by Ben Berry, Project Manager

“Simplicity is complexity resolved.”

--Constantin Brâncuşi

At Extanto, project management is the ability to combine the arts of estimation, calculation, and follow-through, while staying on time and under budget.

There are certain components that are common to every project. We have standardized these components -- web site structure, navigation systems, methods for user interaction -- into processes that we re-use, saving you money and us time. We use that time on the parts of your job that are customized, that deserve and get our best creative effort.

Our process begins with requirements gathering, or finding out all the things that you want the finished product to do. We ask you about your needs, and then we listen to your answers -- and your questions. Our goal is to get a clear idea of what you want, what essential qualities the finished product must have. We focus equally on functionality and design in order to deliver results.

We work with you to define a project's constraints, which are the boundaries that define where a project ends. So for example, a given project might be budgeted for $10 thousand, be due in three months, and provide e-commerce transactions in both U.S. and Canadian currency. Not $12 thousand, not four months, and not EU currency. It's constraints are its limits, and while they are constantly in flux, some constraints have primacy.

At Extanto, we understand this, and know it's important for us and our customers to know a project's constraints, and which ones take precedence. Why? Because constraints determine the primary evaluative baseline of the project -- the criteria by which we make decisions mid-stream. Needs and requirements can change; knowing the constraints lets us make good decisions on what to do about those changes.

We recognize that no two projects are exactly the same. We believe that there is no one standard methodology which can effectively manage each project from its beginning to end because, to be effective and workable, project methodologies should be appropriate to both the task and the organization.

At Extanto, this is how we build quality into your project -- from the very beginning.

Extanto On Technical Marketing

by Marshall L. Moseley, CEO

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.”

--Ferris Bueller

Yes, I know, he’s a fictional character, but he has a point. Marketing has always been a constantly changing discipline. And I mean classic marketing -- mostly paper-based, with predictable time cycles, linked to old-school public relations, to newspapers and periodicals, but nevertheless with a history. Businesses often have a hard time getting a handle on it, though it’s been around a while.

Now comes technical marketing -- Twitter and Facebook instead of public relations firms, blogs instead of newspapers and magazines, web traffic and search engines instead of print and television advertising, and all of it happening in days or weeks instead of months. Sometimes in one day.

It’s not only difficult to understand, it’s difficult to see. It moves so fast. It pays to stop and think about how best to use it.

So let’s figure that out; but let’s first discuss marketing itself. What is it? What’s its purpose?

Marketing is a communications process between an economic entity and its target market. Its purpose is to generate revenue by convincing the market to buy goods or services from that economic entity. There are many permutations to marketing -- non-profits engage in it, for example, as do politicians -- but essentially, marketing is about communication that drives revenue.

Most of the time that means building brand identity -- either a company’s brand or the brand of a given product. The goal is to create recognition that ties your brand to the concepts of your choice, so that your company or product personifies those concepts in the customer’s mind. You do this by establishing a relationship with your customers and creating in their minds a persona of you that both reflects your values and communicates the benefits of your products or services.

Okay, that’s marketing in 140 words. What about technical marketing?

Technical marketing is the extension of your marketing efforts into online and computer-based venues, and is accomplished through technical means. It differs from classic marketing in that some types of technical marketing are only possible in a global, persistent, media-rich, and connected network. How do you market to millions of people who choose what they are viewing? How do you market to millions of people who are members of opt-in social groups that disdain advertising?

(The full answers to these questions are highly dependent on a given client’s individual challenges. But generally speaking, the answers are: provide something of value, such that your target audience will agree to view your messaging in return for an experience.)

At Extanto, we help you extend your marketing efforts into the technical realm. Our philosophy in creating and implementing technical marketing plans consists of the following elements:

• Develop a technology strategy. What you do may historically have nothing to do with technology. But in today’s age, regardless of the products and services you offer, you need to have a technology strategy. Online and electronic commerce have grown to the point where they are a systemic part of the worldwide economy. You must determine how your business will address and employ technology. Developing this strategy is actually independent of marketing, but any marketing efforts must either manifest or explain your strategy. (Extanto can help your company with its technology strategy, if that’s what you want.)
• Get your web site right, because it’s your number one marketing tool. More than advertising; more than word-of-mouth; more than Facebook, MySpace or Twitter. Your web site. It’s where people go to find out who you are, what you do, and what you can do for them. If they’re at your web site in the first place, you’re halfway there. Getting them the rest of the way -- making them satisfied customers -- is entirely dependent on what they find at your site. Aesthetically and technically, your site has to zero in on your customer’s needs and wants.
• Drive people to your web site. This consists of more than just placing the right keywords on your site for search engines to find (called search engine optimization, or SEO). You need to have certain types of content on the site; the site has to be placed with social news web sites like Digg, so that mentions of it exist outside of your domain. It has to offer reasons, independent of your products or services, for people to go to it. Your web site has to have a presence online, just the way your company has one in the physical world.
• Choose technologies to invest in carefully. There are many ‘hot’ Internet technologies that pundits push as the next great thing in marketing and advertising. That a given technology is popular does not mean its right for your business. Social media, for example, has shown decent returns on business to consumer (B2C) marketing efforts, but has proven relatively ineffective for business to business (B2B) marketing. Yet a recent well-publicized study, done by KnowledgeStorm, of B2B technology decision makers shows that between 50% and 90% participate in some type of social media.

Why the contradiction? The respondents in this survey are technology decision makers. In other words, people who are already inculcated in technology. Is that your market? Perhaps, perhaps not. But before you invest money in something like social media it pays to know if your customers are listening.

The smart play is to establish a set of tangible results that you want to see from your investment -- every dollar should result in so much of an uptick in site activity, or a certain number of viable leads, or even x percent increase in revenue. If the results aren’t there, pull the plug.

So...create a technology strategy, get your web site right, drive people to it, and spend money on other areas wisely while demanding tangible results. These basics provide a good starting point for effective technical marketing. And if you want our help, drop us a line at info@extanto.com.