I just want to add my opinion here, and that is the justification of our hourly rate
as programmers. Sure, no one wants to pay standard rates for "simple" HTML changes.
No one wants to pay for oil changes for their car either. And yet both HTML changes
and oil changes seem fairly simple to most clients.
But think about it... if Jiffy Lube can do in about 15 minutes, what it takes the
average person an hour or more to do, doesn't that, in itself justify the labor cost?
And think about all the TOOLS Jiffy Lube has. If we had all those cool tools, sure we
could probably do the same thing in 15 mins. But we're not going to make that
investment because we're not in that line of business.
Well, the same theory applies to "simple" HTML changes. The justification to the
client is the same. You can build 'em all the fancy tools you want to get the job
done, but when it really comes down to it, you're the master technician, not your
client.
My advice to clients who want to maintain their own site is that they hire on a
full-time webmaster knowledgeable enough in CF to work on the site or that they pay
the standard fee I charge per hour and know that it will be taken care of - GUARANTEED.
---mark
--------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Warrick
Phone: (714) 547-5386
Efax.com Fax: (801) 730-7289
Personal Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Personal URL: http://www.warrick.net
Business Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Business URL: http://www.fusioneers.com
ICQ: 346566
--------------------------------------------------------------
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Seth Petry-Johnson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Monday, July 03, 2000 1:14 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Content management
>
>
> List,
>
> A growing number of my company's clients are pushing for the ability to
> maintain the content (i.e. text, basic HTML, images, etc) on their sites.
> This really isn't that big a deal in and of itself, but these sites are
> growing more and more complex, and there is no longer a simple
> separation of
> "content" (i.e. the text or simple HTML itself) from its
> "presentation" (in
> this case, the CF logic that runs to personalize navigation systems, page
> headers, etc).
>
> Up to this point we have been simply granting clients FTP access to their
> directory on the server and telling them not to change anything
> that begins
> with "<CF". This is a TERRIBLE thing, and I've been fighting to move away
> from this ever since I started.
>
> Anyways, I was wondering how some of the other players out there deal with
> this sort of request from a client. One the one hand I don't want ANYONE
> but someone from my company touching the CF code, but I can understand a
> client's desire to have control over their site. I wouldn't want to pay
> $50-$75 per hour for simple HTML changes either.
>
> In particular, I'm looking to evaluate possible solutions against the
> following metrics:
>
> 1) Security: giving a client FTP access to a shared CF server is
> obviously a
> bad idea because one client could, either on purpose or by accident,
> adversely affect other hosted sites by crashing the CF service, uploading
> templates that use CFFILE, etc. As a general rule we don't let clients
> upload CF files to the server, but this is not enforced by anything other
> than a verbal contract with the client. Whatever solution I find
> has to, in
> some way or another, adequately shield one client from the actions of
> another, which means unrestricted direct file access is a no-no <g>.
>
> 2) Protection of intellectual property: we have a series of pre-written
> "modules" (calendar, classified ads, etc) that we sell to our clients.
> Since these are sold as pre-written applications, the client does not gain
> any ownership of the code. FTP access to the site again poses a problem
> because it makes these templates directly available to the
> client. A savvy
> HTML/CF author working for the client might steal this code and
> re-sell it.
>
> 3) Cost: I'm looking for a relatively inexpensive solution right now (i.e.
> please don't recommend Spectra <g>). Neither us nor our clients are
> particuarly interested in paying huge sums of money for a feature-packed
> solution at this time.
>
> I don't necessarily need ALL aspects of each page available to
> the client to
> change. Certain parts of the site, such as CF-enabled navigation systems,
> can remain under my company's control. With all of these things in mind,
> does anyone out there have any pointers for me? Either links to
> prewritten
> applications or ideas on "rolling my own" system are welcome.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Seth Petry-Johnson
> Argo Enterprise and Associates
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
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