Website and Integrated online platforms
'Publishing' your message online
From an online brochure to encyclopedic domain expertise your website is a pretty essential starting point for your marketing.
However, with an increasing range of integrated platforms offering, many additional applications and tools there are more strategic choices to make.
Firstly, in large organisation at least, the website has evolved from being a technical tool 'owned' by IT, to being a marketing tool, 'owned' marketing either with IT support or via an external marketing agency. Increasingly the website is a platform for delivering a whole spectrum of communications to many audiences. Audiences include customers, prospects, partners and staff. Business functions and processes delivered through the web include branding, lead generation, sales support, customer support, logistics, repairs, and many other functions specific to different sectors.
Secondly, with all these various interests at work the choice of supplier route becomes interesting. At the core is who will provide the integration of all the software and the underlying data. Will it be the in-house IT department? Will it be an external consultant or systems integrator? Or will it be the hosting provider?
It is the latter group, the hosting providers, that are now coming forward.
Over the next few years I anticipate a significant growth in Hosted or Cloud delivered, On-demand, Software as a Service and Platform as a Service propositions. This will be driven by providers who are looking to add value above a basic hosting service, which has rapidly become commoditised, and customers who no longer want to pay large sums for integration and support.
So, when it comes to looking for a website, consider what else you want as well, and look to see if someone provides you with what you (or organisations in your sector) will want to do in a couple of years or so. Build in some future-proofing for yourself, and capitalise on the economies of scale on offer. And focus on implementation and exploitation of the software within your business.
Consider what the likes of Google, Amazon, Salesforce.com and Netsuite are doing.
Consider also what is happening in the Open Source world, although take into account the technical nature of this route.What may appear 'Free' may well have a significant ongoing cost in terms of support costs, and the copportunity cost of your time to manage the process through. | 
