Whitepapers

Our best clients are the most informed. We are pleased to share our industry knowledge with you. So that you are best equipped to make decisions about your online initiatives, please review the free whitepapers listed below (PDF format), links to articles by other gracious authors as well as explore our blog. Click here to download Adobe Reader.

Achieving Business Results with Google Analytics (156KB)

Fred Salchli , CTO
Sonny Cohen, Director of Internet Marketing Strategy
When we talk to clients about how they use their web analytics, many confess to having only a vague understanding of the results or what to do about what they learn. Reviewing website analytics should never be a passive drain on your time. If you don’t know how to interpret the trends that appear, you could be missing out on your vast potential to achieve business results and gain competitive advantage through analytics.Fear not. By focusing on the capabilities provided by Google Analytics, you can unlock the mysteries of analytics and make critical changes to your website that will deliver business goals.
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Replacing a Website Content Management System (102KB)

Tim Yager, Developer
Duo Consulting was charged with the task of taking The American Library Association’s (ALA’s) existing website and moving it from one content management system to another. While there are many reasons to undertake this transplant, the goal for this project was to achieve greater functionality and overall stability of the website. Read this summary whitepaper about the challenges developers faced and the solutions they found for migrating the ALA website from their existing system to Serena Collage web content management system.
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The Business Case for Content Management (214KB)

Michael Silverman, CEO
While the concept of content management has been around for a long time - newspapers have been using it for decades - it's a relatively new term for most people. The rise of digital technology and the proliferation of websites have brought content management to the mainstream. As it has become easier to publish content on the web, many organizations have discovered the need for a system to consistently manage content - in other words, a Content Management System.
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Using Web Analytics to Meet your Business Objectives (194KB)

Fred Salchli, CTO
You have a website. It's beautiful. It's got lots of bells and whistles. But is it working for you? Is it functioning to benefit your target audience and, in essence, your business? Web analytics is a collection of data generated from your website - traffic, transactions, server performance, usability statistics and information collected from your visitors and customers. This information should be compiled, reviewed and used to make business decisions and improve the experience your target audience has with your website.
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Getting Noticed by Search Engines (96KB)

Sonny Cohen, Director of Internet Marketing Strategy
In the old days, marketers went looking for customers. we studied customers, figuring out where they lived, tracking their habits. But things have changed. In the new economy, customers are in charge - they look for us. And the number one way customers look online is with a search engine. Therefore, getting noticed by search engines is crucial to online success.
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The Top Ten Mistakes of Web CMS Projects - and How to Avoid Them (86KB)

Michael Silverman, CEO
Maybe you are beginning to think about developing a Content Management System (CMS) for your organization's website. You're probably wondering how to improve the chances of a successful outcome, considering the large investment at stake. Avoiding mistakes such as making decisions by committee, failing to create a project plan and more can save you a lot of time and pain.
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Web Design and Usability (397KB)

Yvonne Doll, Creative Director
A successful website is like a good conversation, a free-flowing exchange of information between the site owner and the site visitor. The better you are able to communicate your message via a distinct visual language, the better your user will understand what you have to offer and why they should stick around.
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Accessibility Guidelines for CMS-Driven Sites (43KB)

Ken Walters, Project Manager
In February of 2006, a blind University of California-Berkeley student sued Target Corporation for failing to consistently provide "alternate" text for images used on the retailer's web site. The lawsuit has sparked greater attention on ensuring accessibility on web sites, and rightfully so. Accessibility conformance ensures that your site is accessible by all visitors regardless of disabilities, and should be a goal for any web site.
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Selling That Website Project to Your Lawyers (178KB)

Amy Westerling, Project Manager
You are a legal marketer, working hard to make your attorneys look their best. They are smart, savvy professionals who produce top notch results for their clients - yet you wouldn't know it by looking at your firm website. If only you could convince your lawyers to spend the money on a new site.
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The Sample Website Design RFP (153KB)

Sonny Cohen, Director of Internet Marketing Strategy
Use this handy outline to prepare your website project RFP.
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Creating Closed-Loop Websites (172KB)

Ron Lavery, Director of Business Development
How can you be sure that your organization is getting the best return possible from your website? We've developed a methodology that organizations can use to approach and assess their website. The Closed-Loop website starts with identifying your business goals and aligning them with those of your website. It ends with measurement against those goals before making possible revisions to the site and starting again.
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SQL 2005 Conversion - Testing, Problems and Solutions (105KB)

Jason Priestas , Senior Developer
The client, a heavily trafficked site, required 100% uptime and we had to find a way to gracefully migrate their four different SQL 2000 databases to SQL 2005 instances. Certainly, with all of the upgrade tools that Microsoft provides and the documentation of other successful upgrades from around the world, this isn't groundbreaking work. But, the preparation and attention to detail required for a project of this size significantly contributed to the overall complexity. Read about this one instance of conducting a SQL 2005 upgrade, our testing, problems encountered and solutions found.
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