Buyer's Guide to Web Projects

Peculiarity of Finland: Liferay a popular web content management system

Oct 15, 2014

Liferay is slowly becoming more popular in Finland at the moment. Public administration in particular is attracted to this Java portal with a long history. There is even an attempt to make Liferay a widely used common web content management system for governmental organizations. Ministries, in particular, clearly consider Liferay the default CMS choice for new online services at present. The Lutheran church, for example, also has selected Liferay as the common web content management system for its parishes.

In addition to public administration, businesses in the finance industry are using Liferay in Finland to replace their costly Oracle and IBM portals. Continue reading “Peculiarity of Finland: Liferay a popular web content management system” →

October 15, 2014 0

Modern CMSs are built for power users – interview of Tony Byrne

Sep 2, 2014

In the following interview, Tony Byrne, the founder of CMS research and analyst company Real Story Group, talks about the history, present and future of CMSs. Tony also analyzes the current challenges of the CMS market from the customer point of view. Continue reading “Modern CMSs are built for power users – interview of Tony Byrne” →

September 2, 2014 0

eCommerce is the new name for web content management – interview with Boris Kraft

Aug 25, 2014

The interview series with CMS experts continues. The founder of Magnolia CMS, Boris Kraft, tells about the early years of the CMS industry and why Magnolia chose the open source way. Boris also explains why he believes eCommerce is currently one of the biggest trends in the CMS industry and why CMS products should be the primary tools to manage customer experiences in all channels. Continue reading “eCommerce is the new name for web content management – interview with Boris Kraft” →

August 25, 2014 0

Contentful—CMS for mobile applications and custom web services

Aug 13, 2014

Berlin-based Contentful is an interesting startup solving a problem whose existence traditional CMS vendors have all but denied: managing content that is published somewhere else than in the channels the CMS controls.
Continue reading “Contentful—CMS for mobile applications and custom web services” →

August 13, 2014 0

Marketing has inherited the web, but doesn’t know what to do with it

Jun 25, 2014

The interview series of CMS experts continues. In the following interview Janus Boye, the founder of CMS Expert Group Europe, talks about the history, present and future of CMSs. This interview took place in Leipzig, Germany, where the CMS Expert Group Europe had its latest meeting.
Continue reading “Marketing has inherited the web, but doesn’t know what to do with it” →

June 25, 2014 0

Facing an extranet challenge? Identity and access management as a solution

Jun 16, 2014

Today we see a lot of extranets that have originally been built for some quite simple and specific need, such as making detailed product information available to partners and resellers. Later, other services that have often been built with different technologies, have been attached to it one by one. Continue reading “Facing an extranet challenge? Identity and access management as a solution” →

June 16, 2014 0

Good questions to ask yourself when choosing a Content Management System

Jun 9, 2014

Choosing a suitable content management system for your business is not merely a decision on a technical system – it has ramifications for the website built on it, for vendor options, for the maintenance budget and for the everyday life of content managers.

When making your decision, you will run into some problematic questions. Don’t be put off. Although these questions are complex, they are not overwhelming.
Continue reading “Good questions to ask yourself when choosing a Content Management System” →

June 9, 2014 0

Strongest WordPress agencies in Finland 2014

Jun 3, 2014

The web design blog Vierityspalkki surveyed the WordPress experts in Finland last winter. The project collected information on the agencies, their services, competencies, specializations, and the significance of WordPress to business on the whole. This information was compiled to help clients more easily find their most suitable partner for their WordPress projects. The survey was financed by North Patrol.
Continue reading “Strongest WordPress agencies in Finland 2014” →

June 3, 2014 0

Discover the true differences between tenders

May 28, 2014

Buying a software project may sometimes be a nightmarish experience. After all that labor you have put into documenting your requirements and creating an effective request for tender, you get a truckload of paper from the tenderers, and they all seem to have completely different views on your needs. How can you compare the tenders and what should you be looking for?
Continue reading “Discover the true differences between tenders” →

May 28, 2014 0

Future, present and history of CMS user interfaces

May 26, 2014/p>
You don’t usually hear content editors praising the usability of their CMS, but still a lot of effort is spent on designing the user interfaces. We interviewed designer Rasmus Skjoldan from Copenhagen to hear about the current trends and major challenges in CMS user interfaces. Are things getting better? What are the main problems in making CMSs easier to use? Are the CMS vendors focusing on the right things?
Continue reading “Future, present and history of CMS user interfaces” →

May 26, 2014 0

CMS battle: Drupal vs. EPiServer

May 20, 2014

Drupal and EPiServer seem to be the most common adversaries in Finland right now when it comes to big website projects. Therefore we decided to publish some comparison slides that help to figure out the main differences between these systems. Continue reading “CMS battle: Drupal vs. EPiServer” →

May 20, 2014 0

Renewing an existing digital service – From chaos to an organized roadmap

Apr 27, 2014

Renewing an existing digital service is seldom an easy task. No matter whether it is an intranet, extranet or public web site that needs renovation or what the reasoning behind it is, the puzzle often has so many moving elements that it is hard to decide what really should be done, what the correct steps are and who should do them. Should you build everything from scratch or consider only a partial renewal? And where to start the renovation? Continue reading “Renewing an existing digital service – From chaos to an organized roadmap” →

April 27, 2014 0

Interview with Drupal insider Vesa Palmu

Mar 3, 2014

This time, North Patrol interviews Vesa Palmu, a web professional since many years. We will first glance at the history of the CMS market and how the rise of Drupal coincides with it. Vesa also casts a look at the biggest changes on the CMS market in the last few years and analyzes, for example, the rise of frameworks. Continue reading “Interview with Drupal insider Vesa Palmu” →

March 3, 2014 0

How to buy concept design—10 tips for cost-effectiveness

Feb 3, 2014

Given that design quality correlates highly with results, companies pay surprisingly little attention to selecting great designers and buying service design projects.

Buying a concept design project is not a simple task. Agencies have vastly varying approaches and experience backgrounds, which makes it hard to evaluate whether a certain agency is fit for your job or not. But there are ways to make the selection process smoother and more successful.

This article gives you 10 tips that help you be a better buyer. Follow the advice and I can guarantee that your next concept design project will bring you more results—most likely at a lower cost.
Continue reading “How to buy concept design—10 tips for cost-effectiveness” →

February 3, 2014 0

Choose the blogging platform that is best for you

Jan 30, 2014

Aalto University, Finland, recently held a course on building successful blogging concepts. I gave a presentation about choosing a blogging platform.

The main message of the presentation was that you can run a blog with any CMS. Dedicated blogging platforms make your life easier, but they won’t decide whether you succeed or not.
Continue reading “Choose the blogging platform that is best for you” →

January 30, 2014 0

Future, present and history of CMSs as told by CMS expert Deane Barker

Nov 11, 2013

Deane Barker’s childhood aspiration was to be an architect and today he is one – building content management solutions for his customers. He sees the emergence of decoupled content management and true multichannel publishing as current hot topics. Continue reading “Future, present and history of CMSs as told by CMS expert Deane Barker” →

November 11, 2013 0

WordPress challenges Drupal in media sites

Oct 31, 2013

WordPress has a variety of different use cases, but it’s notable that many larger and smaller media sites have switched to WordPress during the last couple years. Even though Drupal was once the rising star, WordPress shines when pushing streams of content and showcasing the best articles visually. This recent development has especially affected the Drupal community, because just a few years ago Drupal was the rockstar child that every media company wanted to use. This doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Continue reading “WordPress challenges Drupal in media sites” →

October 31, 2013 0

Project story: Responsive web design propels former front runner back to the lead

Oct 2, 2013

Tampere University of Technology (TUT) registered one of Finland’s first two web domains in 1986 and was among the first universities to introduce intranets for both students and staff and launch an electronic magazine. TUT’s redesigned website caters to the web browsing tastes of various user groups across a wide range of browsing devices:
Continue reading “Project story: Responsive web design propels former front runner back to the lead” →

October 2, 2013 0