Concept

to

Launch

This presentation provides a high level view on how to design and rollout a website.

The principles apply for any size of website whether it is your own personal website

or whether you are setting up an on line business and want to get an idea on how

the end to end process works.

Business Focus

Web Development

Launching the

Website

Looking at

The Business Focus will provide an approach to take the initial idea and setup a business plan that will bring together the strategy, the financials and the marketing plans to ensure that a sustainable return on your web investment is planned and well thought out.

At the end of the day it does not have to be a huge undertaking to get a website out of the door, it just needs the business owner to direct, plan and control the way forward. Working through the business steps will emphasise on what the business will deliver to the market and is a spotlight on what the company is all about.

Overview

Business Focus

The Business Team The Idea The Strategy The Product The Marketing Plan The Financial Plan The Business Case

Topics

Business Team

Product Owner

Project Manager

Technical Manager

Operations Manager

Financial Manager

Stakeholders

The role of the Business Team is primarily to work with the senior management team to setup the vision and strategy that will deliver the website for the business venture. The main responsibilities of the business team will be to: • Secure budgets and ensure financial controls are in place • Appoint the project management team • Support the project both internally and externally • Support the project manager to successfully deliver the project • Sign off on project deliverables

The Business Team

Ownership Leadership

Vision and Strategy Employee and

Customer Values

Business

Charter

The Business Charter is a great way to obtain the full commitment of the business team and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Business Focus

Reporting to the Project Sponsor

The Idea leads the way to create the vision for your business venture allowing the concept to become a reality as you begin the process to develop and launch your website.

Business Focus

There is no doubt that successful websites start with brilliant ideas. After all, in today's fiercely competitive environment, innovation is the ammunition that allows entrepreneurs to stand out in the crowd.

The Idea

Review

Evaluate

Refine Propose

Approve

Idea Management

The establishment of a Web Strategy will provide a long-term strategic business plan indicating how to create and develop a company’s online presence while adhering to the business vision.

The Strategy Business Focus

• What web product will help my website operate profitably? • What can my business accomplish with Web technology? • How will my business measure success with my web site? • What are the risks? • How long until the business obtains a return on the initial

investment? • What is our go to market strategy?

Set the Goals

Define the Strategy

Agree

Document

Brand Vision

Marketing Business

Technology Financial

Ask

THE

Right Questions

• Specific S

• Measurable M

• Attainable A

• Relevant R

• Time Bound T

Putting it together

As a business you will need to define what type of Product or service your website will be providing to the market and this could be categorised as either a Tangible Product or an Intangible Product or both.

The Product Business Focus

Tangible

Intangible

Tangible and Intangible

Financial Services

The management of the product will be defined in the Marketing Plan.

The Marketing Plan will look at the best approach to market your website and provide the right level of marketing , who the target market is and how the product is to be positioned to deliver continual growth and fully understand the needs and wants of a web audience. Marketing and marketing successfully in today’s world is going to take work and perseverance to ensure you make your mark and are able to sell your web product. At a high level a marketing plan is comprised of 4 key principles referred to as the marketing mix.

The Marketing Plan

A little Info

Marketing

Mix

Product

Price

Promotion

Place

Situation Analysis

• Business Environment

• The Web Market

• The Company

• Competition

Marketing Strategy

• Value Proposition

• Financial Objectives

• Target Market

• Branding

• Product Life Cycle

Marketing Mix

• Web Product

• Web Promotion

• Web Pricing

• Web Funnel

• Sales Targets

Operations

• Financials

• Market Research

• Customer Relations

• Implementation

• Support

The Marketing Plan will outline the:

Putting it together

Document the findings

Review and update

Present to stakeholders

Obtain approval

Store

Business Focus

The Financial Plan must clearly outline how much it is going to cost to keep your business running month to month in order to operate effectively. There are many factors that are included into a financial plan but at a high level as a business you would primarily look at the overhead and operating costs for the business venture.

A little Info

All businesses large or small need to have cash flow and this will have to be tracked to assess how much money is coming in versus spend. It would be advisable to either have an accountant manage this for you or invest in an easy to use accounting system.

The Financial Plan Business Focus

Operating Costs - Variable

Operating costs of a business are generally the costs associated with maintaining the existence of the business and are paid on a regular basis but can vary from month to month

Examples Suppliers; Contractors; Electricity and Utilities; Entertainment; Travel

Overhead Costs - Fixed

Overhead costs are considered fixed costs, that is, they do not rise or fall directly during a working month.

Examples Rent, Salaries and Wages,

The Business Case is the final deliverable for the Business Focus phase and will outline the scope of the product, the timeframe to deliver and the forecasted cost. The compilation of the business case is normally allocated to a business analyst who will collaborate with the business team to consolidate a formal statement of business goals, reasons they are attainable, and plans for reaching them. On approval of the business case it will provide the baseline to manage and control the end to end project that will develop and ultimately launch your website.

The Business Case

Identifying the business scope

Business Focus

Putting it together Document

the findings Review and

update Present to

stakeholders Obtain

approval Store

Key Partner Who are our key partners

Key Activities What key activities do our value proposition require

Value Proposition Which one of our customer’s problems are we helping to solve What is the specific product or service we will be providing What are the features that match the customer's needs

Customer Relationships How do we get, keep and grow customers

Customer Segments For who are we solving a problem or filling a need Who are the customers Does the value proposition meet their needs Is it a single sided or multi sided market

Key Resources What key resources do our value propositions require

Channels Through which channels do our customers want to be reached

Cost Structure What are the most important costs in our business model?

Revenue Streams What are the revenue streams? How will we price our product? How will our customers pay for our product?

The Development of the Web Site will merge the business, project and the approved supplier in the process of designing, and developing the website to meet the quality and revenue targets in line with the agreed cost.

Web development can range from developing the simplest static single page of plain text to web-based internet applications, electronic businesses, and social network services.

Overview

Web Development

The Software Delivery Team The Web Service Supplier The Methodology The Project Plan The Web Delivery Process Maintenance and Support

Topics

Software Delivery

Business

Analysis

Solution Architecture

Development Testing Release

Management Operations and

Support

The best chance to deliver a successful project is to bring on board a Web Project Manager with a diverse mix of skills and experience, an excellent communicator, a great team leader and able to manage internal and external stakeholders with confidence and flair.

The Software Delivery Team Web Development

Reporting to the Web Project Manager

The role of the Software Delivery Team is to design, develop, test and implement the website ensuring that the business, project, technical and operational requirements are met and rolled out according to the agreed business rules, technical specifications and quality requirements. The main responsibilities of the Software Delivery team are to • Finalise the analysis and design for the website • Develop the website in line with the agreed technical and functional specification • Ensure that the testing of the websites meets the agreed test cases and scenarios • Deploy a website that meets the business and marketing goals and objectives • Confirm the support of the website has been confirmed once the website has been switched

on.

Selecting The Web Service Provider that is the best fit for your business is important as this will tie in with what type of web site you would like to have to market and run your online business. The added advantage of using a professional web service provider is that they will know exactly how to develop, test, deploy manage and support your web platform to ensure that it provides an optimal service and has the correct level of quality in place to reach your target audience.

Having the right rapport with your supplier entails creating closer, more collaborative relationships and will result in added value and reduce the risk of failure.

Putting it together

The Web Service Supplier

Sign Supplier Contract

4

Request a Scope of Work

2

Negotiate terms and financials

3

Source the supplier

1

Web Development

Defining The Methodology for the rollout of your website project must align to how a project is managed and controlled within the business environment and is best suited to deliver the website. There are three distinct methods that can be applied and the web project manager will make the correct decision based on the complexity of the project and the speed to market target.

Waterfall is a sequential design process, used in software development processes, in which progress is seen as flowing steadily downwards.

AGILE is an alternative to traditional project management, typically used in website development. It helps teams respond to unpredictability through an incremental, iterative work flow.

Analysis

Design

Developmnet

Testing

Deploy

Waterfall

Agile

The Blended approach is where a project manager will apply a variety of software delivery methodologies to arrive at a best fit for the project

The Methodology Web Development

A little Info

Work with the project manager and technical team to define a methodology that everyone is comfortable with. This will ensure buy-in from the get go of the project and create a great team environment with the right outlook to deliver the project.

The Project Plan will tie everything together for the delivery of your web platform and should be agreed with your project manager and the larger project team to ensure that all of the project phases, what needs to be delivered and the schedule are correctly baselined. This will track the end to end delivery and will be used within status and checkpoint meetings to gauge the progress of the project.

A project plan incorporates: • The Scope – what needs to be done • The Time – how long will it take • The Risks – What risks will impact the delivery • The Resources – Who does what • The Cost – What does everything cost • Interdependencies – What should be done first

A little Info

Putting it together

The Project Plan

Make final changes and baseline for execution to commence

4

Confirm the scope, cost,

schedule and dependencies

2

Review the end to end plan with

the full team and supplier

3

Setup the project

management plan

1

Web Development

The Web Delivery Process ensures that the end to end website is managed and controlled within each of the agreed phases. It is important that you have a good understanding of each phase whether you are setting up your own website, working with an external supplier or managing a web project for a client. The web delivery process will be integrated into the agreed delivery methodology i.e. either Waterfall or Agile

The Web Delivery Process Web Development

Phase Objective Key Resources Main Deliverable

Discovery Discovery of the website will begin to establish the who is the website for, what does the website need to deliver from a technical and functional purpose and what business rules need to be built into the website. It will also establish the project plan, what methodology will be used of the development of the website and what resources and skill are required.

Business Analysis Product Management Project Management

• Business Requirements Document

• Traceability Matrix

• Test Plan

Design The design of the website will look at the overall look and feel of the website how the web interface will be set up, how the content is to be positioned and how the user journey and personas need to be integrated into web infrastructure.

UX Designers Technical Lead

• Wireframes • Technical

Specifications

Development On approval of the discovery and design phases the development and coding of the website will begin. Continuous unit testing will take place and a decision may be taken to run a prototype of the website before end to end testing kicks off

Technical Lead Development Team

• Developed website

• Prototype

Testing Testing of the website will follow the agreed testing process and will conduct end to end testing based on the test plan and test scenarios

Technical Lead Test Team

• Tested and approved website

Deploy On completion of the testing and in agreement with release management the site is moved to a live production site

Technical team Release Management

• Live website

Discovery

Design

Development Testing

Deploy

Maintenance and Support

Putting it together

Agree to communication

strategy

4

Define the SLA and KPI targets and turnaround

times

2

Agree to the support process

and hours of operations

3

Setup the support contract

1

All websites require Maintenance and Support in order to ensure that they operate effectively and keep up to date with the latest updates or upgrades in the company and the industry. The type of support and how this will be done should be agreed within a support contract with the software supplier or where this is done internally to setup a Service level Agreement with the support team

Support request

Web Email Phone

Raise ticket

Calculate time to resolve

Solution agreed

Update done in

Dev

Approved

Moved to live production

Ticket closed

Managing the

support tickets

Web Development

The day of Launching The Website has arrived. All of the business requirements and testing have been approved and the website is now a functioning platform and it is time to begin to market the web product and bring in the web traffic.

This phase is ongoing throughout the life cycle of your web site and will take hard work and a complete belief in who you are as a company and what product you are delivering and to keep moving forward to get in those customers and ultimately make the sales to bring in the revenue and keep your company going from strength to strength.

Overview

Launching the Website

The Web Launch Team Pre-launch Checklist Getting Your Message Out Monitor Web Traffic Continuous Improvement Looking Ahead

Topics

Milton S. Hershey

Launching the Website

Web Launch

Business Marketing Content

Management Operations Supplier Stakeholders

Service Support

The Web Launch Team

Reporting to the Web Manager/Master

A winning website launch will deliver sales and web traffic which will ensure momentum for the company. It’s one of the few opportunities to go from planned to actual sales and conversions.

The role of the Web Launch Team is to work with the business, marketing, technical and web management teams to prepare the launch plan for the website. Depending on the budget allocated for the launch of the website an external company could be contracted to manage the launch, however the role and responsibilities for the website launch if done by an in-house team remain the same. The main responsibilities are: • Finalise the launch plan • Setup the resources for the launch • Ensure that the promotions have been finalised • Prepare the press releases • Finalise the advertising and marketing contracts • Conduct a full quality assurance exercise on the end to end live site

Before launching the website conduct an end to end Checklist with your full business and delivery team ensuring that all of the business and technical features and components are in place. This will get your website out of the starting gate getting your message out quickly and professionally to your target audience.

Pre-Launch - Checklist Launching the Website

Analytics Setup

Function and Features Working

Web Domain Registered

Userability working

SEO Finalised

Content Finalised

Present And Correct

Customers Management Done

Web Hosting In Place

Getting your message out Launching the Website

Before you switch on your website one of the key criteria for a successful launch is to ensure that

there is a structured approach for Getting Your Message Out and announcing that your website is online. The method to do this would have been defined in your marketing plan and would have included all the various channels available to your company. The main objective of this is to let your target audience know your website is now live and ready for business.

Ensure that all press releases have been sent out to the agreed media at least a week before you launch and follow up to ensure that the press releases have been published

Identify and update all of your social media applications advising that your site is going live and track responses

Roll out your promotion plan which may include fliers, stands in shopping malls, cocktail parties, conferences working with the approved suppliers

Hire a team to send out emails to your prospective customers and clients with some form of promotion to attract them to the website

From the moment your website is switched on your technical and release team will begin to

Monitor Web Traffic and control the web traffic coming into your web site. Using a multitude of analytical tools and applications the team will be able to ensure that all elements for the Web Funnel are in place and are operating correctly to generate web traffic to your website. Using the data generated from the web traffic report there will be constant monitoring of site visits, how the web users are engaging with the site and which of the web users are buying your product known as conversions. These reports will also provide the sections in the web that need to be improved to allow the team to make changes during the launch of the website.

Monitor Web Traffic Launching the Website

Web Browser

Attract

Engage

Convert

Customer

The Web Funnel

Web Analytics tracking

Site Visits

Bounce Rates

Conversions

Analysis Provided by

Continuous Improvement Launching the Website

Continuous Improvement for your website is to essential to ensure that your web users can interact with your website or web application as expected 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 12 months a year. Successful websites have to be monitored and upgraded regularly to ensure that your website is consistently up and front in the world wide web and bringing in web traffic and competing within a very fast moving marketplace. As the owner of a web enterprise it requires hands on management for the end to end website across all of the functional areas, the supervision of your suppliers and support staff and a consistent and professional approach to your customers and web user base.

Review and update content and blogs

Check links

Monitor analytics Daily

Optimise Search rankings

Respond to Customer Feedback

Launching the Website Looking ahead

Make it simple

People value simplicity

Make it portable

People value convenience

Make it fast

People hate waiting

Make it human People crave human interaction

Be useful or interesting

People love a good story

As businesses sit today and reflect on where the future of a website will lead them and how to prepare

for change that is consistent and very fast paced it is important to keep in mind that while Looking Ahead on what is next for your website the basics of good web management must be maintained. Consistently reviewing your business and marketing strategies will keep you ahead of the game and as you move in 2016 and beyond the key focus will be on how to make the website stand out from everyone else. It is important to keep an eye on where technology will take you but do not allow technology to overtake you. Use what is pertinent right now for your website and setup a product roadmap that looks at where your business will be in the year and years ahead and always remember to know what your web users and customers expect from your company and your websites.

And always remember to Have Fun

There is a tsunami of web development happening daily. This could range from large enterprise web platforms to a small start-up web page. And what an opportunity for your business to get involved with an exciting and fast changing environment. More and more companies will focus on their web presence and who better to bring it to life than a modern and responsive website with new technology and a faster way to reach a huge audience out in the world wide web

Grab these opportunities they are only going to get better and better and the true joy of this is that these are short to market projects so you will definitely see your hard work produce results. This is a great place to be

Cliona O’Hanrahan MPM; Prince2 ; PMI SME

A Final Word