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Finding Your Way With Domain Mapping

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It’s no secret that having a custom domain name is an essential piece of any company’s branding strategy. While there are a myriad of hosting plans available that offer domains like your company.webhost.com, making the shift from one of those to simply yourcompany.com is an important step.

However, your domain branding strategy need not end there. Domain mapping offers an opportunity for web developers and online business owners the ability to improve their marketing campaigns, protect their brands from competitors, cut down on costs, and develop a more efficient workflow.

What is Domain Mapping?

Domain mapping refers to how visitors to your website are directed to different domains and subdomains and what URLs will be displayed in the visitors’ browsers.

When you first set up your online business, one of the very first things that you do is register a domain name for your company website. But depending on the business, it could be wiser to actually register multiple domain names at once. This is because you will want to lease the primary domain name you plan on using in addition to all related TLDs. This way, cybersquatters will not be able to hold your domain name hostage, especially once you have grown into a more established brand.

For example, if you register the name yourcompany.com, you might also want to register yourcompany.net and yourcompany.org. Then you might set up a URL redirect so that visitors to the latter two sites will be redirected to yourcompany.com. However, with a domain redirect, visitors to yourcompany.net and yourcompany.org will be redirected to yourcompany.com, meaning the URL in their browser will appear as yourcompany.com no matter what they typed.

With domain mapping, this isn’t the case. A visitor to yourcompany.net will still see that URL in their browser even if the content is actually being hosted on yourcompany.com.

Benefits of Domain Mapping

Although domain mapping may seem a bit esoteric and complex at first, it serves several purposes and offers many benefits:

1. Make Web Addresses Easier to Remember

Imagine that your restaurant chain, Larry’s Lunches, just opened a new chain on 116th Street in New York City. Your first instinct may be to direct customers to larryslunches.com/116thstnyc, but that domain is a bit long and hard to remember. Instead, you might want to register the domain larrys116th.com for customers for that specific store.

With domain mapping, you can serve up the content from your main domain, larryslunches.com, while still having your visitors see larrys116th.com. This makes it easier to brand your sites without having to manage several different sites.

2. Boost Your Web Development Career

If you are a web developer yourself but are not admittedly well-acquainted with domain mapping already, you would do well to change that.

One of the easiest ways would be to look at online web development programs that one can take to read through documentation to get caught up to speed on how domain mapping can help their efforts and how to implement it. These kinds of programs can be more comprehensive than university courses and offer an impressive 88% job success rate for those who successfully complete the programs.

3. Shield Your Brand from Competitors

Remember, it’s a good idea to purchase several different related domains in anticipation of competitors snatching them up from you. Choosing the right domain names is essential to protecting your brand.

For example, Larry’s Lunches might want to snag larrysnyclunches.com and larrysfamouslunches.com as well. However, simply leaving those domains parked can be a bit of a waste, and managing multiple domains can be a pain in and of itself.

But with domain mapping, you can manage those domains just as easily as if they were your primary site, so you no longer need to leave them empty.

4. Save Time and Lower Development Expenses

Development isn’t cheap, and time is money. While the maintenance costs for a website are already high enough, adding in separate domains can sometimes break the bank due to the increased complexity of managing so many different moving pieces.

Domain mapping can lower expenses and save time by keeping everything tidy and in one place. By managing everything from a single WordPress installation, for example, you can push updates to all your subdomains at once, saving you from the tedium of going through each domain and making the same updates.

5. Manage Client Sites from One Place

If you’re a freelance developer or run an agency, using domain mapping for some of your clients’ sites can save you time as well. For example, if several clients want blogs, and you use the same infrastructure for them, you can easily push updates and changes to all of them at the same time. In short, domain mapping can make maintaining sites much easier and quicker.

How to Implement Domain Mapping

If you’re sold on the benefits of domain mapping, here’s a quick primer on the steps you’ll need to take to get started:

  1. Choose a domain registrar: The ideal registrar you choose should come with a number of important features including adequate hosting for keeping your website visitor friendly, SSL certification to ensure security, 24/7 customer support, comprehensive packages that make it easy to operate your online business.
  2. Register the domains you’re interested in: These can either be domain misspells (otherwise known as typosquatting), like youcompany.com, yourcmpany.com, etc, or related domains like yournewproduct.com, yournewlocation.com, etc. Whatever you decide to go with, you’ll need to have it registered before you can get started.
  3. Install WordPress Multisite: WordPress is one of the easiest ways to develop websites, and that holds true for domain mapped sites as well. Plus, considering WordPress sites account for over a third of the entire internet, you can’t go wrong with the famed CMS. All you need to do is install WordPress and, once that’s installed, open wp-config.php and add define(‘WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE’, true) above the /*.
  4. Configure your DNS settings: Next, you’ll need to point all your name servers to your hosting account. These changes can take up to 72 hours to go into effect.
  5. Add domains to your hosting plan: From your hosting platform, you’ll need to link your custom domains. You can usually do this from your cPanel.
  6. Map subsites to your custom domains: Once you have your domains set up, you’ll need to link them through WordPress. To do so, simply login and navigate to Sites -> Add New. After you assign them a subdomain or subdirectory name, you can click Edit and add your custom domain. Then just hit Save Changes, and you’re good to go.

Take note that domain mapping is not necessary for transferring a domain name. When you map a domain, you’re simply telling your domain where it can find your website on the internet through having your name servers updated. When you change your name, it only affects where the domain has been resolved.

The Bottom Line

While domain mapping isn’t necessary for all websites, it can still be a major timesaver. By utilizing it properly, you can greatly improve the standing of your online business by saving time and money, making website management easier, and improving the branding of your sites.

 

Featured image via Unsplash.

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20 Freshest Web Designs, August 2020

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In this month’s collection of the freshest web designs from the last four weeks the dominant trend is attention to detail.

You’ll find plenty of animation, in fact, almost every one of these sites uses animation to a greater or lesser degree. Let’s dive in:

Globekit

Globekit is a tool that allows developers to quickly create animated and interactive globes and embed them on web pages. Its site features some exceptional 3D animation.

Yolélé

Yolélé is food company built around fonio, a West African super grain. Its site features a great page transition, and the landing page carousel is one of the few examples of horizontal scrolling we’ve seen work well.

Begonia

Begonia is a Taiwanese design agency with an impressive client list. Its site features animated typography, a super bold splash screen, and some surreal artwork. There’s so much here, it’s almost overwhelming.

Next Big Thing

Next Big Thing is an agency supporting the full lifecycle of start-ups. Its site is clearly targeting tech-based clients, and there are some lovely transitions. The masked hero transition on scroll is delightful.

Proper

We all have every reason for the odd sleepless night right now, but regular sleep is essential for our health. Proper offers sleep solutions from coaching to supplements on its subtly shaded site.

The Oyster & Fish House

The site for The Oyster & Fish House is packed with some delightful details. We love the subtle wave textures, the photography has a nostalgic feel, and the typography is perfectly sophisticated.

Drink Sustainably

Fat Tire produces America’s first certified carbon neutral beer, and Drink Sustainably has been produced to explain the concept. We love the vintage advertising style of the artwork.

Treaty

It seems like every week there’s a new CBD brand launching. What we like about Treaty’s site is the slick fullscreen video, the inclusion of botanical illustrations, and the really brave use of whitespace.

Studio Louise

You’re greeted on Studio Louise’s site by a shot of trees with two random shapes; as you scroll the shapes morph and relocate to the top right corner, and you suddenly realize they’re an “S” and an “L”, cue: smiles.

Wünder

Another site for a CBD product, this time a vibrantly branded sparkling beverage. Wünder’s site features enticing photography, an on-trend color palette, and credible typography.

Seal + Co

Some professions lend themselves to exciting, aspirational sites, and some companies are accountancy firms. However Seal + Co’s site creates the impression of a modern, capable, and imaginative firm.

DocSpo

There is some lovely, 3D animation on the DocSpo site. The company is a Swedish startup enabling digital business proposals, and its site is bold, Appleesque, and packed with nice details.

Motley

We never get tired of particle effects, like the one employed by Finland-based agency Motley. There’s some superb work in the portfolio, and it’s great to see a blog using Old Master paintings for thumbnails.

The Ornamental

The Ornamental sources leather goods for wealthy individuals, and luxury lifestyle firms. Its site is minimal, with some drool-worthy handbags. We particularly liked the image zoom hover effect in the store.

G.F Smith

G.F Smith is one of the world’s leading paper suppliers. Its redesigned site is much simpler than its last, with some lovely touches, like the varied paper photography when you hover over product thumbnails.

Raters

Raters is a new app that lets you discover new movies via reviews from people you trust. This simple site does an exceptional job of previewing the app, across multiple device sizes.

Fleava

There’s a whole heap of nice interactive details on Fleava’s site, from the cursor-following circles when hovering over links, to the way the thumbnails are squeezed when dragging through projects.

The Story of Babushka

A babushka doll is a traditional Russian toy, made up of dolls, nested inside dolls. The Story of Babushka uses the toy as a metaphor for growth in this children’s book, and the accompanying animated website.

Grand Matter

After the uniformity of the 2010s, there are a wealth of illustration styles being explored across the web. Grand Matter is an artist agency that represents some amazing talent, and we love the illustration they chose themselves.

Nathan Young

Nathan Young’s site does exactly what it needs to do: Providing case studies for his design work. The fade-out on scroll is a simple device that elevates the whole site experience.

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The Latest Research for Web Designers, August 2020

While a lot of the research for web designers that’s come out this year has to do with COVID-19, we’re starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Many of these reports aren’t just looking at the effects of the pandemic on business and marketing today. They’re now looking at what consumers plan to do once the pandemic is gone.

So, I have some very interesting research for you here today. Three of the reports have to do with coronavirus side effects — pertaining to ecommerce, market research, and freelancing — and one of them is just a really great argument against using PDFs on websites.

1. The Digital 2020 Survey Says Ecommerce Growth Will Continue Post-Coronavirus

Obviously, everyone is paying close attention to COVID-19’s impact on the world. For the purposes of the work you do as a web designer, you should be clued into what it’s doing to the business and marketing fields. Because, if those opportunities dry up or companies begin to pivot, you need to be ready to adapt.

The Digital 2020, a joint monthly report from we are social and HootSuite, brings interesting news about the state of ecommerce thanks to COVID-19.

Because the pandemic has forced consumers indoors, online shopping has increased. But, according to about half of those surveyed for this report, this isn’t some temporary solution. They plan on doing more online shopping even after the pandemic ends.

This means that web designers are sitting in an enviable position now and for the foreseeable future. If you’re not already helping businesses sell through their websites, now is the time to do so as more and more businesses are going to need reliable online stores to sell their offerings through.

2. eMarketer Shares Data on Social Listening

When conducting research at the beginning of a design project, what kinds of sources do you turn to for quick and reliable information? Your client provides you with information on their business, industry, and the competition, of course, but what else?

You can conduct user surveys and interviews, but those take time and resources. It also usually means working with clients who have existing businesses and user bases to tap into. Unless you’re working as a UX designer where that’s a big part of the work you do, you might not have the ability to do that level of research.

As reported by Gartner (via eMarketer), leading marketers are now learning about their target audiences through the following channels:

Thanks to the surge of traffic online right now, social listening platforms have become really useful resources for learning about one’s users, with 51% of marketing leaders using them.

If you feel as though your initial research and planning phases could use a boost, I’d recommend taking advantage of one of these social listening tools now.

If you build websites for a specific niche, you can set up keywords/hashtags that are universally relevant to (most of) your clients. By listening in on these conversations regularly, you can become more attuned to what the visitors of your websites actually need and you can proactively build better experiences for them as a result.

3. Upwork Reports Increasing Numbers of Freelancers Entering the Market

The main focus of the Upwork 2020 Future Workforce Report is on how employers are changing their approaches to hiring now and in the near future. And the basic premise is this:

  • It’s long been predicted that more and more of the workforce would be allowed to work remotely.
  • COVID-19 has escalated those predictions to the point where most of the workforce is remote right now.
  • Businesses see the value in remote work arrangements, especially if it enables them to get work done more quickly and cost-effectively by freelancers.

While this is certainly great news for web designers looking for new clients, the report also provides us with this data:

64% of professionals in the top of their field work independently. That statistic alone means you’re up against some tough competition. But there’s also the 50% rise in signups on freelancer marketplaces that should have you worried.

Even though business demand for freelance talent is growing, this unprecedented rise in freelance competition may pose some problems. So, if you’re not already doing everything you can to position yourself as the web designer in your niche, get going on that now so you don’t get drowned out by the rising number of competitors.

4. NNG Says That PDFs Are Unsuitable for the Web

While I don’t have statistics to share with you from the Nielsen Norman Group’s post on why the PDF is “Still Unfit for Human Consumption”, I do have a ton of usability arguments against them that are worth summing up here:

  1. PDFs are written in the style of print documents, which means that strategies we use to design content on websites — like making a page scannable and accessible — don’t apply.
  2. They’re not designed to be as concise or attractive as a web page.
  3. They don’t operate like a website, which disrupts the seamless experience you’ve worked so hard to create when one is opened up from your site.
  4. The website navigation disappears and any sense of orientation (besides the browser “Back” button) goes out the window.
  5. There’s no way to build an internal navigation in a PDF document, save for internal linking or a table of contents.
  6. If they’re formatted for paper sizes, scrolling through them can be difficult for mobile users.
  7. They load more slowly the bigger they get, so unless it’s something like a small and optimized menu, expect visitors to wait for the download to appear.

And those are just the arguments that came from NNG’s researchers. Take some time to read through real user complaints about PDFs and you’ll never want to include one on a client’s website again.

Wrap-Up

Thankfully, the research for web designers and marketers is finally starting to move away from the confusion and speculation we saw a lot of earlier this year.

Just as with anything we do on the web, the more time you give it, the more data you can collect. And, luckily for us, the data suggests that there’s a pretty positive outlook for web designers if they position themselves the right way now.

 

Featured image via Unsplash.

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Interview: Redesigning the Empire State Building’s Website

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In 2019, to keep pace with an interior redesign of its visitor experience, the Empire State Building decided to redesign its website. Blue Fountain Media were engaged to deliver the project. With the new site launching, we spoke to Head of Design, Tatyana Khamdamova about designing for the world’s most famous building.

Webdesigner Depot: The Empire State Building is probably the most iconic building in America, if not the world. Were there any points at which you thought, “Oh God, this is too much pressure”?

Tatyana Khamdamova: Yes, of course, it was a lot of pressure knowing that people all over the world will be looking at your work. But with the pressure, we also felt excitement and pride that we got to work on such an iconic project. Just thinking that we are doing the site for Empire State Building made us feel proud of all that other work we did during our whole life that gave us the opportunity to be a part of this project.

WD: Blue Fountain Media is a large agency. Did you utilize the whole company, or was there a smaller, dedicated team tasked with creating the site?

TK: On a project like this one, you need the expertise of the team members from all departments in the agency. You want people to work together from the beginning to ensure that their knowledge helps to shape the project and produce the best possible outcome. It’s important for designers and marketers, for example, to be a part of the strategy and UX phase to provide their input which minimizes tunnel vision and generates more ideas. You can only achieve the best results if every single detail from strategy to design to development is done right.

WD: That’s a lot of people to coordinate. Did any roles naturally come to the fore, or is design leadership a quality that varies from person to person?

TK: Some people are natural leaders in their fields. But, sometimes a certain project requires people to take responsibility and show their leadership skills within the team. So I would say that it’s a quality that varies from person to person and doesn’t depend on a role or a title at all.

WD: What were the central aims of the redesign?

TK: ESB’s previous website did not reflect the level of design to match their iconic brand, UX was not user friendly, the content was outdated, and they wanted to grow online individual and group ticket sales. In addition to competing with global and NYC based tourist attractions, ESB was also faced with growing competition in the NYC Observatory market with Top of The Rock, One World Observatory, and Edge at Hudson Yards.

While the building underwent a $165 million renovation, BFM was tasked with creating a best in class website that reclaimed their iconic brand identity while providing an intuitive, and enjoyable user experience for both domestic and international visitors looking to learn about the building, exhibits, and the many ticket experience packages that they offer to visitors.

WD: How do you approach researching a unique project like this?

TK: We went to the source! First, we spoke to visitors of the Empire State Building while they were in line. What was their experience, did they use the website, what made them choose to visit the observatory instead of or in addition to some of the other competing observatories in the city. We then looked at other key tourist towers worldwide to see how they are positioning themselves globally to draw inspiration. We did in-depth stakeholder interviews that included folks working at the building every day and the types of interaction and questions they field from visitors. We conducted surveys of international travelers to understand their motivations and concerns. Finally, we dug into the website itself by testing using various protocols and platforms to understand the visitor paths, what they were able to easily do, and what tasks they may have found challenging. Drawing from all of those insights, we planned and designed the site using an iterative process.

WD: ESB visitors come from all over the world; how did you tackle designing for an international audience?

TK: People across the globe speak different languages, have different cultures and needs. Our goal was to learn about the audience and give them a site that looks and feels like it was created for them. Luckily we were working for the iconic building that is well known internationally and capturing the design aesthetic of the building itself already made the site recognizable across the globe. When working on the project we also were making sure that all users can see the information in their local language when they land on the site and have easy access to the language selector in case they want to change it. When you translate from one language to another the number of words and characters is not always the same. It was important to make sure that the site is designed and developed with an understanding of how the content will be displayed in other languages. With the localization help of our parent company Pactera EDGE we successfully translated the site in several languages and tested it to ensure that it looks right for the local and international audience.

WD: The famous view of the ESB is the external view, but your design feels more in keeping with the experience of the building’s interior. Was that a conscious decision?

TK: It was a conscious decision to create a site that makes you feel like you are visiting the building. Our goal was to make the visitor excited to buy a ticket and see all that beauty with their own eyes. But, if someone doesn’t have an opportunity to come to NY we wanted to make that online experience as close to the real one as possible. We understand that nothing will replace the actual visit to the Empire State Building but we wanted the website to feel real and by using the great photography and amazing Art Deco design elements, we were able to do so.

WD: How did you interpolate such a complex style as Art Deco into a functional site?

TK: Fortunately for us, our office is located a couple blocks away from the building and we had the opportunity to go there and see some of the details. We also had access to the great photos of the renovated hallways, exhibits, and observatory decks, which gave us the idea of how the Art Deco elements were used in the interior design of the building. We all know that interior design and web design have different needs and goals so it was an interesting challenge to design a site that makes you feel like you are inside the building without overwhelming users and that content is easy to read and the ticket purchasing process is simple and clean. We re-created a lot of design elements used on the ceiling, walls, and floor of the building simplified those elements and made them part of the website design. A lot of those elements were used in the background, call to actions, icons, and maps, and combined with the brand colors used in both interior and web designs we were able to give the site the Art Deco look.

WD: There’s been speculation in the design community recently that Art Deco may re-emerge as a trend in the 2020s. Having worked with the style, do you think it could benefit the wider web?

TK: This was a very specific design approach for a very specific project that takes us back to the 1920’s and emphasizes that era through modern twists in web design. I do not see how it can be applied on the web in general unless the client specifically asks for it, for example, architecture website, real estate, or furniture site. Every project is unique and has its own goals and style and there is no one solution that will fit all. As of today, The ESB is Art Deco in a sense and it truly owns that style.

WD: Can you share some details on the technology stack you employed?

TK: The site was built on the Drupal CMS, integrates with Empire’s partner Gateway Ticketing System, and is hosted on Acquia.

WD: Why Drupal? Does it have qualities that suit a project of this scale, or is it simply the case that BFM had the pre-existing expertise of Drupal to facilitate the build?

TK: BFM is a dev-agnostic production team and we always ensure we’re making the best recommendation to our clients. In this case, the previous website was built on Drupal, so in order to decrease the effect of a new platform rollout that would be unfamiliar to the internal ESB teams, we decided to keep the site on the Drupal platform. Luckily, Drupal is an extremely flexible CMS and the needs of the site perfectly align with what Drupal provides.

WD: With visitors from around the world, the range of browsers and devices you had to consider was vastly larger than most projects. Did you draw a line for support? If so, where was it?

TK: BFM constantly updates our list of supported browsers and devices to stay in line with changing technology trends and device usage around the world. We’re extremely lucky that our larger organization, Pactera EDGE, has deep roots in globalization and localization, so we leveraged their team to help us with all aspects of website visitors from the many regions around the world, including translation services and testing. Since this was a complete overhaul, we ensured the baseline standard for all devices was met and will continue to enhance as the future technology needs become apparent.

WD: The Empire State Building gets millions of visits each year, what sort of server resources do you need to throw at it to guarantee uptime?

TK: BFM is a partner of Acquia, and Empire State Building is hosting their new site with them. Acquia is a wonderful ecosystem built specifically for high performing drupal websites and provide many tools for their hosted sites to be able to handle fluctuations in visitors, traffic surges, and with the 24/7 support offered, they can easily manage the changing needs of worldwide visitors.

WD: Now it’s live, how does the new ESB site relate to its real world presence?

TK: The Empire State Building defines the New York City skyline. The world’s most magnificent Art Deco skyscraper, it’s a living piece of New York history and an instantly recognizable symbol of city culture today. The old site did not reflect the amazing interior and exterior design of the building and we had a chance to showcase the redesigned interior and bring more attention to the beautiful Art Deco design elements. We wanted to create the site to make you feel like you are visiting the building. By showcasing the exhibits, renovated halls, and observatories through compelling photography and architectural details, our goal is to make the visitor excited to buy a ticket and see all that beauty with their own eyes.

We’d like to thank Tatyana for taking the time out of her day to talk to us.

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Partager les connaissances avec la prochaine génération

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Dans des moments comme celui-ci, la raison d’être n’est pas seulement un mot, c’est une responsabilité. Chez SAP, nous tirons parti de nos ressources et de notre réseau pour des solutions pragmatiques et innovantes, sur la base de valeurs et d’un objectif communs, mais nous vivons également notre raison d’être à travers nos propres actions pour aider le monde à mieux fonctionner et améliorer la vie des gens.

Les employés SAP face à la crise du Covid19 se sont engagés en créant des sites Web communautaires et des boutiques en ligne pour des œuvres caritatives et en partageant des histoires de motivation en réponse à la crise actuelle. Mais ils ne sont pas les seuls. Des équipes dans toute l’entreprise ont pour objectif d’aider le monde à s’améliorer.

SAP Next-Gen est une communauté pour les jeunes du monde entier qui sont passionnés par l’innovation et la technologie et qui veulent façonner l’entreprise intelligente en tant que futurs décideurs. Une partie fondamentale est constituée par les alliances universitaires SAP qui initient les étudiants et les professeurs aux logiciels SAP en leur proposant des activités de réseautage et d’éducation pour développer les talents de demain.

« Partager signifie se soucier des autres » – les employés de SAP aux Pays-Bas ont pris ce dicton à cœur et ont vu l’opportunité de partager tout leur savoir-faire avec la prochaine génération. Même avant la pandémie, des collègues de différentes équipes (ventes, préventes, marketing, conseil et expérience client) ont collaboré activement avec les universités. Aujourd’hui, toujours motivés pour aider les gens à se développer au mieux de leurs capacités, ils poursuivent les collaborations en ligne.

Sous la forme de conférences (désormais numériques), les étudiants d’universités telles que l’Avans Hogeschool et la Hogeschool Rotterdam peuvent obtenir des informations de qualité sur des sujets allant de l’analyse des données à la gestion des ventes et des comptes, en passant par la gestion de Supply Chain, les processus commerciaux et la réalité augmentée, ce qui contribue également à réduire le manque actuel d’accès à l’expérience pratique.

En outre, grâce à des ateliers tels qu’un jeu de simulation ERP sur un système SAP S/4HANA, les étudiants peuvent avoir un aperçu de ce à quoi pourraient ressembler les processus commerciaux et constater à quel point SAP S/4HANA est simple et efficace. En outre, l’équipe partage volontiers ses connaissances sur les technologies intelligentes afin d’établir une compréhension plus approfondie de l’entreprise intelligente au sein de la prochaine génération de jeunes travailleurs.

Au départ, les conférences et les ateliers ont été organisés à la demande de conférenciers qui connaissaient des employés de SAP et qui ont pu ainsi enrichir leurs méthodes d’enseignement. « Notre objectif annuel est de partager nos connaissances avec 10 000 étudiants aux Pays-Bas », explique Jaap Verdonk, partenaire d’alliance associé et responsable du programme Next-Gen NL. À ce stade, de nombreuses universités ont déjà adopté les systèmes SAP comme élément fixe de leurs programmes d’études.

Pourtant, le nombre de participants n’est pas le seul à avoir augmenté. De plus en plus de collègues SAP souhaitent partager leurs connaissances. C’est pourquoi l’équipe de Jaap est en train de constituer un groupe de participants pour tous ceux qui souhaitent s’impliquer, permettant à chacun de se soutenir mutuellement et d’agir de manière ciblée en partageant simplement son histoire.

Plus d’informations sur la façon dont nous pouvons relever les défis en période de perturbation : https://www.sap.com/france/about/global-health-safety.html

En savoir plus sur l’objectif et la promesse de SAP: https://www.sap.com/corporate/en/purpose.html

Tags: éducation , talents futurs , innovation , apprentissage , objectif

Article posté pour la première fois en anglais sur news.sap.com

The post Partager les connaissances avec la prochaine génération appeared first on SAP France News.

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SAP aide à faire face à la crise grâce à la localisation

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Avec la propagation du coronavirus, un effet domino fait des ravages sur les entreprises et les employés . Les chefs d’entreprise ont été contraints de fermer leurs portes ou de couper les services, ce qui a menacé leurs propres moyens de subsistance et ceux de leurs travailleurs.

Pour atténuer l’impact économique et humain, de nombreux pays ont adopté des lois qui doivent être mises en œuvre rapidement afin de protéger les emplois des citoyens les plus démunis.

Les entreprises étaient sous pression pour se conformer rapidement à ces nouvelles obligations légales et réglementations fiscales. Étant donné que de nombreux changements fiscaux et juridiques influencent la manière dont les entreprises rémunèrent leurs employés, les applications de paie et autres solutions de gestion de l’expérience humaine (HXM) ont été fortement impactées par la législation.

Les entreprises du monde entier se sont donc tournées vers SAP pour les aider à se conformer rapidement aux changements en mettant à jour leur logiciel.

80 mesures juridiques accélérées pour aider les clients

SAP dispose d’une stratégie de localisation solide, conçue pour de telles urgences inattendues. Qu’il s’agisse de mettre en œuvre la conformité légale liée à la sécurité des revenus, de réserver des billets aller-retour pour les employés expatriés bloqués ou d’accorder des allègements fiscaux aux petites et moyennes entreprises, l’équipe des services de mondialisation est là pour vous aider.

Pour relever le défi, il a fallu redistribuer les équipes, mobiliser des ressources supplémentaires et continuer à faire appel à des experts internes et externes.

«Nous n’avons épargné aucun effort pour proposer plus de 80 mesures juridiques accélérées qui aideront les clients à relever les défis actuels du marché», déclare Stefan Steinle, responsable des services de mondialisation chez SAP. «Et en plus de tous les changements juridiques liés au COVID-19, nous continuons également à fournir des mises à jour régulières et des changements juridiques.»

Les services de mondialisation travaillent en étroite collaboration avec les clients et les partenaires afin de fournir une solution pour chaque changement pertinent aussi rapidement et efficacement que possible et de mettre ces informations à la disposition du public. Nestlé est une entreprise mondiale qui s’appuie fortement sur la localisation soutenue par SAP, quel que soit le lieu d’activité de ses clients.

«C’est une excellente idée d’avoir un guichet unique pour tous les changements juridiques liés au COVID-19», déclare Mukesh Kumar Rai, SAP Total Quality Manager chez Nestlé pour l’Asie, l’Océanie et l’Afrique subsaharienne. «C’est encore plus utile pour un client mondial comme Nestlé avec plusieurs versions nationales.»

SAP maintient cette vue d’ensemble des annonces légales pertinentes pour les localisations SAP Payroll Processing et SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll. Trois exemples en Espagne, en Italie et en Autriche montrent l’étendue des changements légaux que SAP a mis en œuvre dans les solutions HXM pendant la pandémie.

Rallye en Espagne

L’Espagne fait partie des pays les plus durement touchés par le COVID-19 . Les autorités gouvernementales y ont publié six bulletins juridiques contenant jusqu’à quatre changements chacun. Ces changements affectent les paiements et les impôts de la sécurité sociale et nécessitent des modifications d’algorithme des données de base, du calcul de la paie et des rapports juridiques.

Comme l’analyse et la mise en œuvre de ces changements devaient être effectuées rapidement, Gema Moraleda, chef de produit chez SAP Espagne, et Carlos Moehlecke, propriétaire du produit de développement, ont organisé des réunions de groupes d’utilisateurs pour partager les détails des solutions SAP et ont utilisé plusieurs canaux de communication pour tenir les clients informés.

La contribution de SAP a été reconnue par les représentants du groupe d’utilisateurs, les clients et les partenaires. En mars, Juan José Díaz Vázquez de Barrahache , un partenaire SAP, a écrit : «Tout comme il y a des moments de critique, nous de Barrahache pensons également qu’il y a des moments de gratitude, et dans ce cas, nous applaudissons la façon dont SAP Espagne a intensifié ses dons. réponses aux utilisateurs espagnols de la paie en ces temps compliqués que nous vivons. »

Aider l’Italie à guérir

Mi-mars, le gouvernement italien a promulgué le décret-loi Cura Italia (« Guérir l’Italie »), qui contient des mesures telles que le report du paiement des impôts, un traitement spécial des absences, des primes supplémentaires et des allocations pour soutenir les familles. Le plus grand défi était de mettre à jour le logiciel en ligne et en temps voulu, compte tenu de la nature dynamique des annonces. SAP a utilisé tous les canaux de communication possibles pour aider à minimiser tout manque de clarté auquel le client était confronté.

Adaptation au modèle autrichien de travail à court terme

L’Autriche a adopté un modèle de chômage partiel , qui s’appuie sur les allocations de chômage fédérales. Bien que le programme ait nécessité des modifications très complexes du logiciel géré par les entreprises et les institutions, l’équipe régionale des services de mondialisation a terminé l’analyse et la mise en œuvre des changements requis en une semaine.  Dès la deuxième semaine d’avril, plus de 600 000 citoyens avaient demandé une indemnisation dans le cadre du programme, ce qui a incité le gouvernement autrichien à décupler les fonds disponibles pour soutenir le programme de chômage partiel, qui sont passés de 400 millions à 5 milliards d’euros.

Steinle résume la réponse de son équipe à la crise mondiale : « Notre contribution va au-delà de l’expertise en matière de solutions, de l’agilité et de la mise en place de solutions sur mesure. Nous nous sommes distingués non seulement en répondant rapidement aux opportunités du marché, mais aussi en proposant des solutions concrètes qui ont un impact socio-économique énorme sur les citoyens, les entreprises et les gouvernements ».

Tags: COVID-19 , HXM , paie

Article posté pour la première fois en anglais sur news.sap.com

The post SAP aide à faire face à la crise grâce à la localisation appeared first on SAP France News.

Source de l’article sur sap.com

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Is Change Positive for Web Designers?

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As a web designer, you’re constantly being bombarded with messages that tell you to acquire new skills, try new tools, and keep on hustling.

But if you’re constantly changing things up, does it do the opposite of what you originally set out to do? In other words, if you always have to start over, is it possible to ever really achieve anything?

I think it ultimately depends on why you’re making the change.

When Change Is the Right Move for Web Designers

One of the reasons I despise New Year’s resolutions is because it’s change for the sake of change:

It’s a new year, so it’s time to get all hyped up about this one thing I need to change about myself!

There’s a reason why so many resolutions fail by February. When you force a change, it’s really hard to stay invested in it, especially if it’s something you’ve chosen to do because everyone else has.

Change should be driven by necessity.

That said, when it comes time to make changes as a web designer, is it ever really necessary? Or are you learning new skills, trying new tools, or switching up your client list simply because it’s what you believe you have to do?

It’s important to be open to change, but you should only invest your time, money, or effort when it’s the absolute right move for you. Here are some ways you’ll know when that’s the case:

Learn New Skills To…

…Round Out the Basics

If you’re a new designer and there are gaps in your education and training (and I don’t mean formally, just in general), then there’s no reason to hesitate in spending time to acquire those skills.

This doesn’t just go for basic skills as a web designer or as a coder. This also goes for skills you need to become a successful freelancer.

…Add Evergreen Skills to Future-Proof Your Position

As you move up in your career, you’ll eventually find other skills worth learning. Just make sure they’ll help you move the needle.

The best way to do that is to focus on acquiring evergreen skills that’ll always be useful to you, no matter what stage you’re at in your career or how the design landscape changes. They should also go beyond the average skill set of a designer, so they help you stand out further from the pack.

… Create a Better Situation for Yourself

The web is constantly evolving, which means that your responsibilities and skills as a web designer will have to change in order to adapt. Whenever one of these shake-ups occurs, you should either be ready to master the needed skill right away or, better yet, have been working on it beforehand.

Take, Google’s mobile-first indexing, for instance. It announced it was going to be making this shift years before website rankings were impacted. Designers had plenty of time to not only learn what was needed to design for the mobile-first web, but to get all their existing clients’ sites in shape for it.

Adopt New Tools When…

…Your Existing Ones Are Slowing You Down

If you’re doing a lot of things from-scratch (like writing emails to clients or creating contracts), that’s a good sign your toolbox needs some improvement.

As a web designer, you should be focused on creating, not on the tedious details involved in running a business or communicating with clients. That’s just not a good use of your time. A lot of this stuff can easily be automated with tools and templates.

…You’re Turning Down Business

In some cases, it’s the right thing to say “no” to prospective clients — like when they’re a bad fit or can’t afford your rates. However, there are other times when you desperately want to be able to say “yes”, but you don’t have the capacity for the job or you’re unable to cover the full scope of what they need.

This is where new tools come in handy. For instance, let’s say you’ve been approached by a ecommerce company that not only wants you to build a new store, but also needs it fully optimized for search (it’s not the first time this has happened either). Rather than turn something like that down, you may find that the addition of an SEO tool to your toolbox is all you need to be able to say “yes”.

…You Have Extra Room in Your Budget

Obviously, you don’t want to throw away money on a bunch of tools simply because a ton of people are talking about them. But you’ll eventually get to a point where the tools that served you well in the first year of business need to be replaced.

If you get to a point where you have extra time to experiment and there’s room in your budget for upgraded tools, go ahead and assess what you currently have and test out replacement solutions that will help you work better, faster, and smarter.

Look for New Business Opportunities If…

…You’re Not Doing Well

“Well” here is subjective. For instance:

  • If you’re not doing well financially, you probably need to look for more clients;
  • If you’re not doing well in terms of how you get along with clients, you should explore a niche that’s a better fit;
  • If you’re not happy with your job because burnout and stress have overtaken your life, then you might consider exploring other avenues of work.

When something has been amiss for awhile, the last thing you should do is lean into it and hope it gets better.

…The Web is Changing

Notice a trend here? Each of these changes (skills, tools, and now business opportunities) is often driven by the fact that the web is always changing. And as the web changes, you have to be ready to evolve.

In terms of business opportunities, what you’ll realistically need to do is look for new kinds of design work as technologies make your job obsolete. Take website builders like Wix or Shopify, for example. As business owners and entrepreneurs take it upon themselves to build their own websites, more and more web designers will need to find other kinds of clients and jobs to take on.

…You Want to Diversify Your Income

This is something many web designers are doing already as they’ve discovered how beneficial it is to have predictable recurring revenue streams.

But even if you’ve already found one way to diversify and stabilize your income (like by offering website maintenance services), you may become interested in exploring other opportunities along the way. If you have the capacity to pursue them, then go for it.

Is Change a Good Idea?

As you can see, change can be a very good thing for a web designer, their business, and their clients. However, there should be a very good reason for the change and you need to prepare yourself for how it’s going to impact what you’re doing now before implementing it. No amount of change can happen without some level of sacrifice.

 

Featured image via Unsplash.

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Adveo opte pour SAP Commerce pour développer son activité et répondre à la demande croissante des consommateurs

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Levallois, le 15 juillet 2020 – SAP France annonce qu’Adveo, l’un des leader européen en matériel de bureau, matériel scolaire et fournitures, utilise la solution d’ecommerce SAP Commerce pour renforcer sa croissance. Avec 345 collaborateurs et un réseau de 1500 distributeurs indépendants dont une grande partie regroupée autour des trois enseignes CALIPAGE, Plein Ciel et Buro+ répartis entre la France et le Benelux, l’entreprise rencontrait plusieurs challenges : l’évolution de la demande des professionnels et du grand public, le développement du e-commerce, et, plus récemment, la crise du Covid-19.

Pour répondre à ses nouveaux enjeux, Adveo a massivement investi dans le numérique pour renforcer son expérience réseau et client final. L’objectif : améliorer la traçabilité des produits, faciliter les échanges d’informations avec son réseau, mise en place de contenus et de solutions au service de ses distributeurs pour développer l’e-commerce en parallèle des points de vente physiques… Pour gagner en agilité sur l’e-commerce, l’entreprise a misé sur la solution SAP Commerce hébergée sur le cloud Microsoft Azure et intégrée par Delaware. Le déploiement a été effectué en un temps record entre mars et mai 2020, en pleine crise sanitaire.

Gagner en agilité pour booster la croissance

En quelques années, Adveo est passée d’une offre traditionnelle (papiers, stylos, archivage, impression…), à une offre élargie couvrant les besoins des professionnels et du grand public. L’entreprise est passée en quelques années de 10 000 à 25 000 références et ambitionne d’atteindre 45 000 d’ici fin 2022.

« SAP Commerce est un choix stratégique de croissance misant sur une plus grande flexibilité pour nous adapter rapidement aux évolutions de la demande, à la transformation du commerce et ainsi réduire le time to market des nouvelles offres ou encore tracer de nouveaux flux logistiques », explique Philippe Guillotin, président d’Adveo.

Adapter l’offre pour dynamiser les ventes en pleine crise sanitaire

« Le déploiement de la solution nous a ainsi permis d’être extrêmement réactifs pendant la période de confinement et de créer rapidement des gammes spécifiques (plexiglas, masques et gels hydroalcooliques) pour répondre aux besoins liées au Covid-19 en référençant rapidement plusieurs centaines de distributeurs. Elle nous a permis de répondre aux problématiques logistiques liées à l’augmentation de la demande sur certaines gamme de produits », ajoute Philippe Guillotin.

Adveo simplifie ainsi son activité, avec le développement de ventes profitables pour les distributeurs, et une vraie bonne expérience d’achat pour le client final.

SAP Commerce pour plus de flexibilité et de réactivité

L’hébergement sur le cloud nous a permis d’intégrer rapidement la solution au sein de l’entreprise et d’extraire facilement les données pour les transférer de notre ancienne plateforme vers SAP Commerce. Plus des deux tiers du projet se sont déroulés pendant le confinement, et nous n’avons rencontré aucune difficulté d’accès à la solution. Le cloud nous apporte une flexibilité et une forme de garantie de fonctionnement : nous n’avons aucune limite de capacité », explique Alexandre Rochereau, DSI d’Adveo. « Combinée avec l’ERP SAP, nous disposons d’une solution complète, intégrée et automatisée qui nous a permis d’éliminer de nombreuses contraintes manuelles. »

Créer de nouvelles expériences

Avec la nouvelle version de SAP commerce, Adveo a pu enrichir l’expérience interne, améliorant le pilotage et facilitant la publication des nouvelles références sur leur solution logistique, directement intégrée à la solution SAP. Les utilisateurs sont devenus responsables de leur catalogue et peuvent publier eux même les nouveaux produits grâce à une ergonomie optimisée, leur permettant de réduire les dépenses liées à l’intervention d’experts IT.

Enfin, SAP Commerce a permis à Adveo d’atteindre son objectif de devenir conforme avec les nouvelles normes RGPD, assurant ainsi la confidentialité des données des 1 500 distributeurs de l’entreprise. A court terme l’entreprise va généraliser les échanges digitaux avec ses fournisseurs et déployer de nouvelles solutions d’e-procurement au service de l’ensemble de ses distributeurs.

À propos de SAP

SAP est le leader du marché des applications d’entreprise : 77% des transactions financières mondiales passent par un système SAP. L’entreprise accompagne les organisations de toute taille et de tout secteur à mieux opérer. Nos technologies de machine learning, d’Internet des objets (IoT), d’analytique avancée et de gestion de l’expérience aident nos clients à transformer leur activité en « entreprise intelligente ». SAP dote les professionnels d’une vision approfondie sur leur activité et favorise la collaboration pour garder une longueur d’avance sur leurs concurrents. Pour les entreprises, nous simplifions la technologie afin qu’elles puissent utiliser nos logiciels comme elles le souhaitent, sans interruption. Notre suite d’applications de bout en bout et nos services permettent à plus de 440 000 clients d’opérer de manière rentable, de s’adapter en permanence et de faire la différence. Avec son réseau mondial de clients, partenaires, employés et leaders d’opinion, SAP aide le monde à mieux fonctionner et à améliorer la vie de chacun. Pour plus d’information, visitez le site www.sap.com

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