We live in an online world now – where you can buy anything and everything through a website.  It allows small to medium size businesses to add another sales stream to their business, without all the hassles of hiring additional sales staff.

We work with businesses of all sizes and most business people today are savvy enough to understand the importance of online commerce – even when they may not have taken the plunge yet, or what they have set up on their web leaves a lot to be desired.

At Mindiam we are strong advocates of Open Source software yet at times we come across customer confusion about just what Open Source means.  Probably the biggest misconception is that customers think everything will be free, so why would they need a Web Designer or Developer.

The purpose of this Blog is to explain what Open Source is, how it can add a significantly improved e-commerce solution to your business, increase branding and perceived professionalism for your business as well as allow you to operate effectively in various markets around the world.  E-commerce has made the world one market and unless your business has all the front-end and back-end solutions sorted out then you could be missing out on business or not making as much out of it as you should be.

Have you ever been in the situation of trying to do some repair or renovation work around the house, purchased all the tools and hardware, given it a go, stuffed it up – then called in a professional anyway?

Sound familiar?

It is to us – we get that scenario all the time.  Customers attempt to solve their own website design, development or e-commerce solutions, only to muck it all up and then want it fixed. Our advice is always that businesses should stick to what they know best – so if you are in food manufacturing; then stick to that and leave the on-line solutions to experts in that field. 

However, in saying that you need to ensure that you do some homework before deciding on your on-line solutions expert such as:

• Can they offer a 1-stop Shop, i.e., Web Design, Development, Search Engine Optimisation, Hosting, and Advice?
• Are they prepared to get to know your business – so that the solutions they provide exceed what your current requirements are?
• Are they interested in developing a business relationship with you – rather than just a website design or development?
• Do they think of future business, political and environmental impacts on your business and how you may need to adapt?
• Do they understand on-line Marketing – rather than just web design and development?

So, what we are getting at here is that successful on-line businesses need a number of things – appropriate software solutions, good website design, a strong business relationship with your web designer/developer and preferably one who can host as well.  In addition, Open Source software provides small to medium businesses with professional solutions, at an affordable rate, that allow them to compete in the market against any player.

So what is Open Source?

Open Source is a term used to describe Software that is generally provided free of charge (i.e., no expensive licencing fees), along with the original Source Code used to create it so that anyone modify it to improve it and work in ways that reflect their own preferences.   Often also indicates software which is developed and maintained by a community of developers rather than a single company.

What this means is that any sized business can have access to software that will meet virtually any on-line requirement they may have.

So while there may be no or little charge for the actual software, there is obviously still considerable time and input required by the web designers/developers to develop the requirements needed specifically for your business.

However, the big advantage to business is the significantly reduced cost in getting your on-line requirements up and running and of course the sophistication of the software you now have access to.

Examples of Open Source software that Mindiam recommends

Joomla

This is one of our major development platforms – used for website design and development. We have a strong group of web developers and designers who have completed hundreds of Joomla web development projects. We have created, developed and implemented many different components, modules and plugins to suit the website scope to achieve a high end Joomla development platform for clients.
http://mindiam.com/web-design/joomla-web-design.html

Magento

Magento is the world’s fastest growing eCommerce Platform on the planet – used by small business through to major players like Ford and Skype.   It is very higly regarded for its power, stability, and state-of-the-art features.  From a technical perspective Magento is easy to deploy, maintain, upgrade and work with. It is a very flexible software – so it can be easily changed to keep Magento open to merchant's needs, which is vital in today's rapidly changing eCommerce marketplace.
http://mindiam.com/web-design/magento-web-development.html

Wordpress

This is another state-of-the-art publishing platform – known for its aesthetics, web standards, and usability.  Mindiam has an experienced team that can turn an ordinary WordPress website into something extraordinary. Our WordPress team has extensive experience with delivering CMS solutions ranging from simple blogs to highly complex and customised WordPress implementations. We have well defined models for development and design and out friendly staff can guide you through every step of the design and management process.
http://mindiam.com/web-design/wordpress-web-design.html

From our experience, these 3 Open Source Systems will cover what you need to complete your website: Wordpress for SEO rankings, Joomla for a website with every integrated feature you have dreamed of and Magento for the best e-commerce website you could ever implement.

Feel free to talk with us about other Open Source software that we work with that may suit your requirements.