.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Overhead costs can be hefty for small business owners, especially with Web site maintenance added on, but local Web solutions companies can provide technology that enables business owners to quickly and easily maintain their own Web sites.

“If you can use a program like Microsoft Word, you can easily update your Web site,” said Christian Connett, co-owner and CEO of eSolutions Interactive LLC. “There is no need to keep paying someone else to do it if you know what you want and what you need.”

ESolutions developed an administrative management system that allows customers to easily update their Web sites, eCommerce stores or Web-based applications without knowing a programming language or having to pay additional overhead to have access to the system.

“Our goal is to provide clients with the power to control their solution and have a better understanding of their e-business,” Connett said.

Contempo Enterprises LLC is a locally owned furniture store that is operated online. In order to compete with larger companies, keeping low overhead costs is essential, said company owner Patrick Mahoney. Working with eSolutions to create a Web site he can manage simply and efficiently allows Mahoney to keep costs down.

“It is great to leverage the money and to be able to have as virtual of a store as possible,” Mahoney said.

The technology allows Mahoney to communicate with vendors, update the Web site with new products and manage his inventory all from the “back end of the store through the Web site,” Mahoney said. Within the month, he expects eSolutions to complete the Web site for Contempo.

“Once implemented, I will save a lot of time,” Mahoney said. “I won’t have to call vendors. I will be able to read what we have in stock through the display on the (management system). I won’t have to pay someone full time to call vendors and update the Web site. I will literally save thousands of dollars.”

Andy Priestley, managing partner at Dynamic Webware, an Urbandale Web solutions company, said, “People don’t understand what it takes to update their Web site. It brings in variable costs. For changes they call their programmer and get the surprise of a big bill for just a few hours.”

ESolutions uses various programs to create manageable Web solutions for its customers, including: hypertext preprocessor (or PHP, a programming language), MySQL (a database), AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and extensible markup language), cascading style sheets (or CSS, used to control the appearance of content) and hypertext markup language (or HTML, a Web page code).

Using AJAX allows businesses to “click and drag to reorder material; the (Web) pages do not need to refresh, which creates a richer feature for Web interaction,” Priestley said. Dynamic Webware has used AJAX in the past and plans to increase usage in the future.

Peak Agency Model and Talent Management has been a customer of eSolutions since 2003. The content management system allows Peak to maintain its talent roster, streamline business and gain an edge over competitors, said owner Steve Myers.

“(The Web solution) is set up so that I access it anywhere there is Internet,” Myers said. “It gives me freedom to change and adjust and do things on my own. I can correct information and add content, versus calling and saying, ‘Can you do this and change that?’ I save money and know I am getting it done right.”

Other local Web solutions companies have their own technologies and techniques to allow customers to manage and update their Web sites.

Dynamic Webware uses Adobe ColdFusion to create permission-based content management systems, meaning employees can update the Web site, but only in the sections where they are permitted. Priestley said allowing customers to manage their own Web sites accounts for Dynamic’s growth.

Adaptive Easel of Des Moines now only offers Web solutions where customers can make the changes.

“Everything is moving toward AJAX and Web 2.0,” said Chase Hendrix, CEO of Adaptive Easel. “We’re already integrating this for our clients; this is what they are looking for.”

REL Productions Ltd., a Web site development company in West Des Moines, offers PHP, application service provider (or ASP), rich text and WordPress, to be used with a range of Web sites from complicated to simple.

“The biggest thing is it gives (businesses) control over the Web site and makes dynamic content an easy thing to achieve,” said Mark True, the “brand warrior” for REL.

Web sites designed by REL can have pages loaded online automatically. For example, a business could create a Web page for a summer event in December and schedule it to appear online in June. Customers can make updates whenever it is convenient for them.

One focus for REL is “helping emerging small businesses gain greater Web presence,” said Evan Stadlman, co-owner and chief operating officer of REL. “We call it ‘telling their story.'”

However, a business’ story cannot be told if it cannot be found, so Web solutions companies can also help make businesses’ Web sites more readable for search engines.

“When you see a commercial on TV, how often do you pick up the phone and call for information?” Connett said. “You are going to Google it and go to the Web site.”

Smaller businesses get more recognition through search engine optimization, which makes it easier for search engines to find and list a business’ site.

REL considers Web sites to be “table-stake communication,” True said. “It used to just take business cards and a brochure. Now you need business cards, a brochure and a Web site.”