Promoting Joomla among MEDIUM TO LARGE COMPANIES

[55thinking]

Hello all

I don't even know where to post this, there seems that there is no identified interface for promoting Joomla, especially  among large corporation/businesses.

I have been recently involved into a RFQ process for the corporate web site of a french based Multi-National-Company (MNC). We lost the project (actually the 2 joomla based offer get rejected), but I think that I might be interesting to share the experience and some of the client's feedbacks:

1. There is no repository page at joomla.org where to find all relevant joomla references distributed per country & sector. A good example of what is needed can be founded here. I would simply add another drop down to the search facilities to filter about the business type (SOHO, Small Companies, Medium Companies, Large Companies, Multi-National). This is specially usefull when you try to sell Joomla as a solution to a business
2. There is no Case studies at joomla.org neither. A good example of what is needed can be founded here. This is specially usefull when you try to sell Joomla as a solution to a business
3. There is no list of official providers. An official provider is simply a registered company that provide joomla services (implementation, support, training). This is a key argument when trying to sell Joomla to any Large Companies. Again, a good example of what is needed can be found here. This is specially usefull when you try to sell Joomla as a solution to a business
4. There is no certification program around Joomla project: No information at the respect. Since the Mambo Clash it seems that there is a total blockout regarding this matter.This is specially usefull when you try to sell Joomla as a solution to a business
5. Demo Cd should be made available to be delivered as a gift to the client (no need to install anything on the client's PC) they can play around. I know there are some post about that subject, but anyone shoud be able to deliver a single zip and then burn a cd that works.
6. Sexy Guided demos should be prepared (Product Tour). They should be content oriented not features oriented. Joomla is a publishing system, and what you need to explain to your client is the way he will have to manage its content.
7. Some corporate events should be thought (similar to the Joomla day, but certainly for a very different audience).
8. The admin interface is identified as non ergonomic/user friendly. It is not the first time that MNC tell me that, so it must  be true, to a certian extend.  I think a special workgroup should be created dealing only with administration issues, in order to make sure to take the most of the latest technologies like AJAX, but above all, in order to deliver an intuitive admin interface. This is an important matter that requires some thinking internally in the Dev team. We have a maintenance team and then a Dev team, what about an user interface team dealing only with the BE & FE administration, to have clear & intuitive interfaces ?

If the 1.5 is such a great product, and if Joomla is so successful, what are the plan of the Dev team for promoting Joomla among BIG COMPANIES ? If Joomla is simply not intended for BIG COMPANIES Then just say it in the mission statement. No problems. But if Joomla wants to compete with other open source or closed solutions among BIG COMPANIES, then it is high time to set-up a team within the Official Dev team that will be dedicated to promote Joomla as a business offer. The window fo opportunity is now, with 1.5.

My general feeling is that Joomla has been only code oriented in this first year of activity (that was needed ok), but now I think that some answers must be provided regarding the intention or not to position joomla as a real application framework among Large companies. If that's the case, I think that the discussion should start ASAP. I would personally support the creation ofr a PROMOTE Team embedded into the official dev team with active resources. I would also support a USER INTERFACE team whose mission will be to optimise the admin interface (iso-functionalities). Some says that lots of things are being prepared under covered. So it might be time to communicate a bit more with the community

I hope that this post will generate a positive discussion. And hopefully some of the dev team members answers.

Best regards
Franck

[ChiefGoFor]

Moving thread to "Sites & Infrastructure - Feedback/Information" board.

[55thinking]

Infrastructure Forum ? Thanks for giving this post the exposure it deserves.

[brad]

All excellent suggestions, I will pass this thread on to our PR team.

[akede]

Hi Franck,

we are currently working on a site showcase which goes quite much into the direction you explained. This should handle the both two parts of your idea.

The point with the official providers is a tricky one a well, as we do not want to recon or promote just people, but on the other side listing of commercial activities is something we are up to.

One of the requirements for everybody to use the brand name is to get an official approval of Joomla!/OSM. This should make it able for us to complie such a list.


The topic of certification is a long term topic. The main question here - what do you want to certify? A certified Joomla! designer, or developer? Basically I think there should be some certifications for components but this is mainly what we really can do and certify on a high level. If you have any other ideas you are very welcome to contact me may be we can work out a concept together.

5. There is a guide to create your own demo CD on our sites. I need to check the URL but it should be either on joomla.org or on the help site.

6. Have you seen the new tutorials on the help site?

8. Have you seen the new 1.5 interface? If you have some suggestions there I would like to encourage you to contact Andy and his UI team. They are responsible for the UI design.


We are assembling some information and concepts for MNC together with the public information team. Would you be available to give us some ideas and input they would be very much appriciated.

So far for the moment

Alex

[55thinking]

Alex

I am fully available for feedbacks both for PR & UI teams. I am not asking for immediate answers. I just want to make sure that things are moving onto the right direction. It might be more productive to follow this discussion via email ?
info at 55thinking.com