Local Government - Does It Matter to Business?

Even though my business is in Redcar I live in Middlesbrough and this week we had a referendum on whether we keep the mayoral system or not. I didn't vote and I'm a big one for voting, even when there is nothing to vote for (I have little faith in the self-serving, snouts in the trough main parties) I go along and spoil my ballot paper which at least makes an effort rather than languishing in apathy.

I don't quite see how the choice of voting for a mayor who appoints a cabinet who make decisions with little reference to the full council differs in any real way for voting for councillors who then appoint a cabinet who make decisions with little reference to the full council. Both are fundamentally undemocratic.

This time I languished in apathy but am proud that Matt, in his first ever opportunity to vote, took the time to go to the polling station and spoil his paper by drawing a duck with a speech bubble explaining that both options are undemocratic. Now that's the way to spoil a ballot paper, I hope it catches on as a campaign.

What's more the debate has largely revolved around the record of one Ray Mallon. To make it clear, I'm not a fan of his, but surely his record is irrelevant to the debate as to what system you have in place. Whatever system is used we could well (and probably will) end up with someone I don't want in power but I've got an equal vote and have to live with that. It is typical of the standard of debate in politics that it's about personalities rather than policies and plans for improving a town. The same goes at national level and for the record I think Cameron, Clegg and Milliband are all [insert your favoured insult here]s.

So does it matter at all? I'm sure it does, There are some great things in Middlesbrough (as well as the people and the Transporter) - I love Mima and Temenos, they show a bit of ambition and a look to the future but bulldozing communities and leaving them as wastelands sends the opposite message.

In Redcar the council has done a great job in largely using EU money to completely regenerate the seafront. I've moved my business there and have THE most stunning view from a great office and that does make a difference to my business. But in carrying out the renovation they called the Beacon the "Vertical Pier" and alienated the vast majority of the local population who still want a traditional pier.

So local government are doing some genuinely great things but scoring huge own goals at the same time. I think it's indicative of a political class totally out of touch with the communities they aim to represent yet still showing that they do genuinely want to move those communities forward in positive way. That suggests there must be some way of reconnecting communities with well-intentioned local politicians, maybe the influence of party HQ's and spin doctors is the problem. What's the answer to that - if I had the answer I'd stand for mayor!

The biggest downside to all this in Redcar is the massive negative feeling the majority of the population have about the area, and that's not a feeling I get in Middlesbrough (at least away from the Riverside!). Lots of local people talk the place down in a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom, even slating the new seafront development which has attracted businesses (me for one) and tens of thousands of visitors.

That needs to change and there are people in Redcar trying to make a difference in many ways through getting business to work together and generate new business (our new BNI chapter for one), beach clean-ups, events, education and much more - there's a lot to be proud of. If you're not convinced come down the esplanade, it looks great, pop into the Palace Hub Gallery (it's better than Mima and largely features local artists), have an ice-cream at Archers or a lemon top at Pacittos  and pop and see us if you fancy a cuppa and admire our view.

Copyright, David Laud, i2i Business Solutions LLP

A positive attitude goes a long way to being successful, a negative attitude guarantees failure. I'm proud to be from Boro, from Teesside and from God's country, Yorkshire, and proud to have my business in Redcar - it would be great if all of the people of Redcar joined the growing band of folk putting pride back into a great little seaside town and helped put it back where it belongs, as a jewel on the Yorkshire Coast.

Technology Changes

Look at poor old Blackberry, planning to slash their global workforce by 40% in an attempt to halt their inexorable slide into oblivion (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24182038). I don't intend to give a full analysis of their slide into decline, suffice to say I have been a Bb user for a number of years and have gone from loving my Blackberry a few years ago, to hating it now as it has a habit of crashing during calls if anything else comes in at the same time.

I've not looked at the figures for mobile purchases but do know that Google Analytics for our clients show that the vast majority of mobile and tablet visitors to the websites we are responsible for come from iPhone and iPad. How have Apple done so well? I don't believe their products are any better than others. Sorry iCult members but I strongly believe that is true, I have an iPad and absolutely love it so don't believe Android or others are better either, but I believe Apple are simply the best marketers and by a long, long way.

So that's a simple example of how technological changes affect companies but what of us somewhat smaller companies who work on the Web? Technology is constantly changing and I think there are 4 fundamental challenges for a web agency:

• The availability of "build your own website" packages that can build a serviceable website from scratch whether that be some web hosting company's very limited package through to Wordpress
• The increase in mobile usage for web browsing and the improvement in download speeds
• New versions of the core fundamentals of the web, html, css, php, mysql, accessibility standards, legal requirements, copyright, etc.
• The amount of competition as every man and his dog are now "web developers"

How do we cope with all of these? I'll start with the first and last points in combination as they are inextricably linked. There's a big difference between "knocking out a website" on an open source platform like Wordpress by fitting someone's logo into a theme and being able to develop a website by adding/editing source code. One is very limited and if you ask for something a little different some of your "developers" won't be able to do it. Build your own website packages have their place for people just starting out and Wordpress is a great open-source package we use for small business packages as it is very adaptable if you're happy adapting the php code and adding to the database.

There is an element of cost difference between build your own and using a web agency, however once you take the hosting fees into account for many of the build your own packages there's little difference after a couple of years and the major difference is your website is expandable as you grow with an expert to help you when you get a web agency to create it.

The changes to the fundamentals of web design is simply about keeping up to date via newsgroups, magazines, books, courses and the like - simply taking the time to keep up to date, so does not create any major obstacle.

The changes to mobile technology and usage really open up possibilities for companies to get ahead of their competition. We've recently surveyed the changes in mobile visitors to our clients' websites. A year ago typically 10-20% of visitors came to a site via a mobile phone or tablet. This year it is typically 20-40% and sales of tablets are increasing. It is now pointless creating a new website without a mobile version or that includes technology that iOS devices will not show. It is still the norm to design a website that is designed primarily for PC/laptop but that will also look good and function well on a mobile phone. We are close to the tipping point where we should design primarily for tablet and phone with a good version for PC/laptop. I also think it should be a decision that is specific to the client.

And that brings me to the main point which is relevant to all of the points above. A good web agency will get to know the client's business, what they do, who their customers are and what their aims are. The website created for the client is specific to them as are the associated elements such as SEO, social media strategies, advertising, etc. There is also the after sales service ensuring that you are there for advice and support for customers after you have been paid. Keeping customers happy leads to more business from them in the future and recommendations to people they know but the Web industry has earned a bad reputation in this respect.

The main point is to remember that whilst we are a technology business we are primarily a customer service business - we need to understand the technology but we need to understand and help our customers much, much more. So with our old-fashioned customer service approach we simply solve business problems for our customers using the web. Our strap-line says it all.

Image Copyright and Web Design

Fairly recently parliament passed the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act which, amongst other things, relates to the use of photographs and other images on websites. Many photographers appear to be up in arms as it allows for the use of orphan images after a search for the ownership of the original. I'm not a photographer so am not fully au fait with the arguments around this but there seems to be a few key points.

1. A number of popular platforms strip out the meta data of photos that identify the originator making it more difficult for them to claim ownership and some of these platforms claim ownership of any image uploaded.
2. It opens up the way for more activity by trawling copyright lawyers - Getty Images are notorious for this and there is some evidence that they are claiming huge payments for the use of images that were used long before they were owned by Getty Images. It seems that big corporations and lawyers benefit but not the photographer.
3. There are instances of copyrighted images being distributed in free libraries of images.
4. The new law does require a "diligent search" of any orphan image to determine ownership - Google Image search does allow a search by image so that is a big help for anyone who is unsure and should provide some protection for the real owner

I would welcome the views of any photographers or lawyers on this as it seems fairly complex.

So what does it mean for web developers and designers? Well, we have to be careful. We have three main sources for the images we use on a website: our clients, stock image libraries and images we produce ourselves whether they be photos or derivatives of the first two where we have edited them and/or added to them. The biggest danger we have in all this is images supplied by clients, fairly recently we have had a client contact us saying they have had the Getty Images letter and requesting where the image came from. Our answer was honest and probably not what they wanted to hear - they supplied it themselves.

This raises an important issue in that when the site was made a few years ago, we didn't get confirmation that they had permission to use or were the owners of the supplied images. We have now put procedures in place to get our clients to confirm images they supply are their own or they have permission to use them either from the originator or via a suitable license. All images we use ourselves are used with permission and usually purchased specifically for the website we are creating. It is one of the reasons a legitimate web agency is more expensive than someone knocking out websites from their bedroom and stealing images!

So what is Tad Web Solutions up to? In between lots of meetings we are working on websites for a new recycling company, a soft play hire company, a magazine, a university project in Canada (oh yes we are now exporters!), a plumber, an EPC company, a wedding car company and some social media strategy development for Epigem, a high-tech company at Kirkleatham. A bit busy then especially as much of my time has been spent on a white label project which for obvious reasons we can't tell you about.

All of those are ongoing next week plus lots of meetings including Wednesday's BNI meeting where I have to step into my role properly as part of the leadership team - we had or first proper meeting last week with 40+ referrals passed in week one which was a cracking start. So second meeting this week plus leadership training and a members' day on Fri. I've also got a meeting with representatives of Cleveland Police regarding a project we're working on and a meeting with a couple of people I've worked with in the past with a view to creating a new joint venture which has a lot of potential and I'm rather excited about (but more on that when it happens).

Monday sees an early finish and a trip to Durham Uni with Matt who has already got an offer to do Physics plus a bursary every year if he puts them 1st on his UCAS form - really proud of him.

How Secure is a Secure Website?

A couple of weeks ago I was asked a similar question on BBC Tees radio and the answer is something like "quite". The BBC recently reported that government agencies in the US and UK have cracked the algorithms used for banking and email and, I think more importantly, that some companies leave "backdoor access to their security systems" for security agencies (source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23981291).

Let's be clear about Internet security, even the U.S. military gets hacked and whilst I don't know what security they use I am sure it's more complex and expensive than you or I can afford to set up.

So what can your average SME do to make their website safe if they are storing or processing sensitive information? The key steps are:

• Ensure all software and operating systems are up to date so that security holes are patched
• Encrypt sensitive information that is stored such as credit card numbers and passwords using hashing functions and a random salt that adds some random element to each of the encryption functions
• Ensure passwords have some kind of control over length and the characters used
• Don't store passwords in written format
• Don't give out passwords to anyone else
• For the transmission of sensitive data transmit use a secure connection (look for https and the padlock on your browser)

Will that prevent your website from being hacked - the answer is no, if the US military can be hacked then so can your site.

So what's the point? Firstly, your site is secure but the sites of many others are not and it is simply easier and less risky to hack into their sites. Secondly, it will be difficult, time consuming and very costly to hack your site and probably not worth the effort based upon the return.

The theory of web security boils down to making the cost of breaking into a secure website very high, the process very difficult and significantly more costly than the returns gained from hacking into a site. Encryption of data, which forms the central part of such a strategy, is a very complex mathematical process which makes it very difficult to determine how it is achieved even if someone has access to the encrypted data. However, it is a mathematical process and as computing power increases rapidly the encryption methods of a few years ago can now be cracked fairly quickly making it a continual battle to stay ahead of the bad guys.

Large organisations throw money at Internet security and employ ethical hackers, essentially people who have switched sides, to test their security - it is a costly process, that is beyond the means of most. Us mere mortals can only afford a good level of security that in most instances will protect our websites.

For me the scary part of the BBC story is the note that backdoor access is provided for government security agencies and that may include banks and the like. I'm no longer worried about the government having access to all of my data. Whilst I don't want them to have it, I have long assumed that they do. More importantly, if there is backdoor access then there is a huge security hole that is also available to hackers which makes the whole system highly vulnerable as the returns may well be worth the expense for complete access to a banking system.

New Websites and Bespoke Functionality in the Pipeline

We launched a couple of new sites for clients last week that we can talk about and one we can't (white labelled).

Both of these sites are html with nothing particular special in terms of functionality. Whilst we are always keen to have sites with bespoke functionality, we have a core of small business clients who do not have the need nor budget for such sites and we're happy to meet their needs via quality small business packages that are listed on our small business websites pages at http://www.teeswebdesign.co.uk/.

So who have we created sites for this week? An accountancy firm, LDF Accountancy Services Ltd.

and a gardening/outdoor joinery firm.

Now I'm a bit (lot) of a geek so I love getting my teeth into a website with some bespoke database driven functionality and we're in discussions regarding the development of a website for an energy assessors that will include storage of reports, automated invoicing and client areas so they can monitor progress of their jobs, get reports, etc. Hope we get the contract and I'll look forward to getting stuck into that.

So what of the coming week? Wednesday sees the launch of our new referrals network in Redcar. We expect 50+ local businesses there so if you operate in Redcar, Middlesbrough, East or South Cleveland and want more business then get in touch. I'll get you an invite and you can see how we can help you.