Unless you want a brochure web site which is going to be produced once and stay the same, you are going to want your web site to change over time - often frequently. Updating and extension is going to require the expenditure of resources, either of money, or of time.

It is important to plan how you will sustain your site from the beginning.

Sustainability is all about making sure that:

• your site is able to achieve your objectives within your budget
• The site can be updated whenever you want it to be
• you have the resources - human and financial, to ensure that the site will be updated
• Anyone who is modifying the site has the appropriate skills
• It is difficult for unskilled people to create more than very minor disasters by accident
• You have the resources to pay for hosting
• You can transfer your site to another hosting company should this become necessary

Essentially, the site needs to be within your control - you need

• the capacity which is basic to a content management system, to add and update your content yourself,
• training to familiarise people with the editing process,
• support to deal with upgrades and changes beyond your competence, and also
• the capacity, which is inherent to open source software, to take your site away from your current host if necessary.

Working with Gate Seven

We will work with you to get the best value out of the money you have available. You pay for what we do, and we are happy that you do as much as you can, or can get others to do, as part of that partnership.

Normally, we take care of setting up the base infrastructure and design, which may or may not be based on one of the "instant" packages we have available. These packages provide powerful sites in themselves, which are pre-configured. If you can provide us with a banner, you can be entering your text within 24 hours.

Training is a vital issue for most organisations. We can provide the necessary training to ensure that you are able to manage your site sustainably - or if you don't have the money to pay for training, we will point you in the direction of training materials that you can use to train yourself free of charge.

The Enquire Within section of our site contains much of the information you need for a self-directed learning programme.

There is lots of information about planning here. Alternatively, give us a ring on +44 (0)20 7613 0396, or email us