Configuration of Complex Joomla CMS and CRBM Platforms

Joomla is a powerful framework for delivering Complex web portals. With over 4700 extensions and counting, the largest developer network in the world and the most user friendly interface has made the award winning Joomla CMS the fastest growing open source CMS project perhaps in the world. With millions of users and enthusiasts from all around the globe and a low cost of entry this is quickly becoming the dominant content management system (CMS) for small businesses (SMB's) and even larger enterprises and institutions.  We compared Joomla vs Drupal and Joomla vs Wordpress which are other worthy technologies but Joomla seemed for us to be the best overall platform for recommending to our customers. As Joomla integrators and Joomla Component Developers we deliver complex Joomla configurations for a wide variety of customers. Joomla is a perfect framework for the micro small business owner that needs training and mentoring to work independently on building their web empire as well as the small business enterprise with complex Joomla configuration needs. 

There are several layers in deploying a Joomla CMS project.

• Planning and content architecture
• Template Design and graphics
• Components and Configurations
• User experience
• Customer Programming
• Legacy System Integrations
• SEO and Marketing
• Joomla User Training
• Ongoing Technical Support

Just to name a few... With any technology there are different points of entry depending on the experience and technical aptitude of the humans interacting with the system, the technical and business process requirements and the overall dynamics of the organization implementing the particular solution. We (our CNP Consultants) try to help folks "Get the most value out of their technology investment". Yea you will see this in our marketing but this is much more than hype. Value can be the key to success or failure.  Among the biggest mistakes we have seen folks make and even made ourselves are:

Common Mistake #1

Just because you can do something with technology does not always make it practical.

I have personally implemented many powerful tools that accomplish their intended functionality but they actually never get used to their full potential by the end customers. While these were fun for us to build as developers and to see something cool that works, it did not really serve any of us well since our clients customers do not use them and thus they have a significant investment they are net getting a return on and thus until this first investment is paid for they are not all that excited to engage us to build more stuff.

The key here is determining first the business priorities of the project and then making sure everyone is listening to the needs of the end customer or user. Hey sometime folks build web tools just for themselves. I know I often post blog articles with a lot of links I want to not only share but also refer back to and we put plenty of tools online that we want to use ourselves as much as we want to and share with our customers.  Just make sure you are clear why you are doing something and assess if it is going to deliver the right return on your investment.

Stay focused on what your customers are saying and what will yield the greatest return.

Technology implementation can be a never ending pit you throw money into, something that my father used to say about owning a luxury boat. If you are building your site for the shear ego of having a beautiful site with all kinds of creative features and functionality, have at it and of course we love to work with entrepreneurs with big ideas. However, like any relationship and any good investment a long term strategy is often much more practical. Our consulting customers get good advice about products and services that can grow their business or allow them to continue to get value from their investments. I have seen folks to often go for a quick sell and end up with dysfunctional customer relationships that ultimately cost more than the profit you made in the first place. Ask yourself many questions including "Is what I am doing today going to matter a year from now"? If you ask the right questions up front this can help you get the most out of your initiatives.

Technology is a moving target

One of the many reasons we got behind the Joomla CMS project as a core competency was because it was open source which offered freedom and scalable options for solving the greatest amount of business problems.  We took the gamble from the trends in the market place that Joomla would continue to grow with features and stability and that the developer community would continue to be attracted to the Joomla framework thus building more confidence in the market place. With a scalable platform that is built on open source code for use was great since we wanted to work with technology that sold itself and that we could support and expand upon it to meet the needs of the types of customers we wanted to attract.  Any kind of dynamic web portal project is a moving target and often needs to change course in mid stream. You have to keep good forward momentum yet listen to the trends in the marketplace so you can sail into the wind effectively. An innovative and scalable open source platform like Joomla is a perfect foundation for meeting this challenge.

But wait there is more...

A couple years ago, after a good year of working with Joomla we were looking for solutions that could actually help us build an all-in-one web based framework for managing our business in a Virtual Office Environment (everything accessible on the web). This is when after trying and implementing several CRM and project management tools ranging from SugarCRM to MS Project to SharePoint we found Info@hand CRBM. This was the perfect platform since it was open source code base and integrated with the Joomla CMS and QuickBooks. Now after 3 years of connecting the dots we have a powerful web infrastructure with "Complete transaction life cycle management" and "Customer Relationship Business Management". Very very very cool platform... we love it and so do many of the customers we have introduced to it. Though this system is also wired up with the DimDim.com conferencing and collaboration suite it also fills many gaps in client customer collaboration. These types of regular new innovations continue to add low cost of entry tools and value to the small business.

Sounds complicated but it is also very simple if you have time as your friend

What we have learned as "early adopters" is that there is much more to it than the technology if you are going to be successful. Complex Joomla Integrations are getting simpler as this platform evolves. The old carpenters saying get the right tool for the right job is very good advice.  Since there are so many tools now in our toolbox and we fully understand how they all can work together I know I can start talking about it and it does not take long to get that "deer in the headlights look" from a prospect. The trick here is making sure we establish a clear roadmap and strategy for implementing technologies that will bring the greatest reward to your business and value to our customers. This takes time and effort to get it right and should be done early on in your process.

Common Mistake #2

Just because you have the technology does not mean you should implement it.

The second most challenging aspect of implementing a complicated project is the thought process of "let's do it all at once".  I have often had clients that want to load up their sites with a ton of components and then they want to throw these new features out to their customers or workforce all at once. Well this is a huge horse pill that never gets swallowed. Hate to say it but until recently I have been guilty of this myself. There is a fine line between "Build it and they will come" and "Here take a bite and let me know if you like it".

Remember this is all about relationship management

I remember back in my days of dating that it only takes one or two words to "turn off" and scare someone away. Essentially this is a similar process we go through for attracting customers. While you want to make sure what you are presenting is honest and has substance you do not want to overload, overwhelm folks with more information than they are particularly interested in at the moment. You also want to put out information and web tools in a way that they want to have them presented. As in listen well and be a good conversationalist. Such is the case even more now with the Social Technology boon. I used to say "it is not hard to fall in love since people are impulsive by nature but the real challenge is falling in love with the right one". The same is true with technology. It can be easy to get excited about some new features and want to add them right away to your site just because they are cooler than the site next door. However,  every time you push something new out it may distract or turn off your customers.

In relationships of any kind they are best nurtured over time. Deploying technology is a complex multi dimensional relationship. Moving too fast has greater risk of failure for everyone involved. You actually have several relationships and processes that need careful consideration over time:

• Solutions: Customer Needs - Business Process Need - Technology Implementation
• Relationships: Vendor Teams - Client Teams - Customers

In Conclusion work smarter with a good plan

Plan carefully and gather the right information about your customers and how technology can get you the best results as it relates to your business strategy. Make sure you deploy solutions over time with good the right vendors and the right customers. These systems have enough complexity that you have to really keep your eye on the ball or you can and will often times fail. None of us want to waste time or money and the wrong decision in this economy could cost you business. Before you travel anywhere it is a good idea to get directions, a map or invest in a GPS. Why would you not want to invest in good quality consulting to help guide you along the path of implementing technology?

 

Value Builder Methodology

We have since built consulting practices to address these two common mistakes folks make with complex technology implementations. Yea sure we have to be geeks and able to wire all this stuff up and yes we do this well but the trick to getting value out of your technology is much more that the groovy tools we can dish out.  With a few exceptions, most of the technology these days is all ready built and what that means is there is a greater need for configuration and being able to map the humans with the technology in a way that will allow you to stay focused on your priorities. Just start asking yourself questions like: What actions will give the best long term results? What will put out the fires of tomorrow before they start? How can I make this profitable to my company and add unique benefits to my customers?This should help get you on the right path.

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Commercialism is like a rigged slot machine do you ever win?

This week end I drove by 10 garage sales. I'll bet most of us in America have a collection of a bunch of stuff we do not need or use any more. This got me thinking about our economy and what I believe may be a culture that has grown off course in America. Are we not programmed to go work hard for money just so we go buy stuff? Are we buying what we need and can  realistically afford our purchasing appitites? It seems quite often we end up buying many things out of impulse that we do not really need on credit and then pay interest. To me it is much like a rigged slot machine at a casino. So where did this mind set come from? Perhaps from the many clever advertising, merhandising and the persuasive sciences which have evolved in the last few decades? As someone marketing a product we want to master these techniques yet as a consumer we want to beware to not fall prey. We all need to be aware of the impact these techniques have on our purchasing decisions and the aftermath of when the wrong purchasing decisions are made.

The funnel game always eats your quarter

In many ways selling is like pointing a vacume at a customer with the hope you can "suck them in". It all reminds me of the funnel game I have seen at local malls where you roll in a coin and get to watch it go around and around in the funnel but eventually the coin goes into the bottom and all you got was to watch it spin around for a while. The real reality check came for me a few years back on a trip to Mexico. At the time I had a great paying job, penthouse apartment and what most folks would consider an upscale life style. The problem was that under the hood I was just not happy and the stress really kept me from enjoying these acquired pleasures. In Mexico I met a family of 8 living in a single room hut with very few worldly possessions. I watched how they interacted with their kids and each other and there was no doubt they we very happy and satisfied with who they were and what they had. They did not seem to be corrupted by the "keep up with the Jones's syndrome" or the "glamour and fashion trend setting craze" since they did not get blasted with the constant programming contained in advertisements. They had what they needed and since they had limited resources they put a lot of thought into any purchase they made and only "consumed" what they needed.

Addicted and under the influence

I get the feeling we as "Consumers" are addicted to this need to keep buying stuff that we really do not need or because we want to have the latest and greatest of a brand just because we can. Caught up an a never ending cycle that continues to draw us back in to the center. If you think about it we are so programmed and it feels a bit like a modern form of slavery. We either buy stuff the ends up in our next garage sale where we sell it for pennies on the dollar after the quick joy ride and impulsive enthusiasm dies. Who are the real profiteers in this game anyway? Ching, ching, ching... three jokers is not a win on this slot machine. How can we get away from the emotional impulsive response to this science and step back to a more practical and focused decision making process?

Program yourself with the right questions

I wonder what it will take to un program ourselves. How can we step back and ask the right questions as we make our future purchasing decisions. I tell my son of 5 yrs old as he is learning to navigate the world and make decisions with his piers that before he does something he should ask the right questions.

• "Is something going to get broken?
• Is someone going to get hurt?
• Is it the right thing to do?"

Perhaps we can program ourselves to ask the right decisions about what we spend our money on.

• "Do we need this?
• Will it bring value to my life?
• How will this impact the world around me?"

 I am sure you could think of even more appropriate questions. If we can do this I think we can all prosper on so many levels. One we will only purchase what we actually need thus giving us more time and less stress in our lives. We also take away the power of the mighty marketing machine that acts like "The man behind the curtain" in the wizard of OZ. Pulling our fear and heart strings to milk us of our time and resources.

Don't listen to the snake oil salesman

So the next time you have a garage or yard sale think about the stuff you have and ask yourself if you asked the right questions when you first purchased this and did it really bring value to your quality of life and how did it affect the world around me? I am sure you will find that something in your collection of stuff that you just would have been better off without. Every little purchase made wrong keeps you from what may bring greater value to your happiness and life experience. Perhaps we need to get out of our easy going thought less sheepish behavior and step up to a thoughtful engagement in our decision making processes by putting more consideration on the big picture in our lives and the lives of others instead of just feeding "the machine."

Value Building to protect your time and resource investment

One of the things we take very serious at CNP Integrations is asking the right questions before we engage with a new or existing customer. Life is way to short to have our time and technologies shoved off to your next corporate garage sale. We want to make sure the right decisions are made and that you are purchasing the right tools for the specific needs of your team as it grows. We also want to make sure you are aligned with your priorities. One of the cool things about the tools in our CRBM Platform is they can do just about anything if you configure them correctly. This is however a double edged sword since this capability is like drugs to an addict or candy to a child and the many choices can distract you from your key objectives. The Value Builder Methodology developed by CNP Integrations is designed to help you get the greatest value out of your technology investments and to help you with establishing priorities so you do not spend your time or money on stuff that will not bring significant value to you and your organization.

More Information:

For more information about CNP Integrations' "Value Builder Program,  Small business Success Program or Web Site Kick Start Program", visit our index page at http://www.cnpintegrations.com select the program you are interested and you can download information or request for us to contact you.

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When you look at Google trends for searches on info@hand it is relatively invisible when compared with other similar software solutions. However, as you will see with a closer look this “CRBM Platform” it has more features, greater extensibility and a much lower cost of ownership.

Little testimonial... We have been using the info@hand CRBM (Customer Relationship Business Management) system for the past 3 years.  I guess you could say we are power users since we leverage the

• project management,
• account management,
• HR and timesheets,
• sales pipeline management,
• emarketing campaign management,
• workflows & business automations,
• the mobile portal,
• integration with MS outlook,
• ecommerce with Joomla CMS,
• synchronization with QuickBooks

and virtually all of the available features. Wow! Quite a mouthful… hummm?

Well it is a very powerful business solution and perhaps a better definition would be to call it a “CRBM Platform”.

We originally started our business as Joomla and flash geeks building creative and interactive portals for small businesses, non profits and serial entrepreneurs. Since we worked online all day we wanted a web based infrastructure that could help us automate our business management, consolidate our systems  and connect our global work teams as efficiently as possible. We looked at a lot of solutions and nothing else quite fit the bill. There was and is a lot of great software on the market but we found they either were extremely expensive or did not have the full range of features we needed. I set out to find a consolidated feature set that could manage the full life cycle of our ecommerce transactions and customer account management as well as sales, marketing and production management.

Click here to see an overview comparison of features for Info@hand, Entelium, Everst, Infusion (Now called infusionsoft), MicrosoftCRM, Sage, Salesforce, SugarCRM Enterprise. These are all great software packages for CRM and worth reviewing when you start down the road for comparison. I cannot show the pricing for these but the real kicker came when we started price shopping. While in many cases it was difficult to compare then from a price point since many had different models but the bottom line left info@hand as the lowest cost of entry and greatest ownership position of the software.

Not only did info@hand beat the competition for features but it was also much more affordable for us as a small growing business. Since we became so excited about the powerful features and deep functionality for a low investment we chose to become a VAR for info@hand tool suite.  We felt this was a great value and superior platform for the folks we had already been serving and we could compliment it our Joomla expertise.

New innovative software packages of this kind requires a lot of work to build the support teams and training programs and a consulting approach that allows us to really give superior value and responsive support to our customers. We are now preparing a value builder program to even take this a step further and deliver all of this in a “Platform as a Service” (PaaS) model to keep it from being a horse pill to swallow.

We have discovered and I cover this more in-depth with other blog posts, that the technology is really only one part of what is required to successfully deploy a CRM strategy for your business. Our new PaaS approach for presenting the “CRBM Platform” includes;

• Proven success strategy planning
• Integrated technology configuration
• Comprehensive user and admin training
• Cloud computing infrastructure
• Responsive and affordable technical support

Essentially this is what we deliver now but we have to put the marketing spin on this so it is easy to communicate. We need to get the word out with a “web 3.0 shine” to the “140 characters via twitter” and 12 second sound bite generation.

Thanks for reading… please pass the word.  J CN

I am on twitter at @cnpsupport

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So there is usually a reason a hosting company can offer cheap hosting. Most of the time it is because you are just communicating with a machine and bunch of automation scripts. Since the biggest expense of providing hosting services is the humans that have to interact with it. The IT staff and support call centers and subsequent training cost way more than the hardware infrastructures, so the lessof this they can provide the more profitable they can become. Another key factor is that the bigger they get the more they get the attention of hackers and thus are more susceptible to security threats since hackers know that the companies are trying to have less human interaction they know they can get away with more if they keep looking for ways to get in etc... well this forces the hosting providers to increase the limitations on what you can and cannot do so they can further reduce their liability and potential security risks across their systems. Well if you are a novice with little system admin skills and your needs are very basic perhaps this can be a worthy option if you have the patience for long tech support hold times and fell comfortable with WYSIWYG script execution user interfaces.  However, these restrictions and automations is not how the IT guys or developers supporting your project think or prefer to work. Most system admin's wan what is called shell access which gets right down to 1's and 0's with what are called command line executions. Most good admin's can get their way around the underbelly of a server in a mere fraction of the time required by slick user interfaces and the systems themselves can manage tasks equally as efficient.

If they are limited with access or have to wait long hold times to coordinate something with an under staffed call center and go through tier one techies that have to escalate the ticket to tier two support anyway... well you are going to find a frustrated system admin or developer with a bit of an attitude after a while. So let's do the math here... you get hosting for $10 - $15 cheaper ($120-200 per year) than the competition let's say... ok your IT guy/gal or developer bills at $50 per hr or more plus you end up having to interact with their frustration so it takes your time. Then you have to figure it is going to in most cases take them longer to accomplish many simple tasks, you may have to find technical workarounds given buy the security restrictions and any frustration is going to roll up hill and stir up everyone's blood pressure.

Starting to get the picture why this may not always be the best approach...?

I have worked with GoDaddy (I was even a reseller), BlueHost, SiteGround, Aplus and Aplus Dedicated Services and HostYourSite and many others. They all have similar issues and challenges and in our case it significantly interfered with our ability to respond quickly to our customers needs and provide the best possible value for supporting their technology investments. This is why we have made the choice to build our own hosting infrastructure around our service model so we can meet our promise of Better Support, Faster Innovations and Greater value for your investment. We are not trying to mass market our web hosting but rather work like a department designed to support your business goals and objectives.

A while back I worked as a developer for a company and the IT guy whom personally I liked but he admittedly did not understand the needs of my development team. So he kept imposing security restrictions and other measures that inhibited our ability to work efficiently and what he did not realize at the time was that what we were doing impacted many other aspects of the organization through dependencies on us completing our work on time and to a particular standard. While what he was doing on one hand was keeping the company safe and making his job easier he was actually on the other hand strangling our ability to make our deliverables, satisfy customers and generate new business. Not to mention that it drove the costs of development up considerably due to the lack thereof efficiency. He was not realizing that the reason he was there was to support our efforts ... we were not there to serve his. I could go on but it is not an uncommon type of dynamic in many organizations.

This is in effect what you are doing when you go with the cheep hosting solution thinking you are going to save money. We recently had a customer with a board mandate where they were required to have a different company host than support develop. So once the site was finished we whet to move it to their new host. This is usually a simple job that takes a couple hours depending on how big the site is and how long it takes to pass the files and wire it up to a new DB. The customer  chose the $9.99 special at a company with a glitzy marketing campaign and pretty WYSIWYG UI tools and as it has happened similar in the past... we encountered a number of issues determining that the new host would not be compatible with the technology they wanted us to put there. Ok so first we uploaded a file set and gave a DB dump so their IT guy could spent endless hours beating his head against the wall, so then he passes this back to us and we spent 5 hrs of billable time (frustrating billable time which should cost more don't you think J ) to determine this hosting environment was not going to be compatible. Granted this is a very big site with a tone of technical goodies but not very fun to be in this situation for anyone involved.

Now what if they got the "better" deal through purchasing a year up front ? What if they made the choice in the first place because they were already on a tight budget?  Where does that put all of us techies that worked our tails off now that the customer is feeling more pain and still without a solution? Well I think you get the picture here. They are surely not saving any money and none of us get a warm fuzzy out of the experience.

You will most likely, unless you have very specific security restrictions such as DoD contracting or Medical Services, be much better off, from an efficiency and cost savings perspective, by  outsourcing your hosting at a datacenter vs trying to manage tone yourself. I have a whole server cluster bought and paid for in the other room in my office and even with this I am saving tons of time and money by having our internal systems outsourced at the same data center we use for our customer solutions.

I know we charge a little more than our competitors for our hosting but we are not trying to compete on price but on value. The big difference with our approach is that we have built our server infrastructure to support what our customers and developers need, so we can respond efficiently with the specific platforms we service and support and keep the required investment in balance. We can still provide the highest level of security but you are getting metaphorically "the healthy home cooked cuisine and hospitality vs processed fast food from a drive up window". While the "fast food drive through" approach has its place it is not for everyone and it is very important that you weigh your options carefully before you make decisions for your solutions provider. If you are building your business on the web you need to have a much more reliable and responsive hosting and support infrastructure and personalized technical support.

Through our approach though it has take time and careful planning to achieve, we are now more than ever able to put focus on what is going to help you achieve the best results for your business, proactively respond to your needs with greater efficiency and deliver more value in service and advise.

I hope this little insight is useful when considering your hosting and I encourage you to go with value over price any day since in the end this decision with more than pay for itself in savings and peace of mind.

CN

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I often kid with my wife, friends and family about our/my business being like a second wife that is much needier than my “;first” wife. Not that my wife is needy, she is actually very independent. However, the point I make is that owning and managing a small business can be very demanding on your time and mental bandwidth. One of the other challenging things with many small businesses is the required office space and software and hardware resources required typically to get everyone working to serve your customers in a common direction. So this is where the idea of a Virtual Office became so appealing to me. We started our business we spent a lot on building out office space and investing in assets that today actually collect dust since we have shifted everything to a virtual space. I once thought I would have a team of busy beavers working on our little office space and we would have long winded conversations around the water cooler as in most traditional offices. I was wrong though, since meetings on site became much less frequent and as our workforce grew with independent consultants located across the United States and abroad. So this has actually saved us a lot of money since we have lower facility maintenance costs and overhead. It also provided our workforce to have more freedom and independence, thus improving their productivity and increasing loyalty.

The other key component of a Virtual Office is that the tools typically have a variety of business automations that can, if you configure them correctly, actually let your business talk to you, your workforce and your customer in real-time. With event triggered workflows and collaboration tools you can interact and respond faster and much more efficient than ever before. I am a bit of a geek so I like web based tools and have spent the better part of the last 10 years researching and experimenting and even building from the ground up tools to fulfill this dream of a Virtual Office that could connect a geographically dispersed workforce and offer the real time collaboration that made doing business fun.

Allas… all the pieces have come together. A few years back I set out to start a new business model to support small businesses with the web based tools that can hopefully make their lives easier, reduce costs and give them more freedom and independence and control from their businesses. I wanted to learn from many mistakes either I had made in the past 20 years of being an entrepreneur or that I had seen others make. So… on this road I found some great technology tools, some smart people to help us integrate them and build a platform for delivering such a powerful capability.

We use the info@hand Customer Relationship Business Management system with a Joomla Customer portal and sync it with Quick Books. This not only gives us complete ecommerce transaction management but an effective marketing and communication interface with our customers, stakeholders and workforce. We have leveraged several workflows to communicate and respond quickly to the needs of our customers and stay informed as project life cycles progress. It is a well proven fact that this kind of customer relationship management significantly reduces costs and builds customer loyalty when applied correctly.

The closer for me was the new Glueble Suite . This is like merging Skype, Yahoo, linked in, facebook, myspace, youtube and Go-to-meeting all in one. In addition to the great desktop collaboration client there is a robust social community for interacting with real live people. This offers us and our customers private collaboration workspaces for communicating in real-time with video, audio, chat while sharing desktops, documents or delivering presentations. It also allows us to build personal relationships and keep the process of doing business interactive and enjoyable.

Oh yea and by the way this "Virtual Office" concept is all very "Green" friendly so you can feel good about the investment required to get set-up. In the end it will save you a ton of cash if you are smart about how you do it.

All-n-all it has been a lot of work to get this all implemented in a way that impacts our bottom line as intended but now that we are over the hump I have more quality time with my “first” wife, friends and family, our workforce is much less stressed since our business communicates with them, our customers are much happier since they get faster and more responsive attention and we are all having a lot more fun doing business together from all corners of the world.

Now with that said, I am off to Brazil for a month… but you will hardly notice.

  CN

For more information about how you can get your business integrated with a Virtual Office Suite visit the following web sites: www.cnpintegrations.com (home), www.infoathand.us and www.glueble.com

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