Publishers need to embrace digital to survive and prosper. Unfortunately, existing technology is often poorly aligned with business requirements, constrains how you manage and deliver content and increases set-up and operating costs making it hard to compete effectively and experimentation and extension of existing offerings prohibitively expensive.

Webpuzzle solves these problems - for new and existing content - by allowing digital publishers to shape technology around their business processes and enabling non-technical and technical users to collaborate in parallel without  compromising each other’s work. Content owners, designers and editors have complete control of the offering while  technology resources are freed-up to concentrate on higher-value activities. The service dramatically cuts delivery times, extends the breadth and depth of digital options and reduces cost.

Digital publishing should make publishers’ lives easier and help them to exploit new opportunities. In practice, competing in the digital space can be frustrating and expensive.

Technology often proves to be the constraining factor when it comes to creating, deploying and managing the kind of content which enables you to capture customers’ attention and build profitable relationships. 

This is because most digital publishing technology has been created for technology specialists, rather than publishers  and content creators, making it difficult to align and integrate with publishing processes and business systems - your workflows have to conform with available technology rather than the reverse. This inhibits how both non-technical and technical users interact with content and each other, makes effective control of content and collaboration difficult and leads to processes which are over-iterative, energy-sapping and cripplingly expensive. 

In an increasingly competitive environment where your on-line offering is critical, this is a problem.

Building and deploying your initial digital offering is just the start. Users now skip from your content to competitors’ in  seconds making comparisons the norm and delivery of continually relevant content critical to your ongoing success. 

Best-in-class websites are works-in-progress which must satisfy ever-increasing user expectations, be effectively  optimised, generate the traffic you need and enable you to convert and maximize yield from interest generated. 

Maintaining this kind of online presence is an ongoing challenge. Low-cost technology solutions are highly constrained. Notionally ‘free’ open-source technology requires expensive developer resource. Sophisticated, enterprise grade  functionality is very expensive and becomes more so as soon as incremental changes are needed. All require perpetual interaction between content creators and technology resources.

Inflexible technology combined with the ongoing need to improve the quality of content creates a perfect storm of  increased complication and escalating costs. Each and every amendment makes further demands of valuable resources. More importantly, some developments can’t be made at all while others create unnecessary delay. Everything adds time and cost (which could be better spent elsewhere) making it easy to feel that you’re running to stand still.

Webpuzzle is a client-proven, digital publishing service which allows you to configure the enterprise functionality you need as a bespoke package of proprietary applications, third-party applications and online services which can be re-configured as required. You access and control this functionality using the service’s interface which can, uniquely, be aligned with your business processes enabling non-technical and technical users to work in familiar ways and to collaborate in parallel.

You’re in the publishing business - not the technology business - and technology should enhance rather than inhibit how you work. That’s why Webpuzzle’s interface can be quickly configured to align the technology needed with your workflows and enables non-technical and technical users (content owners, designers, editors and technology resources) to directly control your webpage and website templates, content management, e-commerce, publishing and customers and to work and collaborate in parallel without compromising workflows our output. 

Working through the Webpuzzle’s interface unblocks business processes, removes unnecessary iteration and delay, accelerates development and reduces the expense needed to deploy the highest quality content.

Without having to think about technology you can design, prototype, build, populate, publish and develop best-in-class offerings - everything from the simplest websites and blogs to the most complicated, multi-lingual, multi-currency,  enterprise e-commerce applications.

Webpuzzle is fundamentally different. It supports all possible ways of creating webpages enabling you to design and build your HTML website templates exactly how you want, using whatever online or offline tools you are already familiar with. Your HTML templates can then be automatically imported into Webpuzzle where the interface enables you to align them with relevant workflows and data sources. 

Imported templates are integrated with content management, e-commerce, translation, SEO and publishing and the interface provides non-technical users (content owners, designers and editors) with complete control of the digital  publishing process while freeing-up technology resources for higher-value activities. 

Integrated templates can be made ‘dynamic’ in two key ways. First, both non-technical and technical users can edit, update and develop content in real time in order to provide a much richer user experience. Second, you can specify whether whole templates or specific areas of specific templates should ‘call’ data dynamically in the published environment. For example, if you want to A/B test different propositions you can instruct any part of an imported template to call different content, randomly or in sequence - functionality which makes it much easier to continually test, refine and improve your offering.

The combination of an interface which integrates content management, e-commerce, translation, SEO and publishing and ‘dynamic’ website templates empowers users and turns editing, testing, developing, refining, managing and publishing into a seamless process which enables you to create and deploy a continuous stream of best-in-class content while dramatically reducing operational costs.

Webpuzzle’s interface enables you to extract maximum value from your offering by cloning content (webpages and whole websites) with one click. This is an incredibly powerful tool which enables publishers to quickly re-purpose content to  address immediate requirements and to exploit wider opportunities (often prohibitively expensive using existing  technology) in the most cost-effective way. For example, you can enhance the impact and reach of your existing offering by versioning and publishing content to social networks or other websites, you can publish content or webpages sequentially, in real-time, in order to dramatise announcements, and you can clone and re-purpose whole websites in order to explore new product or brand opportunities and to accomplish large-scale business model pivots.

Leveraging your offering for new markets often requires making content available in multiple languages. Webpuzzle’s interface makes the process easy to control by integrating professional translation agency workflows and machine translation engines with the content management, e-commerce, translation, SEO and publishing processes. 

For professional translation, website content is automatically transmitted to translation agencies where it’s assessed against databases of pre-translated terms (saving you money) and a price for translation generated. Subject to your  approval, your content will be translated and returned to Webpuzzle where it’s automatically re-assembled as a separate language version of your website. The machine translation process (using a translation engine like Google) is quicker, with new language versions of your website available in minutes. 

Webpuzzle’s ability to automate translation (whether you commission professional translators or use machine translation) enables you to quickly and cost-effectively deploy the portfolio of multi-lingual websites needed and the interface makes it easy to manage different language versions of your website in the same way you manage the rest of your content.

Access to e-commerce functionality is currently polarised and expensive (albeit in different ways) for both small and larger enterprises. Sophisticated e-commerce applications, fully integrated with business processes and logistics, require expensive licences and technology resources. While smaller businesses and individuals are forced to choose between using constrained e-commerce functionality or selling through e-commerce portals which aggregate traffic, control the relationship with customers, overshadow your brand and take a large chunk of your margin.

Webpuzzle integrates e-commerce with the content management, translation, SEO and publishing processes and enables you to create the most sophisticated e-commerce applications for a fraction of the cost of traditional enterprise technology.

The interface allows you to increase functionality as your business expands and provides complete control of all aspects of the e-commerce process including who controls products and how they interact with them. For example, everything in your product inventory has a unique identity so you can assign the properties needed (Global Trade Item Numbers - GTINs, Manufacturer Part Numbers - MPNs, Stock Keeping Units - SKUs, language descriptions, currencies, prices, tax regimes, etc.) and manage products in the same way you manage other content - without the need for technical skills.

SEO is mission-critical for initial and all subsequent iterations of websites. However, rather like American retail  entrepreneur John Wanamaker’s assertion that “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half”, vested interests and confusion about what’s involved often results in SEO being treated separately from the digital publishing process - with dire consequences for effectiveness and expenditure.

Webpuzzle’s interface integrates SEO (with content management, e-commerce, translation and publishing) and provides simple tools which enable non-technical users (content creators, editors and SEO specialists) to directly ‘tag’ all content (copy, images, movies, products, etc.). This ensures that search engines always know exactly what they are looking at and can index your content properly. 

The interface further enhances SEO by making it easy for non-technical users to manage content dynamically (adding new content and editing and archiving existing content which needs to remain accessible). This ensures your content is always fresh and that search engines have reason to continually re-visit your site and index accordingly.

When it comes to publishing, Webpuzzle recognises that search engines differ - some are international, some are local, none are truly global - and the interface allows you to optimise for global and local search engines by publishing different language versions of your website using local domain names while hosting and managing your websites centrally.

Google’s decision to ‘traffic-light’ page loading speeds (and optimise accordingly) means publishers must urgently consider how to improve website performance if they are to avoid compromising their SEO and resultant reach. 

One of the key ways to improve performance is to publish pre-composed - so called ‘static’ - HTML pages which can be served directly from file servers (rather than the traditional approach which involves webpages being compiled from database and application servers each time they are called by users). 

This dramatically increases the speed with which called pages can be served, enables websites to handle massive volumes of concurrent users with many fewer servers (greatly reducing operational costs and the environmental impact of deploying your offering) and helps search engines to access and index content more effectively. 

Unsurprisingly, state-of-the art platforms like Amazon publish in this way. However, Webpuzzle is the only platform to  automate this functionality for publishers as part of an integrated digital publishing system. 

All Webpuzzle websites are automatically published as static HTML page files (with only dynamic content called from servers) and site maps are automatically generated each time you publish. This ensures that all areas of your content  (including dynamically managed product inventories) are visible to search engines and can be properly indexed aiding search engine optimisation. 

Furthermore, ‘static’ HTML pages can be instantly served when requested (rather than being compiled each time a page is called by a user) greatly improving the user experience and enabling your website to remain online and useable even if your database and application servers are down (with only dynamic page components affected).

While Webpuzzle’s interface treats the act of publication as a key gating event - allowing you to specify who is responsible for publishing, what they can publish and how often - it’s an incredibly straightforward automated process which enables you to continually deploy new, fresh content with one click.

Additionally, by enabling non-technical and technical users to collaborate in one place, while keeping design, templates and content editing separate, Webpuzzle obviates the need for expensive local applications (which are invisible to search engines), helps you to deploy content in the most search engine friendly format and ensures your website will publish perfectly and display ‘responsively’ - exactly as specified by your designers - every time you publish.

Webpuzzle’s interface provides an unmatched ability to serve, manage and monitor advertising using any advertising server including Google DFP. You can specify who controls your advertising and non-technical users can manage your advertising in the same way you manage your content, products and customers. 

All advertisements have a unique identity and characteristics and can be served dynamically within the static HTML  webpages published by Webpuzzle - enabling you to A/B test different creative propositions in sequence and to monitor and report on advertising across templates, pages or specific items of content on a global and local basis.

Webpuzzle provides the kind of functional capability and service support you’d expect from enterprise software (and can’t get from open-source software) combined with unique usability which enables you to directly control the technology and collaborate without having to constantly refer to developers or the IT department. Support can be configured exactly how you want and is charged accordingly ensuring that you pay only for what you need.

For smaller businesses and individuals struggling to operate effectively online using either intermediary aggregators (which overshadow your brand, control relationships with customers and take a cut of your sales) or constrained technology which can’t be scaled as your business grows, we’re launching Webpuzzle Studio, a new platform which provides everything you need to quickly and cost-effectively build and publish webpages, blogs and e-commerce websites which you can control and seamlessly scale over time.

Further details: info@webpuzzlestudio.com

Alex is one of Webpuzzle’s founding partners and is the architect and technical lead responsible for the platform, applications and user interface. Previously, Alex worked on enterprise applications for OLM, SONY Europe, 3Com and Lloyds Banking Group. He was the first Head of Development at Primelocation where he worked closely with Simon Simpson on the development and launch of Primelocation.com.

Simon is one of Webpuzzle’s founding partners and has worked closely with Alex Husic to bring the Webpuzzle platform to life. Previously, Simon was a founding partner of Bespoke Communications, the business responsible for developing, launching and managing Lombard Direct (a number of other direct businesses) and Primelocation.com - where he was personally responsible for designing the Primelocation logotype and identity, website, TV and press advertising, literature and Primelocation magazine. 

MA New College, Oxford, FRSA

Mark’s first career was as a strategy consultant, and he worked at McKinsey & Company. From 1996 onwards, his second career has been as an investment banker, where he has held numerous senior roles including, inter alia, general partner at Greenhill & Co, Managing Director and Global Co-Head of the Energy and Natural Resources Group at HSBC, Managing Director, JP Morgan, and Senior Managing Director, Europe at Guggenheim Partners. With over 28 years’ experience in the energy and resources sector, Mark has advised on M&A transactions with a combined value in excess of $500 billion.

LLB UCL and BCL New College, Oxford

John is a recognised pioneer in the provision of web design and technology services and has been at the forefront of digital development for the past decade. Previously John was one of the founders of Head London where he was involved with numerous digital projects including Microsoft’s inaugural use of Enterprise Web 2.0 technology in the UK (in partnerhip with the NHS), broadening the definition of accessibility compliance in consultation with the RNIB and the award winning ‘WebCameron’ platform.

MA Edinburgh University