You Don't Need A Website! - Shelly Palmer - MediaBizBloggers

I got a call from a prospective client today. They wanted me to assist them in building a website for their new online business. It was quite a conference call. There were all kinds of really smart people involved. The demo screen shots they created were stunning. Pretty pictures, awesome usability, excellent site architecture ... I was impressed. As the presentation continued they showed me all of the features the site was going to have: social web stuff, news feeds, interfaces to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, data pulled in from all kinds of interesting places, you name it, it was on the list.

Only one problem ... they didn't need to build a website -- they needed to build a database!

It is remarkable how many people still come to the online world believing that a website is the central core of their operation. Nowadays, that seems as archaic as saying that a television show is the central core of your operation. We're in the information age, everyone is in the customer relationship management (CRM) business and that starts with a database.

Now, you might want to build a website that allows your customers to access your data (content, video, audio, text, graphics, pictures, etc.). But you will also need an easy way to supply their needs on smart phones, app phones, cell phones, landline phones, netbooks, notebooks, slates, tablets, iPads, iPods (separate because they are not flash compatible) and a whole host of other devices that are out there and that are yet to be invented. You're going to have an App vs. WAP debate, and sadly, you're going to decide that you need to create both consumer experiences. You might also have to supply your video to broadcast television, cable television, satellite television, on demand systems (online and offline), IPTV and even lowly YouTube. Audio may go to traditional radio, podcasts, online distributors, iTunes, Rhapsody, Pandora and a thousand others. This list of deliverables is not endless but it is frighteningly long and it is getting longer every day. And, it won't come out of a website, it will come out of a database that can be accessed by a plurality of devices in a plurality of ways.

People who are in the "website first" business get their knickers in a knot when I bring up this non-trivial strategy shift because they use all kinds of databases when designing a site. There's the content management system, the image server, the video server, to name a few. All of these are databases.

But the difference here is flexibility. If you create a website first you are committing your thinking to optimizing and specializing content for one type of online delivery. It simply doesn't make sense to do that when you know full well that you have to make your content available and optimized for whatever experience consumers popularize. I don't want to even try to guess if the Droid X will outsell the iPhone 4 or if the Galaxy Tab will trounce the iPad. Maybe there will be 20 other devices that capture the hearts and minds and checkbooks of consumers late next year ... what then?

If you're starting a consumer-facing services business, you should seriously consider starting with a robust, content management system, good CRM, and a best practices integrated transaction engine and accounting system. Designing the digital infrastructure and database first will give you the best opportunity to maintain margin and manage your digital business as consumer consumption patterns evolve. And, it won't compromise your website design in any way.

OK, I lied. You do need a website ... but it's really a database.

Shelly Palmer is the host of MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer, a daily show featuring news you can use about technology, media & entertainment. He is the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV (2008, New York House Press) and the upcoming, Get Digital: Reinventing Yourself and Your Career for the 21^st Century Economy. (2009, Lake House Press). Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy Awards). For information about Get Digital Classes, visit http://www.shellypalmer.com/seminars.Watch Digital Life with Shelly Palmer Tuesdays at 10p ET on WNBC's NY Nonstophttp://www.shellypalmer.com/digitallife.

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