Blogs - January 2007

Below are the blog entries for January 2007

Hannon Hill Launches CMS Tube

By Elizabeth Starkey

Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 at 12:00pm

In our November press release,  Podcasts & Videocasts: Managing Mobile Communication Content in the Web 2.0 Era, David Cummings states, "...We sip our own champagne in practicing what we preach. We’re using our own product, Cascade Server, to manage our new online rich-media content."

Yes, you may have seen Hannon Hill on iTunes or visited our Educational Videos section of the Knowledge Base, but now we're taking an extra step to introduce rich media resources to the public.  We would like to proudly announce the launch of CMS Tube.

CMS Tube adapts the idea of a purely rich-media site, like YouTube, for our product.  Here you can find all of the videos that are currently on the Knowledge Base as well as all of our podcasts, conveniently separated into easy-to-use categories or archives.  CMS Tube is a great way to stay in touch with the latest developments in Cascade Server, all in one comprehensive site.

We would love to hear your feedback on CMS Tube and any ideas for content that you would like to be featured on this site.

Related Content

• Hannon Hill Corporation Embraces Web TV with Introduction of CMS Tube

Category

• Resources

Cascade Server in Computerworld

By

Friday, January 19th, 2007 at 1:30pm

If you haven’t yet read the latest issue of Computerworld, check it out online!  Our very own David Cummings was featured on January 15, 2007 in Mark Hall’s article "VoIP Soon to Be a Target for…”

David explains how Cascade Server achieves database vendor independence, and offers a sneak peak into our future development plans.

Category

• News

Meet the Team - Emily Macke

By

Thursday, January 11th, 2007 at 12:30pm

Kirsten: Hi! You’re listening to “Meet the Team” and I’m Kirsten Eidsmoe. Today, I’m here with Emily Macke, Sales Consultant. Hey Emily, how are you today?

Emily: I’m great Kirsten, how are you?

Kirsten: I’m doing great too! Lets start off by talking about where you’re from.

Emily: I’m originally from Atlanta; I was born in the metro area. I spent a few years in Ohio, but I’m an Atlanta native. I love it here; I plan on staying here for a while.

Kirsten: That’s great! Where did you go to school?

Emily: I went to Woodward Academy during my high school years, and then I attended the University of Georgia and I studied international business.

Kirsten: That’s great. Did you ever work overseas?

Emily: I actually spent some time working in South America in the lovely country of Bolivia. I was doing some PR work for a casino down there in a city called Santa Cruz.

Kirsten: What was your favorite thing about South America?

Emily: The landscape was just really amazing. The people that I met down there were very kind, happy, and fun-loving people. I guess that’s about it.

Kirsten: So did you come straight from Bolivia to Hannon Hill?

Emily: Not exactly. I came back to Atlanta and I was working for a gaming company called Cadillac Jack and they did like video poker machines and things of that nature. And then I found Hannon Hill; I’ve been here for about two years now and I love it here!

Kirsten: That’s great, I hope you stay for a long time. So, what is a typical day for you at Hannon Hill as a Sales Consultant? What do you do here?

Emily: At Hannon Hill, I am a Sales Consultant. And what that means is that I facilitate any inquiries that come in over the Internet or by phone. I do some cold calling. I also act as a sales representative for one of our partner companies, GlobalSCAPE, and I also do sales for them as well.

Kirsten: That’s great! So what is your favorite thing about working here?

Emily: My favorite thing about working at Hannon Hill has to be that I really enjoy the people that I work with. Everyone here is just really fun, exciting, and smart. We all have a really good relationship and I like that almost-family feeling that I get from working here at Hannon Hill. Another thing that I enjoy is – well you know we’re a smaller company and I’ve been here for about two years and when I started we were one fifth of the size. It’s really exciting, starting out with a small company and watching it grow and evolve and I’m looking forward to the future.

Kirsten: Great! So, it’s the new year, do you have any resolutions?

Emily: Yeah, I do have one big resolution and that’s just to be more budget minded. I like to go shopping a little too much so, hopefully this year I’m going to try to stay on a stricter budget. I’m saving up to buy a house in a few years.

Kirsten: That’s great – I’m sure there are a lot of people out there with the same resolution. Thanks for being with us Emily!

Emily: Thanks for having me! I had a great time.

Category

• News

Seven New Year’s Resolutions for Your Site

By David Cummings

Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 at 11:30am

Although we wish adding a CMS would solve all website problems, it’s just not the case. Since the new year is a great time to revisit your image and revise your goals, we wanted to suggest a few ways to improve any website in 2007.

1. Make it standards compliant
   Making your website W3C compliant is a basic necessity for all good websites. The new year is a great time to trim some of your excess code by moving to a standards-compliant CSS-based layout. You’ll increase your search visibility, make your site easier to maintain, and you’ll impress all your peers. It’s also a first step toward making your site accessible.
   
   

2. Make it accessible for persons with disabilities
   We’re starting to sound like a broken record here, but this is important! Adding alternate text to any non-textual elements, providing access keys, and creating text-only and large print options are some great ways to show you care. Just imagine if your building didn’t have access ramps!

3. Update it on a daily basis
   Updating your site on a daily basis is a great way to show that you and your business are always coming up with new, innovative ideas. Consistently having fresh content will keep prospective clients coming back to your site often.

4. Improve your search engine optimization
   Search engines are key in driving traffic to your site, and there’s a lot you can do to improve your ranking: content metadata, search engine friendly URLs, site maps, and frequently updated content are some steps you can take this year.

5. Add an RSS feed of new content
   With your new resolve to keep your content fresh and updated, adding an RSS feed is a great way to keep clients, prospective customers, and staff aware of new additions to your site.

6. Add an alphabetical site index
   Most sites already have a site map, but adding an alphabetical site index is a great way to provide visitors simple navigation when searching for a specific page, and it serves as a one-stop-shop for everything on your site.

7. Add a search feature
   There are basically two types of site visitors: those who like to browse around to find what they’re looking for, and those who’d rather hit the search button. Providing a search feature is a great way to avoid frustrating a large section of your audience.

Category

• Commentary

Hannon Hill's New Years Resolutions

By David Cummings

Thursday, January 4th, 2007 at 1:30pm

Hannon Hill's New Years Resolutions

It’s a whole new year and we’re excited about it! Since we’re already an incredibly fit and good-looking company, our choices for new years resolutions were a bit limited. Here’s what we came up with:

1. Find new ways to provide the best customer experience possible
   
   At Hannon Hill, our clients continue to be our number one priority. We believe that listening to clients is the key to success, and we plan to expand on that in 2007. If you’re already a client, please keep voting on features, participating in the forum, and contributing to our user-driven product roadmap.

2. Add more rich media (audio, video, etc) content for training and education
   
   Rich media is a great alternative to simply reading text. Many people don’t have the time or the patience to sit and read pages and pages of text on their computer screen. Having the option to either watch a tutorial or listen to the content not only provides more options for busy people, it also makes the information accessible to people with disabilities: those who may have impaired hearing or sight. In 2007 you can expect many additions to our video library.

3. Expand developer resources and CAST programs
   
   We’re proud to be able provide Cascade Server administrators with additional tools to make the most of their implementations. Throughout the new year we’ll be adding to the CAST Library of specialized scripting code to allow you to quickly implement some of the most frequently requested website features.

4. Speak at more industry events and attend more trade shows
   
   We’re already putting together a great line up this year of tradeshows and conferences to attend. Tradeshows are an invaluable way to have face-to-face interactions with people and to build new relationships. Watch this space for updates on where to meet the Hannon Hill team.

5. Increase the size of our annual User's Conference by 25%
   
   For our First Annual User’s Conference, we were delighted when more people than we anticipated attended. It was a great success and we definitely expect to have much more to offer at this year’s User’s Conference. Our goal is to increase the size by 25%, but I wouldn't be surprised if we exceed that number.

Category

• News

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