Content Management Systems

Ten Reasons why I like Sitekit Content Management System

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Excerpt: I’ve personally been involved with 3 fairly sizeable Sitekit projects in the last few months and I have to admit that the more I use it, the more I like it. I don’t always feel that Sitekit gets the recognition it deserves though. Strangely, you could not call Sitekit a cool product, it’s not web 2.0, it’s not built by a community, and it does not have a vibrant following….. Yet it does what it sets out to do, it is a really great content management system. I am now on a mission to make Sitekit the coolest CMS out there…. especially the latest version 9. Ok, the title suggests 10 reasons why I like Sitekit, so here goes: 1. As a project manager, it’s nice to know that my back is covered when it comes to support. With the best will in the world, it is impossible to know everything about a piece of software. So it is reassuring that you’re only ever a step or two away from the chaps responsible for building and maintaining the software. 2. The audit trail functionality is very powerful. It is one of those features that appeals to larger organisations with extensive publishing processes. However, the ability to roll back to previous versions of content is a great feature for medium sized organisations too. Also, it’s always nice to know who made that fatal change! 3. We’ve built Sitekit websites with version 8 and version 9 and it is no surprise to know that version 9 is an improvement on…

Senspa launched on Sitekit CMS by Generate UK

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Ian Fergusson in Content Management Systems, Customers, Ecommerce, Web Design | Leave a comment

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Excerpt: Senspa is an award winning Thai spa set in the beautiful New Forest, surrounded by amazing scenery. Senspa is a place of inspiration and relaxation and offers the ideal location to escape for a luxury spa break. Senspa was in need of a new website as its existing site not only failed to represent their brand and the experience Senspa offered, it also lacked the required functionality to move the business forward. The design was out of date and hard to navigate so after producing a website project brief, Senspa proceeded to review suppliers and following a comprehensive tender process Generate UK was chosen. Senspa’s business development plan was to increase website traffic, improve how they interacted with their online community whilst striving to increase online sales and business. They were confident that once a person had experienced the luxurious hydrotherapy pool, soothing thermal rooms, revitalising sensory showers, indulgent treatments and exquisite Thai food they would certainly come back to embrace their unique experience again. Part of the overall process was to seek a new platform that provided stability and an online marketing agency to deliver their online vision. Generate UK was chosen due to their design, project management, online marketing expertise and experience in delivering successful online solutions within the leisure market. Sitekit content management platform was chosen based on its ease of use, excellent publishing process and management tools. This would allow Senspa to market their website, embrace online technology and build a business upon a future proof and powerful web platform. On top…

Thatcham Jewellers Use Generates’ Content Management System

Posted on January 12, 2010 by Ian Fergusson in Content Management Systems, Customers, Web Design | Leave a comment

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Excerpt: Thatcham Jewellers, near Newbury in Berkshire is an independent retail jewellers, set up by Penny Morgan in 1983. As a business Thatcham Jewellers has built a fantastic reputation locally and is the perfect place to locate that special gift or item of jewellery. Since its formation Thatcham Jewellers has successfully built a reputation for quality and expertise. This joined with the choice of stock, service and value for money is a powerful combination. With the growth of the internet and the amount of potential business available Thatcham Jewellers felt that it was essential that they moved with the times and created a brand new website. Thatcham Jewellers met Generate UK through a seminar attended by Penny and from the word go were able to give Penny the confidence that Generate UK could build her a fantastic and reputable new website. Following a scoping meeting to understand Thatcham Jewellers website requirements it was clear that the business required an easy to operate content management system (CMS) so that Penny and her team could update products and create seasonal promotions as and when needed. Generate CMS was chosen as the system of choice due to its ease of use and flexible platform that allows anyone with a non technical background to manage and develop their own website within in a secure working environment. This would provide Thatcham Jewellers with the control needed and ability to continually develop a professional website. From a design perspective it was important that the new site represented the style of products…

Generate UK launch NHS South Glos. on Sitekit CMS platform

Posted on November 29, 2009 by Mike in Content Management Systems, Customers, Web Design, Web News | 1 Comment

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Excerpt: NHS South Gloucestershire is a Primary Care Trust whose aim is to provide and plan health services for approximately 258,800 people who live in South Gloucestershire. Part of their continued development plan is to forge closer ties through effective partnerships with organisations and local people. Part of that process is to bring more health services closer to local people by effectively communicating them through an interactive and informative website. NHS South Gloucestershire required a new website after their previous one became out of date and hard to navigate so after producing a website project brief, they proceeded to tender for a new public facing website and following a comprehensive tender process Generate UK won the project. “We chose Generate UK because of their obvious enthusiasm and commitment to service. This project demonstrates a significant investment by NHS South Gloucestershire to help increase communications within the local community and it is imperative that we get it right. After a rigorous tender process we believed that Generate UK’s partnership approach to their clients gave us the comfort we required to take that next step” Sue Pratt – Communication Manager, NHS South Gloucestershire. The project involved building a new public facing website which complied with W3C web content accessibility standards and conformed to priority level 2 AA. The site was to be built upon Sitekit content management system and the design was to take on a clean, concise and attractive look and be compliant with NHS guidelines and colour scheme. Overall the design, structure of the site…

Waddesdon Manor launch online gift shop with Generate Shopping Cart

Posted on November 29, 2009 by Mike in Content Management Systems, Customers, Ecommerce, Web Design | Leave a comment

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Excerpt: Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild built Waddesdon Manor 120 years ago on a hill 60 miles from London, in the style of a French 16th century chateau. He was an inspired collector and the house was designed to accommodate his exceptional French 18th century furniture, Sevres porcelain, English portraits and Renaissance works of art. When Ferdinand died in 1898 he left Waddesdon to his sister, Miss Alice. In 1922 the house passed to James de Rothschild, her French cousin. James inherited a substantial part of his father Baron Edmond’s great collection and brought this to Waddesdon. In 1957, in order to ensure its future perpetuity, Waddesdon was bequeathed to the National Trust by James de Rothschild, although his widow, Dolly continued to manage the house until her death in 1988. Waddesdon has gone from strength to strength and today attracts on average 350,000 visitors per year. Whilst visitor numbers are excellent it’s really important that Waddesdon seek to build upon other revenue generated areas of the organisation. Towards the end of 2008, Waddesdon Manor decided to move away from their managed ecommerce system. They were looking for a shopping cart that was easy to use, scalable, rich in features and performance allowing Waddesdon to implement new products from new initiatives. This included a recent project where Waddesdon commissioned the Royal College of Art (RCA) student designers to create a range of products to be sold in its shop. These exclusive items are now available on the new Waddesdon Manor Online Gift…

Generate UK wins NHS contract

Posted on July 24, 2009 by Mike in Content Management Systems, Customers, Web Design, Web News | 2 Comments

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Excerpt: We’re very pleased to announce that Generate UK has just been awarded a coveted contract to design and build a new web site for NHS South Gloucestershire. The new site will be built on the award winning Sitekit content management system. You can read the full press release below: Generate UK wins NHS contract NEWBURY (July 21st, 2009)—Generate UK, a leading digital marketing agency, announces the signing of the NHS South Gloucestershire contract. The project to design and build NHS South Gloucestershire’s new website is already well underway and scheduled to go live at the end of September 2009. Michael Robinson Generate UK’s Commercial Director said “This is a time of extraordinary growth and progress for us as an organisation. We are extremely excited at winning this contract and at Generate UK we believe in the importance of developing strong, long term relationships with all of our customers. Our new partnership with NHS South Gloucestershire is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate our ability to be a part of delivering, measuring and improving business performance, Generate UK’s philosophy is all about ‘filling in the online marketing gaps for your business.” Generate UK, a dynamic and commercial thinking digital marketing company based in Newbury, Berkshire offer professional web project services and a number of other exciting online marketing services that would add value to any commercial and public sector organisation. “We chose Generate UK because of their obvious enthusiasm and commitment to service. This project demonstrates a significant investment by NHS South Gloucestershire to help increase communications within…

Donnington Grove Country Club: Using Generate UK’s Content Management System to increase website traffic by 130%

Posted on May 21, 2009 by Dale Lewis in Business Development, Content Management Systems, Customers, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Web Design, Web News | 1 Comment

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Excerpt: Donnington Grove Country Club is one of Newbury’s ‘best kept secrets’; as well as offering a first-class golf course the venue also offers fantastic conference facilities, an intimate wedding venue, a beautiful hotel and a newly opened restaurant. The existing website did not do justice to the growing Donnington Grove business and therefore, Generate UK were tasked with delivering a fresh yet functional new site. It was important to Donnington Grove to have the flexibility to make regular changes to the site content to reflect new promotional activity, special offers and specific event information. These changes needed to be managed in-house whilst still maintaining the professionalism of the rest of the site and therefore the Generate UK Content Management System (CMS) was utilised. One of the biggest challenges with the Donnington Grove site was to deliver a design that show-cased each of the different business areas but was also easy to navigate. Equally, Donnington Grove had to manage the conflict between promoting their core golf business over and above the other areas of the company. The website has been launched and very well received by both customers and staff alike. The CMS has given Donnington Grove a very simple and user friendly interface that enables the team to make changes to any aspect of the content without the worry of inadvertently changing the site’s main structure. The CMS system provides a great platform for search engine optimisation through search engine friendly URLs, keywords, descriptions and page titles. This has enabled Donnington Grove to compete…

Can your business afford not to have a web site?

Posted on March 9, 2009 by Dale Lewis in Business Development, Content Management Systems, Internet Marketing | Leave a comment

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Excerpt: I’ve often wondered how any consumer-orientated business, large or small, can run a successful business without a web site. In this highly competitive, internet-based world, running a business without a web site is surely comparable to running a business without a telephone. And yet, as we conduct our daily lives we find business after business with no real internet presence. In fact, 44% of small businesses still do not have a web site. This is a staggering percentage given the advantages a web site can bring to your business and the relatively low cost of delivering a new site! For example, how else could a retail business sell their products to a global market or trade 24 hours a day, seven day a week without significantly increasing overheads? The anonymous nature of the Internet provides a huge opportunity for small and medium enterprises to close the e-business gap by competing at the same level as large organisations. The home-based office has become as important as a million-pound business park location. And of course, this has had a positive effect on the market for the customer by increasing competition and driving down prices. The message from the consumer market is very clear; the Internet is a necessity. In a recent survey completed by Plusnet, 92% of those questioned said they would keep their internet connection despite the current economic slowdown. In fact, 30% of UK broadband users would rather give up their magazine subscriptions, cigarettes and alcohol than their broadband connection. The availability of the internet…

OPISAS launch their new web site on Generate UK content management system

Posted on March 3, 2009 by Mike in Business Development, Content Management Systems, Customers, Web News | 3 Comments

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Excerpt: OPISAS is one of the fastest growing international investment companies specialising in providing the latest overseas investments in the most profitable regions throughout the world. OPISAS are a new business and as a result were keen to stand out in their market and differentiate themselves against their competitors. They were also determined that the web site should contribute to their growth in terms of new sales and marketing opportunities. A major area of focus was the usability and navigation of the site; early on in the scoping exercise a “three click” rule was introduced, which meant that it should not take the visitor any more than three clicks before landing on a property page. It was also very important that there were plenty of opportunities for the visitor to engage directly with OPISAS, by way of call to actions. Another important aspect of this project was that OPISAS wanted to make their own updates and add their own content to the web site. This was vital because the quicker a new development could be added, the quicker the details would be available to potential customers. The ability to update and make changes in accordance with their market conditions gives OPISAS a huge advantage in this competitive industry. Generate CMS provides OPISAS with the ability to amend every page within their web site, and supports search engine friendly URLS. It also has the advantage of being able to provide up to date visitor information on the fly, as well as incorporating the latest Social Media…

Why use Sitekit Content Management System (CMS)?

Posted on January 6, 2009 by Joe in Content Management Systems | Leave a comment

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Excerpt: At Generate UK we like to continually research and investigate marketing and web based software. Content Management has been a hot topic for quite a while now for companies looking to continually manage and develop their website. What CMS should you use? How much should I invest? What features should I look for? We like to think that we have researched quite a few systems within the market place built using .net, php and other open source platforms and therefore can provide a good recommendation when choosing a CMS system. A good CMS system is not just about having all the bells and whistles as this is not necessarily going to always be the best option for your business. It boils down to your business needs vs. requirements vs. cost. We believe that the investment in web technology, as with any business investment, must produce a strong financial return for the owner or otherwise we perceive it to be a bad investment. The two key components to choosing a good CMS is usability and functionality, you must feel comfortable using the system and it must contain the functionality needed to operate your website. There are many cheap and nasty CMS systems in the market place so be careful and request a full specification and a demonstration. http://www.cmsmatrix.org/ is a good place to start as you read about different CMS and compare functionality against cost. Generally speaking you would expect to either pay a one off cost and a yearly maintenance fee or a yearly/monthly license…