Microsoft FrontPage-More Profiles

Microsoft^®FrontPage^®: More Profiles

Profile: David J. Lauwe, Meta4 Communications, Inc. Profile: Darryl O'Donnell, 3 graces, LLC.

	Before the Internet was a widely accessible medium, Meta4 Communications, Inc. was a media design and publishing firm providing services to clients in the New York metropolitan area. Five years ago, they began providing Web solutions to their clients. According to David Lauwe- "We originally chose Microsoft® FrontPage® when the first version was released. At the time, FrontPage stood out as one of the few Web design and management applications that provided WYSIWG page layout. It freed us from the tedium of HTML coding. Also, the collaboration features allowed our staff to work on different parts of a Web site at the same time. Things have come a long way. Now, with FrontPage 2000, we can add custom code to display pages in separate pop-up windows to better capture user attention." "We recently designed and developed an e-commerce Web site, www.tourneau.com, for Tourneau Inc., the world's largest retailer of fine timepieces. The primary purpose of the site is to inform people of the fine timepieces that Tourneau offers and the quality of service they provide. The prospective customer can "see and feel" product as they would in the store. They can also buy right online. When the customer chooses a brand name, they see each product image shown on a white background, sized in relative proportion for better comparison, and accompanied by a description with a BUY button. When BUY is selected, the customer goes to a secure, third-party storefront that processes the order." "A primary benefit of using FrontPage was the ability to manage large numbers of files while reorganizing them repeatedly as the site was being constructed. Automatic update of all corresponding hyperlinks by FrontPage, was invaluable. Publishing just the added or changed files to the beta and production sites, was another key necessity. Finally, it would have been impossible to maintain version control without FrontPage controlling this process." "And it has paid off. Tourneau.com was chosen as "Best of the Web" by Forbes Magazine in a special review of the top 300 Web sites. But the inevitable growth of e-commerce requires us to provide even better technology solutions going forward. We will continue to use FrontPage as an invaluable tool in our arsenal of Web development applications." David J. Lauwe President, Meta4 Communications, Inc. www.meta4comm.com



	Three years ago, using Microsoft® FrontPage® 98, Darryl O’Donnell and her partner developed and launched a fledgling Web site with one line of skin care products. Now, 3graces.com carries six prestigious lines, successfully offered and sold directly on the Internet. According to Darryl- “Many thanks go to FrontPage and StoreFront, an e-commerce software solution for Microsoft FrontPage developers from LaGarde Inc.” “As a Web designer, I always begin a new Web project in the "Navigation" view of FrontPage and 3graces.com was no different. I process information visually. Navigation view helps make it clear how to organize the content in a way that makes sense to me and, more importantly, to visitors looking to purchase products on our Web site. With the information architecture done, it was important to keep the design elements as simple as possible because an e-Commerce Web site contains a great many product graphics. We knew these should be the site focus. It worked because we continue to receive very strong feedback from our customers about how easy it is to use the site and how pleased they are with their shopping experience.” “Entering so many products and descriptions in the database was a bit daunting. Fortunately, our product expert, was able to streamline this using StoreFront's HTML Administration Tool. Working in FrontPage, we were then able to access the product descriptions directly from the database and incorporate them into product pages. We published the site and tested it as well as our real time credit card processing system. 3graces.com actually received its first online order before we were even finished testing!” “Now, with so many categories, product lines, individual product pages and graphics in the Web site, administration and maintenance would be overwhelming without the site management features in FrontPage. We are currently upgrading to a Microsoft SQL Server™ database to handle the increased traffic at our site. The trick to managing expansion is being able to cope with it. That is why we’ll continue to depend on FrontPage and the FrontPage Bulletin to keep us up-to-date on tips & tricks, new technology, and 3rd party add-ins. I'm especially looking forward to the new FrontPage version 2002.” Darryl O’Donnell Managing Partner, 3graces, LLC. http://www.3graces.com/

More Profiles

More Resources