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In my last post I discussed about what corporate strategies was and how to get started defining one. Title for today simply wants to focus on how to form a team that will deliver a fulfilling web strategy.

The Team

Snap shot of those who should be on the team;

• The CEO or COO
• The CIO or top IT personality in the organization
• Customer Support personnel
• Sales & Marketing
• External consultant (Web designs, Developer and Strategist)

That’s the ideal fulcrum of people you should make members of the team, now let’s look at their respective roles in the building process. Remember, less is better, don’t let too many people be in the team so as not to slow-down the process.

CEO or COO

The CEO is the engine room of the company, with keen understanding of the business role, the role of company in the industry and the future of the company. In case the CEO is not available, the COO or vice-president can stand in. These other people are members of the Management and will be able to voice the importance of the web project and be able to allocate resources according to the company’s budget and strategies. Even though the CEO may have an idea of the importance of the web campaign, he should further be educated by the consultant or the IT person on the strategic roles of the web. The CEO will be more concern about the ROI of this campaign hence making sure that overzealousness is curtailed in the process. I have seen in some companies in my course of consulting with clients that, some CEO may have read, heard and seen some positive effect of the web (and IT), they just want it implemented ASAP, hence given less room for thorough implementation and strategies. So, thorough briefing or education is very important.

CIO or IT Personality

In most organizations, there are separate department for IT and a figure-head in form of manager or CIO. IT personalities are generally informed to a large extent as to what is happening on the internet, the service providers, competent vendors and experience as to how to implement the web strategies. Their roles are very important so that you don’t over pay for services to be rendered by the external consultants.

I have seen some companies making the web building process a sole responsibility of the IT department to their detriment. Most IT persons don’t know rudiments about the business, and mostly placed in the support department. So they just implement the website just the way they think other people do it with the company’s operations in mind.

Customer Support Personnel

The web has evolved from just another brochure for marketing to customer service. With the advent of web 2.0 and its child social media, web sites are now responsive giving the customer service department a better way to help customers faster. The customer service personnel should be in the team to tell their story, how customers respond, which method they like to be served and the trends.

Sales & Marketing

As Newton once said “Everything remains at the staff of rest until a force is applied”, in business nothing really happens until a sale is made! The sale is what brings in the money, while the marketing is worth expose to people what you have to offer! The input of these departments is very important because it is the ultimate thing that will affect the bottom line which will make the CEO happen and every other staff members and investors.

The sales and marketing persons explains the method they have been using, how they have performed so far, what they want change, what is hot in the market and ways to make them reach the customers better. If all their comments are well taken note of and integrated into the web strategies, the success of the web campaign is inevitable.

External consultant (Web designs, Developer and Strategist)

Getting an expert in these areas is very important, if your IT department are not web savvy, you must consult an external person to help you in this process.

Talking about the web consultants, you need to understand that, the web is vast and in most cases one person doesn’t know it all. Firms generally consultant with a web designer or developer who are basically tech people and may not be able to maximize the potential of the web. Yea, well they will provide their service to your liking but I will like to add that the impact of a strategist is the void currently needed to be filled in your next web campaign (in case you don’t have one). The role of the strategist is simply to create a bridge between the business process and the web technology at hand for optimum return. This will make sure that, all efforts are geared towards serving the customer and at the same time getting good return on your expenditure.

Summary

I will summary the works of each team members as; CEO brings the business needs, challenges and focus to the ground, while the customer services & sales and marketing personnels brings the business process, customer needs and their ideas to fore, the web designer/developer create the web pages and application while web strategist link the business need with what the designer/developer is doing for effective return and monitoring.

Do you have a web team? What are they comprised of and how have they performed so far? Drop comment below…

Sidmach Technologies

They developed Waeconline.org.ng, jamb.org.ng Nigeria‘s first online examination registration websites. I will say these projects opened a new chapter in the web industry in Nigeria!

Looking at Sidmach’s portfolio, they have more government related projects than Taviatech.

They have offices in Lagos, Abuja and Portharcourt.

Taviatech

“Tavia Technologies Limited is an experienced technology company offering Web, Wireless & Business Intelligence services. We have consistently provided first class services to our valued customers in the Telecommunication, Banking, Oil & Gas, Law Firms, Insurance, Real Estate, Non-Profit, Recreational, Manufacturing Industries and other sectors. “

Taviatech has been in the business for 10 years and have deployed high-end solutions including Interswitch e-payment system (website), MTN, Access Bank, FCMB, Starcomms portal and other great solutions. Their office is located at Motor ways centre in Ikeja, Lagos.

This is just the beginning as more companies will be featured here. We will also look at individual designers that are world-class from Nigeria.

Stay tuned!

In the second edition of its annual award, “Naijapals.com Personality of the year”. The contestants have been trimmed to just 2 to make them the finalist for the award. Initially started with about 10 members selected based on their activities on the site. The contestants has been having a thrilling moment has the users are very happy participating in the exercise.

The award’s winner billed to be announced on the 14^th of June 2009. Blackbeauty005 and mamagina are the finalist who, at the current writing, blackbeauty005 is currently leading the vote count. What is more is that, the 2 finalists are both female, could we say female are the most active on this site? Personally, am glad to see the female folks slugging it out with their male counterparts online.

Naijapals, is one of the major Social Networking Sites (SNS) in Nigeria and has continued to enjoy growth in recent months.

You can join by logging on to naijapals.com and creating an account.

Naijapals.com a Nigerian Social Networking site registered  4th of May 2007 as witnessed a tremendious growth in Less than two years.

Stats

Alexa Ranking

Global : 20,810

Nigeria: 45

Total Users: 192,000

Total Visits per day: 15,000

Hot spot on the site: Forum, Confession and Fight park

Usability

Right on the homepage you are presented with the signup form just like facebook. It also have updates from its forum just below the form and latest blogs from its blogs features. Interesting things are that it allows you to search for your friends accross various networks which includes; Yahoo mail, Yahoo messenger, Hotmail, AOL, Gmail, MSN, Live.com, MSN Messenger or Comcast email. With these you can easily get started and create a network for yourself. I also love the designs and color blends. The site is AJAX base which made it qualified as a web 2.0.
Nigerian Content

Majority of the users are Nigerians and activities on the site are Nigerian related.

Language

The language/communication pattern on the site are youthful – user generated. Go to the park – Fight section you will see alot. Well some argument there are interesting and educative. It’s fun all the way for the users.

Privacy

The site’s privacy policy is well laid out, we advice that the users read them to know how the site operates.

Maintenance

I guess they have couple of staff monitoring the site, a user was recently banned for serial abuse and operating of multiple accounts. That show that they are active!

Upcomings

The educational directory that contains over 7, 000 institutions including all major nigerian universities and world colleges, this enables users to find their old school mates and classmates.

Innovation

Blackboard & Fight Park: This two section of the site are very interesting and fun. The blackboard gives you free ad space. The good thing about it is that it is monitored, that gives you some level of trust in the links you find on the page.

Fight Park: This section have got people engaging themselves and at the same time catching fun! Unlike the usual forum, fight park creates an intend for engagement. So If you want to argue with someone, or just want to catch fun, you can do it right there.

Estimated Revenue

In their word: “Wouldn’t like this to be published in public, however the outfit runs on a profitable ground.”

Our Comment

Naijapals.com is definately a place to be if  you are a Nigerian or its friend. You can build your network from there to offline.

We have seen a sharp drop in its Alexa ranking, we thereby advise that the management of the site work on strategies to bring it back up and increase its user base.

Naijapals.com a growing Nigeria social networking website showed that “Term of Service” is of importance to the site usage given its nature. As a social networking site, people want to talk to real people, they want to be respected in their views. A member with the ID Chiwenduu mis-stepped on this.

Naijapals.com reported that it detected that the said user is operating several account well over 30. The user is said not only operating several accounts but also abusing the service provided by Naijapals.com. Eventually the admin took decisive action by suspending the account. We contacted the admin of Naijapals, here is their response

“The user “Chinwenduu” was suspended based on gross abuse of the site and phishing. Created multiple accounts to pass mixed messages to the community, this was detected and relevant actions taken.”

The admin also said the user as not in any way defrauded any user of its site members.

This is a good development, Naijapals is  interested and committed to a sanitized community. The step to have forestall a damaging event on its user has really go a long way to further increase its trust worthiness.

We urge various webmaster/owners to follow this step to bring about dependable online services to Nigerians.

You can read the full story and response on Naijapals.com‘s forum site here.

In you own view, has good desicion been taken? How will this serve has deterrent to further abuse? Nigerian webmasters how far have they feared? Let’s discuss in the comment section below.