How to choose a web technology

When looking for a new website it is important to consider which technology you should choose to power your website. Here are 5 key criteria to help determine your technology choice:

1. Types of content. 

If your website must power a variety of types of content. Specifically think about the differences between the layout of a text based page like About Us to a Calendar feature or product page that must have images, associated documents, the ability to book a demo, find a sales rep etc.

If your site requires the unique layout of numerous types of pages, you need something robust.

2. Language

Most website today are at minimum bilingual. Should you need a bilingual, or multilingual website you need to find a technology that offers this natively within their platform and provides 100% translation in multiple languages, including syllabics if necessary.

3. Functionality

If your website must “do” something more than inform users by providing information (think online newspaper), then you need a robust technology that offers the functionality you desire. Perhaps that is: ecommerce, portal/authenticated login areas of the site, unique user accounts, online certification and training etc.

4. Customization

If you need to build an online environment that automates a very specific workflow or set of features, you need a web technology that allows your web vendor the ability to customize it to your needs; so it is 100% tailored to your requirements and solves your business pain.

5. Updatability

If you want to manage your website content in-house choose a solution that allows you to do so. Ensure it meets the technical capabilities of the team assigned to update the content. Relying on a vendor for simple updates isn’t typically desired by organizations who want full control over their content in real-time.

Using these 5 criteria ensure you choose a technology platform that aligns with your needs; both now and in the future.

Fenix has proven success using Drupal as an enterprise tool to power our client websites because it offers the most opportunity, robust features and scalability in relation to the above noted areas, which are the critical areas for our clients, and for success or failure, on their project. Where needs are more niche than those offered by a COTS like Drupal we build custom applications tailored to those specific requirements.

Jennifer MacKinnon
CEO | Fenix Solutions
www.fenix-solutions.com