The North’s longest established web development company has revealed the findings of some recent research which shows that business leaders now view a website as an essential marketing tool but their expectations have changed significantly in the last decade.
Darlington-based Geo-net Solutions, who carried out the research jointly with the University of Teesside’s Business School, have revealed that companies used to demand a high specification of graphic design but, in the last decade, this emphasis has shifted dramatically in favour of technological expertise, feature adaptability- such as being able to use an email newsletter for promotional purposes- and the ability to manage the website in-house thus saving time and money.
Antony Lewis, sales director at Geo-net Solutions, explained: “We set out to establish what businesses investing in websites really wanted and, crucially, if Geo-net as a company was meeting these expectations. We also wanted to confirm that customers’ demands have changed significantly in the last ten years from seeing a website as being merely ‘nice to have’ to ‘must have’.
“We also needed to know what the actual priorities of business leaders are today when making decisions about graphic design, customer experience, search engine effectiveness and compliance with legislation.”
The Internet has only been widely used as a business tool in the UK for the last ten years. By 2005 70% of business had a website but today that figure is nearer 90%.
To obtain these latest findings marketing undergraduates from the University of Teesside spoke to businesses across the North East about what they really want from their website and a web development company. As well as now demanding a higher level of technical expertise, managers wanted to be able to learn more about and understand the Internet as a whole.
This ‘learning’ element was an unexpected benefit on which most web development companies, including Geo-net, previously placed little importance.
As a result Geo-net’s unique new publishing and content management software, Geo-XPRES, now has built-in training and quality control features. A series of simple ‘help’ boxes advise customers on subjects such as editing content whilst considering both their position on search engines and accessibility issues. In addition Geo-XPRES can be constantly updated with new features, without the customer having to take any action, as it is accessed online which means that even after the website has been handed over the important learning process continues each time they change or edit anything.
Around 90% of Geo-net’s clients said that they had chosen the company for its technical skill, flexible support and innovative software systems.
Antony Lewis added: “A fully functioning website can offer many benefits to different types of organisations from brand awareness through to transactions. Almost any aspect of the traditional business process can now be moved online often saving a company a lot of time and money.
“Compared to ten years ago business leaders responsible for buying web services have a clearer vision of what they want from a website and it is their experience and knowledge gleaned from this research that is an invaluable guide for others thinking of buying such services for the first time.”
