jsx001 wrote:
I would be interested to know how this site is going to help me increase revenue or decrease overheads. Also I am very interested to know:
1. How much this site cost to develop
2. How much it costs to run
3. Who built it and how where they appointed.
4. What ROI does the council (us) get for this site.
As you know there are countless business network sites around, not least LinkedIn which has a huge resource, so how does this compete or add to what is already available for free.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind Regards
Jon Simcox (business rates = £500 pm)
Hi Jon,
Thanks for your post.
The main purpose of the site is to try and improve the way we communicate, consult and engage with our local business community - as well as giving local businesses the chance to interact with each other.
The good news is - because the site uses open source software, there aren't any software maintenance costs. The business website also didn’t have any development or hosting costs as we utilised our existing hosting infrastructure which was setup from another project. The site was built in-house by our own IT team so no development or design agencies were involved.
Anyone can access and register to the site - but we're trying to attract mostly local businesses. One of the plus points to the site is that it means we can give up-to-date information to local businesses about the work we're doing- and it costs a lot less that the traditional means of printing and posting information.
The site also gives us the chance to let businesses know about new opportunities that could possibly help them - whether it be training courses or energy efficiency tips. We also want local businesses to use the site to tell us how they think we can we can improve our services.
I hope this has answered your questions - and of course if you have any ideas on how we can make the site better for business then we'd love to hear from you.