Own your website

by Arslane KASDIon Posted on

It can be complicated to deal with the construction of a website with an IT service provider, especially when we do not understand much about web development.

Developing your website can be akin to building your house and it is essential to fully understand the tasks that your service provider will accomplish before the work even begins.

Here are six points (and their comparisons) to know before signing an IT service contract :

  • It is vital to have the source code in your hosting.

    If the source code matches your house, the hosting matches your land. It is therefore important to check whether the performance and capacity of your hosting are adequate for the size of your website. Attention ! A service provider who offers to host the site code is equivalent to building your house on someone else’s land! It will then be impossible for you to modify your site as you wish. Don’t be fooled!

  • It is essential to own the domain name and have the necessary access to manage it.

    Just like with hosting, you must own your domain name. Linking your hosting to the domain name means linking your location to the correct mailing address and ensuring that only you have the key to the mailbox. In addition, depending on the size of the accommodation chosen, it is possible to attach several domain names to it, just as several apartments can share the same address.

  • It is necessary to understand IT developments in order to master site maintenance.

    You don’t need to be a craftsman to follow the construction of your house. Thus, knowing the materials used, inspecting the foundations made, and having the electrical and road plans will facilitate its renovation in due time. It’s the same thing with your web application! Knowing the technologies used and knowing how your site was designed (CMS chosen, wireframes, extensions used, etc.) will facilitate site maintenance when necessary. Ask your developer to provide you with this information and, if possible, to write documentation on what was achieved and how.

  • It is important to be able to personalize your site as you see fit and at any time without depending on your service provider.

    Just as you do not need a mason to hang a painting on your wall, it is important to give yourself the possibility of changing the texts, images, colors and display of your website without the need for a developer. It is therefore essential to think about it when designing the site, by setting up an administration interface for example. Otherwise, each modification will result in an invoice!

  • You need to know how to manage your security and performance alerts

    Home security requires daily actions (locking doors, installing a fire alarm, etc.). Likewise, a website must be constantly monitored. This includes setting up alerts for security and performance and knowing how to manage them independently. It is essential to know how to handle notifications, anticipate changes (such as the email address used to receive alerts, for example) and ensure continuous monitoring of the site.

  • Finally, the sustainability of your site should not depend on an IT service provider.

    During the IT development of the site, the owner must play the role of work manager. And as in any construction site, it is never good to depend on a single service provider. The work must be carried out as a team, and each step must be sufficiently clear so that another service provider can take over the project without difficulty. Anticipating a possible change of service provider will prevent you from starting from scratch with each modification and each new participant!

Thus, the owner must be active in the construction of his site and understand as best as possible the structure of the web application and the technologies used, because the developer must not become essential to the survival of the website.

At the end of the project, the IT service provider must deliver the site with all access, without resorting to locking practices. These practices consist of a developer deliberately making it difficult for the client to change service provider or take over project management. This can manifest through code complexity, use of proprietary technologies, or lack of clear documentation, creating customer dependency.

Asking an IT consultant to carry out quality control at key points of development can avoid this type of situation.