Why 'website problems' can be very very costly. Not the having them fixed. But NOT fixing them.

We recently submitted quote requests for the printing of a mid scale print job and naturally 'googled' some local options, as it was likely going to be more cost effective for our client to go with a printing method our preferred supplier does not offer.

One of the companies we requested a quote from had a mal-functioning quote request form on their website. It would not send the print relevant data that had been filled in over a couple of minutes and returned an error. So we reverted to contacting the company directly via email.

Messy – do your prints look the same?

While we had three competitive quotes in hand within 48 hours and have awarded the job, mentioned company stayed silent until an email came through eventually stating "website problems" – "unfortunately form data was not being submitted, contact and quote requests did not go through to the sales department. Could they still be of assistance?" 

Well – let's try put this in perspective.

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Since 2008, Africa's broadband capacity has increased by almost 12000% to over 10 terabytes (1 trillion bytes) per second. (data National Development Plan). This is set to improve further. 

Currently there are 6.5mil SA internet users – with more affordable technology and connectivity by 2020, 20mil South Africans will be online.

That is only 8 years from now!

Considering that an internet giant like youtube.com is only 6 years old and facebook.com was launched just 7 years ago, we are in for some exciting times and developments.

Google's interactive forums and tech days are always an inspirational hub for our industry in SA.

We attended G-South Africa on Friday 4th of November in Joburg – the event focused on Google Chrome, Android, Google Maps, AppEngine and Google Apps.

A nice opportunity to explore Google's open source technologies through tech talks, breakout sessions and codelabs run by engineers from across the globe.

Plastic Soldiers Jhb's Thomas Davies said: "While it was reassuring to know we are well on track with many of the Google Maps and Android developments, I thought Nelson Mattos, the keynote speaker was excellent.  It was also great to get an opportunity to chat to some of the google developers about their experiences in launching new services and products." Read more