HRA Newsletter - Autumn 2011

Following an appeal for help with our website in our last edition James Hughes of FirmSites contacted us and offered to build, host and maintain our website for us. This was the answer to our problems as we had in the past relied on the goodwill of volunteers who tried to fit in the website alongside already busy schedules. Firmsites is James’s business and his service offered on a monthly tariff is ideal for organisations such as ours who do not have the often huge sums of money professional website designers charge.

James has kept the look of the old site as far as possible but has given us facilities that we did not have before. There is an events calendar which should show any events at a glance.

Our aim is to make the site as user friendly as possible and so we would like your feedback. What do you think about the new site and what additional features would you like to see included? You can send your comments to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it In the future we are aiming to have a feedback form on the site. This is a community site so please use it and keep us informed of any changes that you would like to see.

James has also set up a Facebook page for HRA so look out for that and Like. For all the tweeters, HRA is also on Twitter @HighfieldRA.

James set up FirmSites in response to the high development costs for websites. Reasoning that the needs of the majority of small to medium business were similar and that the greatest barrier to new sites was the up- front cost, he produced a business that offered the same bespoke websites normally costing thousands for just £30 per month. The feature rich offering from FirmSites includes a full CMS (content management system), form building, email newsletters, social networking tools, events management and E-Commerce for those that want it. Companies simply pick and choose the features they need and everything is included for the £30 per month, making their website more like a utility cost than an investment and opening up the web to a much larger market of small enterprises.

By standardising the software and focusing on rapid deployment, FirmSites can keep its prices incredibly low and this has led to an explosion in interest in its first year. Sites have now been produced for businesses all over the UK, with customers ranging from sole traders to multi- million pound companies and continuing to grow. All web design work is done personally by James, which makes the offering completely unique compared with either automated site builders or low quality outsourcing which is commonplace on existing lower price offerings.

The development process is tailored to be as easy for customers as possible All design work is done via phone and email with the customers sending images and text to FirmSites’ Southampton base, where they are loaded into their custom CMS solution and a concept site is produced. After discussing corrections the new site is made live and because all the sites have an unlimited content management system the customers themselves can add, edit and update their site without having to go through FirmSites. The whole development process can usually be done in under two weeks and has been used in a diverse range of situations, from community groups to restaurants, traders to professional services and both small and large E-Commerce sites.