Here is an online demo of the County's site on XMGonline.com. It may be worth discussing whether what we see is worth what was paid--there seems to be little beyond a nice design and the beginnings of the site structure--and we would be wise to keep in mind that we don't know if this demo represents the entire scope of what XMG completed, but it is clear that XMG made a significant start on the project. It's hardly what one would call unsalvageable.
[Thanks to News & Record reporter Joe Killian for sharing documents from the County that contained the URL for this demo.]
I think we can all agree the county was dissembling by referring to the demo as unsalvageable. My concern is their motivation for doing so.
ReplyDeleteI think it really depends on what they are worried about salvaging.
ReplyDeleteThe CMS seems to be the larger, more important nut. I have several friends who could produce what you see here, design wise, in a couple of hours using Flash.
Is that worth more than $32,000?
It depends on how you do it, I guess. If what we see here was the result of many hours of research and meetings and various drafts I could see it being something worth salvaging. But if what you're most concerned about is functionality and there are a lot of problems with that (there appear to be, given the report released to me by the county), then salvaging some nice design on a website that doesn't work for tens of thousands of dollars doesn't seem all that exciting.
It's important to realize that even in my first story Barbara Weaver acknowledged that her department had no problem with the design phase -- it was the second, functionality-based phase that began to cause the trouble in her narrative.
I think that's what she was referring to in terms of salvage.
XMG's portfolio gives no indication they had the ability to provide the required functionality. Weaver should have chosen another vendor.
ReplyDeleteEven if XMG misrepresented its abilities, their portfolio lacks the requisite bonafides.
ReplyDelete"The CMS seems to be the larger, more important nut. I have several friends who could produce what you see here, design wise, in a couple of hours using Flash."
ReplyDeleteThat's ridiculous.
Ah, now we see the competent journalist getting out of his depth. What say we all stick to our respective disciplines?
ReplyDeleteGood Day,
ReplyDeleteThis is Calvin Williams of XMG Online. XMG Online's complete client list is not listed on our website several of our larger clients have clauses in their contract avoiding this.
Speaking to our programming capability, we are currently building a database for a national organization (that we are contracted to keep them nameless) that will collect between $5 to $7 million dollars within 3 to 4 months.
Building a Content Management system is not a challenge for our organization.
Thank you and I hope that everyone enjoys their weekend aside from this situation!
"What say we all stick to our respective disciplines?"
ReplyDeleteWell, there is a bit of irony there.
I'm sorry -- I should say, I have several friends who have e-mailed me to say they could produce that design in a few hours.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen them do it, but several of them do this kind of thing for a living or did for a long while. Could be all hot air.
Calvin, as your unofficial legal advisor I'd like to point out the lack of a semicolon in your first sentence. There is also in incomplete sentence beginning the second paragraph of your press release. People who award multi-million dollar contracts typically pay attention to this sort of thing. A minimum of hubris at the moment would serve you well.
ReplyDeleteBut how could anyone possibly enjoy their weekend with such a virtual blight hanging over our fair city? Oh, the inhumanity! I've even heard rumors that we may soon be forced to experience our county from beyond our computer screens! Oh, the pain, the pain.
ReplyDeleteLOL Fec, several times...
ReplyDeleteThanks. As we expected, a clearer picture of the situation has emerged. It was actually the second sentence, but you get the idea.
ReplyDeleteIt is within my discipline, and I have read the source code of the deliverable. The county is better off not attempting to salvage.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting, Mr. Renkins. No offense, but that doesn't contribute much. Who are you? When and under what circumstances did you examine the source code; and why did you find it unsatisfactory are basics we'd need to know.
ReplyDeleteWith that, a clarification - I reviewed the code for the static site that you linked to a few days ago, and in enough detail to determine that it wasn't fit for production. The site is coded the way that sites were coded >5 years ago. Inefficient and without much regard for maintainability and accessibility.
ReplyDeleteOf course, that is a personal opinion. Not to devalue the time it took to interface with the city - that could break any man, but it's honestly not too 'ridiculous' to consider that the page that you linked to which has since been blocked could be produced in a couple+- hours. I've read the proposal and agree that the CMS is the tough nut and exactly where XMG became unqualified - for this I fault the city's selection process.
The most concerning part (if I have my facts straight) is that XMG states in their proposal to the city that it IS within scope to insert content into the content management system, and laters cites the difference in the project's scope to be exactly that - for this I fault XMG for not following through on their proposal & word and their contract/po.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteI do not find anything to disagree with in your last comment. It may seem like a fine line, but I was drawing a distinction between salvageable and production-ready, a distinction I was even more willing to keep since XMG said that the demo we were seeing was an early version. But if that was what had been delivered as a final product, then yes, unusable.