Re: HTML Differences - Details

Patty, I don't think I can answer your question about the rewriting of code.
I preface my statement by saying that all of us still really know nothing
about
the company's internal issues, etc.  I is a little difficult to comment on
the validity
of the code written and whether it will work with back end servers, etc.
With that
caveat, I do have the following comments:

Your politics section is very interesting.  It sounds like the person "in
charge"
of IT is possibly bitter at the fact  that they no longer have control.
I completely  understand marketing's point about changing of a logo.....big
booboo
for any company to do that...  Does Coca Cola allow their IT department
change their
logo on the website daily?.....

Is there someone who is supposed to be coordinating between the marketing/It
departments.
Sounds more like an internal administration issue.



Craig Monroe
cmonroe11(at)prodigy.net





----- Original Message -----
From: <patti.gettinger(at)email.riverwood.com>
To: <hwg-basics(at)hwg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 1999 10:48 AM
Subject: HTML Differences - Details


> Thanks to all who responded (what a delightfully witty group you are!!)  I
> really want to be fair in judging this situation.  Here's some detail to
> the story that may help explain what happened:
>
> Systems:  Graphic Services designed a new 125 page web site using Page
Mill
> 3.0 (HTML 4.0) on an NT operating system (PC).  The site was "complete"
> except for something like an applet, four sets of rotating photos and a
> scrolling title on the main page (important), and scrolling page titles on
> the rest of the pages (optional).  There are hot spots for sending emails
> to various contacts, we wanted a counter, and there is a link where
> customers can email various company folks.  A CD was provided to IT, who
> came back and said it was not compatible with the server, and would have
to
> be rewritten for $25 grand over a 58 day period.  Part of the cost was  3
> days for CGI links at $1270, and 55 days for rewriting the code at
$23,300.
> We have a UNIX server running NT software, and we do have firewalls (more
> than that I don't know).  They also use HTML 4.0.
>
> Yesterday we met with an IT manager (but not the IT html code writer), and
> asked alot of questions about what was incompatible and why the high cost.
> Here are the responses we received.
>
> 1)  The web material "does not meet IT standards," but no written
standards
> exist nor was IT able to give an example of how the proposed html code
> fails to meet those standards.
> 2)  A major part of the expense is analysis of the code provided to make
> sure it meets "standards," but there are the animations to consider
because
> what was provided was a "flat file."
> 3) The code provided could "crash our system" but IT could not explain
what
> in the code would cause a crash.
> 4)  It is imperative that the pages on the web site load quickly, and the
> proposed material may not be written to do that.
> 5)  It is cheaper to completely rewrite the code than to edit what was
> provided.
> 6)  There were some pages with graphic elements (lines) that were 1 pixel
> wider than on other pages, and a couple of buttons that didn't have the
> same shade color as the buttons on other pages (this is not professional).
> 7)  Rewriting the code had nothing to do with sustaining firewalls.
> 8) When asked to explain what the CGI links were, the IT person admitted a
> lack of familiarity  but that it had something to do with linking to
search
> engines, tables/forms, and email setups.
> 9)  We asked if IT could point out discrepancies to standards and let
> Graphic Services rewrite to avoid some of the hourly costs - this was not
> acceptable.  We asked if there were some minor changes that could be
> allowed to "slide" to help reduce costs - the answer was no.
> Fundamentally, IT said pay the full amount or the old site stays in place.
>
> Politics:  Our IT folks used to be in charge of the entire web site and
> team members.   There were some battles with marketing (i.e., IT
redesigned
> our company logo - we had a hard time explaining to them why they couldn't
> do that!).  About a year ago, our Graphic Services department was put in
> charge of coordinating the web team members, and given responsibility for
> the "look" of the site, to make sure it was in keeping with corporate
> image, printed literature and other sales tools.   Marketing was still
> responsible for copy and content.  IT was still responsible for everything
> else.  The old site is still operational at this point.
>
> My Question:  Is it necessary to rewrite the code, and is the time
> requested to do this reasonable?
>
> TIA
>
>

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