Jazz Unlimited School of Dance Arts has been offering dance classes for over 40 years and boasts a team of skilled, passionate instructors who have degrees in dance, and experience with professional dance companies.
Another company redesigned Jazz Unlimited’s website using a much better template and sharing capabilities. They switched from using Microsoft Publisher to a WordPress CMS, which is more intuitive. Wordpress gave them a lot more control over their new content and significantly reduced the time it took them to update their site.
So, where’s a “happily ever after” ending?
There isn’t one. In fact, there should never be an ending. Why? Because, “happily ever after” doesn’t exist with technology.
It doesn’t make for a happy relationship if your developer builds your site and then puts you on the first plane out of Casablanca.
Technology is constantly changing and evolving. Open source software, desktop applications, mobile apps and CMS systems, like WordPress, are always being updated to move with technology. Your website will not remain a productive tool for your business if it’s not changing and evolving, as well.
The new build allowed Jazz Unlimited to keep their schedules current, feature new classes and announce the achievements of their students and alumni, which was great, but there were new features and plugins that weren’t available to them. In part, due to the fact that the WordPress installation was older version and wouldn’t work with the newest features and also because some of the installed plugins were so old that they were no longer supported.
Once your site is built and goes live, it’s time to think about web support. The key is to have an ongoing relationship with your developer to answer your questions, help you with technical updates and provide advice on new features and web-technologies. It doesn’t make for a happy relationship if your developer builds your site and then puts you on the first plane out of Casablanca.
Don’t get put on a plane like Ingrid Bergman.
Among some of the fixes we provided were: rebuilding the website templates to give them access to all parts of their site, updating the WordPress install to the latest version, removing outdated plugins and installing compatible ones. Then we ask, “What else could work better?”. They explained that they wanted to improve on posting their rehearsal schedules. Come to find out, they were composing schedules in Excel, taking screen-shots of the spreadsheet, and then uploading to the site! This took three separate processes and wasn’t the best use of their time. We installed a plugin called Ultimate Tables which allowed them to type their schedule spreadsheets into WordPress directly and update with one click. It was much faster and easier to manage. This made them extremely happy and also frustrated that they lived with the old system for so long. All it took was one phone call to us.
We are living in exponential times. A supportive relationship with your developer will save you time and aggravation while continuing to keep your site fresh and productive in the face of advancing technology.
That’s more like it. Casablanca should have ended this way!