So you need a new website and you think NS Web Solutions might be the group to build it. If you're like most of our clients, you may have lots of questions, not the least of which is, "How does this whole process work?"

Not to worry — we'll be happy to guide you carefully through all the steps it takes to go from your current idea to a shiny new website, making sure you know what to expect all along the way.

Initial contact

At the beginning of a new project, we generally work hard at asking a lot of questions. Sure, we are the incredible mind-readers our clients expect us to be, but only after we've asked a lot of questions.

Our initial contact questionnaire is a great starting point. It helps us get a reasonable idea of the scope of your project, and tells us some of the important background that we need to know in order to build an excellent product.

Even better, it highlights from the very beginning one of the key elements of our approach: put the client in the driver's seat. A project without a driver is bound to crash, and nobody is better equiped to steer it to its final destination than the client.

Besides telling us all about yourself, we also ask that you make sure to learn about us. Read about our approach to project management, and review our portfolio. You are, after all, trusting us with a quite a lot.

Getting to know you

Once we've heard from you and have a general idea what your project is about, we'll want to schedule a telephone conference with you. This will include our Project Coordinator and at least one person from your organization.

A call like this usually lasts around 30 minutes and gives us the chance to discuss the project. Our goal is to give you a chance to explain your situation and needs, and whatever else you think we should know, without requiring you to know all the latest geek jargon. In line with our standard MO, we'll ask questions, and of course we're ready to answer yours.

Based on this conversation, we'll prepare a detailed questionnaire and/or a specific proposal for handling your project, including the planned scope of the project, costs, and clear estimates for delivery timelines.

Hiring us

If you like what you see and hear from us, the next step is to let us know about it.  We of course will be elated, and we'll immediately schedule the project into our production queue. Depending on our availability — which we'll have told you about by this point — that usually means beginning work within one-to-two weeks.
During this time, we'll invoice you for the first iteration period, which will include the features we will have agreed on for that period plus the initial work of configuring the project for full production. Our proposal is good for 30 days, and we can tentatively hold your project in the queue for that time also, but it's your payment for the first iteration period that secures both the proposed rate and your place in the production calendar.
We'll also send you a list of any relevant "homework" items that you need to complete before the first iteration. This might include logos and artwork, text content, branding guidelines, or other items that we can't just make up on our own. The sooner we get these from you, the sooner we can get cracking on your project.

Project as campaign

You'll want to take a look at our approach to see why we treat all but the simplest projects as campaigns rather than as built-it-and-forget-it constructions. With this approach, we work in a series of iterations (usually 2 or 4 weeks each), during each of which we're delivering a complete and conceivably launchable product. For each iteration, the client is completely free to, and in fact pretty much needs to, define which parts of the project should be produced next. There are many reasons why this works better than treating the project as one monolithic build, but the greatest are the cost savings, increased software quality, and flexibility it provides to the client.

Client involvement

We can't say enough about the importance of client involvement in a project. The client is the number one most important member of our project team. Period.

This means we'll make a point of keeping you informed of all developments as the project progresses. Often, this is not just a courtesy; it's a vital service that makes sure you know what's around the corner each step of the way.

What's more, we don't just need to keep you informed. Because client input is critical to the success of project, we need to keep you involved. This means that at a minimum we'll need to meet with you at the end of each iteration to cover what's been done and to prioritize tasks for the next iteration. Occasionally we'll have questions during an iteration, too. We don't want to tie you up in knots with a thousand inquries, but we do want to be sure you're getting exactly what you expect at the end of each round of development.

Depending on your own launch plan, you may want to wait until every single feature is up and running before launch, or you may prefer to launch with a certain subset of features and roll out new ones gradually as they are released. This is up to you, and of course there's no reason you can't change your mind along the way.

What you came here for: Let's show this to the world

Here's where we get to the fun part: flipping the switch on a brand new live site.

Once your site is ready to launch, we can upload and install the site on your own servers, or host it for you if you wish as part of our own full-service website management service. We can work with your in-house techs to configure and set up the site on your network, or hand it all off to you for your own launch team to handle.

We then encourage you to go make some noise about the site in your own network of friends and connections. We'll be doing the same with ours.

However you want to handle your launch, we're on hand to make sure the process is completely seamless.

Budgeting concerns

Okay, you're saying, That sounds like a really great way to work, but how much is this going to set us back?

We get this question quite a lot (and reasonably so), so we're ready with the perfect answer: It depends.

As with any custom-build work (think of custom homes, for example) the number of variables can boggle the mind. Within all those variables are a wide array of price points, determined primarily by the amount of work involved.

If you're looking for specific numbers, consider that we've done some projects that totaled as little as $2000; we've also built advanced systems with large amounts of custom programming that totaled over $30,000.

We are proud to say that for custom website development, we make a point of not charging for software itself, just for work we do. That is to say, if we have a solution that will work out of the box for your needs, we're ready to give it to you at no cost. Because of this, it's possible to build a project that uses out-of-the box open source components, in which the only cost is for the time it takes to set up and configure the system to your specific needs. Compared to solutions that charge per-user licensing fees or sell copies of the same software to multiple clients, this method often results in major cost savings for our clients.

Ready to find out more?

If you think you like the way we work, give us a chance to impress you wildly. Drop us a line at info@nswebsolutions.com, or use our contact form to tell us about your project the easy way.

If you're still unsure, have a look at our portfolio — you'll like what you see. And if you just want a few ideas, we've got those too.