In this day and age no one can afford to run a serious business without having an on-line presence. However, the cost of setting up a Website and updating it regularly is intimidating, especially for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with limited technical and human resources.
Website development costs vary widely. Some companies spend thousands of Maltese liri to get a personalised site, yet are dependent on the Web designer for any updates. Every time an update is needed there are costs in terms of time, and money. One solution is to have an in-house designer to take care of your Website, which obviously means one more person on the payroll.
The ideal solution would be to have the convenience of a low-cost customisable Website that can be updated within minutes by the boss or an employee... without requiring any training other than basic computer literacy. Nothing that I knew of offered such a facility.
So it was with a great degree of cynicism that I decided to speak to Paul Cassar, EasyShowcase chief technical consultant and director of Integrated Marketing Services Ltd.
After only a brief demonstration, I was able to create a sample Website with a list of categories and displayed a couple of products. Then I also included a couple of information pages in the top menu, consisting of text, photos, tables, a downloadable file and - incredibly enough - a video clip. It was easy and it was fun.
Creating the front page is literally as simple as filling in a questionnaire, where you select colour schemes, what text you want and where to fit it. Uploading logos is as simple as browsing through your hard disk or other storage device and pressing the 'upload' button. All updates take place instantaneously.
The administrator (yourself) can add pages at the touch of a button... well actually it's a series of buttons, but it's just a matter of saving photos and thumbnails beforehand (photo manipulation and editing software is provided as well as any operational assistance).
The administrator then inputs the text related to the product, as well as price (there is the option of including an automatically generated conversion to Euros) if desired. There are no limits to the number of products displayed.
Once online, editing is just as simple. The administrator just enters his password and can update the Website through a procedure that's just as easy.
Most of all EasyShowcase Websites are easy to navigate and also provide a search facility so that customers can find the information they are looking for quickly and easily.
The (one-time) cost of the catalogue (v 1.2) and the freestyle (v 3.2) are Lm250, and version 2.2, which allows sub-categories, costs just Lm350. An annual hosting fee of Lm50 is also required. Prices are exclusive of VAT. Your Website can be up and running within four working days or less.
A number of extra features and services are also offered to accommodate clients' requests. EasyShowcase is continuously being improved and new products and features are being developed. The staff is very helpful and considers customer care as top priority.
For more information contact IMS Ltd on 2147-2103, 7946-3669, e-mail pcassar@easyshowcase.com or visit the Website www.easyshowcase.com.