Archive for the 'Business' Category

26
Mar

Caxy Founder Michael LaVista to speak at PMG Innovation Summit

By Michael LaVista 0 Comments
Categories: Business, Technology and Web Strategy

Caxy founder Michael LaVista will be speaking at the PMG Innovation Summit on April 21st, 2009.  Wondering what interactivism is? Are you an interactivist? There’s a site about it just for you. What will Michael be talking about, anyway? Gald you asked:

This is Michael LaVista, your Technology Squad Leader, and I have some good news: interactive marketing isn’t that complicated. It’s true! Web technology isn’t as wild as it once was—you could say that the universe has at last settled into a system of interconnected tools and parts.

By that, I mean that marketers shouldn’t let apprehension about technology prevent them from big plans. So much more is possible and affordable now than it ever has been, and it’s all just waiting to be tapped.

My section of the day will focus on teaching you how web tools like data base management and e-commerce can be integrated into your system in the most headache-free, cost-effective manners, and you’ll also learn the basics about website hosting.

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21
Jan

Cutting costs, staying green

By Michael LaVista 0 Comments
Categories: Business and Green technology

As times get tough, perhaps the biggest issue facing businesses is cost management—small businesses in particular can only afford actions that cut costs immediately. So will businesses take this opportunity to ignore environmental consciousness to save cash?

I’m hoping that the tide has turned enough that businesses will use a desire to become greener as a lens to filter all their cost savings through.

At Caxy, we’ve upgraded our web server systems significantly in recent months, reducing our server landscape by 75% by running on fewer, more efficient systems. The primary goal was to reduce cost (which it did), but it also reduced our direct and indirect consumption of power, saved precious metals and decreased our production of difficult-to-dispose-of waste.

As we look forward to the rest of 2009, we are simultaneously looking for cost savings solutions that can also do things like reduce our carbon footprint.

The double-entendre of conserving resources here is interesting. In general, whatever we reduce in the company is reflected in reduced resource consumption. That means businesses need not look at cash vs. eco as an either/or situation, but rather as an opportunity to do both. All it takes is smart planning, in the short and long term—in the end, it’s all green.

29
Dec

Open Season for Open Source

By Michael LaVista 0 Comments
Categories: Business, Linux, PHP, Technology and Web Strategy

A recession is no time to pay through the nose for software. So in these tough economic times, with proprietary software vendors increasing the licensing fees and locking in their customers, open source is king.

The idea behind open source is simple: find a relevant solution that already exists, use that as a starting point and customize from there. After all, most of what you’re looking for (e-commerce, CRM, content management, social networking, blogging) has already been done. Thousands. Of. Times.

But the strength of open source is also a challenge—in an infinite sea of alternatives, how do you find what you’re looking for?

That’s where an open source guru like Caxy comes in. We’ve vetted hundreds of options, learning firsthand which ones work and which don’t. So when a client comes to us with just about any request—the latest content management interface, for example, or a more flexible e-commerce system—we instantly pull up the top 1% of open source material and go from there.

Here’s an example. One of our University clients needed websites for each of its four locations, but only budgeted for two. So we found the open source software that best matched what they needed (with features like photo galleries, updatable calendar and contact forms) and developed one site for them. When they signed off on that, we took that same system—sans licensing fees—and duplicated it to create the other three sites. We could have done 30 more sites, with barely a change in the cost of implementing the software.

But back to the economy. The last time things took a downturn (2001-02), Linux established itself as a widely-accepted enterprise operating system, and vendors who got on board early reaped the benefits. This time around there’s a bigger focus on databases and higher-level software apps, but the principle is the same: don’t start from scratch. Depending on the scope of your project, a head start can mean real savings. Sure, saving $10k on a million dollar job isn’t a big deal, but saving $10k on a $50k is a real dent.

So if you’re on a project that’s not a brand new, earth-shattering, clouds-parting genesis of a concept, find yourself an open source specialist whose budget goes to customizing, not software. We happen to know a good place to start.

Caxy is a custom development shop specializing in open source technology, notably interactive PHP and Flash. Founded in 1999 on the mean streets of Chicago, our master coding ninjas are currently conquering CodeIgniter, Drupal, Wordpress, ExpressionEngine, SugarCRM, jQuery, prototype & more.

Rackspace is proud to name Caxy VIP Partner of the Month for December.