Category: Technology

Breaking up or Together Forever?

I (LaMae) have probably advised you on vendors, set-ups or other miscellaneous curiosities.  I’m always happy to chat and advocate for you.

One of the things we talk about most often is how to determine vendors and whether to use a vendor with packaged services or purchase the services individually.  My answer still remains -keep them separate.  But when you consider how to make that decision, think about control, integration, and cost.  I’ll offer some examples that may help.

Credit Card Processing:  As you know, you will need a Merchant Account, a Gateway, Bank Account, and a form/cart/shopping tool.  You have the option to use an integrated service such as Stripe and quickly add your bank account and that can work great.  Or you can put things together on your own, work a bit more upfront and pay less over time.  I have selected our gateway provider and merchant processor separately and then linked them together.  Why?  So if one doesn’t work out, I can quickly find a replacement to connect in and I have not lost a minute.  If I purchase everything together, I feel a bit at the other’s mercy.  If an all-in processor turns out not to work as expected,  you have to start all over.

Domains:   Always own and keep access to your own domain — end of the story.  (I’ve spent hours and hours helping folks untangle domain ownership)

So with these examples in mind, here are my general guidelines

  • Make sure control is key — you should own what is yours and have an understanding of what an exit path may be.
  • How much work is it to change…both from figuring it out and the actual changes needed.
  • Read reviews
  • Ask an expert

And for the cost decision — that will probably become clear when you review the above items.  Technology is becoming more flexible, interchangeable, and cost-effective.

Compare apples to apples and do your homework.

Timing is Everything

I’ve written before about making sure there is human intervention in data.  As much as I love AI (Artificial Intelligence) and MA (Marketing Automation), our eyes are still needed.  If you’ve ever ‘fought’ with a undeveloped chatbot,  you know exactly what I mean.

Last week, GoDaddy experienced a server outage for about two hours and as I understand it was a network disruption.  That disruption kept us on our toes monitoring well into the night.  So as you can imagine, we were on alert for GoDaddy communications.

Here’s what I received the next morning:

It would not surprise me if this was automated or scheduled far in advance – and indeed that’s how it should work.  But here is where the human eye (I just liked the cat-eye picture) comes in to play – let’s keep things in mind and double check marketing tasks if something significant happens – that may be in the news or internally.

Important Note:  This is not in any way meant to disparage GoDaddy – we use them often and indeed resell at Silver Lining Host.  And, for the most part, their media communications are a model that any of us could use.

Jake’s Precious Journey

This heartfelt project is about Jake’s story – his Journey that includes parents, family, loved ones and friends.  DWG is honored to be part of Jake’s Journey even in a little way.

DWG worked with Jake’s parents to create a website to preserve his legacy and support other families experiencing the loss of a baby through miscarriage, stillbirth, and neonatal death.  Their support groups, special events, and newly published book are selflessly managed by Jake’s parents, John and Tani.

This project impacted our hearts as well as our technology.

Festival Mozaic is Dynamic!

Festival Mozaic is dynamic in more ways than one!. Their new site on ARTdynamix™ leads with a home page dominated by compelling videos that tell the story of their offerings including the world-renowned Festival in San Luis Obispo County.  Like the rest of us, they are adapting to the changing world with exciting options online.

Since the Festival occurs in multiple locations, ARdy has added an adaptive map to help visitors navigate the various Festival venues (and an easy way for the Festival Mozaic team to manage).  Take a peek here. Click on a pin and you’ll see the venue information and weather.  Makes you want to spend some time on the California coast I bet.

About Festival Mozaic:

Festival Mozaic is an annual celebration of music that takes place on California’s beautiful Central Coast in San Luis Obispo County. The Festival consists of chamber music concerts, orchestra performances, crossover and popular artists, Notable Encounter educational events, and free community events including mini-concerts, family concerts, master classes, lectures, and open rehearsals. Festival artists are the best in their field and come to San Luis Obispo from all over the world.

Ataee earned information security certification – CSF

Behnam Ataee, DWG CTO, has completed the certification for HITRUST CSF Assurance Program. Certified HITRUST CSF professionals can deliver simplified compliance assessment and reporting for HIPAA, HITECH, state, and business associate requirements. DWG will help provide partners and their business associates with a common approach to managing security assessments that creates efficiencies and contains costs associated with multiple and varied assurance requirements.

This information security work is most often done for health care and non-profits as part of a required security audit often in partnership with internal and external auditors or accountants.  This data security and information security audit can also be done as part of best practice and demonstration of a proactive approach to security as is most often the minimal need in the case of litigation.

Here’s more information:  HITRUST

If you are interested in our participation with your audit team or to perform a certification, please email [email protected]