I’m not going to pretend it’s been at all easy, but the new website is approaching completion.  I think the homepage looks gorgeous on a widescreen monitor (as shown), and very modern and ‘active’.  The focus has shifted from being a sales tool to a community website, which I think is an important move.  Of course, it’ll still have to do it’s bit for sales as well.

The new forums and news sections are easily my favourite, not least as posting news items was a real chore on the old site.  That said, I  can see the blog becoming a real asset, especially with it’s Windows Live Writer integration, which is amazing at getting stuff online quickly; also the Twitter feed on the front page is a great way to get quick messages out to the community.

In the end it’s really going to be down to our user base.  I’m really hoping they get behind it, and see it for what it was intended – a genuine attempt to interact with our customers in a helpful and practical way.

As we approach a go live, I’m going to open up the site to the employees first and get them actively involved in testing and using the site.