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Wednesday, September 30, 2009
CWD Is Moving!
Painting the new office on wheels. Want to help? Come on down; free hosting for 6 months if you show up. Right behind OMSI on Water Ave!
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Thursday, September 24, 2009
Interbike 2010 - The bike world descends upon Vegas
Interbike 2010 is underway in Las Vegas this week. I headed down to support some of our clients and reach out to partners and prospects. It was as fun (for a bike enthusiast like myself) as it was productive.
As a first year attendee, I heard that things had been toned down compared to past years, but there was still much excitement at this well attended industry show. Many top athletes were there promoting their sponsors including George Hincapie, Christian Vandevelde, and Dave Zabriskie. Every segment of the industry was represented and many CWD clients were there to show off their wares for this coming year.
KEEN Footwear was attending their second Interbike as an exhibitor. KEEN's bike footwear and messenger bag offerings continue to expand with much excitement surrounding them. Kalkhoff launched there new site yesterday, just in time for the show. Their lineup of e-bikes was most impressive. Look to hear more from them as they establish themselves in the Portland area.
Friday, September 11, 2009
"I'm on a boat" - T-Pain
By Fritz Brumder
Well T-pain was not with me, but I did drive my boat to work yesterday. My first stop was the PDX fire dock. I walked 3 blocks to meet with Becky Engel from Grady Brittan. Next stop was the OMSI dock, next to the sub. It is only a 4 block walk to the Cascade Web Development world HQ on SE 11th and Division. 
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Who does this?
So how many people (men) do you think can convince their new bride to take a honeymoon in Chile skiing rather than the beaches of Tahiti. Probably only someone who works for Cascade Web Development aka Mark Boisvert. We live and breath the sport, work, life culture. Who would not want to work here?
Photo taken @ Valle el Arpa - 11,500 ft with Mt. Aconcagua in the background standing @ 22,841 ft
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Extranet: Arming The Workforce With Remotely Accessible Tools
By Ben McKinley
At CWD, it can be a real challenge to focus and promote our efforts in any one industry or category. While we've seen exciting growth with outdoor product companies, law firms, and construction companies; we serve and welcome clients from industries far and wide.
One area we have seen clear segmentation is in the people with whom we work. When it comes to delivering innovative, cool sites that create a unique brand experience, we are usually working with marketing minds. Whether working with an agency partner or client, the focus is on creating a positive and powerful experience for customers and prospects. Although, unless there are clear conversions like ecommerce sales, a direct ROI can be challenging to measure. Therefore, during tough times like now, we are seeing smaller budgets and bigger expectations.
Another significant focus of our business is with Extranets (AKA Intranets) where the focus is less on design and more on usability, operational efficiencies and return on investment. In these cases, we find ourselves working with IT and Operations minds. A colleague suggested that if you're not reducing costs and/or easing pain for a company, new sales are a real challenge, these days. Given this logic, it comes as no surprise that client interest in Extranets has remained strong, even during the worst of times.
Our relationships with clients needing help automating their processes and allowing for more efficient remote collaboration seem to breed strong, long standing relationships. These clients are truly partnering with us to evolve their businesses over time. The users of these solutions generally include employees, dealers, reps, and suppliers.
Extranets (what is an Extranet?) require significant initial research and strategy work in order to understand our clients current approach to business. We then work to arrive at new, innovative ways to move those processes from local networks/desktops to the web. We also find ourselves integrating a number of separate online tools that are currently in use. Among all the benefits of this new solution, there will also be a significant cultural shift in the organization. We include this topic early on to ensure post-launch success.
The initial solution rarely touches all sides of the business, but rather focuses on improving one or several pain points experienced by the company. The Evergreen platform's flexibility allows for long term evolution. I would contend that an Extranet is never truly 'done' and that ongoing budgets should be established as needs shift and evolve over time.
If we do our job well, the client becomes more efficient by leveraging technology. This allows them to reallocate their staff resources, accelerate training and see real savings in their bottom line. When all of those priorities align, it becomes a no-brainer to continue investment in the Extranet.
CWD takes a unique approach to intranets that is flexible and scales well as needs evolve. There are a number of solutions out there to assist companies in automating their processes and backing up data, while keeping security a main focus. Please contact us to explore further.
At CWD, it can be a real challenge to focus and promote our efforts in any one industry or category. While we've seen exciting growth with outdoor product companies, law firms, and construction companies; we serve and welcome clients from industries far and wide.
One area we have seen clear segmentation is in the people with whom we work. When it comes to delivering innovative, cool sites that create a unique brand experience, we are usually working with marketing minds. Whether working with an agency partner or client, the focus is on creating a positive and powerful experience for customers and prospects. Although, unless there are clear conversions like ecommerce sales, a direct ROI can be challenging to measure. Therefore, during tough times like now, we are seeing smaller budgets and bigger expectations.
Another significant focus of our business is with Extranets (AKA Intranets) where the focus is less on design and more on usability, operational efficiencies and return on investment. In these cases, we find ourselves working with IT and Operations minds. A colleague suggested that if you're not reducing costs and/or easing pain for a company, new sales are a real challenge, these days. Given this logic, it comes as no surprise that client interest in Extranets has remained strong, even during the worst of times.
Our relationships with clients needing help automating their processes and allowing for more efficient remote collaboration seem to breed strong, long standing relationships. These clients are truly partnering with us to evolve their businesses over time. The users of these solutions generally include employees, dealers, reps, and suppliers.
Extranets (what is an Extranet?) require significant initial research and strategy work in order to understand our clients current approach to business. We then work to arrive at new, innovative ways to move those processes from local networks/desktops to the web. We also find ourselves integrating a number of separate online tools that are currently in use. Among all the benefits of this new solution, there will also be a significant cultural shift in the organization. We include this topic early on to ensure post-launch success.
The initial solution rarely touches all sides of the business, but rather focuses on improving one or several pain points experienced by the company. The Evergreen platform's flexibility allows for long term evolution. I would contend that an Extranet is never truly 'done' and that ongoing budgets should be established as needs shift and evolve over time.
If we do our job well, the client becomes more efficient by leveraging technology. This allows them to reallocate their staff resources, accelerate training and see real savings in their bottom line. When all of those priorities align, it becomes a no-brainer to continue investment in the Extranet.
CWD takes a unique approach to intranets that is flexible and scales well as needs evolve. There are a number of solutions out there to assist companies in automating their processes and backing up data, while keeping security a main focus. Please contact us to explore further.
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