Be honest about the time: Never over-promise and under-deliver; if the project will

take six to eight weeks, tell the decision-makers it will take ten, and then surprise

them by delivering after only seven.

The cost

The preceding page of advice can be largely ignored, since this is the page every person is

going to flip to right away without reading anything else. For that reason, it needs to be

meticulous, articulate, convincing, and above all, deliverable. The cost can be measured

and broken down several ways:

First, and most easily quantifiable, is the outlay of cash. Does the upgrade require a

new server, software upgrade, or more bandwidth? These hard costs should be

itemized, grouped by relevance, and totaled.

Second, and harder to predict, are the miscellaneous costs that might arise during

the process. Will there be travel costs, or will freelance help be needed to make a

deadline? Build a cushion of cash into the budget to plan for the unexpected.

Third, and most difficult to gauge, is the time cost. This includes not only the num-

ber of man-hours on the project, but also downtime, meetings, other pressing

projects that can inconveniently come up, and more. An agency has a definitive

hourly rate to work from. For an in-house group, the cost of time can be difficult

to translate to stable numbers; if in doubt, simply offer a total number of hours

with a quick translation to larger metrics like days, weeks, or months.

Website platforms

There are numerous platforms on which to develop a corporate website—some are

turnkey (meaning that everything works right out of the box), and others are customizable

solutions ranging from small, free, and open source to large, expensive, and proprietary.

Some websites are built entirely in Flash, others in static HTML, and others in closed plat-

forms like Lotus Notes and Domino.

HTML vs. Flash

Flash has grown from crude animation software to a mature application development

environment. Many design agencies specialize in Flash websites, and their creations are

often rich interactive experiences built to wow the audience. While it is possible to build a

corporate website entirely in Flash, there are several key disadvantages to the platform:

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