October and November were big months at 4word systems.  We launched 3 major projects, added a new member to the team and made significant advances in our hosting infrastructure.

Site Launches

October and November saw the launch of a new website for Great Lakes Cancer Management Specialists, Sears Link2Life and KMart Link2Life.

Great Lakes CMS is another showcase of how we develop completely custom WordPress themes to make our client websites stand out from the crowd. Utilizing the WordPress platform, we not only reduce the total cost of developing the website, but the long-term support and maintenance costs are drastically reduced.

The two sites developed for the "Link2Life" initiative with Sears Holding illustrate how to use a single e-commerce platform for multiple websites. While the sites look, feel and operate in a similar way, it is vitally important to maintain the unique branding for each company. Building both sites on a common platform enables the back-office operations to be streamlined and consistent for both brands. This approach saves money in the back office, improves customer satisfaction, and provides a cost-effective mechanism for managing and maintaining every aspect of the business.

We are proud of all three projects and we're happy to be a part of the ongoing support for these important clients.

Growing the Team

As more clients engage our services and existing clients start new initiatives, we are responding to demand by strategically increasing our capacity and capability.

Building the Magento Practice

After months of searching and two failed attempts, we have engaged a fantastic new Magento developer. Not only does he increase our capacity, but he adds even more capability to our service offering. We now can offer complete custom module development for Magento when our clients needs require it.

Graphic Design & WordPress

After 10 months of part-time work, we are happy to bring on our graphic designer and chief WordPress developer to a full-time role. A true asset from project inception to completion, we couldn't be happier with the value that Rik brings to the table.

Cutting-Edge Infrastructure Improvements

Our obsession for reliability, performance and scalability have us constantly evaluating new technologies to make our websites fly.

Early in November, we expanded our pilot next-generation hosting platform. The new platform includes Akamai's CDN network, as well as the Varnish reverse proxy server. Simply put, these two technologies result in much faster websites, especially for our overseas customers.

Check back in to learn more about how a CDN works and what exactly a reverse proxy server can do for you. We also will have more exciting additions to the infrastructure that we're actively piloting right now.

Looking Ahead to 2013

2012 has been a pivotal year at 4word Systems. Demand remains strong and we are investing heavily in our capacity, people, infrastructure and technology. 2013 should be an exciting year as we roll out new websites, applications and infrastructure to stay ahead of the curve. Stay tuned for the latest on what's going on inside the company. We will continue to keep you informed and educated about the things you need to know when you're ready to get serious on the web.