Migrate to TYPO3 With the Right Agency
Last week, I wrote about a company that had had a custom CMS built for them.
The design was very nice, but it was an essentially unusable site.
They had wasted their money on a web site they couldn't easily update and maintain.
A migration to TYPO3 was the solution.
Using the standard TYPO3 core and extensions, no custom programming was required.
The design was carried over, so it looked the same.
A couple of hours of user training and the company's non-techie webmaster could now take care of the site on his own.
Just yesterday, I ran into a similar problem, this time with a TYPO3 site.
However, the firm that developed the site was not familiar with TYPO3 and resorted to extensive custom programming to develop the site.
Again, the result was a site that was nearly impossible for the company's employees to manage on a routine basis.
The moral of this story is that not all TYPO3 agencies are the same.
Acqal, for example, is a TYPO3 Association approved agency.
This simply means we know what we are doing and only do custom programming when there is a definite need.
We often provide TYPO3 support for sites developed by other agencies.
This is usually a win-win-win situation for all of us.
Some agencies want to develop a site and move on to the next project, preferring not to have to deal with support.
We enjoy providing support for our own clients and are happy to take on this responsibility for others.
In the case today, the customized programming made simple changes and additions to the site difficult and extremely time consuming.
As they say, it was the gift that kept on costing.
What should have been 30 minutes work took over 2 hours because we had to go in and do PHP programming rather than use the simple TYPO3 backend functions.
This cost the client real money.
Maybe not a lot, but it adds up over time.
At some point, they will have to have their site redone so that upgrades and security patches won't break it.
I don't know what they paid initially for their web site, but in the long run, it is going to cost far more than it should have.
The design was very nice, but it was an essentially unusable site.
They had wasted their money on a web site they couldn't easily update and maintain.
A migration to TYPO3 was the solution.
Using the standard TYPO3 core and extensions, no custom programming was required.
The design was carried over, so it looked the same.
A couple of hours of user training and the company's non-techie webmaster could now take care of the site on his own.
Just yesterday, I ran into a similar problem, this time with a TYPO3 site.
However, the firm that developed the site was not familiar with TYPO3 and resorted to extensive custom programming to develop the site.
Again, the result was a site that was nearly impossible for the company's employees to manage on a routine basis.
The moral of this story is that not all TYPO3 agencies are the same.
Acqal, for example, is a TYPO3 Association approved agency.
This simply means we know what we are doing and only do custom programming when there is a definite need.
We often provide TYPO3 support for sites developed by other agencies.
This is usually a win-win-win situation for all of us.
Some agencies want to develop a site and move on to the next project, preferring not to have to deal with support.
We enjoy providing support for our own clients and are happy to take on this responsibility for others.
In the case today, the customized programming made simple changes and additions to the site difficult and extremely time consuming.
As they say, it was the gift that kept on costing.
What should have been 30 minutes work took over 2 hours because we had to go in and do PHP programming rather than use the simple TYPO3 backend functions.
This cost the client real money.
Maybe not a lot, but it adds up over time.
At some point, they will have to have their site redone so that upgrades and security patches won't break it.
I don't know what they paid initially for their web site, but in the long run, it is going to cost far more than it should have.