The State of Louisiana has launched a Google Earth Enterprise platform that will display evacuation routes and other essential information in preparation for the hurricane season.

During and after a hurricane and other natural disasters, Louisiana Earth will show locations of essential services such as disaster recovery centres, petrol stations, pharmacies, banks and grocery stores; as well as providing emergency services information.

Louisiana Earth will also be used to promote the State of Louisiana; showing state parks, camping sites, plus activities and events.

This story was taken from the Official Google Enterprise Blog.

Charnock Bates is a market leader in the sale of Country Houses, Listed Buildings and Period Homes in the West Yorkshire area. Charnock Bates is always keen to respond to market needs and we regularly discuss enhancements to the website.

One such change in June was the development and launch of a "Property Alerts" service. The service allows visitors registering with Charnock Bates to notify a price range which meets their personal property search requirements. The alert service will then send an email to them for each new instruction or price alteration in the nominated range. The email includes an image and links to further information.

The new service is now live on the Charnock Bates website and has been well received with customers already signing up to Personal Property Alerts.

A very impressive turn out and a very impressive night all in all. The evening didn't start out as well as expected as we struggled to find The Circle on Rockingham Lane - it would perhaps have been better not to walk up and down Rockingham Road, but hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Once located however, The Circle is a welcoming meeting space. The techmesh team were excellent hosts, providing food and drink a-plenty and time for a little IT and Telecommunications networking before the main event kicked off.

The guest speaker for the evening, Andy Jenkins from IBM, updated the audience on "hardware for a smarter planet". There then followed a talk on Digital Broadband in South Yorkshire and our own Ian Weatherhogg gave a slick presentation on getting the best out of the techmesh website. Finally in techmesh "members time", where members have a slot to talk about their business, we learnt about Cloud Hosting from VirtualDCS and the challenge of CRM implementation from CaltechCRM.

After the presentations there was still time for a little more food and drink - and of course that all important networking! Thanks to the team at techmesh for a very useful and enjoyable evening! 

The next techmesh networking event is on the evening of 28th July, at the Logistics Institute, Hull University Business School. If you are interested in becoming a techmesh member, you can join on their website.

 

Google Apps brings simple, powerful communication and collaboration tools to organisations. With Google Apps, users have access to applications such as Gmail™ webmail service, Google Talk™ instant messaging service, Google Calendar™ calendaring service, Google Docs™ program, Google Sites™ web application, and Google Video™ for business on their own domain to work together more effectively.  Best of all, it's all hosted by Google, so there's no hardware or software to download, install or maintain.

The Google Apps Reseller program includes resellers, consultants and independent software vendors that sell, service and customise Google Apps Premier Edition for their customers. Refractiv received training, support and deployment services from Google, as well as access to APIs for integrating Google Apps into customers' business operations.

As an Authorised Google Apps Reseller we can now bring the power of Google Apps to Refractiv clients. We use the Google Apps Premier Edition ourselves and have first hand knowledge of the powerful, intuitive applications Google offers. I firmly believe that Google Apps can help reduce our clients' IT costs and enable their employees to collaborate more effectively.

Richard Atkinson COO, Refractiv.

If you want to learn more about the power of Google Docs, register for our FREE Google Docs for Business Seminar in October.

If you didn’t already know from reading our case study, techmesh is the leading IT & Telecommunications business network within Yorkshire and Humberside. As well as designing, building and supporting the techmesh website, Refractiv is one of the sponsors and you’ll find us at most of the techmesh networking events.

on 30th September the Refractiv team will be exhibiting at the techmesh EXPO 2010 at the Royal Armouries, Leeds. The EXPO is "an all day exhibition for IT & Telecoms professionals in the region to showcase themselves to general businesses". We'll be showcasing a few of our best websites and MySiteAdmin, our powerful content management system on the stand, plus demonstrating how Google Apps could transform your business.  We’d love to see any current customers and, of course, meet potential new ones!

The event will include a morning conference delivered by a team of key note speakers from some of the world’s best known IT & Telecoms businesses.  There will be a number of breakout sessions on challenges that a growing IT & Telecoms business faces, and where the sector is moving towards in the future.  We think the day will be a great opportunity for you to discover the latest trends in the IT & Telecoms industry and learn how your business can benefit. 

We'll be blogging about our plans and event news in the lead up to the day, so watch this space.

Clive Mark is the largest supplier and retailer of approved school uniforms in the Midlands and has built a solid reputation for premium-quality branded school clothes that are made to withstand the rigours of school life. The current website, which receives approximately 4,000 unique visitors a month, offers approved school uniforms from over 1,000 schools in the Midlands, as well as generic schoolwear and personalised name tapes.

Aiming to build on its existing brand and reputation and develop new revenue streams in a wider UK market, Clive Mark commissioned a new website from Refractiv. Traffic generation is very important for the new site and Refractiv was asked to create and deliver an SEO strategy.

The new site focuses on online sales of generic boys and girls school uniform and personalised name labels. After a successful launch this week, Clive Mark is confident the site will allow them to grow the generic side of their business.

“We have worked with the team at Refractiv for a number of years and are very happy with our existing school uniform website. So when it came to implementing a new site which offers generic school uniform items at guaranteed low prices, Refractiv was the natural choice.

We were very impressed with their input into the initial concept, design and specification of the new site and the Refractiv team provided solid advice on how best to display and promote the product range.

The new website and the help and advice we have received on SEO and internet marketing will enable us to reach more customers than ever before. I’d like to express my thanks to everyone at Refractiv for their dedication and hard work throughout this project.”

Clive Rose, Director
 

Run with a certain style and panache by our resident search engine optimisation (SEO) guru, the latest digital marketing workshop left attendees more than a little wiser in the ways of internet marketing.  As our guru explained at the outset, internet marketing is not the mysterious beast that many take it to be.  As long as you have a good website, a sound business (with our clients we know the first 2 are givens), belief that SEO will work for you, and the time to spend then the results will come.

Our workshops are specifically designed to teach attendees DIY SEO, using the "SEO Sandwich" analogy, and other secrets of internet marketing.  The SEO Sandwich perfectly illustrates how to market your website: the first slice of bread - find your keywords; the first sandwich filling - fresh up to date website content; the second filling - relevant, important links to your site; and the last slice of bread - the analysis of the website so you understand the effect your marketing is having and can respond as needed.  And that is what the day is about, introducing attendees to the unfamiliar world of search engine optimisation and using simple to understand language to guide them through, so that by the close of play they can confidently navigate that world alone.

One of the attendees, Chris Adams of Techmesh explained this perfectly: "Today has been useful, interesting and fun. Refractiv has given me an insight into SEO and ways to market our website that you just can't buy.  The fact that part of the day was spent analysing the Techmesh website has given me practical experience and the confidence that time I am spending on our website will generate the results the company expects."

If you want an insight into the world of SEO and internet marketing, our next SEO & Internet Marketing Workshop takes place at the end of September.  If you don't have the time for SEO but need to market your website take a look at the SEO healthcheck and internet marketing solutions we offer, or as usual with all our clients, feel free to contact us for an initial chat.

Hargreaves Foundry in Halifax have been iron founders for over 100 years and, after a visit to discuss new development for their website, the Refractiv team were invited to have a tour. Excitement mounted as the two got kitted out in the necessary safety gear (high viz jackets and safety goggles a far cry from normal office wear) and made their way into the foundry. The "breath-taking" tour kicked off with a demonstration of scrap metal being melted down at 1,500 degrees, poured into huge vats and pulled by hand across the foundry (watch out for the sparks Amanda!) to the moulds. Richard and Amanda were then shown the amazing skill involved in creating moulds - ranging from a beautiful sculpture by a well known artist such as Anthony Gormley to a complex engineering casting requiring exacting standards at all times.

The Refractiv team agreed it was a world away from web development!

Aiming to grow its UK and international business, Purex has invested in an advanced website which has a full e-commerce capability.

Purex distributors worldwide can now view, configure and purchase Purex's entire product range online and the website is expected to generate an increasing number of sales enquiries. The website also provides a secure staff portal with a document library and the definitive information on all products.

"Recently we have updated our corporate image and streamlined our product range so we wanted to develop a new website to reflect these positive changes.

Having undertaken staff, customer and distributor surveys we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted the new site to do. After a few meetings with Refractiv it became clear that they had the ideas and skills to make our website do much more than we had first imagined.

For example, customers can now build a machine to their requirements and automatically request a quote from us or our distributors. All our technical data has been uploaded to our site and can be viewed online by our distributors and staff wherever they may be in the world.

We are now using the site as the central hub of all our literature, pricing, image banks, technical information, communications and support services.

What Refractiv have achieved since the beginning of 2010 has far surpassed our initial expectations. Even more impressive is that they constantly work with our marketing team to tweak and improve our website on a daily basis, often initiating ideas to move us forward.

I have no hesitation recommending Refractiv to any company in need of web design and development."

Paul Priestley, Managing Director

www.purex.co.uk

About Purex

For more than two decades, Purex International Ltd has manufactured fume extraction systems with the aim of improving product quality, reducing process costs and protecting the health of personnel and the environment.

The company philosophy is to provide customers with solutions for their fume extraction requirements plus excellent aftersales service and support. The Purex brand is synonymous with quality, reliability and performance and products are continually developed to meet and exceed the ever changing demands of industry and health & safety legislation.

Cromwell Trucks is one of the largest independent sales centres in the UK for used trucks, stocking more than 300 late model commercial vehicles.

Thirty trucks have recently been added to stock. Available now at Cromwell Truck's 4-acre site in the West Midlands, the vehicles are fully tested and prepared by a staff of skilled automotive professionals.

Customers are very welcome to visit Cromwell's purpose-built depot and browse a wide choice of stock which is regularly renewed.

Cromwell's website, which was developed by Refractiv, provides a comprehensive online catalogue of vehicles. Customers can create a list of favourite trucks and the list may then be sent to a nominated email address. Due to seach engine optimisation effort, website traffic and enquiries are increasing.

"We are uniquely placed as a business to make large stock purchases - many of our customers like a good choice of ready-to-use trucks and the option to buy more than one vehicle.

Our online presence is fundamental to the business and we continue to invest in improvements. We are delighted with the results."

Adam Sansom, Director

www.cromwelltrucks.com.

Please see digital marketing services for further information.

Techmesh, the leading Yorkshire and Humber IT & Telecommunications network, is part-funded by Yorkshire Forward. Its stated aim is "to create a vibrant, active, supportive and self funding network to help further the interests of IT & Telecom organisations and professionals in Yorkshire and Humberside".

Meeting, sharing and exchanging knowledge are key ingredients in Techmesh's approach.

"We needed an advanced member portal which promotes collaboration and networking and is compelling and intuitive to use. Refractiv's experience in this area was clearly demonstrated to us during the supplier selection process and the team has delivered entirely to expectations.

We have been able to debate the best approach at each stage in the project and the portal is being made live in stages as new functionality is added. We are delighted with the result!"

Gary Rowbotham, Techmesh Programme Manager

Please see http://techmesh.org

Techmesh members gain access to a wide range of services – all tailored to aid your company's growth and win you more business. Please see http://techmesh.org/membership/ for further details.

Click here to read the rest of the Article

This year we're really looking forward to:

• BT upgrading homes to 21CN before their customers lose patience and switch broadband suppliers
   
• Twitter contributors so businesses can tweet in chorus
   
• Apple Tablet - a supersize iPhone we hope!
   
• Hulu or similar in the UK - or perhaps just a mashup of iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD, Demand Five
   

How about you? Use the comments form to let us know what you're hoping will appear\improve this year....

This has been a great site to work on, but so easy to lose yourself in one of the stunning photographs and the stories behind them - like this one - a beautiful picture combined with great words that Guy White, who owns the gallery, adds to bring it to life.

Guy has bought into the news "gospel" we preach, and is regularly adding news items to the site. Every month he writes a short newsletter which automatically picks out the past news items he specifies. Take a look at the November issue, and while you're there sign up to the newsletter so you can see it in all its glory.

On the technical side, there are bespoke modules for musicians, photographers and exhibitions, to which photographs are all related. Photographs are actually products in the shop, but displayed differently to allow for full screen preview. There are also "traditional" shop products like books and box-sets.

Guy has kindly offered discounts for fellow Refractiv customers, so if there's anything that catches your eye give us a call and we'll send you a coupon.

Google has officially announced that it doesn't take any notice of your meta keywords. It’s been a suspicion amongst SEO specialists, including ourselves for many years but Google has finally given a small official insight into how their search engines work.

About a decade ago, search engines judged pages only on the content of web pages, not any so-called "off-page" factors such as the links pointing to a web page. In those days, keyword meta tags quickly became an area where someone could stuff often-irrelevant keywords without typical visitors ever seeing those keywords. Because the keywords meta tag was so often abused, many years ago Google began disregarding the keywords meta tag.

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html

Of course other search engines may still use them and they do so is there any harm in using them? If you do make sure they are short, concise, and the keywords are also present in the page so they don’t look artificial.

You might want to keep using them to assist with site search - i.e. add keywords that your visitor might use to search within your site that don't appear in the page's content. (e.g. acronyms, speeling mistakes )

You might want to stop using them if you've done lots of keyword research that your competitors will benefit from when they look in your page's source.

The other meta fields (title, description) are still very important to SEO so make sure you fill them in on each page of your site.
 

www.snapgalleries.co.uk

Yorkshire and Humber Regional Migration Partnership (YHRMP) were looking for a new website to promote the work of their organisation and give online access to migration information for the Yorkshire and Humberside region. They wanted a website that visitors found easy to use and accessible, that flagged news items effectively and was cost-effective to run.

The website does what was wanted - it has a simple, attractive design and meets WAI Priority AA web accessibility guidelines. People can find news items easily, through headline features on the home page.

Alli Spence, Website and Information Manager, says:

"We're particularly pleased with our searchable directory of organisations, which allows participating organisations to add and edit their entries online. We also like the flexibility and scope of the content management system - this allows us to create and edit online forms, and to alter the structure of the website very easily and quickly, at low cost.

It's been quite a long process, with ongoing discussions between ourselves and Leap Frog about what we wanted to achieve and how best to do that. Leap Frog gave us well-informed advice whenever we needed it. The web developer working with us has been really friendly and supportive, and always available on the end of the phone to talk things through!

We're really pleased with how the website looks, and we've had some good feedback. Thanks to everyone at Leap Frog for your work. We're looking forward to developing the website with you in the future."

www.migrationyorkshire.org.uk

With version 3.6, the following features have been added:

Multiple Security Strings per message

It is now possible to send multiple security strings within a single text message. At the time of authentication the user is shown which string to use to authenticate.

Animated TURing images

In order to provide increased resistance to malware attacks, it is now possible to animate the TURing, BUTTon and PATTern images.

In-built repository browser

PINsafe 3.6 now has an in-built repository browser that can view the contents of any LDAP based repository to which PINsafe is integrated. This speeds up initial configuration and subsequent fault analysis.

Agent/NAS authentication modes

It is now possible to configure Agents and NASs to only allow certain authentication modes, e.g. dual channel only.

Auto PIN-Reset

It is now possible to automatically resend a user a new PIN when their PIN expires, rather than locking the account.

Idle Status

Accounts that are locked because the user has been idle are now distinguishable from accounts that are locked for other reasons.

Account Expiry

It is now possible to set expiry dates on accounts in the XML repository.

1.       Gather the team, make sure it is inclusive of the key stakeholder. Understand why you want an IS strategy and why it is important.

2.       Get the senior executive in your management to back you. Can anything really happen without them?

3.       Create your strategy .

a)      Strategic and Business alignment: Businesses must identify information security drivers like applicable regulations, fraud and customer privacy, and then identify business assets, including their respective threats and vulnerabilities. Additionally, companies should review their existing information security initiatives, technologies and trust relationships

b)      Organization and Culture: A successful strategy must incorporate the executive tone; organizational and partner awareness; training needs, skills and competencies; and administrative and functional reporting structures.

c)       Management and Governance: Management must focus on how the organization develops policies and standards, manages projects and programs, makes decisions and funds information security programs. Consider your position. What regulatory requirements come to bear in your IS strategy? Are you expected to comply with PCI-DSS SOx etc?

d)      Technology: Organizations must establish a precise definition of information security that includes technology needs and standards, and how information security technology is managed.

4.       What is your goal.... is to detect or to prevent attack. Given that IS security is constantly moving it is virtually impossible to continually be up to date and to guarantee 100% security without a large dedicated team. If this is what you require it may be required to bring in outside help.

5.       When looking at the cost always bear in mind, what would the cost be of a security breach because we didn’t do this?

6.       Think strategically but don’t delay. As soon as what you have is better than before make sure it is adopted. This does not mean be reactive or deal tactically but take independent steps along your strategic path. The penalties for prevarication can be severe.

7.       Follow Plan – Do – Check - Act you have spent time and effort developing your strategy. Implement it. Make sure it does what you want and if necessary change it to get it right.

8.       It can’t happen overnight. Be prepared to invest a little time to get it right. The alternative may be much worse.

9.       Don’t be caught in the “It can’t happen to me” syndrome.

10.   Employ professionals. IT security is can be complex and difficult to describe to business focussed board members. Employ people who can do this

Refractiv specialises in ensuring IT systems are tough enough to withstand security threats.

The company is warning that firms are at risk from staff who have been made redundant and seek revenge by attacking their former employer's IT system.

Bill Twibill, the company's director, said: "There is more evidence that attacks (on IT systems) are happening.

"It's a very sad fact that when people are made redundant they can be tempted to take the skills they have developed and use them for nefarious gain. Part of a business continuity plan, or a disaster recovery plan, for an organisation, should focus on the 'what-if?' scenario.

"You have to make sure that when people go they are not in a position to take this kind of revenge. Every organisation has to think about security. Our clients are all around the country."

The Refractiv Group, which is based in Normanton, West Yorkshire, was formed last year from the amalgamation of three IT companies - Sandford Technology, Virtronix and Leap Frog.

Virtronix works with London Marathon organisers to ensure their office network is protected from Internet-based attacks.

Each year, along with other IT suppliers, Virtronix creates a network carrying timing data for the London Marathon runners, which has to be dismantled and packed away straight after the race ends.

The security systems Virtronix support protect the London Marathon's offices and race-day infrastructure, and the network used by the media to file their stories.

The company also maintains the office network security for the British Academy.

Mr Twibill said: "The threats are always changing, which is why we can't sit still. People need to think about how they are going to address those new risks.

"When we talk to our clients, the majority perceive that the risk comes from inside an organisation. It's not about the employees being malicious. It's just unwitting behaviour. They might want to download a piece of music or photographs, and that can open up threats."

Group turnover this year is expected to rise from £800,000, to £1.6m.

The company has 16 staff and hopes to hire more when the economy improves.

Mr Twibill, a former army officer who has also worked as a principal consultant for IBM Global Services, said the company planned to stay in Yorkshire because it was close to the UK's "centre of gravity".

He added: "I don't think our business is recession-proof but we do very strongly believe that once you have started having a security system, you can't suddenly stop it. You have to respond to new threats.

"As we get towards the end of 2009 and start looking to 2010, we will be very much in a growth period.

"We certainly want to try to go international. It's never easy trying to break into new international markets, but with the right people and the right services, that's something that's always a possibility.

FROM BATTLEFIELD TO BOARDROOM

Bill Twibill, one of the directors of the Refractiv Group, was trained to combat security threats on the battlefield. He spent seven years in the army, before moving into business.

He joined IBM (International Business Machines) in their consulting services division and soon rose to become a principal consultant in IBM Global Services.

He then moved to be the global head of an "emerging business opportunity" that IBM was leading.

In this role, Mr Twibill brought to market new technologies and services that brought $80m in revenue to IBM.

He left IBM in order to pursue interests in the small business sector and to help emerging businesses realise their potential. Today, as managing director of Virtronix, he is responsible for boosting sales across Refractiv Group.

Greg Wright, Yorkshire Post.]]> Wed, 06 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT http://www.refractiv.co.uk/news/15

Whilst listening to Col Mark Faulkner at our recent 2020 Vision series event on Fighting the tactical battle whilst winning the war against the economy I became aware that even in our current economic circumstance the need to know where we are going must be of prime concern.

If we don’t know where we are going how can we hope to take the right road. If we know our end point we can plan for the journey and the possible obstacles in our way; competition, finances, resources. There may be unknown obstacles in the way but we will have plans for how to attack these tactical issues. It is only by knowing the final destination that we can hope to get back on track and not get lost.

Find out more at www.refractiv.co.uk/events

This week we have received the good news that Check Point has completed the purchase of Nokia Security Appliances Business Unit.

In practical terms this means no difference to you as you will continue to receive the same levels of support as before. Virtronix will continue to support your security and your company's needs. Check Point is immediately supporting the terms of Nokia's security appliance support agreements until those agreements expire. Customers who choose to renew support after their Nokia contracts expire will be offered virtually identical support programs - Check Point Access and Check Point Essential. The minor changes to these offerings result in similar or better service level agreements and similar or lower prices.

In addition Check Point will honour the Nokia support policy which commits to providing for 5 years support after the model's End of Sale date.

This will make little or no difference to your choice of architecture. You will however see benefit in that IP appliances are available immediately from Check Point and will support both Check Point R70 release, based on the Software Blade Architecture and Check Point NGX R65. The system is somewhat simplified in that Check Point is the end point for answers to any questions and there is a much more closely knit supply chain.

All in all this will make it easier to work with Virtronix and with Check Point.

If you have any other question about the purchase, or Check Point's new R70 version please call us on 0870 0117 455.email us or visit the Virtronix website for more information.

Virtronix provides a range of services including security consultancy, remote management of firewalls, VPNs, vulnerability and network scanning as well as virtualisation. The company boasts well-known companies such as The British Academy and Camelot amongst its clients. See www.virtronix.co.uk.

Richard Atkinson, Managing Director, Sandford Technology said: "Virtronix has an excellent team of people and a 'can do' attitude to customer service which will be of tremendous benefit to our clients."

He continued: "The merger has strong future strategic implications for us and begins to fulfill our aim of being a next-generation IT services provider. As a combined business we now have an extremely powerful set of products and services to offer ".

"We are in a web-centric world and the pace of change is quickening. Broadband, powerful hosted software applications and the rich functionality of web 2.0 are driving change in the business environment. We are seeing increasing demand for powerful, interactive online business applications and this is symptomatic of the new generation of internet technologies. There is a major trend towards 'web 2.0' portals and internet-hosted business applications such as CRM, document management, workflow and collaboration and we are well set to provide all of this within secure and virtualised infrastructures".

"By the year 2020, in fact well before that in many cases, we expect business to be transformed into a predominantly digital landscape, with enterprises small and large transacting through advanced websites, web services and hosted applications. Clients, prospects, suppliers and other contacts will expect to interact with businesses in new, sophisticated ways. This environment will become the hub of the business and we are well-placed to provide the data security, web applications and support services to deliver this future. We call this our 2020 Vision."

Some 2008 predictions with a CMS\ECM flavour which we like are here, and some search flavoured predictions for 2007 which didn't come true are here.

Our predictions for the coming year?

• less computers, more browsers like this one
• less servers, more network storage like these
• clouds on the horizon
• ...and that you will have a happy, successful 2008

We are seeing increasing demand for powerful, interactive online business applications and this is symptomatic of the new generation of internet technologies. There is a major trend towards 'web 2.0' portals and internet-hosted business applications such as CRM, document management, workflow and collaboration.

By the year 2020 business will be transformed into a predominantly digital landscape, with enterprises small and large transacting through advanced websites, web services and hosted applications. This environment will become the hub of the business. Your clients, prospects, suppliers and other contacts will expect to interact with your business in new, sophisticated ways.

The new internet generation

The Google and MySpace generations are upon us and users are demanding new and better applications with a rich, personalised experience. Users both inside and outside the enterprise expect to interact on all levels using ever advancing web applications. The MySpace generation assumes they will be able to conduct business 24x7 via the enterprise's digital interfaces - if they find they can't, they'll quietly move on. Your staff will expect to be able to do their job using the same kind of tools they capitalise on in their personal life, and without strictly policed digital boundaries.

Collaboration

Companies of all sizes need to manage increasing quantities of data and teams collaborating on projects must share information securely, regardless of location. In order to be competitive, growing companies need to embrace collaborative working and establish an infrastructure to support it.

People involved with projects or business initiatives are often dispersed across the enterprise and may be outside it, for example suppliers and partners. Information portals provide an entry point for users so that they can find, edit, upload and share information. Where appropriate, users will follow corporate workflow processes or procedures.

Solutions

It's not necessary to re-invent the wheel. There are some excellent Open Source applications and portals from which custom solutions can be developed; open or 'loosely coupled' architectures protect the investment of the end-customer. Sophisticated products such as Microsoft Sharepoint are also focused on this market. The good news is that enterprise-class solutions are now available to small and medium-sized business at an affordable price.

The Future

Some experts on future trends claim that more than 60% of businesses that will have the greatest commercial impact in the next 10 years have not yet been formed! For evidence of how this is possible, you only need to look at companies like Google, Facebook and YouTube. Today it's Web 2.0 but we ain't seen nothing yet!

Our main objectives in overhauling the site were to:

• Align the visual image with our latest branding and marketing literature
• Improve the presentation of case studies
• Promote events such as SEO and Digital Marketing workshops
• Add a corporate blog
• Promote our professional services, including training, support and web hosting
• Provide a platform for future promotion of our business solutions and applications

Google's Free Services

Google offers much more than basic searching! All of the tools below will enhance your ability to optimise your site, assess the competition and stay on top of your market. Most of the services listed below will require you to create a single Google account:

Search	Take a close look at the Advanced options, especially "domain" which will show you the entire cache Google has of your site, and "links" which can show your inbound links. http://www.google.co.uk
Personalised Search	Google's personalised home lets you assemble "widgets" and feeds to create a powerful dashboard http://www.google.co.uk/ig
Toolbar	The Google Toolbar is the only browser toolbar we'd ever recommend. For SEO purposes, it has a PageRank indicator which gives a rough indication of the overall ranking of sites - useful when building inbound links. http://toolbar.google.co.uk
Local	Add your business location to Google Maps. Take advantage of the "glocal" wave which is rushing towards us. http://www.google.com/local/add
Keyword Suggestion Tool	One of several suggestion tools that help you to refine and prioritise your keywords. http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Alerts	Monitor new occurences of your keywords, company name, product names etc. http://www.google.co.uk/alerts
Sitemaps	Primarily for feeding your site structure directly to Google, but many other useful features to keep your site in top shape. http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ Yahoo!'s equivalent: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com
Analytics	Excellent stats and analysis tools, helping you to monitor your site goals and traffic. http://www.google.com/analytics
Base	The mother of all databases (or the daughter perhaps?) Another way to generate traffic to your site, and raise awareness of your products\events\whatever. http://base.google.com
Adwords	Well, not free but an essential way to fill in the gaps in your search rankings, provide additional customer service and put pressure on your competitors. http://adwords.google.com

Other useful links:

Validate your pages http://validator.w3.org

Lots more weapons for your SEO armoury http://tools.seobook.com

Keyword mutations: http://adlab.msn.com/keyMut/default.aspx

Quick site analysis: http://www.seoworkers.com/tools/

Entry level SEO software: http://www.webceo.com

Serious SEO software: http://www.axandra.com

Online ranking monitor: http://www.rankingcheck.com

"Long tail" keyword suggestions: http://www.hittail.com

To download a copy of the SEO presentation slideshow, please click here

Although I'm no conspiracy theorist, I can't help wondering whether some secret old-school-tie Msft|Intel|Dell|WD|HP consortium buys-up\pays-off anyone who comes close.

Dell's recent IdeaStore site appealed to my Web 2.0 sensibilities, so I put two and two together and threw my idea (more of a question really!) into the ring.

Will it fly?
Will it be shot down?
You decide!