WRIS client Factivity was featured in the Cleveland Plain Dealer discussing their lean manufacturing software and how it can assist companies to be more efficient during bad economic times.

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Manufacturers will have to be able to gear up quickly or lose out. Now -- while customers are still scarce -- is when these businesses should be fine-tuning their operations to prepare for the recovery.

"They'll need as much efficiency as they can muster to be competitive," said Susan Helper, a manufacturing expert and professor at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School.
 
Readying to meet future demand when business is slow is no easy task. But Helper and others say manufacturing companies that started preparing for the future as soon as the downturn arrived last year will have a huge advantage.

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Factivity Inc. in Beachwood sells computerized scheduling systems to help factories coordinate machines, supplies and workers for jiffy shifts in production and efficient operation. The goal is quicker manufacturing, freedom from excess inventory, smarter use of tools and personnel and improved quality -- just what some factories need for the turnaround.

But John Leiber, Factivity's president, has found that with money tight, few companies are shelling out for new software and the touch-screen stations that run it. Just what manufacturers need -- a way to get ready for when the economy roars again -- seems out of reach to many of Factivity's potential customers for now.

Factivity is no stranger to being in the news.  They were featured in USA Today last month– not for their shop floor control software but for their love of dogs!

… among CEOs, company presidents, chairmen and founders that percentage jumps to 66, according to an unscientific USA TODAY survey. Seventy-five of 114 who responded to a USA TODAY query own at least one dog

…"Never trust a person that does not hug his or her dog … too cold and not caring," says John Leibert, president of technology company Factivity and owner of a 5-year-old wheaten terrier named Scooter.

Factivity uses WRIS for their web hosting, search engine optimization, and pay-per-click marketing needs. 

I ran across this article recently.  It’s from January and talks about how Facebook is Beta testing an application to allow advertisers to poll users on the site: 

Advertisers clamoring for deeper engagement with Facebook's 150 million members will soon have the ability simply to ask them what they are thinking, and then display the results for all to see -- or even better, comment on.

The social network this week will begin beta testing ads that allow marketers to poll Facebook members. The new units are the latest example of Facebook Engagement Ads, a program launched in August to more closely integrate advertisers into the fabric of the site.  

This confused me because Facebook already had this service over 2 years ago!  At that time, anyone could set up a poll to query a selected user base.  The cost was minimal (something like $25) but it worked pretty well.

 Back then I was working for an IT support company catering to higher ed.  A Facebook poll was a quick and easy way to query the student population at a certain college about how effective our services on campus were.

 I thought students might find it intrusive and not want to participate.  It was just the opposite – I often got all the responses I needed well before the close of the poll.

 Afterwards you could segment your results by gender, age, etc.  It wasn’t Google Analytics quality insight but it was interesting nevertheless.

 I poked around on Facebook site trying to find info on the polling feature as it was 2 years ago, or the new version as mentioned in the article, but couldn’t find anything.  Hopefully, they will be rolling this feature out to the masses soon.

 Obviously, if you are looking for a scientific results running a Facebook poll isn’t going to cut it.  However, if you are interested in getting broad insights into what people are thinking it might be the way to go.

We work with a wide variety of clients who range from web experts to those launching their very first web site.  I ran across a blog post of Web Design Industry Jargon and thought it was a nice comprehensive and easy to understand resource.

A few sample entries:

Below the Fold
This term is a carry-over from newspaper publishing days. In newspaper terms, “below the fold” means content was on the bottom half of the page (below the physical fold in the paper). In web design terms, “below the fold” refers to the content that is generally going to be below the point first viewable to the average website visitor in their browser (in other words, viewers would have to scroll down to see the content).

Breadcrumb
Breadcrumbs are the bit of navigation elements that generally appear near the top of a give web page that show you the pages and subpages the appear before the page you’re on. For examples, on a blog, the breadcrumbs might look something like: Home > Category > Year > Month > Post (or they might be a lot simpler that that). The breadcrumbs term comes from the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel.”

Content Management System
Also known as a CMS, the Content Management System is a backend tool for managing a site’s content that separates said content from the design and functionality of the site. Using a CMS generally makes it easier to change the design or function of a site independent of the site’s content. It also (usually) makes it easier for content to be added to the site for people who aren’t designers.

Landing Page
A landing page is the page where a visitor first enters a website. Oftentimes, a special landing page is created to elicit a specific action from the new visitor (usually in connection with an advertising or marketing campaign).

Really Simple Syndication
Also referred to as RSS. RSS is a standardized XML format that allows content to be syndicated from one site to another. It’s most commonly used on blogs. RSS also allows visitors to subscribe to a blog or other site and receive updates via a feed reader.

TrueHero.org, which was designed and developed by WRIS, was recently featured in Crain’s Cleveland Business (subscription required):

The former CEO of Royal Appliance Manufacturing Co. and Lamson & Sessions Co. [Mike Merriman] earlier this year quietly launched a nonprofit called True Hero, which only now is getting a formal unveiling. The web-based organization, at www.truehero.org, will award a total of $20,000 to 12 public service projects carried out by high school and college students and non-school groups consisting primarily of participants 23 years old and younger.

In a reflection of True Hero's launch in the Facebook/social media age, the content of the web site is almost totally generated by users.
Student groups submit descriptions of their projects, and monetary awards are made based on projects that receive the most votes. (The site's technology prevents people from voting for a particular project more than once, though users can cast votes for up to five projects.)

We've enjoyed working with Mike on this very cool venture.  Go vote for one of the 50+ service projects vying for prize money!