what am i buying understanding website cost and technology 17 ntc
TRANSCRIPT
What Am I Buying? Understanding Website Cost & Technology
Presented To 17NTC - Washington, DC March 24, 2016
#17NTCwebtechprimer
@constr_ctive
Designing a New Way Forward
Who is This Guy… And What’s His Angle?
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About Me
Ian Constructive
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How Will We Spend Our Time?
• Case Study
• The Challenge of Making Technology Decisions
• Tech Cost, Drivers of Cost, How To Asses Value
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What Are The Stakes?
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The Way Things Were
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The Way Things Are
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WWW
Brand Ambassador
24/7/365
Community
Events
Intranet
Fundraising
eMarketing
CRM
CRM
Publishing Platform
Reporting
Tools & Resources
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Mission Implementation
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What if I Get it Wrong?
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What if I Get if Right?
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Build a Team
Write The RFP
Have to Do This By When?
Got Budget, Or Do I?
Who Are The
Stakeholders?
What Tech?
We CAN do
This!
Get Buy-In
Did I Forget Something?
Who Will Use
This?
Who Can We Partner With?
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The Total Cost of Technology: Financial, Time, Human Capital,
Opportunity, & Brand Impact
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Financial
Total Cost
• Capital Expenditures
• Operational Expenditures
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Time / Human Capital
• Do you have necessary people?Do you need outside help?
Total Cost
• How long do things take to get done?And how hard are their tasks?
• What’s the impact on schedule?
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Opportunity
• What About Lost or Missed Opportunities?
Total Cost
• Affects timingShorter Lead Time Adds to Total Cost
• Impacts the People & Effort Involved
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Brand
• Brand Value Increased vs. Decreased
Total Cost
• Good vs. Poor Execution
• Trust vs. Mistrust
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Drivers of Cost
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Drivers of Cost
Open Source
vs Paid
Integrations HostingTiming Operations
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Open Source vs
Paid• With Evolving Needs, The Software You
Choose May Not Move With You
Drivers of Cost
• It’s Really About Open vs. Proprietary,Subscriptions, Paid Support, & Development
• A Commercial Product Doesn’t AlwaysEquate to Higher Quality or Usability
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Integrations • Not All APIs Are Created Equal,This is Especially True With CRMs
• Your Site Can Be Integrated With Too
Drivers of Cost
• What Are You Integrating And How?Not Only Internal But External
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Integrations:Content
Relationships
• How Are You Surfacing Those Relationships?
• What About Search? Simple vs. Complex
Drivers of Cost
• How Are You Relating Content?
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Timing
• Missing Deadlines:What Does That Cost You?
• Organizational Timing & Capacity
Drivers of Cost
• Event Driven Initiatives
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Hosting• There Can Be Costs Outside of Your Server:
Networking, Databases, CDN, Failover, …
• Know How “Managed” Managed Is
Drivers of Cost
• It’s Not Like The Old Days,Except When You Need It to Be
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Operations
• Administrative Overhead
Drivers of Cost
• Content Management & Production
• Ongoing Support (Internal & External)Updates, Consultation, IT
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Theory Into Practice
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The Process
Pre-Selection Process
Selection Engagement
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What Do You Know?
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What Do You Know?
Business Requirements
• Plain Language & Solution Independent
• Bridge Knowledge Gaps BetweenThe Parts of Your Ecosystem
• Should Compliment & Extend Your Brand
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What Do You Know?
The Size of The Lift
• How Much Effort is This Really Going to Take?
• Set Realistic Expectations!
• Don’t Underestimate Integration,External & Across Systems
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What Do You Know?
Technology Options & Cost
• It’s an Ever-Changing Landscape
• Know When to Seek Help
• Not Knowing What’s Available That Will Work Can Have Serious Consequences
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What Do You Know?
Your Priorities
• Be Objective in What Would Satisfy Goals
• Your Technical Choices Impact the Future
• Trying to do Much With Too Little Creates Mediocre Results
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Advocate, With Knowledge!
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Pre-Selection
Give the People What They Want Not What You Think They Want
EmailInternal Survey
External Survey
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Survey Questions
• At a top level, what are your goals for this website design?
• Briefly describe your understanding of our organization, it’s mission & why it’s important
• What are key issues you focus on to advance our mission?
• What are your primary areas of expertise and activities?
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• Who do your think are our primary audiences? What are their priorities and needs? How should the website ideally help each audience segment satisfy them?
• Who are our top 3-5 peers or competitors in priority order? What do you feel is effective or ineffective about their websites?
• What are the current website’s greatest strengths as they relate the needs of our audience or our organization? What about the design and usability is successful?
• What are the current website’s greatest challenges or failings as they relate to design & usability? How might each negatively impact our audience or organization, & how might they be addressed in the redesigned website?
Survey Questions
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Reality Check
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Pre-Selection: The Complexity Matrix
Assign Difficulty Levels to Features
Easy Medium Hard Gonzo
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Pre-Selection: The Complexity Matrix
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Pre-Selection: The Complexity Matrix
What Increases Complexity?
Customization InteractionsFuture
Proofing
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Time To Adjust
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Selecting A Partner
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Evaluating: Questions To Ask
• How did you arrive at the estimate for feature X? What was your thinking there?
• Do you outsource any part of execution? If you do, how long have you been working with your partner(s)?
• What’s your approach to interdisciplinary collaboration? How do you prevent siloing?
• Who will be involved? Are your senior leads/directors accessible? (We don’t know if you’ll kick it down to juniors)
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Evaluating: Questions To Ask
• What CMS platforms & other technologies do you work with?
• What’s your Quality Assurance (QA) process?
• How will you train our team to become comfortable with what you build?
• How can you support us after launch?
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Evaluating: What Are You Comparing Here?
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Engagement
CommunicationGuidance &
Prioritization
Full Bore or Something
Else?
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The Diagnostic
Full Business Systems Analysis
Operations Specific
Basic Diagnostic
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Recap
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Recap
Tech
Total Cost Drivers of Cost
Pre-Selection
Research Reality Check Adjust & Advocate
Evaluate
Ask Questions Do it Together Compare Wisely
Engage
Common Language Prioritize Together Diagnostic
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Case Study
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Case Study
• About TCTMD and CRF
• Technology Impact on Mission Implementation
• Partner Selection
• Technical Challenges and Getting Help
• Engagement
• Support
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Q&A
Thank You!www.constructive.co @constr_ctive
[email protected] @ianmariano
Tech & the RFP Dance http://cnstrc.tv/1QumxM7
What Am I Buying?! Understanding Website Technology & Costs http://cnstrc.tv/29EFfnd
The 4 Foundations of Effective Websites http://cnstrc.tv/2cYkCHp
#17NTCwebtechprimer
Collaborative Notes: http://po.st/17NTCwebtechprimer
Session Evaluations: http://nten.org/17ntc-evals/