Drupal Design and Support
At ScotiaCom we design and build our client's websites using the Drupal Content Management System. A Content Management System (CSM) allows your web site managers to easily build and update the content, files, images and functions of your web site. Your web managers do not have to know how to code in "html" (hypertext markup language.) Rather, they should know about you, the client, and about your message, products and members/customers.
Content Management Systems start with a theme or template that allows you, the client, to determine the "look and feel" of your website. The theme establishes the colours, text, buttons, menus, windows and screen placement of the elements you want to have on your website. An important characteristic of this approach is you can "try on" various design schemes until you find one that is a perfect fit. You can change the entire look of your website by simply changing the theme. (Note: the ScotiaCom site you are looking was built using the Drupal CMS.)
The content of your web site is entirely up to you and your content authors. The Content Management System simply provides all of the tools needed to get your message ready to be displayed on the world wide web (WWW). Anything you publish to the web can be added to, modified or deleted at any time. A major complaint about many websites is that they become stale, unchanging, boring. Your website can be as fresh as you want to make it. The ScotiaCom approach is to put control of your website into your hands. Our job is to help you get your site established and to keep it running well. Our job is also to facilitate your management of your website.
Content Management Systems (CMS) offer you many more features than just the ability to put your information on the web. You can pick and choose from various features to taylor your website to your own needs. A few of these features include:
Customer/Members Management:
You can build a client information system by offering your customers/clients a "membership" option. Customers can enter their own contact information online within your site, or you can enter the information yourself. The client system can be entirely private, visible to "your eyes only" or semi-public based on your company privacy policy.
A client information system allows you to contact your clients individually or through eMailings, promotions, newsletters or other distribution methods. You may provide special services or benefits to your client members. The possibilities for one-to-one marketing are built-in and available to you.
Social Networking
Social Networking is the current "rage" with Internet users. Many websites, in order to be meaningful to clients, have begun to incorporate features from this phenomena. A Content Management System allows you to include blogs, discussion areas, information sharing, RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication), podcasts and more. Social networking techniques bring people with common interests together. Your website can become an online community center, providing a place for informative, interactive sharing. The Content Management System ScotiaCom uses was designed as a tool for building online communities.
Information Gathering
Our Content Management System allows you to create online questionnaires and surveys, to gether information from your website visitors and your clients. You can, or you can have ScotiaCom, design surveys, capture and analyze the results and produce summaries and reports.
Document Management
Your managed website can be designed so that all of your important documents can be managed over the Internet. This may include public documents that you want the world to see, client documents that you want only your membership to see, or private documents that you want your staff to see. Your documents might be archived for historical purposes or they might be timely and current documents that you use every day. The major advantage of this approach is that the documents are accessible from any computer that is connected to the Internet anywhere, with full control of access in your hands.
Picture Galleries
If images are important to you and should be a feature of your website, the Content Management System provides gallery tools for managing online picture galleries. The pictures may be incorporated into online eCommerce features as well.
eCommerce
Has your organization joined the thousands of businesses doing commerce over the Internet? The Content Management System includes all of the tools for eCommerce. What would you like - shopping carts, product displays, inventory management, shipping, online transactions through Paypal, Visa, MasterCard, tax collection, invoicing, reports, sales summaries, and more? Any or all of these features can be incorporated into your site.
