It’s become popular recently, but the infrastructure has existed and been in use for years in one way or another and now, as a result of an increasingly literate consumer base, online software is coming out of the woodwork sold on the appealing blue-and-white-sky metaphor.

Companies such as Google are getting more confident at geeking out about their products as part of their marketing, highlighting their green credentials and slowly some great internet products and services previously only the reserve of the enterprise are available on a granular, pay-as-you-go basis.

As a small internet business we’re probably in the best position to take advantage of a number of these developments in both the running of our business and  in providing the platform for our range of services. With that in mind, I’ll organise things into two camps to try and cut through a bit of the noise and share what works best for us.

Cloud Products

• Microsoft Office 365 – Email and collaboration software based on Microsoft’s tried and tested Exchange system.
• Sendgrid – Flexible and powerful SMTP API to reliably send and track large volumes of email.
• Zendesk – Cost-effective help and support ticketing system with forums, intelligent FAQ and handy a mobile app.

Cloud Platforms

• Amazon AWS - delivers a set of services that together form a reliable, scalable, and inexpensive computing platform “in the cloud”.
• Microsoft Azure – Similar to AWS, but providing services tailored for the Microsoft web platform.
• Rackspace Cloud – For business critical applications, some of the pay-as-you-go services just don’t cut it. Rackspace, amognst others, provides a “Managed” cloud hosting solution for 100% reliability.

Keep it simple, stupid.

As we’re geeks at heart, there’s always been a tendency to fiddle about with our IT at the Linnhe Creative HQ. A certain amount is essential- keeping up with trends and developments in hardware and software – but there has to be a recognition to stop when it becomes counter productive.

The ever-reliable ML115 still tirelessly serves emails to this day, 5 years later. Only for test purposes now, sadly.

For example, a long time ago we used to run our own email server. This made sense initially, as through MSDN subsciptions the software licences were free for internal use and we had the machines available to run them on. Sounds simple, but as the company grew, it soon became a pain. Obviously email is a business-critical service so we needed to ensure that the server remained on at all times. This required extra hardware: a Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) to protect against power failures and A Backup System – in our case a DAT72 drive. We also faced issues with emails sent out of the server being treated as spam because our server was not a “trusted” sender. So we needed to route outgoing mail via a relay service with BT.
Of course all these preparations fell short if there was every any issues with our internet connection and during storms there was no resilience against a simple PSTN line being taken out by a fallen tree. Emails could easily be lost if they couldn’t get delivered to our offline service.

The experience here has been invaluable because it’s part of our business, so we know about these potential pitfalls and equally know what is suitable for what purpose. But for others, there’s no need to give yourself these headaches – you need something simple and reliable.  Cloud based software has recognised this and returned with a set of services that give businesses and consumers just that.

All our email services are now on Microsoft Office 365. We always needed the collaborative benefits that Exchange-based systems gave and have tried several incarnations of a “Cloud” implementation, starting about 3 years ago when BT launched Exchange mailboxes that worked over the web, rather than needing a local Exchange server. Now though, Office 365 is a comprehensive solution that provides Instant Messaging, document sharing and online meeting tools with per-user licences. It also provides a pay-as-you go licence for Office 2010 which alleviates up front software costs that may have put off some.

We’ve always had headaches with automatically generated emails being treated as spam from some of our web applications. Usually again this would be down to the sending server, despite adhering to best practices in setting up our servers some over-zealous mail services and clients would still treat mails as junk. We’d also have some difficulty in tracking statistics for some of these mails, a crucial metric for business intelligence, without writing our own piece of software.
After researching some outsourced solutions to get round this without success, it was a targeted facebook ad that highlighted Sendgrid – a cloud based pay as you go SMTP service. This was exactly what I needed, they have specific tariffs based on usage and features, gave a delivery guarantee and provided all the statistics we need. A few years ago a web-based service like this just didn’t exist, Sendgrid is another example of how distributed computing is lowering the bar for reliable, feature-rich software development.

Finally, an area that email won’t cut it for is managing support requests. Initially a simple mailbox for support queries worked for us, but as a user base grows it quickly becomes messy and inefficient. There are a few products around that give the ticketing experience but we chose Zendesk. Some big companies use it but I was particularly fond of the Twitter support experience, which uses it well.
We can now reliably keep customers informed, create templated responses, document common problems in our knowledge base as well as keep on top of things on the go with their iPhone app. They are launching a new web interface too which is very slick and really pushes the software experience you get from a web application.

More and more useful and affordable software will appear will appear in the cloud over the coming years, yet I’m sceptical about a full online OS replacement. I think it will be a few years, if at all, when there’s the kind of speed and rich experience from HTML to rival a desktop application. In many ways the native application is experiencing a renaissance with the likes of Android Market and the App Store. As internet connection speeds increase the process of software delivery is getting easier and faster so it’s likely the lines between native and web apps will continue to blur – and all streamed from the Cloud.

My next blog will be about our experiences with cloud platforms like Amazon AWS, and how we’ve cherry pick n’ mixed some of the best available products to provide customers with the best solution for their needs.

Linnhe Creative designed and developed an agile platform with innovative features such as

• Flexible design layout which alters to provide the best display experience on smartphones, tablets and conventional displays
• Third party API to provide multi-posting software support for clients such as Broadbean, Idibu and Logic Melon
• High performance configuration providing page speed in the top 20th percentile.
• Powerful browse and search features with dynamic RSS feeds and email alerts.

What they said:

“We spoke to several web development businesses before settling on Linnhe Creative. They are a testament to the fact that location is irrelevant when it comes to high quality development and they have a work ethic which is unfaultable. We gave Chris and his team a very tough brief for a new site, built from scratch and to a deadline which could not be missed. They were professional, efficient, relaxed and honest all the way through the build, test and launch process and have won plenty of respect from a group of highly commercial individuals who expect high standards at al times. I cannot recommend Linnhe Creative more highly – and all at price that was considerably less than London based agencies.”

Ben Walker, Director, CityAMCareers

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Linnhe Creative created a new website to support their high profile launch by Fergus Ewing, the Scottish Energy Minister and Lena Wilson, chief executive of Scottish Enterprise.

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The iOS platform is one which we believe to be head and shoulders above competitors in terms of the mobile user experience, especially in the widespread accessibility it has given users to useful, engaging software.

Within our applications we have given new context the the huge wealth of existing data on our websites and offers users an opportunity to find out what’s nearby, from attractions and activities to where to stay and the best restaurants as well as special offers and deals to be had. It’s lightweight too, so works well in areas with even the weakest mobile signal.

You can find out more and download our applications for free here:

About Fort William and Lochaber

About Oban and the Isle of Mull

Starfish hand make beautiful lever harps and electric bowed instruments from their workshop in North Ballachulish. We were delighted to work with Dave and Mike to produce their new website that would supercede their long standing bone-of-contention builder software website. The project saw new branding produced by Lamont Design and detailed photography of the instrument craftsmanship from Glencoe Photography. The end result is a unique showcase worthy of their products.

The site is fully content managed with every detail being in the clients control, married with a robust design flexible enough to support the CMS. It’s split into two distinct subdomains to reflect the business strategy to serve the different markets of harps and electric instruments. The entrance benefits from full screen scaled image slideshows of some of the stunning images of instruments.

The modular architecture allows for future plans to incorporate an e-Commerce facility that will sell accessories, as well as being able to support any other future business opportunities or prospects.

starfishdesigns.co.uk

“Kingairloch is a 14,000 Acre Highland Estate located on the Morvern Peninsula in an unspoilt area of beauty on the West Coast of Scotland lying on the banks of Loch Linnhe.

Kingairloch offers an enviable location where the mountains meet the sea creating some of the most stunning landscapes, whatever the weather may bring. The estate is also home to a wide and diverse wildlife population from the Eagles of the sky to the Red Deer grazing the hills below.”

kingairloch.co.uk

“We are a family run Scottish soap company, our natural skin care products are made with an emphasis on organic, fresh wild harvested ingredients and herbal therapy in the heart of the Scottish Highlands.

Where every stone, tree and river has our richly romantic and heroic history embedded within.”

highlandsoaps.com

Their existing methods involved customising the output from a Microsoft Access-based software package to achieve the layout of games required. However a problem arose when specific matches were added, such as during Christmas and New Year when local teams played each other in “Home Derbies”. The software was unable then to build the optimal number of games per fixture date and as result extended the season further than need be and on occasion left some teams without a match.

We developed a custom algorithm to overcome the problem; creating the optimal layout while incorporating the set fixture requirements. This was packaged into a lightweight Windows application that allowed multiple league setups and configuration, direct export of data into dynamically customised Excel spread sheets and an installer so it could be deployed on multiple machines.

This saved the administration teams around 50 hours a year in creating the league structure and the system’s flexibility allows it to be used to create other fixtures such as youth leagues. The application works on all Windows XP or later computers.

A short film exploring memory and loss of childhood. (A homage to Ben Briand’s ‘Apricot’ vimeo.com/​8076064)

Written & Directed by Gordon Napier

Sound & Editing by Karel Dolak

Cast
Dawn Parylo, Mark Kydd, Adam Chapple, Lauren Lockhart, Andy Marjoribanks, Keara Murphy

Cinematography by Gordon Napier

Music by Graham Coe
grahamcoemusic.bandcamp.com/​

Assistant Director
Charlie Parker

Produced by Gordon Napier

About Highlands is a group of websites with the sole purpose of promoting everything our areas have to offer in the most efficient and professional way. It unifies an experience of all the distinct appeals that the Scottish Highlands have to offer while maintaining an individual identity, context and provenance that each region possesses.

About Highlands knits together emerging strategies in social media channels in video, article and networking based platforms with a powerful user-centric website system that aims to raise national and international awareness of our constituent areas.

The platform is geared to grow quickly and integrate and increasing geographic coverage.

In terms of the visitor experience, the mass of information and resources that currently flood the market are almost universally difficult to navigate and don’t fairly showcase both the huge number of tourism businesses and places of nature, culture or heritage. Our product brings clarity with a simple and intuitive user journey which offers a vicarious exploration and tries to ensure that the visitor knows and can find everything they need. This continues with plans to extend the resource into mobile device cross-compatibility and support for low bandwidth so that the same information can be accessed from within some of our remote areas.

From a business perspective we offer very powerful and consolidated web marketing package which can be entirely self-managed through our website.
We combine a variety of initiatives and tactics to promote areas from coverage of large events to hyperlocal focussed social media campaigns. Our armoury is made up of a highly skilled agile mix that produces quick responsive promotion that can offer a much wider reach for businesses, versus their own or committee based marketing.

We currently operate two websites; About Lochaber and About Oban, with plans to introduce several more portals over the coming months.

The sites are powered by our own Sycamore DMS, developed specifically to vastly improve tourism marketing on the web.

Overview: Revamp of existing site coinciding with PR to showcase the international growth of specialist financial services recruitment company, based in London.

Requirements: An updated image that remained true to the existing company branding. Offer functionality to publish current job opportunities and a blog section for the Director to publish his thoughts on the market.

Completed: March 2011

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Overview: Revamp of existing site to bring up to date and allow responsiveness to promotions, events and initiatives held within the multi-purpose venue.

Requirements: Provide a modern, appealing and useful experience for the end user with a focus on promoting events. Administrators required a straightforward means to publish events and information, and to ensure that this reached as many people as possible through Search Engines and Social Media.

Completed: January 2011

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Overview: Design and develop a new site to represent the new company and highlight the product portfolio.

Requirements: Build a “shop window” style site that attracted potential clients and offered detailed information on a complex and extensive set of products. Administration  required to regularly add information such as Case Studies and updates to services. The site also had to offer scope to include client login to provide the company’s client access to their own area for information such as maintenance schedules.
The client also had a requirement for a vector graphic logo to be produced from a rough existing designs.

Completed: December 2010

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The build of the site was done with from scratch with ASP.net MVC so we could achieve the specific bespoke requirements; a categorised gallery of suppliers and an individual ecommerce journey for sales of services. With a variety of techniques we were able to create a smooth, responsive user experience that retained visitors as they browse suppliers and record detail of a sample request. Around this we built ecommerce elements which captured all the information needed to allow the client to provide sample services quickly, through an entirely electronic process.

Completed: September 2010

What Jane said:

“I could easily have ticked all the Top Attributes boxes! My new website went live last year and I am 100% delighted with it – my only problem now is that I have TOO MUCH WORK! I approached Linnhe Creative just after they had finished our Community website, www.durorandkentallen.co.uk, on which they had also done an absolutely cracking job. Chris Snelgrove – the charming and creative genius behind Linnhe Creative – is a young, dynamic website designer, who takes time to listen to your requirements and gain an in-depth knowledge of how your company works and the market you are aiming for. He then comes up with an initial concept/layout that forms the basis of the website development. Chris was always patient and willing when I wanted to do things that were technically complicated – indeed, he embraced and evidently enjoyed the challenge of trying out something new, which made the whole process very exciting and enjoyable. I am especially pleased with the Samples Request page, which was a difficult concept to make easily workable for the end-user. Chris’s motto would have been “where there’s a will, there’s a way” and he definitely has the will and the skill to make Linnhe Creative the successful company it deserves to be”

Jane Blanchard, Owner

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Completed: August 2009

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