Tip from Chad Swaney on CMS

Trying out Expression Engine

I have been thinking about, and wanting to experiment with, some different Content Management Systems, so I can see what is out there, and what I might want to use when I grow up and have my own firm. Based on recommendations from some of my Twitter peeps (@aprilholle and @chuckreynolds, that means you) I took a look at Expression Engine. It is a commercial product that offers a Core version that is free for personal use, and offers several other license options, ranging in price up to $249.95.

I used the tutorials created by Michael Boyink that are based on a typical, real-world scenario: creating an Expression Engine site based on a static HTML/CSS layout that someone else designed.

I will be dividing my review into sections as I progress through building my first test site.

Building the Site

Overall, when creating the site I liked the flexibility and relative modularity of the content, but the nomencature seems kindof stilted. When you slice up your code, you put the code snippets in template files, even though they aren’t templates, but are slices that go into a larger template. Maybe this is just one technique of many that are available, and maybe this is just a result of the fact that the CMS is so modular that there are a lot of approaches to solving the same CMS issues.

I will say that in comparison, EE offers a much cleaner process than creating sliced .php files for Wordpress by hand. I think it is just terminology that will take some getting used to.

Coming Soon
Part 2: Dynamic Content

3forward Helps Outsourcers Sell in Mature Markets like US

DALLAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–3forward, a Dallas-based growth services firm specializing in sales, marketing and alliances for IT services companies, has introduced new offerings specifically to help mid-tier and emerging off-shore technology providers improve sales in mature markets such as the United States.

Selling IT services, solutions and outsourcing requires unique offerings, market experience and sales discipline. Mid-tier and emerging outsourcers and solution providers must choose customer segments carefully, demonstrate a unique value proposition, determine the most effective sales approach, maintain a pipeline of qualified opportunities and operate at high velocity. In the global IT marketplace it is even more difficult as providers often operate on the opposite side of the world from customer targets, creating both cultural and geographic sales challenges.

“We built these offerings primarily for niche, off-shore providers wishing to improve their sales execution in the US,” commented Dan Hudson, 3forward President and co-founder. “Our experience is these providers excel at delivery based on IP and domain experience, but may struggle at selling and marketing their services because of market complexities. 3forward’s approaches have been developed over our many years in selling technology solutions in the US. They help our clients grow faster, sell more efficiently and compete for larger, more profitable contracts.”

3forward Offerings for IT Services, Solutions and Outsourcing Sales

For mid-tier and emerging solution providers and outsourcers 3forward provides benefits including:

* Understanding market needs and competition to improve the strategic planning process
* Optimizing sales models, both direct and indirect, to reach customers in all verticals
* Marketing programs for selling through Resellers and System Integrators to reach SMB markets
* Experienced resources to execute sales plans, identify opportunities and manage sales efforts

About:

3forward – Growth Services for Solution ProvidersTM

3forward focuses on OUTSOURCERS and SOLUTION PROVIDERS and increasing their success. Our services enable: faster growth, stronger global delivery models and improved margins. 3forward clients’ benefit from our broad industry perspective, many years experience in IT sales, marketing and delivery, ability to develop winning strategies and solutions and relationships with key executives and leaders in the outsourcing and IT services community.

Contacts

3forward
Matt Smith, 214-674-3963
United States
matt.smith@3forward.net
www.3forward.net

Third party support, threat or menace?

The correct answer is channel. (One third party support company named itself for this, the covalent bonds in chemistry.)

Dave Rosenberg of Mulesource is flummoxed about third party support, worried that it’s taking money out of what should be developers’ pockets.

Actually, Dave, it’s creating a channel.

It’s customers who are reluctant to support third party open source support. I was shocked several months ago when SpringSource bought Covalent, a third party support outfit. Shocked that SpringSource was so much bigger.

Where would Microsoft be without third party support, those ISPs and VARs who extend its reach into places it can’t afford to go?

Channels like third party support companies need to be nourished, not feared. Offer their people special classes. Give them special badges at your own support events. Throw them a party, buy them a beer.

It’s true that, at first blush, you seem to be competing with third party support companies. You see a dollar going into someone else’s pocket and you’re not even getting a taste.

But those companies are dependent upon you, for most of the improvements they’re selling. Their existance is a vote of confidence in your software. They want to give you a taste of that dollar in their pocket.

Capitalize on it.

Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations

Strong Outsider - Outsourcing Provider - Can Help Companies Innovate

While business processes are used to aid innovation, sometimes they can hinder it as well.

IT Business Edge blogger Rob Enderle did a fine job of illustrating this in a post from earlier this month about an EMC project in which a maverick software engineer worked — largely remotely — with some colleagues on creating a product for the lucrative SMB market. The project, which Enderle describes as “top secret,” operated outside of EMC’s usual business processes, which are geared toward producing storage solutions for big companies.

Writes Enderle:

But EMC is structured to build and sell products to large enterprises, which are about as far removed from the target audience as you will get. Were EMC to use normal processes, what would likely result was something similar to the International Harvester Scout, a product that would cost too much to create and build, and that wouldn’t sell.

Participants in the project agreed to keep it close to the vest, to avoid the troublesome internal politics that sometimes ground innovative ideas before they ever get off the ground. Software engineer Brian Gruttadauria led the project from the U.S., with much of the actual development taking place in the company’s new facility in China. The far-flung team, which ultimately included about 40 people, relied on collaboration tools such as wikis and worked with partners from Intel and Iomega, a company EMC went on to acquire.

The resulting product, EMC LifeLine, “could never have been created at EMC in any other way,” writes Enderle.

A similar approach of having employees work in small, self-directed groups was suggested in a recent 37signals article that I mentioned in a post last month. In that post, I also cited a CIO.com item about some of the innovation hurdles faced by many large companies: lack of incentives, uncertainty over pay-off, and internal politics and control issues. And I noted former Gartner fellow Bruce Rogow’s advice for companies to recruit some of their most disgruntled workers and spin them out as a company competitor.

Though Rogow’s advice will be too radical for most companies, many may feel more comfortable following suggestions from Segway inventor Dean Kamen and other innovative folks, which I related in a post from last April. Some of my favorites come from Sanjay Dalal, managing director of the Innovation Index Group:

* Hire folks with diverse backgrounds and experience.

* Encourage employees to find new ways to do daily work, and allow them to make decisions.

* Create processes to value ideas on merit, no matter where they originate.

* Identify and separate an organization’s creative and operational functions.

* Extend your organization to partners, suppliers and customers.

Outsourcing Comments from Mike Corbett

In today’s uncertain global economy the basics of sound business remain the same:

- Relationships are at the core of everything we do;
- Talent is king;
- Innovation, continuous improvement, and efficiency are a never-ending quest;
- Organizations will outsource more tomorrow than they do today!