30 May 2006

What does your website say about you?

By Andrew Clifford

Simple, direct websites work. Complicated, vague websites fail.

The web is indispensable to Metrici. Many IT specialists see their web presence as an optional extra – the thing to do – somewhere to publish a brochure. We are different. We have captured our specialist knowledge in our product Metrici Advisor. We deliver Metrici Advisor as a service over the web. The web-based service costs much less than traditional consultancy. Our website is our product. It is our competitive advantage.

We needed to think hard about our web presence. We looked at other businesses, to see what they do.

These sites are typical. None of them get their message across simply and directly. Perhaps they are not sure of their message. Perhaps they can't explain it. Perhaps they're trying to hide something. Maybe they believe they can entice readers to their site with pictures of skyscrapers, and then bewilder them into buying.

To stand out, we needed to be different. We adopted two rules:

It is a high-risk strategy. We may look amateurish – as if we lacked the skill or money to build a proper "professional" website. It is true that we are not visual design experts. It is true that we don't like to spend money unless we understand what value it brings. But these are not the real reasons behind our approach. Our real reason is that we need a website that reflects our simple and direct approach to IT management.

What does your website say about you?