Erasmus University Flash Banner
Wednesday, March 29, 2006

We've just completed a Flash Banner advertising the MBA courses run by one of Europe's top Business Universities. Erasmus, based in the Netherlands, asked us to design a banner that reflected the range of courses it offers to business executives that are on the move and already have high flying careers. The result is a slick, fast paced set of motion graphics that deliver the message with movement as well as words.

Erasmus seem satisfied:

"Excellent result. Everybody here is very impressed with the speed and quality of your work, we look forward to working with you more in the future"
David Francis
Marketing and Admissions Manager

Click here to view the banner

posted by Surestate at 10:52 PM      

Equine Blades Direct
Wednesday, March 22, 2006

We have just finished a new website design and e-commerce engine for Equine Blades Direct Ltd.

The new site went live yesterday and they have already had a successful online sale! The site was developed using our quick-rollout ASP.NET E-Commerce and Content Management System modules, which allow ut to rapidly create new e-commerce sites with a fully branded secure online payment.

An increasing number of our UK clients are choosing to use Protx as their secure payment gateway: they are simply the most cost competitive for small and medium-sized online merchants. If you are using another payment gateway (e.g. WorldPay, Netbanx etc.) then checkout Protx's prices to see if you could save.

posted by Surestate at 3:33 PM      

Mail Big Files!
Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Many ISP's limit the size of files that can be attached to an email, often as little as 10 or 20 MB's is the maximum size.

Or perhaps you've received a large file by email in the past and found that you have to wait whilst it downloads before you can see the rest of your emails?

Well, now there's an alternative - and it won't cost you a penny unlike Dropsend (an app that does a similar sort of thing) we featured a couple of weeks ago.

Mail Big File

* Files sent through Mail Big File will be available for up to 7 days, or a maximum of 3 downloads.

posted by Surestate at 8:00 PM      

How much is a website anyway?
Tuesday, March 07, 2006

We are frequently asked by potential clients to develop a quotation for online work before we are commissioned. After spending up to a full day to develop a decent proposal, we are sometimes asked to justify the costs quoted: "I know a mate of a friend of my aunt's neighbour who got a website done for 200 quid" is an oft used phrase.
Charles Wyke-Smith (a member of San Francisco's Multimedia Task Force and teacher of multimedia at the Computer Arts Institute in San Francisco) has written the following article on exactly this subject:How much do websites cost anyway? There is an awful lot of work that goes into the creation of a website and how much time can you expect a vendor to invest for a return of £200?

For more information on typical market rates, have a look at the following examples (look for HTML and CSharp/.NET skills):

IT Jobs Watch (Developers)
IT Jobs Watch (HTML)
Contractor UK

These survey shows that the market rates for people with our skills are between £350 to £430 per day. We think you'll find Surestate's rates pretty competitive.

posted by Surestate at 5:38 PM