captured barcode scans are transferred to a local file on PC, then uploaded to the database on the server, using a custom PHP application developed by DCP Partners. Once in the database, the transaction data is used to produce inventory reports and for integration with the client’s online store inventory.
Contact us if you’re interested in learning more about custom applications to make your business more productive.
Jun 23
John DonovanClient News, Company News
The Concord Blue Devils are the reigning and 13-time Drum Corps International World Champions … and have just recently released an iPhone application that includes a news feed from our DrumCorpsPlanet site. We created a custom PHP script that generates an XML feed, as well as the specially-formatted content pages, for the application – pulled from the Joomla content management system.
It was especially exciting to see that the BlueDevils iPhone app was featured on the Apple ‘Start Page’ this morning – which receives some 2 Million hits per day. Talk about getting some great exposure! Congratulations Blue Devils!
Jun 22
John DonovanCompany News
The 2010 drum corps season is upon us. How do we know this? Our flagship site, DrumCorpsPlanet.com, has seen its forum traffic explode over the past week. At one point last night, we had nearly 1200 users in our discussion forums – all discussing the latest events in the drum and bugle corps activity.
We have also recently released our mobile application (mobile.drumcorpsplanet.com) – targeted at the iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and other mobile device browsers … perfect for those users that would like to keep-up with the latest news and scores from the Drum Corps International and Drum Corps Associates circuits.
Older Entries Newer Entries
