Behind the Buzz - digital and interactive advertising and marketing

Using Third Party Software

by Rachel on January 30th, 2007

A lot of the sites I’ve worked on have been built under IT policies which means that they are built on the company hardware and often under restrictive software policies (decent .Net blogging software is there but it’s not quite as easy to flex as other kinds ;-) )

So I like it when I see companies using platforms that are outside their servers and not software they have built - why re-invent things when a perfectly useful version is out there. So we have CBS’s Keppler site being built on Ning. I’ve been watching the users of Ning building some great stuff over the last few years, it’s nice to see it being used so prominently by a major company. And why not? Why have to go through all the trouble of building an upload site from scratch when you can put one together using tested components? It would definitely shorten the build time and the cost.

Blogging and community spaces is where a lot of the movement can be found. You find MySpace being used a lot but this is not for the time/cost reasons that using Ning would be, but because it already has a built in audience and it is primarily used by brands and entertainment properties that have a certain target audience in mind, those that are already on the application. Six Apart have long targeted corporate customers to use their software for internal and external blogs and now Wordpress is also getting into the action.

Matt points out that Ford has used Wordpress for a site about the 2007 Detroit Motor show. They’ve taken the code and applied a completely different look and feel to it - at first glance it is nothing like a blog. But look under the hood a little and you can see the WP code.

The Sunsilk Get Hairapy blog (which I’ve worked on) also runs on Wordpress but has a far more traditional blog look than Ford. My recommendation tends to be run blogs on Wordpress, but we do run into the corporate IT policy thing a few times.

So if there is a choice between build it yourself and use third party services what should you do?

• adapting a third party application will almost always be cheaper and quicker. The bugs and quirks have often been worked out and functionally they’re likely be further down the road due to larger customer feedback than a few people getting together to come up with a spec.
• When trying to chose an application you need a very clear idea of what you need it to do. Be aware of what is core and what is nice to have. Building bespoke means you will get to have exactly what you want but it can be more effective to adapt.
• think whether you need it on your own servers or can use a hosted service. USing a hosted service means that you have no control over downtime but they software is kept updated. On your own servers you have more control over the application but you have to build into the plan maintenance for the underlying software as well as the content, upgrading the version when needed
• think about how long you want the property to last. A quick blog associated with a campaign (like Lebron and Sprite) - use a hosted service, to much to build unless you have the software up and running already. Longer term and multiple uses, then getting it on your own servers could be far better.

So, like the reduction in control in content and commentary, there are also plenty of opportunities to reduce control over the hardware and software that runs your online experiences, bringing with it a reduced time and costs components.

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POSTED IN: Integrated and Transmedia Marketing