Driving in Brazil is a bit different than driving in America. It is perhaps hard to understand these differences until you have experienced them but I will try to convey a few of the differences and then make some unique comparison with how it is similar to Joomla, Drupal or Wordpress portal development project.
While they have many of the same laws for driving, in Brazil, they are not as strictwith enforcing these laws so driving is a bit like the wild wild west. Every one seems to be beyond impatient and they are pushing to pass everyone and often "get nowhere fast vs. someplace slowly". There is an unofficial imaginary lane for passing where you are just expected to get out of the way if a car is passing and coming at you head on (Big Trucks included and there are many). Not a place where you can win "The game of Chicken". The biggest violators are motorcycles since they seem to dominate this 3rd lane even on the curviest roads with the busies traffic and inhibited sight lines for oncoming traffic. Driving a motorcycle though can get you to your destination often in a fraction of the time than with other vehicles. Though there are many accidents most folks drive bumper to bumper and fearless to the consequences. The first time I road as a passenger in Brazil I never let go of the upper right handle and I felt incline to say a sincere prayer prior to getting in to any vehicle. My 7 year old son has two words for driving in Brazil; "impatient and maniacs".
In the world of web development I see several similar contrasting approaches to developing a web site and the same "maniac and impatience" type of behavior. Most folks are in far to much of a hurry and they too drive their projects fearless to the consequences. I often see folks burn up a lot of time and money going too fast with little thought of the impact or steps involved to make the best decisions. I know everyone else is in just as big of a hurry but making a fatal mistake will leave you frustrated on the roadside as others pass you by. Technology and globalization are moving forward in near chaos as folks are trying to latch on to where they want to be in the world of the web, what lane to travel on and which vehicle to drive.
One of the things I like about the not so recent trend to use content management systems such as Joomla CMS, Drupal or Wordpress is that these sites are dynamic and allow you to respond quickly in real time. Joomla! CMS in particular is very flexible and offers over 6500 extensions. While this is a great opportunity, if you run off like a maniac installing every cool widget and extension you can find this can create a big mess and leave you on the sidelines starting over or cleaning up a lot of garbage. Our Joomla CMS team has many of times been tasked with transforming Frankenstein into sleeping beauty and it is not often an easy or an inexpensive feat once the monster has been created and presented to the public. On the contrary, since this is Open Source code and a global community of developers have contributed so much already, you can build just about anything imaginable with less cost and in shorter development cycles. Make sure though you think through the features that are most important and research the components you are using for compatibility and usability.
One thing that Joomla CMS and other Content Management Systems do is they allow you to progress like the unofficial 3rd lane in Brazilian traffic to charge in front of your competitors by getting information presented quickly and dynamically. However, you have to be careful as you scoot through the windy roads and limited visibility so that you do not lose sight of making sure your portal is secure with proper upgrades and support. In other words "wear a helmet and be careful when you try to pass". One fatal mistake is to think you can just "turn on your car and drive without caution." Folks with the most successful Joomla Drupal or Wordpress portals realize that ongoing maintenance is part of the cost of doing business online and they budget monthly for technical or development support and proactive security maintenance.
Building your Content Management System and presenting your content is also still a bit like the wild wild west since doing business online is now global in nature and while the technology allows us to connect and interact with each other the laws and governance are still being sorted out. There are a lot of maniacs called "hackers" that are trying to "Game the system" and disrupt your initiatives. This past year alone hacker activity is reported to have increased over 600%. There are though a growing set of web standards to prevent this and to allow developers to respond to vulnerabilities quicker. One of the most encouraging aspects of working with Content Management Systems in general and particularly in the Open source community is an incredible sense of collaboration and cooperation.
In conclusion, there are a lot of approaches to driving down the road of success and getting the right balance of speed to market with the thoughtfulness of ongoing security and maintenance. If you combined this with careful planning it will get you further down the road with less cost and risk. You need to be aware as standards and technologies evolve so you can protect your online investment and continue moving forward at a reasonable pace and in the right direction. Do not let impatience or some other maniac on this ever changing road of technical chaos dictate how you should respond to the marketplace or present your content. Best in my book to remain calm, aware, responsive, thoughtful and move with cautious aggressiveness.
I am working remote this month from our office in Brazil. One of the things I am growing accustom to here is siesta, which is a 2 hr break in the middle of the day from noon to 2pm. As an American, when I first experienced this I thought it was rather inconvenient since I was used to working through the lunch hour and it always seemed to be when I was able to get the most done.
Well it has taken several trips here now for me to get used to it and rethink my planning of a regular work day. However, what I have found is that it can actually help me be more productive with less stress and better insight since the "down time" time allows me to recharge a bit and enables me to be able to jump back to my work with new perspective and fresh ideas.
When I think about this concept I can not help but notice how the same mindset or process can be effective with Project Management. The tendency with most projects is to charge forward and get everything done in as short of a life cycle as possible and then transition into maintenance mode. While there are many advantages for this methodology there is also value in shorter spurts of forward progress with brief cooling off or reflection periods to help you gain perspective and evaluate where you are and where you are going. This can reduce the potential for mistakes and add more insight and creativity to your outcomes.
Of course every project is unique and there is not a cookie cutter solution for every project. There is value though in taking time in your process to reflect in a way that is not under intense pressure for a deliverable.
There is a old saying about "not seeing the forest through the trees" and it is my opinion that a little "Siesta" at appropriate times in your project life cycle is a good idea for seeing both with clarity.
Building a Joomla web site can be a daunting task if you realize all that the Joomla CMS framework is capable of. We have broken this down into seven easy to follow steps that can get you started in the process of achieving superior results with your new portal. We hope this can help ease your mind and provide a simple process and approach.
Step One: Defining your business goals. The first step in this process is to clearly understand what the goals are for investing your time and money into this project. What quantifiable results do you want to achieve with this initiative and who else will be involved in the process of achieving these goals. Very much like starting any new business you want a clear understanding of your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats).
Step Two: Defining your Project Plan. Once you have a clear idea where you are going you need to develop a stratgic plan for getting there. Project plans need to consider where you want to go both short term and long term with this project. It needs to have a focused and phased approach that takes into consideration your available time and resources over time to sustain this project. It needs a timeline and content acquisition checklists that will help you stay on target and on focuse with your priorities.
Step Three: Defining the Look and Feel. The firs actual development tasks with your Joomla Project are to define your design and choose your template or process of implementing one. There are three key parts of a template you need to consider. 1. Graphical design elements: Colors and style 2. Layout options: “Wireframes” or in Joomla terms Module Positions 3. Features and Functionality: Standards compliance, special modules and capabilities. It is important to realize that the Joomla template is a foundation for which you will build your site and you need to consider this decision carefully. However, you can easily change templates in the future with often little effort
Step Four: Defining Content and Navigation Now that you know how you want your Joomla web site to unfold, both from a design perspective and from a roadmap ahead you can start mapping out the intended content and collecting any graphics or generating article copy. Typically you will want to bring every page of content into an offline document that can be edited prior to inserting into your new site. Sometimes if this is a site redesign you can cut and paste from an existing site. If you plan to get the most out of search engine optimization you will want to get targeted keywords generated and pass these on to your authors for consideration in developing the copy. Now is a good time to think about the Sections and categories for which you will organize your content and how you want your users to navigate with the best possible user experience. It is a good idea to use a mind mapping tool to define your site navigation.
Step Five: Features and Functionality With a clear understanding of the content you want to present and manage you will have a better idea of the types of Joomla Extensions that you will need to implement this. With over 4000 extensions and the list is growing every day, you may need to make lists of the options, compare the features and review the demos and reviews before installing them on your site. Once you have narrow this down you can then test them on your new site once you get it installed. Sometimes you may find that there are not existing components that provide the features or functionality that you need. This will require creating a development spec that clearly itemizes the features you want to add to an existing extension or for building a custom extension for your site. It is a good idea to get this sorted out early in your development process.
Step Six: Installation and Configuration Once we have all of our objectives, a defined roadmap, site plan and specific template in hand we can begin the installation and configuration process. Some ISP’s have automated tools for installing Joomla but I prefer to get the latest release directly from the Joomla.org site and to install it manually. Once Joomla is installed we go through a process of configuring this specific for your needs. Installing extensions, installing the template and setting up the parameters. Once you get the baseline of your site configured with all of the components, modules and plug-ins and perhaps a couple place holder content articles and menu items it is a good idea to make a back up copy of this and there are inexpensive extensions that can automatically do this for you.
Step Seven: Populate your Joomla web site with content. Having a good baseline for your framework in place and backed up prior to beginning to populate content and fine tuning the configurations helps you move quickly and safely through the content population stage in your project. This is the point where we provide training or you would go through tutorials on content management techniques. Once you get this underway most of the outcome is in your hands. With a good support team that is well rounded in both strategy, branding and marketing expertise as well as the technical support and programming expertise you can increase your effectiveness through a collaborative development approach. We highly recommend that you work with a qualified team to guide you through this process. In the end it will give you a much more professional web site, better train your team and give you the technical support to get the very best value out of your investment.
Moving Forward Joomla CMS is a superior choice for growing a solid business online. There are endless extensible possibilities and freedom to expand this as a platform for success. There are many other steps you can take to optimize your content and leverage more in-depth capabilities of the Joomla framework over time but this should get you an overview of the initial steps for getting started. With a good strategic and tactical plan you can keep your focus. In a world fill with exciting possibilities it is very important not to lose sight of your intended business results. Regardless of your web expertise, choosing a qualified support team to help you build, launch maintain your project will give you the very best return on your time and capital investment.
Be sure to visit our new http://JoomlaDesignServices.com web portal for an example of a site built using this planning process and to find valuable resources for Joomla development.
Social Media and Social Technologies have many new building blocks and take time to impliment
Keep an eye on these folks to learn the current trends in Social Web Technologies
The social wave just keeps getting bigger every time I look. Today I was building out my profile on Plaxo and found this great Web TV Show http://thesocialweb.tv/ If you are planning to work with a social community for your business then there are 39 and counting episodes that review a lot of the current trends and technologies in social media. These guys are sharp and have a lot of interesting guests and comments in their conversational format.
Couple thoughts on how I have positioned our use of social media.
My Social Framework
In addition to managing our 6 corporate portals and contributing to my blog, I currently manage several social network profiles; Facebook for connecting with family and friends, MySpace for my music profile, Plaxo and Linked In for business and professional networking. Then Twitter to communicate with industry pros and a community that connects with my Blog at www.cnpintegrations.com/myblog/ (so far around 20,000 followers). On top of that since we are using Social Media for part of our SEO strategy. We have accounts on Flicker, Digg, Stumbled Upon, Picasa, Delicious and many many others... to connect our messages and inter-link with each other. There are more that I will get involved with over time but this is plenty to keep me/us busy along with getting any real work done or saving time to spend with my family.
Careful with how you spend your time
This is such a time commitment and I see so many folks involved with even more than we are... I do wonder when they sleep. The trick is before you just start signing up that you think out a strategy of how you plan to use these tools to best serve your purpose and that will consider what will your best use of time. I had been advising folks to get active with a blog for years before I actually started posting regular on mine just because I did not have the time to commit to it. I knew the affect it could have on our site traffic but unless you are ready to be consistent then it could waist time since it has to grow over time and you need to continue to contribute content or you lose your readers and when you start up again you have to build a new audience from scratch. Make sure you establish your priorities and stay focused so you can get the best return on your time and talent investment. Each implementation is as unique as the individuals involved in making them happen. There are unique considerations for all of the social technologies that require thought and a keen eye on current trends if you want to implement them successfully or now waste a bunch of time. Remember all we have in this world is our time and once it is spent we cannot get it back.
Over the past few months I have been giving a lot of thought about who our customers are and will be in the future. What is it they want and need most? Kind of ironic sine the past three years we have been doing this and thought we finally had it nailed. Well the biggest lesson I have learned is that providing what a customer wants is a bit of a science and can often be predictable but delivering what they need is a moving target and not so predictable.
Since we work in the customer relationship and engagement space we have to not only set an example for customer experience but we have to help guide folks on ways they can use our CRBM Platform to harness theirs. I have been reluctant in the past to build "service packages" since we are a service provider and do not for the most part sell products. However, what I have found is that the number one thing our customers need is value. The question has been how can we deliver value in a way that those new to these technologies can understand while delivering it in a model that is easy to embrace.Thus we launched a series of Kick start progeams and value building initiatives. This is what our customers were asking for.
Welcome to the Value Builder Methodology:
“If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” - Yogi Berra
We have seen the buzz in the CRM world to be all around building value for the customer so here are some key steps we take in our new Value Builder programs.
The first questions we have to ask are what are your biggest pains and what are the biggest hurdles for increasing your sales potential.
Then we have to clearly identify your priorities and map them to the required technologies that can increase efficiency and achive business goals.
Then we have to identify and configure what technology can meet the desired results.
Then we have to integrate the people and processes with the new technology.
Then we have to follow-up with alignment and support solutions designed to help you navigate through the bumps in the road.
There are often additional steps in the process but part of the planning with this kind of Value Building Methodology is the fact we customize a specific plan for each customer.
Smaller business units will drive efficiency and change the landscape forever:
Some projects involving many stake holders require much more in-depth documentation and a more traditional approach. This slows down the process and makes the implementation much more challenging. Breaking down a horse pill into smaller bite sizes makes anything much easier to digest. One big advantage with smaller businesses or business units is their ability to respond in a collaborative real time process. This can not only significantly increase the efficiency in execution and improve the return on your investment but it can allow you to better target an action plan that meets the dynamics for your work group and untimely better service to your customers. I think as enterprises realize this and have to respond to the downturn in the economy and combined with the trends of social media dictating customer expectations you will find redefined business models that will have smaller divisions acting as smaller companies within a larger company umbrella.
The changing tide will wash surprises up on the beach.
Since well before the big melt down and shift in US politics we have been seeing some dramatic changes in the way customers are choosing vendors.
It is harder to win loyalty
There is a longer venting process
Customer are in control of engagement
They are eager to embrace next generation tools
Building Value is key to successful relationship
Consolidation and efficiency is in big demand
Customers are cautions due to uncertain future in the marketplace
Greater opportunity will be there for those prepared when spending loosens and the economy gains momentum in an upturn. If you can make a solid case for delivering value and quality to your customer while providing a complete and emotional experience with your customers you will be prepared for the relationship. If you embrace and develop business processes and efficient business units that can leverage a Customer Relationship Business Management system or CRBM Platform of technologies you will be prepared to successfully respond and manage your new and existing relationships. Simply put having an aligned business strategy combined with the tools to effectively execute the strategy will be the formula for success with the customers of tomorrow in an ever changing economy.
Let’s start a conversation
The new customer relationship management wave is Socail CRM and what I like to call "Customer Conversation Management" or CCM. If used right these tools can be a roadmap to meet your next generation of customers. What we have found to be a great resource for gathering customer information and insight was to use social media tools blended with a CRM strategy and other web technologies to engage in ongoing two way conversations. While we all want to hear from our customers it is also important to have this conversation with your peers. The other thing to think about is the depth of these conversations since no one wants to listen to someone full of themselves or with nothing interesting to bring to the conversation.
Business is getting presonal again with the wave of web 2.0 social technologies digging their heels in. Relationships in the new social space will follow the same principles of any good relationship. Just like in a personal dating engagement no one likes a bragger and you need to start off as friends if you want the romance to live long. In a business relationship you need to make sure that you connect personally since you are doing business with people. A machine can be configured but humans need to be nurtured and responded to.
I am interested in your comments and insight on these topics and encourage your conversation.
Our core team of service and support technicians,
configuration specialists, project managers, Sr. CRM Consultants, creative content designers and subject
matter experts all share a common thread with our "Value Builder Methodology".
We make sure the chosen web solutions align with your top
priority business goals.
Our proven integration process assures expectations are realistic and clearly defined.
We are committed to deliver Superior Value and Return on Investment
People, process and technology
all have to live in harmony.Whether you are implementing a
complex business management platform, a simple web site or e-commerce portal they
all must target your intended business goals.
Testimonials...
“Throughout the past year, I have had the pleasure of working with
several members of your staff as we designed our corporate website.
Each associate displayed a high degree of integrity, responsibility, competence and ambition. Their good judgment and
experience ensured a logical and practical approach to our endeavor
which resulted in the completion of our project ahead of schedule –
exceeding our expectations.
The services which CNP
provides are a force multiplier for any organization, and I am happy to
give them my wholehearted endorsement.”
Driving in Brazil is a bit different than driving in America. It is perhaps hard to understand these differences until you have experienced them but I will try to convey a few of the differences and then make some unique comparison with how it is similar to Joomla, Drupal or Wordpress portal development project. 
