As Bach to Rock Music School launches its fifth site in Lansdowne, VA it sought to research its wealth of customer data to determine how to best market its latest branch.  After a thorough analysis process, vOfficeware was able to develop a data model to process all of the data it has compiled since the first school opened.  B2R can now use this data to track its retention history among many key metrics.

To fully utilize this data, vOfficeware has been able to integrate this information with Google Maps.  Now after a marketing campaign is complete, B2R can track its effectiveness both numerically and visually. As B2R’s database grows the tools developed will continually analyze data and provide insights otherwise hidden amongst hundreds of thousands of records.

When GTC-Construction.com needed a robust system to base their new website off of, they turned to vOfficeware’s VirtualCMS.net.  GTC Construction can now make changes to their website without the need for technical knowledge.

NASPAA is a nonprofit organization that makes most of its revenue through its events.  In year’s past, managing the paperwork of the conferences was almost overbearing.  To reduce the stress of the 2009 event, NASPAA turned to vOfficeware to develop a paperless online event registration system.  The system allowed the registration of “regular” attendees, booth registration and lunch tickets.  The system also contained a powerful reporting feature which helped out the event administration staff.

Enviro-air technologies was in a desperate need for a website redesign before they approached vOfficeware.  Our strategy was to provide Enviro-air with a cutting edge website that they are able to update with no technical knowledge.  vOfficeware ensured that the finished product would be clean, professional and easy to navigate for potential clients.

Avalar San Diego knew that their old website was not going to cut it in today’s rapidly changing and highly competitive real estate industry.  Avalar San Diego turned to vOfficeware to provide them not only a new website, but an entirely new web strategy aimed at gaining customers through the internet.

vOfficeware recommended the following steps:

1. Get a new website design: vOfficeware chose WordPress’ AgentPress theme as the baseline for the website development.  This theme is a highly customizable real estate website solution.  Out of the box, however, AgentPress does not integrate with RETS or MLS data, which was a requirement for the next step.

2.  Gain qualified leads through the website: This means that SEO is a priority for the site so that when users type in “San Diego Real Estate”, they pop up first.  After weeks of searching for an existing solution using WordPress that integrates RETS data into a website without iframes, we stumbled upon a company called ListingPress.  ListingPress was (and still is) in the BETA version of their WordPress real estate listing module, but it very powerful.

3.  Engage potential clients: Being able to personally connect with a customer is critical for any business in these tough economic times.  vOfficeware advised Avalar San Diego to set up a twitter account for their firm in addition to a blog (of course, powered by WordPress).  vOfficeware encourages Avalar San Diego to blog 3 times a week and post these articles to Active Rain (a real estate social networking site).

So there you have it.  A complete Real Estate Solution based around WordPress’ incredible SEO features.

vOfficeware is proud to be an active member in Greater San Diego chapter of LeTip, a business networking group in San Diego.  Not only did LeTip of San Diego get a state of the art website design, it also soared in google rankings.  LeTipofSanDiego.com currently ranks #2 on google (behing LeTip International) for the keyword “letip” and #1 on google for “san diego letip”.  Additionally, the group has increased its member size due to the large volume of members seeking to join while browsing the web.

vOfficeware was happy to provide this website free of charge to the San Diego LeTip chapter because of the many benefits we receive as a result of being an active member.

vOfficeware recommended the following steps:

1. Get a new website design: vOfficeware chose WordPress’ AgentPress theme as the baseline for the website development.  This theme is a highly customizable real estate website solution.  Out of the box, however, AgentPress does not integrate with RETS or MLS data, which was a requirement for the next step.

2.  Gain qualified leads through the website: This means that SEO is a priority for the site so that when users type in “San Diego Real Estate”, they pop up first.  After weeks of searching for an existing solution using WordPress that integrates RETS data into a website without iframes, we stumbled upon a company called ListingPress.  ListingPress was (and still is) in the BETA version of their WordPress real estate listing module, but it very powerful.

3.  Engage potential clients: Being able to personally connect with a customer is critical for any business in these tough economic times.  vOfficeware advised Avalar San Diego to set up a twitter account for their firm in addition to a blog (of course, powered by WordPress).  vOfficeware encourages Avalar San Diego to blog 3 times a week and post these articles to Active Rain (a real estate social networking site).

So there you have it.  A complete Real Estate Solution based around WordPress’ incredible SEO features.

vOfficeware recommeded the CMS WordPress for all nonprofits looking to re-do their web presense.  WordPress is a highly customizable CMS with an endless sea of free plug-ins and add-ons, perfect for non profits looking to get a cost effective very very powerful website solution.

The relationship between NPSolutions continues to progress and develop, as vOfficeware is now facilitating in the web marketing aspects of their clients’ website redesigns.

Below are two recent sites developed for NPSolutions using WordPress.

Q: Rank television among other mass mediums in order of importance from greatest to least.

I watch 30 minutes of TV per day – PTI on ESPN to get my daily sports updates.  For all other news I look for my friends on facebook, twitter and gchat to send me articles that they know would interest me.  I feel overwhelmed watching the News on TV.  Being able to view only new articles that interest me saves me time and the anxiety of watching programs that make me worried about the state of the nation.  I rank TV as a 2 on a scale of 5 in importance of getting the news.

Q: Does television need to find a revenue source outside of advertising to ensure its survival?

Advertising revenue in one form is the only way for television to survive. Online advertising and banners which are found all over websites are still under the category of ad revenue. It is either ad revenue or switch to the business model of premium channels (HBO) and charge a stiff price for their commercial free service. As you can see from Sirius and XM, this business model has varying success.

Q: What digital challenges does television face today?

People want the information they seek on demand. When I flip to FoxNews or CNN on TV, I am forced to watch 20 minutes other news before I get to information that interests me. Online news and social media outlets lets me search for this on the fly.

Q: What solutions can you offer for the television industry?

Keep moving in the direction of engaging your listeners. FoxNews, CNN and other media outlets are letting their listeners be heard on facebook, twitter and via email. Having on going conversations with your listeners, coupled with “expert” opinion interjections keeps people coming back and makes them feel like they are actually being listened to.

Emergencies happen. Some firms are lucky enough to go years without a major disaster and others face major challenges almost on a daily basis. The term emergency implies a sense of surprise. While it is impossible to plan against every disaster, it is prudent to set up a baseline continuity plan.

With regards to technology there are two important rules to follow:

1. All hardware will fail at some point
2. Firms that cannot recover from a critical data loss will go out of business

Recognizing the first rule is the single-most important step in setting up a disaster recovery plan. Even if hardware was 100% reliable, theft, natural disaster, or human error could still wipe away years of knowledge in a single incident. To protect your firm against data loss you must set up a distributed and tiered approach to data backup. These tiers should include local real-time backups, routine backup replication on-site as well as off-site.

Local Real-Time Backups:

Where possible all employee work should be saved to robust network file servers. Employee PCs are generally inexpensive compared to company servers and as such are more prone to failure. IT personnel can lock these machines to force workers to only be able to save their data on the network.

The network servers should be configured with RAID Level 1 or greater. RAID technology allows multiple inexpensive hard disks to act as a single drive. When one physical disk fails it can be quickly replaced without any downtime or data loss. RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks and should be your first level of backups.

Routine Backup Replication:

RAID will allow continuity through many normal causes of hard disk failure, however a power surge or power outage could zap all disks at once your destroying peace of mind along with it. At least once per day all data should be backed up to another medium and preferably taken off site.

Thanks to the Internet, many firms have provided solutions that can take both of these tasks and merge them into an automatic process. For as about 15 cents a Gigabyte, firms such as Rackspace USA and Iron Mountain will take your data and store it in multiple data centers around the world. Of course you should never totally rely on a third party with your valuable information, however in terms of cost effectiveness there are few better ways of mitigating risk. Using one of these providers you can be rest assured that your data is being stored in the same information processing facilities that power websites such as Amazon.com and Ebay.com. These centers have outages from time to time but have a history of zero data loss.

Many firms “set and forget” their backup solutions. Testing your ability to recover from your backup solution is paramount to ensuring successful recovery after an emergency. If possible you should initiate one full recovery every 6 months. A full recovery should involve recovering all critical data to a machine not normally used for day to day processing. These test sessions will point out any flaws in your backup processes while also providing real-life training for what steps to take should the unforeseen occur.

This tip was provided by Kunal Johar, President of vOfficeware, Inc. Kunal has advised numerous firms on their technology strategy and continues to embrace new trends with his affiliation at The George Washington University.