Feature requests on off the shelf websites

Do you have a feature you'd like to see implemented in our off the shelf (ready-made website) platform?

We work continuously to improve the platform with things like:-

New themes
Upgrades and improvements to existing design themes
New features in the website manager
New features on the website
Adjustments to the website manager to make life easier
Bug fixes

As part of your monthly fee, not only do you get great support, but we're constantly implementing new features and upgrades so that you get new features & upgrades as they get rolled out, and so that your website doesn't get old!

What do you mean by "off the shelf" website?

An "off the shelf" or "ready made" website is where:-

The design, or "theme" is based on a template we've created, and then customised for each client using the theme editor on the website manager
The code behind the website, and the "website manager" is common between all clients
Off the shelf websites work really well as each client is not having to pay for designs to be created and built from scratch, or website code to be created from scratch (which would usually cost thousands). So this means off the shelf websites are really cost effective for the client

What is a bespoke website?

The design is designed from scratch, using professional designers
Once a unique design has been created, it is coded from scratch especially for that client
The code behind the website, and the "website manager" is based on our standard website manager, and then customised to the clients exact requirements where required (so the client can have literally whatever features they want)
Due to the amount of work required (usually weeks of development work) a bespoke website is substantially more expensive than an off the shelf website (thousands of pounds)

How we choose which updates to do, which not to do, and what order to do them in

As I'm sure you can imagine we have quite a few clients asking us for upgrades or new features, and it's impossible to do them all, or do them all straight away. So each feature or improvement a client requested gets tallied, and we do the updates in the order of the tally.

So let's say:-

10 clients request a new feature on the website manager, let's call it "upgrade A"
20 clients request a tweak to the way one of the design themes works, let's call it "upgrade B"
5 clients request a new feature on the website itself, let's call it "upgrade C"

So naturally we'd do the above in order of demand, so:-

"upgrade B" first, as 20 clients requested it
... then "upgrade A", as 10 clients requested it
... and then "upgrade C" as 5 clients requested it

Do all features requested get implemented?

Whilst we'd love to implement all features clients request, this isn't possible.

This is usually if:-

1) The feature a client wants is only in demand by them, no other clients want it, and the feature requested is several days or weeks of work so it wouldn't be economical to produce it for an individual client without billing them for this

2) The feature requested would be disruptive to other clients using the platform. In this case, we'd recommend having us build you a bespoke website rather than an off the shelf one. This is where we create a website bespoke for you, without using off the shelf design themes as a template

3) Or another similar reason

What if I can't wait in the list for the feature I want?

We may be able to do the upgrade for you sooner, but as a billable request.

Our web developers spend roughly:-

Half their time doing upgrades on our road map (feature request list) on our off the shelf website platform
Half their time doing billable work for our bespoke clients.

Should you have a feature request that you can't wait for in our road map, or no other clients require it, then we may be able to schedule it in as bespoke work for you. In this case we would bill you for the time taken to implement the upgrade. Of course we would provide a quote for this in advance so you were aware of the investment involved.

Please ask us for a quote if required.

In the event that the upgrade you require is too bespoke to be implemented on the off the shelf platform we would recommend that we create you a bespoke website (where the website is designed for you from scratch). Please ask us for a quote on this.

How can I find out when upgrades have been done?

When you log into your website manager, on the home page of the website manager you'll see a section in the top right which tells you each time we've added an upgrade to the website. Click on this and you'll see a list of recent upgrades.

Can I have a list of your current road map?

This isn't currently publicly available but we are working on making this available in the website manager for all clients to see.

Note:-

- Some features we release will only be available on certain plans. We currently have three plans; small, medium and large. "Large" usually comes with all features, "medium" with almost all features, and "small" comes with just basic features.