Domani Digital

Domani Digital launches Web Made Easy

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:59:00 GMT

Domani Digital, an industry leader in the online development space in Australia, has today launched a new division known as Web Made Easy.

Web Made Easy takes the 20 years experience of Domani Digital and condenses it into an affordable, yet professional, hosted website solution. This is the perfect solution for new businesses or those without larger budgets to get a quality, professional site developed at a price starting from just $6,000 +GST.

We have developed a streamlined and simplified process for developing these sites that takes away the stress from the company owner, allows for a faster time-to-market and gives our clients a powerful and easy-to-manage site with software developed and support by Adobe.

Domani Digital CEO, Vince Nicita, says this is an exciting departure for Domani Digital as we haven't been servicing this pricepoint previously. We have noticed a growing demand from businesses upgrading from the Google or "nephew at uni" type sites but don't have the need for the complexity or handholding that the regular Domani Digital site provides and it's associated higher prices".

For more information contact us on 1300 883 295, visit www.webmadeeasy.com.au or email info@webmadeeasy.com.au.

Domani Digital another year more mature

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:19:00 GMT

It’s now been almost 18 months since I started Domani Digital and many people have asked how it is going. When I tell them about the growth, the great new clients, the success stories they inevitably stop me and say yeah that’s all fine but what about the whole work-life balance, remote workplace, flexible working environment stuff. Was it for real, was it too idealistic?

Happily it is still working to plan and in most cases exceeding my expectations. I must admit there were times when I was tempted to go back to the old way – employing programmers and designers again – but I think that was more a result of missing the excitement of the work environment and maybe even a little bit of loneliness at times.

Fact is, the advantages far outweigh the downside. So what are these benefits? Well let me share what my experience has been and I’ll look at it from both sides of the fence – the benefits to a business person like myself and the benefits to my customers.

Benefits for the Customer
- I can find a solution for everybody. I can do jobs smaller that I would not have bothered with in the past but I can also put together a team for even the largest project.
- We are not just Microsoft anymore. In fact projects currently underway cover multiple CMS platforms, open source and proprietary. So we can be completely unbiased.
- We are never too busy. Instead of having 30, 40 up 70 staff as before I now have access to, at last count, well over 300 staff through my network of partners. We never say NO.
- We offer better value. When appropriate, and this isn’t always the case, we can use our off-shore team of developers. I’ve spent over a year training my core team in India and for some of the simpler programming and some support work we can reduce costs significantly.
- We perfected our Methodology. The process is now so streamlined and efficient that we can produce our solutions faster and with less hassle and stress.

Benefits to the Business
- I work flexible hours. While I'm always on call during work hours I still have the flexibility to take the kids to school or catch up for coffee with friends then I may do some work at night. The actual work hours are the same as before – or less – but they might be from home or in the office.
- Overheads are reduced hugely – a home office and nice serviced office in the city. No ridiculous lease and office expenses. No marble foyers, break-out rooms, computer rooms and OH&S rigmarole.
- Only a few permanent staff – need I say more!
- No one sitting on the bench. The holy grail of all development houses is to keep all their staff chargeable 100% of the time. I pay for what I need, when I need it.

This year we embark on a major expansion which will put the scalability of our network to the test. Should be exciting and quite a ride. We are launching our unique offering to agencies who want to outsource some or all of their digital work.

We are also partnering with larger companies that already have in-house teams who may use Domani to fill in the gaps during busy periods or when specialist knowledge is required.

Stay tuned for updates.

Best regards,
Vince

Why would you host your applications in the cloud?

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:58:00 GMT

IT in the Cloud
by Andrew Tucker
Not every business has the necessary resources or expertise to run an in-house IT department efficiently and cost-effectively. Further, to properly run your internal IT department, in today’s fast moving market, it is critical to continually invest in latest equipment and knowledge development to support your core applications efficiently.

By putting the management of your business-critical applications in the hands of a qualified Cloud partner, you get greatly improved performance, guaranteed 24x7 uptime with monitoring, and of course a major reduction in application management costs.

Reduced operational expenses.
- You pay for what you need and when you need it, all in one monthly per user fee. There is very little, if any, waste of licenses and resources.
- Cloud gives you direct access to an on-demand, high-grade network in a secure data centre.
- On-site skilled technical teams and application services monitor all your applications 24x7.
- Given the benefits of economies of scale, our customers get the performance advantage of high-end servers for a fraction of the costs. If you had to purchase your own hardware, it would cost anywhere from $5,000 for an entry-level server to $100,000 for high-end server to be able to support your business and applications as they expand. And, this does not account for the expense of electricity, security and staff to maintain these systems.

The need for more processing power during peak times of the month.
- Cloud will provision your applications across a shared hardware platform.
- Using optimized Virtualization technology, application workloads are shared across the entire server farm (infrastructure), giving you the flexibility to dynamically scale your applications up or down as required.

Guaranteed uptime
- As it is in most cases difficult to manage your servers and core applications cost-effectively, your Cloud provider will discuss with you a service level agreement (SLA) that best meets your needs and requirements, providing you with assurance that your core applications will run as best possible, and with maximum uptime.
- Further, built-in server redundancy will ensure that your data and applications are secure and safe, along with experts on call at all times for any down-time emergencies.

Security
- As new security threats emerge daily, and any breach inside your organisation has the potential to do a lot of harm.
- Your Cloud provider has the systems and procedures to deal with any type of security threat.

What are ITonCloud’s offerings?

Among many, the primary key benefits of hosting is knowing that your data is secure, backed up and that you have access anywhere in the world, enabling higher productivity and peace of mind.

Published desktop
- No more desktop and server licensing, backup or security headaches. Access your desktop though the Web, wherever you are in the world.
- The base set of applications includes MS Office, Email and your core applications.
- Using ITonCloud’s technology you can have MS Office and your core applications delivered to your Ipad

Secure hosting of special purpose key applications
- If you have purchased MS Office for your PC’s or Notebooks and only want to host your Accounting application for example, this is fine as ITonCloud can host these specific applications, allowing you with direct Web access too

Google Apps
- Evolving to Google Apps (including Google Docs, Gmail, etc.) is a fantastic way to reduce costs.
- ITonCloudcan migrate your existing MS Exchange or Lotus Notes Servers into the Google Cloud. As an Enterprise Partner of Google, and today the only hosting provider to add this to a Published desktop offering, you can save even more.

Hosting and Managing of your servers
- Reduce your IT expenses, since there is no longer a need for you to own and manage a server room.
- ITonCloud can either host your existing servers, or use ours to save even more.

Disaster Recovery
- ITonCloud can replicate (and continually take snapshot backups) of your existing Data centre to insure that you never go down in case of fire or theft

We know that every user has speed expectations, this is where we truly excel.

- It is vital to us that user experience is just fantastic. We have spent a great deal of time and money making sure that we are setting a new benchmark in the industry.
- Unlike many other hosting providers, we do not believe in over subscribing. Your elated satisfaction is our success and appreciation, and we are serious!

In summary, this simply means that what you pay for is what you get in service and user experience.

As your company grows and your IT staff become stretched you will also find in most cases, hardware, software and maintenance costs start hitting your bottom-line

These are normally the telling signs that moving to a fully managed application and server hosting environment is right for you.

Andrew Tucker is CEO of Domani Partner company IT on Cloud. Their Hosted Desktop service is ideal for small to medium businesses that want an IT service without the hassles of support and unexpected upgrade bills.

Website writing tips - Business Website Copy

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 06:10:00 GMT

Is Your Web Writing Blinded By Love For Your Business?
By Simon Hillier
One of the reasons many business websites don't work as effectively as they should is because owners, or their internal designers/copywriters, view the site through rose-coloured glasses. When you are too close to a business it can sometimes be difficult to make objective calls on what customers really need from your online sales and information tool.

To write web copy that attracts readers and search engines (SEO), you need to step out of the business and look at your website from a truly objective view. As you scroll and click through the pages, ask yourself "If I didn't know anything about my business, would I find this writing well organised, easy to understand, enticing and relevant to my needs?"

If the answer's no, below are some areas you might want to check:

Avoid jargon-filled web copy

Writers often overuse industry specific language - especially popular if the words are long and almost impossible to pronounce - as a way of expressing a company's expertise in their field. While it might impress those in the boardroom and make sense to everyone in the company, the message may not be so crystal clear to the most important people of all, the humble customer.

Patience is not a virtue - at least while we're surfing the web. If someone reads your homepage and can't understand what you do they won't tale the time to ask. If your copy is full of potentially confusing, self-important or frustrating jargon you need to make some changes. State the obvious and make important information easier for your audience to grasp. That's a customer friendly e-business.

Divide and conquor your webpage copy

See if your copy can be seperated into clear categories. You could use sub-heads to help guide customers through each step. There might be areas where you need to spell out how something works or include a link to another page for further details.

Understand your target audience

You might also be including information that visitors don't need. This all comes down to your research and knowledge of the market. A simple method is to ask a few people outside the company (no not your mum) to read and navigate through your site and get their feedback.

Another option is to look at your competitors sites to see what they have included and view their FAQ's. This usually gives you a good idea of the things people are asking. Of course, your business is unique so don't base everything on the strategies of the guy next door or you will suffer. If you have any existing site, analyse your customer service emails and phonecalls to see what people are asking your staff about. Is there something you could include or spell out more clearly on the site?

The time it takes to get these things right is well worth the effort. Not only will your conversion rates and sales numbers increase, but you'll spend much less time answering questions from frustrated customers.

Simon Hillier is a copywriting specialist based in Sydney, Australia. His company, Get There Writing Services can help turn your ideas into words for the web, print, e-newsletters, articles, ebooks and scripts that speak to your target audience and make you shine on Google. For more articles and further information visit his website http://www.getthere.com.au

Work-Life Balance - Really?

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 05:10:00 GMT

These days everyone is talking about work-like balance but is anything really changing?
Two years ago I would have believed the answer was no. I was running a successful business based in the Sydney CBD. Our 25 or so staff all travelled to the office each day. We worked 8:30 to 5:30 - reality was I left home at 6:30am to beat the traffic and didn't leave the office until 6:30pm. Yes, you guessed it - to avoid the traffic. Even so, I would leave the office full of energy and get home thirty kilometres later tired and irritable.

Something had to change and it did - I sold the business.

I took a year off and with my time researched work practices here and overseas. There had to be a better way that works. It was from this that I devised my ideal online solutions business. It had to have flexible working hours and locations for myself and my staff. It had to cut down on travel time - reducing cost, traffic and our impact on the environment. It had to allow time for family, friends and hobbies. Most importantly it had to be fun!

By utilising online technologies - the kind that we develop and sell - we are able to run our projects completely virtual. We have an office in the city which we only use when we have meetings with clients. Otherwise we work from home. I'm still doing as many productive hours per week as before but now it's in my own time. I may work a couple of hours at night once the kids are in bed or get up early. But I'm not wasting time in traffic and I can walk the kids to school if I like.

We are fortunate that the software design and development industry lends itself to this type of work. When managed properly and responsibly it may also work for many others. The two most important factors that we couldn't compromise were customer service and quality of product. If this is maintained, and we still make a profit then the benefits of flexible working environments are enormous.

Website writing tips - page titles

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 05:15:00 GMT

Tips to writing webpage titles that attract search engines and customers
By Simon Hillier
If you want to write copy that attracts search engines and readers to your website or blog there's no doubt that your headlines, subheads, keywords and hyperlinks will play a very important part in making it happen. However, that brilliant piece of search engine optimised copy can go to waste unless you spend some quality time working on the most neglected member of the web copywriting family - your page title.

What is a page title?

The page title is at the very top of your screen in the blue bar above the address bar and menus. Depending on the browser you are using it will usually display the name of the website or web page that you are on, followed by “Windows Internet Explorer” or “Mozilla Firefox”.

For example, on this page it says, "Writing web page titles that attact search engines and customers". That didn't just happen automatically. I needed to create the title for this page.

Why should we write meaningful page titles?

People often forget about page titles because they are added into the html code, rather than onto the page itself. Which usually means the job of writing title copy is left with the web designer. If the designer isn’t a search engine optimisation expert, or hasn’t been briefed to write the title copy, they are often left to their own devises and look something like:

Websitename.com – Windows Internet Explorer

or at best

The Widget Gift Store – Windows Internet Explorer

In this state page titles are little more than a band of alphabetical castaways, stranded in a deep blue sea of pixels - dull, unfulfilling and meaningless to all but those who own the website.

It’s a sad tale, but one that sinks into tragedy of ancient Greek proportions when you understand the potential of well-crafted title copy:

- Titles are used as the heading for your site listing in search engines.
- They influence search engine rankings. Greater relevance, higher ranking.
- People dismiss search engine listings with titles unrelated to their search.
- A relevant title draws search engine surfers to your site.
- When someone adds your page as a favourite, they can easily find you later.
- The title is stored in your visitors History.
- Other sites often use your title as the text link copy to your page. Search engines place high importance on relevant text links.
- RSS generators use page titles to create headlines.

Once you understand just how hard page titles work to help attract search engines and people to your site, is it any wonder they are always complaining about living in the shadow of their flashier, prettier and cuter siblings the headline, subhead and hyperlink?

Here are some tips to help you write page titles that attract search engines and web surfers:
- Keep your title to no more than 60 - 65 characters.
- Make the description clear and in plain English.
- Each page should have a unique keyword focused title.
- Don’t use ‘clever’ or teaser titles that don’t explain what the page is about.
- Put your keywords to the front.
- Don’t use your keyword more than 3 times.
- Make your title a call to action or benefit for the reader.
- Omit unnecessary words. Instead of “Are You Looking For A Cheap Place To Buy Widgets?” write “Looking For Cheap Widgets?”

So next time you are writing copy for a webpage, by all means play with those boistrous headlines and subheads, pander to those pretty paragraphs, keywords and hyperlinks, and get your bullet points looking as cute as a button. Just don’t forget that page title looking down from the bedroom window, wondering why so few website writers appreciate its many hidden talents.

Then smirk to yourself because now you know one of the most simple and effective ways to attract search enigines and customers to your webpage AND stay one step ahead of your competition.

Simon Hillier is a copywriting specialist based in Sydney, Australia. His company, Get There Writing Services can help turn your ideas into words for the web, print copy, e-newsletters, articles, ebooks and scripts that speak to your target audience and make you shine on Google. For more articles and further information visit his website http://www.getthere.com.au

What does Domani mean?

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 06:12:00 GMT

Put simply, Domani means tomorrow in Italian. Why? Well my Italian heritage obviously played a role but more than that Domani is intended to be a company for tomorrow. I’ve owned and run software development companies for 20 years but Domani is my vision of the future for this industry.

The digital industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. The technology we are using is changing every day. It can be overwhelming and many companies in our space are unable to keep up the pace.

I believe the days of being a one-stop-shop are over. It’s impossible to be a jack-of-all-trades anymore when each technology, each stream is a specialisation that requires deep knowledge and experience. At Domani we bring together specialists from around the world – we speak their language so we can manage them effectively.

We now live in a very connected world. These days I can speak more frequently to a suppler in another city, or even country, than I often did to my own staff sitting a few feet away. Using sophisticated online project management and collaboration tools means we are able to work more efficiently, improve our quality of life and leave a smaller footprint on our environment.

What's with the car?

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 06:14:00 GMT

The Alfa Romeo 8C depicted in our imagery is an achingly beautiful, exquisite, rare, red-blooded sports car for the true enthusiast. It represents the passion and excitement that we have here at Domani. Passion for digital, for our clients and for life. It’s this passion and love in our work that produces terrific results. When meeting potential partners I always first meet with the owner. If he/she doesn’t have that twinkle in the eye when talking about the work they do then it goes no further.

Passion and enthusiasm are contagious. Clients have often told me that after working with us they have felt more enthused about their own business. We enjoy learning about our clients and their businesses. It’s the passion, the adventure and the journey that keeps us at the forefront in everything we do.

Domani Digital launches

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 07:48:00 GMT

Domani Digital officially launches today, September 1 2009. After selling Relate, I spent a year researching technology, process, management styles and the digital industry. Domani is the result of this research. It is my dream of the ideal digital services company for tomorrow.

How is it different? The emphasis is on results and customer service. I have developed a methodology for extracting and expressing a company’s needs, their culture, their objectives and their goals. We spend more time up front developing an online strategy with measurable results. Only once this is completely understood do we then consider the most appropriate technology.

This only works when run by experienced online professionals. To this end, all Domani consultants will have at least 10 years hands-on experience working with digital projects in a customer focussed role. Customer empathy is critical to a successful outcome.

We have over 30 technology partners located around the world. We intend to reach over 100 within the first 12 months. Each has met our exacting criteria of value, quality and service. They are all privately owned companies where the owners are still very actively involved in the business.

For more information contact Vince Nicita on 1300 883 295 or vince@domani.com.au