At the beginning of 2010, the School Governors One Stop Shop (SGOSS) approached Beaver Design with a brand new design concept they had created, for a new website they wanted to have built. As the main resource for would-be and serving school governor volunteers across England, the main aim was to make it up-to-date, easy to manage and feature the most relevant information for the volunteers, schools and local authorities who work with SGOSS.

“We decided our website needed an entire overhaul in terms of design, content and navigation. After a lot of work in-house over a number of months, we came up with a design we wanted and took it to Beaver for them to turn into an actual website.” - SGOSS

The website design was first done in-house at SGOSS, before being given to Beaver to turn it into a reality – in addition to building the new and more user friendly CMS to support the new site...

“Beaver also built a new and easier to use CMS for the site, which we have full control of, enabling us to add content where necessary and make any changes we need to and overall making such process a lot quicker.” - SGOSS

If you would like more information about SGOSS, please contact info@sgoss.org.uk or visit the website at:

www.sgoss.org.uk

Beaver Design has recently designed and delivered a unique floor game for Ericsson, as part of their ‘2012 Strategy’ campaign. Ericsson asked us to design a version of ‘Twister’ using graphic elements from their poster and DVD promotion, laid out across the game board. Beaver also designed the spinners which will be used to play the game, just like the 'Twister' game from MB.

The game is going to be used to help employees find out more about the the upcoming Ericsson '2012 Strategy' in a fun and light-hearted way.

“The internet is as vital as water and gas”, wrote Gordon Brown today in an article for The Times. In the article, which preceded today’s Digital Britain report, the Prime Minister outlined the government’s plans for investment into the internet.

The Prime Minister stated, “Just as the bridges, roads and railways built in the 19th century were the foundations of the Industrial Revolution that helped Britain to become the workshop of the world, so investment now in the information and communications industries can underpin our emergence from recession to recovery and cement the UK's position as a global economic powerhouse.”

So, are you making the most of the web now? Talk to us about the ways your business can use the web to bring in business, lower costs and raise your profile.

To read the article by Gordon Brown, go to:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6506136.ece

To read the Digital Britain report, go to:
http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/broadcasting/5631.aspx

The new Chigwell Construction website has recently gone live, featuring news and information about the quality property services company. The site was designed by graphic designer Gary Ingram and built by Beaver Design.

As well as a good web presence with plenty of imagery and information, the site also has a few unique features. There is a news page, which shows all the current and older announcements from Chigwell Construction. This is all managed by Chigwell themselves through a simple content management system.

There is also a secure extranet section, which means that Chigwell have a safe place from which to easily distribute information and plans to their partners.

For more information and news about Chigwell Construction, please go to:
www.chigwellconstruction.co.uk

In this month's issue of Axis Magazine we've discussed the dot-com era and what it’s like for modern e-commerce.

Download your copy of our Web Advice article from Axis Magazine (1.2MB) >

When the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, many companies went bust and confidence in the online world was damaged. A few big players survived, taking a large market share and they now enjoy great success (Amazon, eBay, Play.com). But many smaller companies were lost.

Other companies which survived were either not looking too big or had a real-world presence to back them up. The mentality of “get big quick” was destined to only pay off for a fraction of the players involved. There were simply too many companies competing to do the same thing, with too much investment and not enough actual business. Business models designed to operate at a loss for years, just to win enough of a market share for profit later on.

Back to the present

These days, successful e-commerce companies dont tend to look at dominating the web, but instead see it as a way to position a their company to sell online. A good way to think about it is like companies setting up another branch or store, which just happens to be online. This is why they resemble shops, with areas for different items, baskets while you shop, checkouts and so on. Some websites even feature live help, where a representative can chat to customer through a chat window.

Woolworths was a high profile casualty of the recession last Christmas. Because they slashed their prices, other retailers were forced to do the same in order to remain competitive. In the end, Woolworths closed, but they were unfortunately only the first. Poor Christmas sales and a general down-turn in the economy have forced other retailers to tighten their belts and prepare for a harsh couple of years. But it's not all doom and gloom - according to the Woolworth’s website, the store will be re-launching in the summer; this time online.

With the speed at which customers can browse websites, the key is to make sure they quickly find what they’re looking for. Research has shown that customers in the past have taken up to 34 hours to make a buying decision. Having a site which is easy to navigate and where possible, remembers who they are and what they looked at before, will help bring in those sales. Shopping online is a quick "I need it now" kind of shopping and one which you can get into quite easily.

In the early days, the dot-com world seemed like just a fad and for some, during the bubble burst of 2000, it was. E-Commerce is now commonly accepted, more sophisticated and proving to be more resilient during these times of economic recession. If you haven't thought about it before or you've had bad experiences, think about it again and see what e-commerce could mean for your business.

More on e-commerce

Shoppers shun high street for online bargains >
Retail sales down by 1.9% in March >
Wikipedia article on the dot-com bubble >
Woolworths is coming back online >
Some e-commerce stories (of varying successes) from Debenhams, Argos and Sainsbury >