All businesses, large and small can benefit by an Internet presence whether they are trying to increase their sales, reach more customers, improve customer service, attract new distributors, improve their company's image, or just reduce their long distance bills. While you can allow your customers to view your products in full color, to view your locations, hours of operations, or send you direct communication through electronic mail, you can also use your web site to gain the upper hand over your competitors. To remain competitive in the 1990's and beyond, it is mission critical for businesses to keep on the cutting edge of today's ever changing technologies. To achieve this goal in a decade where outsourcing and downsizing become an intricate part of corporate goals, the majority of today's companies are on a constant search for outside vendors to provide viable solutions to their technical, marketing, and advertising requirements.
There's no greater venue of opportunity as we move towards the year 2000 than the Internet!
There's no doubt that the Internet is today's fastest growing marketing arena. From Wall Street to automobile manufacturers to local area attorneys, today's businesses are offering their products and services via the Internet at an ever-increasing pace. There are several apparent factors that help create this intense demand and appeal of the Internet to all businesses. With approximately 55 million potential consumers using the Internet the possibility of increased revenue and profit margins are limitless. The Internet represents the future of electronic commerce; from business transactions to marketing and advertising.
There's no greater image builder than a compelling and informative web site operating on a global basis. This is the first thing a potential customer views online that represents your company. It is critical that the your web site and, specifically, your "home page" is designed right. The development costs of a "home page" can be a fraction of the cost of a full advertising campaign depending on the content.
VirtualAxis' philosophy is that the Internet, including the World Wide Web exists primarily for the presentation of information. For this reason it is essential that the content of your Web pages not be obscured by unnecessary graphics, or other Web features which do not contribute to your message. This is not to say that graphics, animations, VRML, and any of the other marvelous capabilities of the Web are not valuable; they are, but they must be used with care and balance in appropriate places. At VirtualAxis, we constantly research new Internet technologies and developments, but we do not use them on the sites of our clients simply because they exist. Each element of a Web site must contribute to the overall goals of the site.
Access of your target audience is a primary consideration when developing a web site. The proliferation of browsers in use across the Internet and the rate of development of new web technologies means that there is a huge range of access capabilities for Internet users. Older, less capable browsers cannot make use of some of the newer developments. Some users are limited to text-only browsers; others choose to browse the web in text-only mode. It is important to evaluate your business needs in terms of who your customers are and customize your site to meet those needs.
The design of a Web site is a partnership between VirtualAxis and the client. Your wishes and needs are the starting point to which we apply our knowledge and skills as we develop a Web presentation that serves the purpose for which it was conceived. As artists we are conscious of all the elements which combine to create esthetic design; as computer engineers, our technical expertise and attention to minute detail are of primary importance. Utilizing the ability of the World Wide Web to present your material to the world is an exciting and rewarding experience. Attention to detail encompasses the entire project from beginning to end. One of the final stages of web site design is that of validation and testing. A web site may contain many complex interrelated parts which must all work together flawlessly. Software validators must be used to insure that the HTML code is error free. Thorough testing must be performed prior to going online "live" so that programming bugs may be found by the us, the developers, rather than Internet users of your site. While this phase is not as exciting and creative as preliminary design and programming, it is essential for a high quality web presence.
VirtualAxis is a unique company, both in structure and vision. We assess the needs of each new project on a case by case basis. Once evaluated, we draw talent from a pool of designers, marketers, and programmers. Then, each project team is individually chosen to meet your project's needs. We prefer to use these "specialists" because it enables us to have a very flexible, custom-tailored team. We feel that by tailoring each team to the project at hand, several benefits can be achieved. Among them: first rate, modern design and implementation. A unique look for each project, and creative solutions to even the most unusual tasks.
