Douglas Reynolds Consulting

Custom Web Application Development

Home
Who We Are
Contact Us
Blog
Site Map
Douglas Reynolds Consulting | Blog
 
January 15

BNIRIA Adobe Group Launched!

BNIRIA Is On!

Today I received notice of approval to start up the Bloomington/Normal Illinois Rich Internet Applications Adobe user group! If you are a Central Illinois Web designer or developer, then we are inviting you to join, discuss, and network with us.

Are You a Recruiter or Business

We also want to reach out to recruiters and businesses who would like to publish design and development positions to a group of professional designers and developers. Your positions would directly reach professionals within the Central Illinois Area and would be published in several social media platforms.

What is BNIRIA

The user’s group is located in Bloomington/Normal, IL, establishing a Central Illinois Adobe platform developer point of presence, community, networking, and social hub which centers on Rich Internet Application development using Adobe tools. We discuss Flex, ColdFusion, Flash, JavaScript, IDEs (e.g. FlashBuilder, Flash, TextMate, DreamWeaver, etc…), along with topics of developer collaboration and project management, which includes discussions of Version Control, RAD development, and team managment tools.

BNIRIA Mission:

To establish a group that will allow networking of local developers, increase local awareness of Adobe technologies, and provide a Web and social-networking presence which is managed by member volunteers. To reach out to local businesses and recruiting companies to provide employment/contract assistance to community developers/designers. To provide a place where developers can come to discuss problems and solutions, establish and maintain contacts and friendships in a relaxed social atmosphere. To have some fun in all these processes.

What Next?

Our next steps are to contact local universities and colleges in an effort to obtain a venue for monthly meetings.  Additionally, we are working to obtain relationships with recruiters and businesses who wish to network design and development positions with our group.  We are going to continue to “get the word out” and let people know about the new Adobe group. We will be working social networking on a continuous basis.

Can I Help?

Absolutely! We need your help in letting people know about the group and where they can join. Let your friends and colleagues know about us, tweet about us and share our links amongst your social networks. If you are a Central Illinois designer or developer, recruiter or business, come join us!

Links

BNIRIA Adobe Group
BNIRIA LinkedIn Group
@BNIRIA



10:20 PM GMT  |  Read comments(6)

January 07

Douglas Reynolds Consulting - Relocation...Future

Very recently, myself and family relocated from the Portland, OR area to Bloomington/Normal, IL.  As a result, we needed to decide what we wanted to do with the consultancy.  I decided that Douglas Reynolds Consulting should live on, should continue to provide service to our existing clients, and continue to develop new clients.  Since, to a great degree, our services are provided remotely, we feel quite confident that we'll be able to continue on with business as usual.  We've been spending much of our time getting networked into the new location, communicating with our clients, developing leads for new clients, and managing account changes, etc...  We have much to do yet, amounting to a task list with over 150 items resulting from relocating.  We are very excited about opportunities that are present in Illinois and prospecting is going well.  Certainly, we are interested in your inquiries for RIA, Business Systems, and Executive Administration services, regardless of location, so feel free to contact us to discuss your needs.

We have big, no, huge community goals this year in our new location.  We will be contributing to the community of developer's in the Bloomington/Normal area.  I have already begun this process by submitting an application to start an Adobe Community RIA group with the hopes of bringing developers in this area together to network, share information, assist one-another with troubleshooting problems, and have a place to "get their geek on" and have fun.  Additionally, we wish to bring area business and education (we have Illinois State University and Illinois Wesleyan University here) awareness of the local developers and Adobe platform solutions with the hopes of strengthening the Adobe community and resources available to those businesses and institutions.  We're going for Adobe community with all of our resources.

We are going to be adding a series of 'Kit' solution packages.  We are currently breaking down all of the services which we provide, discerning which ones are most in demand, and which ones best compliment one-another.  We will then be putting together a standardized set of packages and pricing.  Of course, any Kit may be customized to fit individual client's needs, but we will be able to provide a series of entry points, better communicating initial project budget and needs requirements.  We believe this will simplify the process of providing for client needs, as well as to create a degree of self-service that potential clients may use in comparing various solutions.

In order to assist with the new Kit structure, brand awareness, and sales/retention, we are going to be adding a new internal position, Director of Evangelism.  Our new Director, to be named in the next couple of weeks, will aide in Kit development, marketing and sales, and evangelism of Douglas Reynolds Consulting services.

Within our Adobe platform development, we will be implementing Flex 4 for all future developments, unless otherwise specified by client requirements.  ColdFusion will continue to be our server-side platform solution in all cases where possible, falling back on PHP as needed.
We intend to incorporate allot more JS jQuery into our maintenance and future projects.  We have been so stoked with the UX design results we've achieved, in such a light-weight library, that jQuery has won our hearts and minds.

We will be coming up with more business/platform development ideas along the way, because, well, that is what we do.
Thank you to all of our clients for making it possible for us to do what we love...Develop.

RIA | Business Systems | Executive Administraion
"Putting it all together"sm
Douglas Reynolds Consulting
http://www.douglasreynoldsconsulting.com



1:58 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

October 12

Client eCommerce Site Launched
Site Launch Announcement!
Today we launched AGC Enterprises NW, LLC, eCommerce Web store application, located at www.retractabletooltether.com!

Our work here was to take the client's existing site and integrate a shopping cart solution.  Not only did we succeed beyond their expectations but we improved upon the user experience with the incorporation of jQuery UI elements along with Flash technologies.  For this project we teamed up with Avactis Shopping Cart Solutions, we are an authorized reseller of their product.  The cart solution used is PCI complient, offering customers complete buying confidence by incorporating 128 bit SSL encryption of their sensitive personal information.  We can provide a comprehensive merchant solution by integration with all of the major shipping and merchant gateways.  The store front provides users a view of catalog items, the ability to drill into an item for details, add items to their secure cart, calculate real-time shipping options, choose from several different credit card options, or even checkout using PayPal.  The entire user's experience is very smooth and comfortable.  The site design provides for funneling of visitors toward the store's goal of creating customers.   Our client's product is a nice little carabiner attached retractable reel with attachments for devices, such as cell phones, flashlights, keys, ID badges, all kinds of things.  They assemble them here in the US and are sold at a really attractive price.  We recommend having a look and picking up some of these retractable tool tethers, they are really quite handy and well made!


6:15 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

September 09

Douglas Reynolds Consulting Lauches Executive Admin Services
Following feedback from our clients related to their needs and very positive responses to our provision of Executive Administration, Douglas Reynolds Consulting is now officially offering Executive Administration services.

With that said, the question tends to arise, "Could you tell us more about Executive Administration?".

The Problem: For smaller companies, taking on technology projects puts demands upon the business owners that require additional time and attention which the owners just don't have.  In many cases the owners just want it to happen and don't pay attention to the ongoing technology project's details.  This is a risky situation for the owner and the project, and even for the business in general because implementing technologies can be an expensive proposition.  The chances of misunderstood requirements increase dramatically with the absence of software development practices that wholly involve the major project stakeholders.  This situation also places a great deal of strain upon the project developers. Without solid processes for communication and development which include the company stakeholders along with the developer stakeholders, the developers are working upon assumptions rather than solid information.  Questions can take days to get answers rather than hours or minutes.  Project efficiency falters, project times get dragged out, and expenses get out of control.  This is indeed an undesirable situation for all parties involved.

The Solution: Douglas Reynolds Consulting found that in working with our clients we could assist the stakeholders, usually the owners or managers, by taking on tasks, both associated with their project and related to daily business activities.  In doing so, our clients found that they were able to spend less time on task-associated activities, more time on their mission critical business obligations, and more time on their technology project.  The end result being that owners are able to be involved in their project to a much greater extent than would otherwise be possible, and Douglas Reynolds Consulting is able to establish clear processes of development and communication of requirements directly with the client.  This is a win-win situation as the cost of Executive Administration is offset by the savings of Owner time, increased productivity/efficiency, and successful projects.

We are looking forward to working with you on your next Web or Business Systems project and providing you with Executive Administration services.   



7:04 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)