We are very pleased to announce the NewBridge Bank redesign is complete.

Here are some highlights of this site:

• Rotating flash piece on home page
• Contact Opportunities – It was important to NewBridge that visitors be able to interact with them in many different ways. To accomplish this we implemented the following:
  • Our Banking Professionals application
  • Contact Us by Email
  • Contact Us by Phone
  • Locations
  • Connect with Us – Social Media
  • Social Media  – Icons in the footer and LHN, as well as a Social Media page showcasing the investment that NewBridge has made in that area
  • Product detail pages — Added additional product detail pages to their site so users have required information at their fingertips
  • SEO-friendly site
  • Integrated product demos into site

BEFORE

AFTER

Many thanks go out to Wendy, who provided a great design. Many thanks to Miral for developing the site and putting it into Cascade Server, Gary for handling all of the database work – specifically for developing the awesome banking professionals application, as well as the locations application, Thomas and Keana for their assistance during the content phase of the project, Nicole who provided Web Marketing feedback and analysis, and last but not least, Wayne, William and John whom all had a hand in the launch of this site – thank you for your assistance!!

We launched a new ecommerce site yesterday at http://www.tpgseminars.com. This site uses the newest version of AspDotNetStorefront . This site is slightly different in that its products are actually continuing education classes that required by the state of New York for tax preparers and accountants.

The site features the following:

• Multiple static content (topic) pages that can be updated by the client via Admin site
• Dynamic filtering on Live Conference landing page (by date, location, and topic)
• Opt-in mailing list that can be downloaded by client via Admin

Thanks to Tiffany May and John Wallwork who did the primary development on the site and to Wayne Van Zandt and Caleb Pruitt for assisting with launch yesterday.  Also, thanks to John Scaramuzzo for client support.

Beacon is pleased to announce the launch of Framingham State University’s Academics section redesign.

NEW Academics Section

After completing a redesign of Framingham State University’s main website in the summer of 2010, the client contracted with us to address the Academics section such that it would be more effective in reaching prospective and current students.  Well, we are proud to announce the launch of the newly redesigned Academics section and all department sections as well.  The client had a very tight deadline for this project in order to have the new site launch coincide with a planned ad campaign.  Beacon’s Web Development Team juggled its resource plan to complete this project on time and within budget (again)!

NEW Department Section

Justin Klingman managed the project and Wendy Honeycutt, worked directly with the client to create the beautiful design.  Keana Lynch completed the template and Cascade development a little early and perfectly, and Thomas Brinegar customized the jQuery homepage slideshow on the Academics homepage.

Here at Beacon, we strive to make our clients and prospective clients feel like we are here to help. We want everyone to feel like we are all part of the same team and we all are working towards the same goal. We know that Web Design, Search Engine Optimization, and Web Development are areas of expertise that might generate a lot of questions for anyone not familiar in them and because of this we want to open up a line of communication for YOU to ask US questions. So if there is something you don’t understand or want better clarity about, now’s your chance to ask us!

To Enter a Question:

1. Send us a tweet using @BeaconTec
2. Make sure to include #AskBT in your tweet. This way everyone can see the questions being asked.

Answered Question: 

Answers to more in depth questions will be posted on the blog. Some answers might be in the form of a video while others are written out.  Any simple answers to questions will be posted on twitter. For answers posted on the blog, a tweet will be sent out notifying participants that a question has been answered.

Rules and Regulations:

*Beacon reserves the right to only answer questions we feel appropriate for the subject matters listed above.

*Profanity and slander are prohibited.

*Participants can submit more than 1 question but Beacon cannot guarantee that each question will be answered.

The Vecoplan, LLC site was launched on August 4th. This site is slightly different than any other site Beacon has developed due to the fact it has been developed in a content management system called Typo 3.  Since Vecoplan is headquartered in Germany, the CMS for this North American website was mandated by Corporate because TYPO3 is very prevalent in Europe.  The challenge for this project was developing a new website that matched Corporate branding, yet focused on the products and services of Vecoplan LLC (No. America), provided improved usability and most importantly, sustained the SEO web marketing initiatives that are also being provided by Beacon.  Needless to say, the ramp up on a different CMS was extremely challenging, but our staff stepped up to deliver another high quality website!  In addition, our web marketing team worked with the web development team to successfully guard against the usual dip in organic traffic that can occur when migrating to a new website.

The site features the following:

• Rotating banner image on home page, updatable by client via CMS
• Several carousels that allow user to choose market sector, service area, etc.
• Mini-contact form housed in the footer
• Parts Order form through which customers can fill out and submit online
• Unique sub-navigation across center of page
• Product detail pages – Really beautiful product detail pages that showcase the product photography
• Integration of Vecoplan Midwest’s website

BEFORE

AFTER

A HUGE thanks goes out to Miral who really made it all work!! Miral was faced with the challenge of not only learning a whole new content management system to build this site in, but one where most of the instructional material was in German. Throughout this project he continually faced many challenges and met each one admirably.  This project was led by Stephanie, Project Manager, who did a great job of keeping the team moving forward during various challenges to add another unique launch to Beacon’s portfolio.  Other big contributors were Wendy, who provided the client with exactly what they needed for a design, Thomas who assisted with all of the Flash and carousel work, and Jeff who provided SEO feedback and analysis. Finally, William, Wayne, and Caleb whom all had a hand in the launch at some point – thank you Beacon team!

Beacon’s own Brad Henry is doing a Google Analytics user survey with one of the GA staff at The Google Analytics Partner Summit in Mountain View CA!

Beacon Technologies just completed a redesign of the Texas A&M Foundation Intranet. In addition to visual updates, the site received usability enhancements and organizational features.

Here are some project highlights:

• The site is secured using both .NET permissions and an authentication method (Central Authentication Service) used by the University and allows multiple levels of security—from “guests” to management level. GREAT JOB MIKE!
• Bulletin board system for FAQs and Q&As as well as “fun” applications like trading tickets and recipes
• Integration of Google calendar, including downloadable events and calendar filters (See below.)
• Internal blog to enhance internal communication
• Beautifully designed and informational employee profile pages (See below.)
• Bookmark utility that visitors can use to save pages
• A-Z index for alphabetical listing of site pages as well as traditional site map
• CMS form creator

The client is thrilled with the results and we’d like to give credit to everyone on the software development team that was involved in the project! This is the Foundation’s eighth project with Beacon.

BEFOREAFTER

We successfully launched another AspDotNetStorefront site today, in partnership with G-Force Marketing, at http://www.famoustatemattress.com. This is another in the series of Sealy mattress vendors (including http://www.nobodybeatstheking.com and http://www.mattressking.net) that we have worked with in the past year.

The site features the following:

• Rotating banner image on home page, able to be updated by client via Admin site
• Dynamic filtering on category landing page (by price, size, comfort level, etc.)
• Multiple static content (topic) pages that can be updated by the client via Admin site
• Social media icons site-wide
• Customized warranty form (http://www.famoustatemattress.com/warrantyrequest.aspx) through which customers can submit warranty claims via the web site, which the client thinks will shave several weeks off of the process
• Tabbed product detail page, for Accessories and Recently Viewed items
• Opt-in mailing list that can be downloaded by client via Admin
• Interactive store locations page– http://www.famoustatemattress.com/t-storelocations.aspx

Thanks to John Wallwork and Thomas Brinegar who did the primary development on the site and to Wayne Van Zandt and William Nichols for assisting with launch today.  Also thanks to John Scaramuzzo for client support!

Texas A&M Foundation launched this month. Our objectives were to analyze, design, develop and host the Texas A&M Foundations public blog.  The blog design also needed to closely mimic the public site design. We have worked with TAMF on several other web site projects, including redesigning their public web site twice. The site received lots of comments and traffic on its very first day.

Features and Highlights:
• User manual
• RSS feed
• SEO friendly URLs
• Creation of categories
• Ability to add images and/or video to blog posts
• Contact information for each post author
• Comments allowed and moderated

Thomas Brinegar primarily handled the design and development with periodic assistance from Annette Fowler, Wendy Honeycutt, Justin Klingman and Tiffany May. William Nichols handled all of the administrative duties. Finally, big thanks to Heather Showstead for sound advice and suggestions.

Thanks to all!

We launched a really cool new eCommerce site for BMI Surplus!  BMI Surplus is located in Hanover MA and is a supplier resource center of equipment for premier colleges and universities, research facilities, individuals and manufacturing businesses worldwide.  Their website uses the newest version of AspDotNetStorefront with several purchased add-ons and custom apps built by Beacon. The purpose of this project is to redesign the BMIus.com web site and replace the existing shopping cart with AspDotNetStorefront. The primary audience for the new website will be universities and other research centers, but also individuals looking for specific parts/equipment by searching via part number and/or SKU in search engines.

Here are the project highlights:
• Custom Logo Design
• Custom site design
• AspDotNetStorefront Version 9.1
• Rotating banner on home page pulling from Featured Products category
• Paginated, sortable and filterable category landing pages
• Custom fields pulled from backoffice system for product detail page (condition, tested, location, etc.)
• Share this button on product detail page
• Customized ‘Email a friend’ form that sends questions to customer service
• Customized shipping functionality (allow warehouse pickup, self-shipping)
• Wire transfer as a payment option
• Integration with back-office inventory system (Fishbowl)
• Web marketing analysis and recommendations
• eNewsletter signup integrated with Constant Contact
• Enhanced basic and advanced site search

HUGE thanks goes to John and Tiffany who really made it all work. There were lots of new and fun challenges with a new version of AspDotNetStorefront and the Beacon team met each challenge admirably.  Other big contributors: Wendy provided a lovely custom design, Thomas assisted with setting up the informational pages and Jeff provided essential WMS feedback and analysis.  Finally, BIG thanks to William and Wayne for their launch assistance.