Next Generation Solutions (NxGn) provides services that ultimately lead to innovative websites, database systems, and applications deployed and maintained in your environment. We are located in Boston, MA 02131 and have been in business for over 20 years. We will handle everything from the building of your machine right on up to deployment and training on the solution. It's not often that we do build a machine as prices of built machines are very reasonable but we can if necessary and since the first thing we usually do is wipe the OS from the machine it's a good option.

Much or our work is based on free and open source operating systems, database systems, and a variety of web based solutions. We add these to whatever machine is chosen to host them. We will develop any applications that may be needed to access, update, or create new data records or content using the Xojo cross platform development tool. We will install the completed solution into your network and then do any training or follow up support.

Websites are generally hosted on a high quality, high performance hosting service.

All of our work "does something". To understand it you should ask for a discussion on what you're considering and we can show you what we've done. A typical website design studio might show a portfolio of their work. Our work is much more than what meets the eye.

Simple is not powerful, powerful is not simple.

From years of experience, Duane Mitchell

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FAQ

Below are some frequently asked questions as well as some useful information.

Our primary form of contact is email. Describe your issue if it's not to complicated. Otherwise just ask for a phone call. We will reply to the email within an hour, usually a few mintues, and we will schedule a phone call at a mutually convenient time. If it's an emergency then use the phone.

Common Queries and Questions

1. Do you use screen sharing? Yes, the time saved by not having to make on site visits is dramatic. We use a variety of online tools for support, training, demonstrating, and progress viewing.
2. Is our website online during development? For the most part no. We develop your website on our in-house server. We can give you a link to it and it will be viewable but only while the computer is on.
3. Can we update our website ourselves? Yes, we build your site with an easy to use content management system.

Travel time is a cost of doing business. Once a project is underway we understand the need for face to face meetings to get a better understanding of the unique circumstances we're dealing with. However, for the early meetings through to proof-of-concept or early design proofs there is no lack of effectiveness in using various sharing tools. As such we do not generally meet in person at the onset of a new project.

Xojo is a cross-platform desktop, web and web-mobile application development tool. It has built-in support for graphics, database servers, internet protocols and more, you can build just about anything you can imagine with Xojo. It is a modern, object-oriented language. It supports inheritance, interfaces, polymorphism and is strongly-typed as well. There are thousands of differences in OS API calls and Xojo abstracts you from these details, dramatically reducing development time and allowing you to focus on what makes your application unique. Xojo apps don't have an interpreter or virtual machine - they're compiled to machine code for fast execution and the protection of your intellectual property. Xojo uses native controls so your app looks and feels right on each platform. Development is cross-platform as well. Create your project on your favorite OS and then build it for any platform Xojo supports.

Founded by Duane L. Mitchell, Next Generation Solutions (NxGn) began in 1991 as a Macintosh consulting company focused on providing services to the graphic arts industry during the desktop publishing boom. With experience in all phases of this business from production to accounting NxGn focused on workflow automation with AppleScript and accounting applications. In the mid 1990's digital asset management arrived in the form of Windows NT server technology. Partnering with systems integrators NxGn worked with companies all over the US including Ralph Lauren/Polo, M&M Mars, Kimberly-Clark, Sony Music, and many more to provide comprehensive digital asset management systems. Windows 95 was launched in, well, 1995 taking a much of Macintosh based business systems in the process particularly accounting solutions. Meanwhile, workflow automation continued to be of interest in several areas of grahics including catalog publishing.

Digital Asset Management (DAM) continued to grow as a vertical market for software developers with many products arriving on the scene. All these products were Windows server technology based thus driving NxGn to enhance its skills with Windows technologies. This started a round of both Macintosh and Windows certifications with a growing focus on traditional IT issues including A+ machine repair, networking hardware and software issues, and security.

Mac OS X introduced Unix into the technology equation. In the early part of the 2000 decade Linux became a more stable viable alternative to Windows technologies but only in certain well defined roles. Database and website services were two solutions that the Linux OS excelled at. The free and open source combination of Linux OS, Apache web server, Php programming, and the MySQL database system dominated the internet at this time.

At one time a company faced a choice of which platform to purchase as the desktop OS of their organization. It mostly came down to Windows or Unix with the occassional Macintosh system in the decision mix. Application developers such as Adobe and Microsoft had already begun cross platform development beginning with the introduction of Windows 95. The Macintosh held on tenaciously to its market share in the graphics related technologies. The internet began to blend all these platforms together beginning with broswers and online or cloud solutions. NxGn, recognizing this shift, began offering website development services using open source solutions such as WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla.

Over the past 8 years NxGn has been shifting its focus to website development, client-server database development, Linux OS based solutions, and cross platform application development. Most of our work involves free and open source solutions which don't cost anything to install. During the course of its 20+ years NxGn has successfully developed, managed, and deployed many solutions. Some of these included training by setting up an inhouse classroom. NxGn takes full responsibility for the conception, development, testing, deployement, and training for any project they take on.

Pleases contact NxGn for details on any area of their expertise that may be of interest to you.

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The raw numbers and data your website generates are insights into visitor activity and will allow you improve your site and achieve your goals. If you've built your website according to SEO best practices then the numbers you are getting are good to look at. We always start our raw data collection by setting up accounts with both Google Analytics and Stat Counter. What we like about Stat Counter is you can tag a particular IP address with a name and thus inspect activity from that IP address. It's nice to know who is interested in your company.

The process of data analysis can seem unweildly but once you define your business goals for visitors to your site it all becomes easier. Then you analyze the behavior of your visitors to see which pages they visit along the way to a successful conversion.

Worldwide internet connectivity continues to be the platform upon which one major innovation after another makes for impactful change. Not all of these are good as we continuously hear reports of major data breaches. All of our solutions are built on a foundation of security best practices beginning with passwords and the people who use them. No one with admin privileges to any of our solutions has anything less than the most secure password. Usually something like this: 8Ui#b9{Ggf35. More than a password it's a test to see who squawks about a password like that and who doesn't. If you can't handle a password like that then you certainly cannot handle the complexity of database and server management.

We know from our server logs that all of our websites are under daily attempts at penetration. The good news is that if current best practices are being employed there you can sleep well at night. Most of the attempts at penetration are targeted against people who do not practice good security or any at all. It's surprising who many passwords are "password".

The good news is that we can manage your solution to bring you the best advantages of modern internet connectivity.

Hardware needs for most of our solutions, whether a database server or a light duty webserver, can be met using comparatively inexpensive hardware/software combinations. For single purpose server solutions such as a database or webserver a Linux OS based solution works. If you want to introduce file sharing or user management into your organization then a Mac OS X based solution works well. Since Linux OS is free and open source you don't pay for it. You do need to purchase hardware and for that there are two options. First, we can build you a system, and, second, we can purchase a machine from a major manufacturer. The benefit of a major brand is that they come with warrantees. A Mac OS X Server based solution is nearly free of cost. Apple has stopped charging for it. What you have to do is buy the desktop software and from there you can add on the server software at no additional cost. We prefer these two hardware/OS combos as they are stable, efficient, and have advantageous licensing costs compared to Windows technology.

To give some sense of scale for the above suggested solutions let's say they work for the small to medium size organization with up to 200 users. For a webserver you may increase that number to 1000 or more users. Both depend on the specifics of the solution and at some point hosting these solutions "in the cloud" must be considered.

We choose carefully the tools we invest our time in to learn. Our clients tend to be in the small to medium size category and need solutions quickly and within budget. We have chosen the following tools to become expert at:

• Xojo - a cross platform development tool that lets you write one base of code and then compile that code for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux platforms. There is also a web version of the application and soon an iOS version will be available.
• MySQL - always a contender for the title of the most popular database in the world. Now owned by Oracle it is getting regular enhancement.
• PostgreSQL - probably the most powerful of the free and open source database systems. It will comfortably handle record counts in the billions.

Content Management Systems (CMS) account for 30% of all websites in the world. A CMS will provide a sound foundation upon which to build websites for business, community groups, or large geographically distributed organizations. We work with WordPress and Joomla. Let's discuss your needs see which works best for you and why.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is mostly about following guidelines.

Here's one page from Google that is worthwhile checking out whether you are new to SEO or have some experience. It's called "Do you need an SEO?". It will answer some questions about the SEO service provider business and has some very useful links to SEO documents. Right at the top of the page are two very good ones. The first is a link to Google's "Search Engine Optimization Starter Guilde" and the second is a very cool one page document entitled "Google one-page SEO Guide". The second one is a download only so we won't include the link. For the most part SEO can begin with these two documents.

Four levels of implementation.

1. None. Just don't do it. Just build your website and let the chips fall where they may. The truth is that for some websites that is all that is needed.
2. Simple. During website construction or revision take the time build basic but thoughtful content with keyword and search phrase terms. This would include doing some light research to find a set of keyword and search phrase terminology. That set of data should be included into the titles of pages, navigation menus, and content.
3. Competitive. During website construction or revision build into your site ALL of Googles' recommendations, make a good research effort for keywords and search phrases, integrate with social media, host your site professionally, and add into your site relevant SEO tools.
4. Aggressive. In competitive market segments this may be necessary. Do all of the above plus severarl more requirements such as blogging, news item postings, and the development of a Google Analytics program to track visitor behavior and modify your site to give the visitor what they want.

The level to which you should go will depend on the competitive nature of your business environment. You don't want to spend more time or money than is necessary but remember, you have people trying to beat you. For new websites or those undergoing revision we suggest you start with a Simple program and increase your involvement as is needed.

SEO is mostly a technology guidelines based undertaking.

On-the-Page SEO

On-the-page SEO involves developing quality content while following a number of suggested guidelines. Among them are:

1. Well written content at as simple a level as possible.
2. Keywords and search phrases researched using common tools.
3. HTML structured with titles, headers, and meta information.
4. A clear and logical structure through menu navigation.
5. Thoughtful use of graphics and photos.
6. Optimized for web server performance.
7. Optimized for crawling and indexing by search engine bots.

Think of your website as being like a book that has a title, table of contents, chapters, and index. Well organized is how Google likes it. This is what is considered "on-the-page seo".

Off-the-Page SEO

You may also want to do some "off-the-page seo" which would include:

1. Inbound links - links from other sites to your site.
2. Social networks - developing a presence on select social networks and linking to your site.
3. Guest blogging on other related sites.

To do it all may seem like a lot of work and sometimes it is. It depened on the nature of your site and the business needs it is addressing. The good news is that you can often do it in stages and then wait and see what the effect is before moving on.

Contact us to discuss your website SEO project.

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