Hidden Costs

One of my biggest projects for the company I work for over the past year has been rebuilding their website from the ground up. I threw out all of the old stuff, and brought in all new hardware, lighting, and fixtures, while leaving the content in tact as much as possible (for the sole reason that there was too much good content to throw away).

And wow is it ever nice. I’ve got my company blogging, I’ve got a store, I’ve got a sitemap that is actually usable, and working with my web designer bud, Paul, have built a great navigation system.

But it seems like each and every week there are changes. Tweaks. Rewordings. Warnings. Text tags and ifs and buts and exceptions and somehow I truly figure out that the cost of a website is not in the building, which took a chunk of change, it is in the upkeep, where thanks to a yearly maintenance agreement system, has been cleared up for awhile now.

However, even with a maintenance agreement, adding features like “expanding the current software section” requires a new mini-contract and time. Placating people who are upset at the ordering process takes time and modifications. As time goes on, though the website was designed to ease the pain of taking orders and providing information, it feels as if I’m fighting a losing battle.

Not that I plan on giving up, but struggle is as struggle does, and all that.

As the intermediary between the forces that rely on what the website produces, and the guy who produces the website, my point of view is mixed and at times absurd. Sometimes it amounts to nothing more than passing notes to one person to another, and sometimes I’m left explaining processes and How Web Stuff Works. Surprisingly enough, not everyone understands scripting, secure payments, and cookie and form data retention (that’s sarcasm folks).

With that said, I tend to put my finger in the holes with the leaks, hoping that the web guy will have fixed it by the time I move. Sometimes it happens, other times it doesn’t.

For example, in a small company, an “overnight” order is tough. Particularly when there isn’t a dedicated soul sitting around watching the orders@ address, waiting to fulfill them. So what happened as a result? The overnight option was gone. Simple as that.

Well, not quite as simple. As a result of that scenario, the website had to have new language explaining that packages are sent by a few business days, and that rush orders need to call. Another one of those ifs, ands, and but problems that happen all of the time.

Somewhere in the minutia there is freedom and ease of use. I try to build it into the website I manage, but it’s damn hard sometimes. Damn hard.

Your time is near it won’t be long
You’ve got to go when you’re called upon