Questions you may have about your website
Montague WebWorks recognizes that there are a variety of customers out there. You are now a potential customer too! Let's see what your needs are, and see if we can help you...
Small Business Owners, looking for an inexpensive, quick-turnaround, easy-to-maintain website
These are some of our favorite customers. They know what they want, aren't hung-up on the look-and-feel asthetic too much, just want to pay bottom dollar and get 'er done. If you have a clear idea of what you want to say, and just need the vehicle to say it, with a minimum of hand-holding, we can turn you around in a couple of days and get you going -- for cheap.
Yes, there is such a thing as quick, cheap, and quality. It's our RocketFusion platform, "Contractor Edition." You choose from a library of existing website layout templates, we set up your site with your domain name, give you an hour of in-depth training (mostly about general web stuff -- the software is a cinch to use) and off you go. No fuss no muss. If you have questions you call us. And you always have access to our free monthly refresher training classes, typically held at the Greenfield Grille.
Price ranges for this level of service is rediculously low, considering the power of the engine that runs your website for you. And you can save more by going to any of the local Save 30 stores.
Mid-sized Business Owners, or those looking for a more comprehensive website-building experience
This is the typical customer. They want a website, and they have an idea of what they want it to do or say, but don't have the time or the experience to get it down on paper. Or they have a good idea of the look-and-feel asthetic they'd like to have on their website. For them we also use our RocketFusion product, but with more modules, and more hands-on help from us.
This is the mainstream. We thrive on these customers, and enjoy spending a little more time with them. Typical turn-around time is a few weeks (seriously), assuming the client sets aside time to work with us. We help develop the "voice" of the site with them and may bring in our designers to coax a look out of the client's brain.
Price ranges for this level of service depend on the scope of the project. Please call Mik at (413) 320-5336 to talk about your project, or contact us using the Contact Us form. We'll get right back to you.
Larger Companies, Municipalities, Mid-sized Non-Profits or any entity with departments / committees, or anyone with a higher-level of customer / constituent interactivity needs
This is one of our favorite things to do. We are very community-minded here at Montague WebWorks, and absolutely love to install / deploy our WebWorks Community Server platform. The possibilities for its uses are nearly endless. It takes a little more skill to run such a website, and we can help you with that if you don't have anyone on hand to do it, but the end result is worth it. With a single-logon system connecting all the group functions, both for administrators and end-users, you cannot beat this thing with a stick. Even a big one.
Price ranges for this type of project depend on the expected number of users, groups, functions, storage space, and on look-and-feel asthetic needs. You can get one reletively cheap if you're looking for something small and a stock layout, but to really have something worth writing home about we'll need to talk.
Call Mik to get a run-down on what this baby can do. He's always ready to talk, at (413) 320-5336
Why use a proprietary CMS and not open-source CMS, and what's the difference anyway?
There are several issues surrounding the topic of proprietary vs. open-source CMS (Content Management System) code for websites. The open-source community argues that there is a whole community of people writing the code and the modules, that the customer doesn't have to pay for the code they use, and that it is "portable", meaning the customer can move from one hosting service to another and bring their website, including all the underlying CMS source code, with them. This is not typically an option with proprietary systems, although some hosts do allow a "purchase" of the code-base to allow such a move.
While these are valid arguments, they are certainly not the only ones. Proprietary system proponents can cite their full-time focus on the software they write, and thus their intimate relationship with the underlying code-base, and their complete freedom to modify the code without having to pass it through a far-flung community of unrelated people who are focused on the general well-being of the code-base, and not your specific needs.
Additionally, the vast majority of website developers who use open-source CMS are not fully trained to implement the software they use, and often times they do so incorrectly or inefficiently, or the module code is buggy. They are also unable to make modifications to the codebase, for fear of "leaving the stock code-base pack" -- essentially rendering your software install incapable of being upgraded when upgrades become available. That means your site won't be upgraded unless someone else, completely unrelated to you or your website host or developer, writes new code for a general audience, when they feel like it.
Lastly, unfortunately, when you have a "horde of developers" creating modules for these open source platforms, such as Drupal and Joomla, you often wind up with scads of function modules that simply don't work. But don't take our word for it, here's a discussion group that laments this very issue:
http://ask.metafilter.com/131535/Drupal-vs-Joomla-vs-Wordpress-vs
In contrast, Montague WebWorks is continually modifying and upgrading its code-base for both packages it licenses, and for the specific needs of its customers. As a customer you are guaranteed to always have the very latest version of the underlying CMS code-base, and to be hosted by someone who has intimate knowlege of it and is capable of adding any new website feature you want -- and have it work. We are the authors of the software, we answer to no one but you, and we know what we're doing.
In the end, you're more likely to get a better value from what we have to offer than from someone who knows a little Joomla, regardless of the price. And we never, ever, rely on other websites for functionality. We build-in all the functionality so you don't have to go elsewhere to get your tasks done.
We designed our website software specifically for small business users to be as brain-dead simple as we could make it, and we're constantly making it easier and easier. Plus we give free monthly refresher classes.
Call Mik if you have any more questions on this topic. He's always ready to talk, at (413) 320-5336
Posted: Tue, Mar 17, 2009 09:50 PM
Updated Tue, Feb 7, 2012 12:00 AM
