Three Brothers Create a Tool for Microbusiness:

Blue Hill Based Autograff, Inc. Releases New Web Content Management System

"While the world watched the ball drop in Times Square in New York at midnight on December 31^st, three brothers started the final countdown for launch of SiteNow™ CMS," says Autograff President Kurt Stoll. "Exactly on February 1, 2007 the countdown was complete. We have liftoff."

SiteNow™ CMS is Autograff’s own creation: website software primarily made for web designers who want to be able to create websites that their clients can update easily. The development team consists of three brothers: Richard, Bob and David Merrill, all web developers. As boys they sang together; now they program together. SiteNow is different from the hundreds of other content managers available because it was designed from the beginning to serve the needs of intermediate-level web designers and their micro-business and small business clients. "Our experience is that bells and whistles are not what most independent-minded businesspeople want," says SiteNow interface designer Richard Merrill, "Our own customers generally want to do the basics and do them well. We give them a well-designed framework within which they have the ability to add pages and text, upload pictures, and create links without using code." For end users, SiteNow is a snap. Add a page to the website with a click. Upload a picture with two clicks. Create a link to a web page with three clicks. Point, click, and type. It’s a business-owner’s dream come true: instant web updates without waiting for a webmaster, and complete control of the information on the site.

On the technical side, SiteNow puts the power of database programming in the hands of designers who might not otherwise have that capability. SiteNow is built to the latest web standards, yet is compatible with most older browsers. By separating content from its presentation, SiteNow makes the designer’s job much easier in the long run. "We encourage designers to get into the 21^st century with their coding habits," says Merrill. "Designers used to use tables and font tags for laying out pages, and many still do. With the boom in mobile devices and accessibility requirements for users with disabilities, new-style web design is the way to go." Based on a combination of XML and HTML called XHTML, SiteNow’s pages work well and look good in all the major web browsers, on both Windows and Macintosh computers. The database programming was done with Google’s webbots in mind; Google indexes SiteNow pages as easily as if they were individual html pages.

Accessibility

Both the pages generated by SiteNow, and the web editing tool itself are accessible to non-visual users who use special software to read the code behind web pages. "This can be a huge plus for web designers who are facing increased requirements to build accessible websites," says Merrill. "SiteNow lets designers create visually rich websites, and does all the accessibility stuff for them. It gives the intermediate-level designer a great competitive edge. And for the geeks out there, SiteNow uses NO tables."

SiteNow was developed by a family team. Richard Merrill of Brooksville, Maine, a partner in Autograff, Inc. recognized the potential in brother Bob Merrill’s initial concept. He designed the "look and feel" of the pages and the online web editing interface. Brother Bob Merrill, an Autograff associate in central Vermont, provided the programming based on that initial concept, and a third brother, Autograff associate David Merrill of Portland, Oregon, provided functionality and usability testing.

Richard researched the many different content managers available online, and realized they all fell into two categories: too simple or too complex; neither one was satisfactory. The available software was either apparently simple but with hidden pitfalls, or was overly complex, requiring high levels of skill for a web designer to install it, and for clients to use it to update their websites. Only after SiteNow had been proven in dozens of  their own installations did Autograff decide to make it available to the public as a software package.

At $99.95 for the basic version (a Pro version will be available later in 2007), this software is quite affordable. Web designers can put a professional-looking website up quickly, saving costs for their clients while improving profit potential. Product support is provided by Autograff through email and extensive documentation on the web, with updates and additional features, as well as templates and "skins," planned for the future.

Blue Hill Peninsula Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Susan Walsh comments: "Our new website was built by Autograff, using SiteNow. We are delighted with the look and functionality, and the ease of editing it gives us. What power! Now I make all the changes myself, including photos and breaking stories."

Visit www.autograff.com to find out more about SiteNow™ CMS.