Nowadays, it is becoming increasingly important for a company to have a web presence that does not get "lost in the shuffle." Before thinking about advanced topics such as e-commerce or search engine optimization (SEO), it is very important to take a good look at the most important aspect of your website – functionality. Everyone wants a large amount of "hits" to their site, but these hits are virtually useless if your customers or prospects are not able to quickly find the information for which they are looking.

Recent market research statistics show us that over 50% of Internet sales are lost because potential customers cannot find what they are looking for. Since you only have, on average, 10 seconds to grab a visitor’s attention, focusing on the following will allow you to retain more visitors:

• Pages within your site should be well-categorized and easy to navigate.  Too much content or too many links on your home page is confusing. Each level of your website structure should not contain more than a handful of links to deeper levels.
   
• Review your content.  Customers and prospects come to your site seeking information. Does your content match up with your expertise? Does your site reflect this? Unless your content is current and relevant, you will lose your visitors immediately.
   
• Avoid fancy animations.  You make a stronger first impression with a clean, well-organized home page than with a "splash page" filled with distracting animations.
   
• Avoid a graphics-intensive home page.  Although more and more people are using high-speed connections, you want to minimize the page load time whenever possible. This also goes hand-in-hand with the previous point. Irrelevant, unnecessary graphics distract the visitor from the information they are seeking.

These are just some very basic suggestions to get you started. Always remember to keep your customers and potential customers in mind. Design your site to service their needs and do not overwhelm them with the latest multimedia capabilities available.

If you would like to discuss the changes that should be made to your company’s website, please do not hesitate to contact us. The longer you wait, the longer you are being measured by your current web presence.

Terminal Services allow programs to run on the server instead of on the client PC. The Terminal Services client on the client PC simply transmits the graphical user interface to the client, while all application processing is occurring on the server.

The server side of this equation is typically a Windows 2003 Server. The client, on the other hand, can either be a PC or it can be a "thin client." A thin client is a small hardware terminal "box" in which you connect a monitor, keyboard, mouse and network cable.

It is important to understand the difference between traditional PC computing and Terminal Services computing. In many PC environments, the PC at the desktop does all of the processing of the application. The server is only used as a file server – a place to read and write data. In a Terminal Services environment, the PC or "thin client" becomes  a terminal into the server. The server is executing the application. The client is only used to display output to users and accept input via the keyboard and mouse.

The cost of managing traditional PC computing is moving upward due in part to products needed to combat Virus and Spyware activity. In a Terminal Services environment, these issues are localized to a single server. Administration is easier in a Terminal Services environment, as all aspects of the user experience can be controlled from the server. If "thin clients" are used, these devices are less expensive than traditional PCs, as they are used solely to access the server.

Using Terminal Services may not be for everyone. However, if you are considering adding a bunch of new users to your system, you may want to consider using Terminal Services and "thin clients" as opposed to traditional desktops. If you want to learn more, please let us know.

Company Spotlight:

Thermal Foams, Inc., with locations in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Pittsburgh, has been serving customers since 1959. In addition to manufacturing Expanded Polystyrene foam and Structural Insulated Panels, Thermal Foams, Inc. is also one of the area's largest stocking distributors of insulation & cushioning materials, as well as Exterior Insulation Finishing Systems products. In addition, Thermal Foams offers products to manage packaging needs. Thermal Foams offers an in-house design department that will create a custom product tailored to the specific needs of the client.

The IT infrastructure at Thermal Foams is composed of Windows technologies alongside a UNIX Server that drives their business applications. Their business needs dictate specific software requirements, which have been programmed into their system by CDS.

Dave Wopperer, President of Thermal Foams adds,

"Thermal Foams, Inc. has been with Copeland Data for over 20 years. Copeland was instrumental introducing our company to the computer age with the old but reliable Data General computer system. Their patience way back then and really throughout all these years have been instrumental in keeping Thermal Foams near “state of the art” with our operating systems. Copeland’s ability to approach our unique needs from “outside the box” has often resulted in solutions that have gone way beyond our expectation. I look forward to working with CDS for another 20 years."

If you would like to know more about Thermal Foams, Inc., please visit them online at http://www.thermalfoams.com.

Copyright © 2005 Copeland Data Systems, Inc.