Emerge Inc. Blog

Have you ever heard the term “Dogfooding”? Or the phrase, “ABC Company eats its own dog food”?

From Wikipedia:

To say that a company “eats its own dog food” means that it uses the products that it makes. “Dogfooding” is a means of conveying the company’s confidence in its own products.

The phrase originates from old Alpo dog food commercials where the commentator would mention that the dog food is so good that he feeds it to his own dogs.

As we develop web-based applications for clients, we make a concerted effort to use those tools ourselves.

One example is an employee human resource system that was created for a client. The web-based applications enables employees to complete timesheets online, request time off and view their available vacation and sick time. It also enables the company’s management to approve leave requests, view complete histories of every employees timesheets and generate reports.

Shortly after this was launched for the client, we implemented it for Emerge. The application was developed with enough flexibility to accommodate Emerge business policies which were somewhat different than the clients.

The main reason we “eat our own dog food” at Emerge is so we become intimately familiar with the experience of using applications that we develop. We are able to “see” the application from the eyes of a user and not just a developer. Working with our own software everyday provides us an opportunity to think through enhancements and improvements.

At the beginning of summer, I started sending a weekly email to all Emerge team members. We are growing at a nice pace and with 10 people in 2 offices, I wanted to be sure everyone was brought up to speed on important issues, items and projects.

Following is an excerpt from one of those emails:

I wanted to let everyone know that this is a critical week in the continued growth of Emerge. In addition to our normal work, we have a large number of big projects with deadlines quickly approaching.

This is time to show Emerge’s capabilities. If I was a sports coach, the pregame speech would go something like:

This is the opportunity for each person to step up, to demonstrate his or her skills. This is what we work for. These are real projects, for real clients, and will be used by many thousands of people. This is the time to be very focused, to complete tasks as quickly as possible, to avoid errors. Each individual’s actions this week will speak very loudly.

That said, these projects are too important and too big for individual effort alone. This is the time to work as a team, to communicate. To offer to help - but, don’t just call for the ball, show that you can make the shot. To ask for help - we need to utilize all of the talents of Emerge team members. Our actions as a team this week will speak loudly.

Let’s work together. Let’s work smart. Let’s stay focused. Let’s step up. And, let’s have some fun. Yes, there is a lot of work to be done, but we also have a very talented team. If we work together, we will have a lot to be proud of at the end of the week.

A little over the top? Probably, but the main points are true. The work we do this week will decide if we meet these important deadlines. And, meeting these deadlines will have a large impact on the next phase of growth at Emerge.

What followed was an extremly exciting week. I am proud to say that the Emerge team really stepped up. We accomplished an amazing amount of quality work in a very short time span.

Recently, I had a conversation with a local business owner who was reflecting on how difficulty of advertising to local customers. “Too many people watch Cleveland TV, listen to Cleveland Radio and either don’t read newspapers or read them online,” she explained.

“We believe LorainCounty.com can be part of the solution,” I responded.

LorainCounty.com is one of Emerge’s large projects. It’s a community website designed to enable local people to share information and ideas. Almost all of the content on the site is created and supplied by the users of the website.

In July we are launching a new option that will enable anyone to advertise on the site for a ‘Penny an Ad’. As an advertiser, you can decide how many times you want your advertisement to appear on the site and pay just 1 penny for each time. For example, if you want the ad to show 10,000 times, it is 10,000 pennies or $100.

We expect to launch this by the end of the month. If you would like additional information or would like to be one of the advertisers and take advantage of the launch excitement, please contact me at Ed@EmergeInc.com or 440-284-4949.

Emerge worked with the Lorain County General Health District to create a website for Lorain County Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). Individuals interested in becoming a volunteer can sign up directly online.

Within the website, visitors can learn more about the MRC, view guidelines and register for access. After the short registration process, volunteers can access the Volunteers only section. Once inside, they will find additional resources ranging from announcements, training events, newsletters and a forum to discuss various items.

The Lorain County MRC is a county-based volunteer program for both medical and non-medical volunteers. It is collaborative effort coordinated through the Lorain County General Health District that includes medical and non-medical providers, emergency management, emergency medical, and hospital-based services.

To learn more about the MRC, visit mrc.LorainCountyHealth.com.

On Friday (June 14, 2008), Emerge held a full team retreat. With the addition of 3 new team members spread across 2 offices and a number of interesting opportunities on the horizon, we felt it was time to get everyone together.

The Emerge Team: Mike, Boone, Kyle, Sam, Jessie, Cambron, Nyree (Not pictured: Ed, Briana and Nick)

The goals for the session were anything but modest:

• Provide a clear roadmap of where Emerge is going
• Let everyone see where they fit in this roadmap
• Enable everyone to connect with fellow Emerge team members
• Elicit ideas from all team members

In addition to the normal introductions, “what is your name, where did you work before, what do you do at Emerge”, we always add a question with a twist. This year we asked everyone “from your perspective, what is the coolest thing on or about the Internet.”

One of the most interesting response came from Emerge’s new visual designer Cambron Jones.

“It’s kind of like food. You just have to have it.”

To put this into perspective, we’re not talking about a sheltered high school student. Cambron is a 2005 graduate of the Unviersity of Akron who has worked for 3 years as a professional visual designer and web developer for American Greetings and Ibid Power.

He has a point. For a lot of us, the Internet has become a necessary part of our personal and professional lives.

By: Ed Skimin

I was fortunate enough on Saturday to watch two Lorain County girls softball teams play for the State Championship in Akron, Ohio. Photos from the games can be found at:

Division I - Elyria High School vs. North Canton Hoover

Division III - Wellington High School vs. Hebron Lakewood

Between the two games, there was about a 3 hour break, while the Division II game was played. Since Akron is about 1 hour away from home, it didn’t make sense to drive back and forth. Yet I wanted to get some of the photos from the game online.

Panera Bread proved to be the solution. Not only did I have a great lunch. I was able to log onto the Internet, at no cost, upload my photos to Flickr (Elyria Gallery, Wellington Gallery) and build the slideshows that appear on LorainCounty.com.

By the way, when my laptop battery started to run a little low, I was able to plug into the wall and recharge the battery, again at no cost. I really enjoyed the environment. Students were studying for final exams, families were eating lunch, shoppers were taking a break.

It was very relaxing, refreshing and a nice break from working at the office and at home. You will definitely find me at Panera Bread a lot more often.

Tom McGinty of ABC Refreshments shared the following news with us:

“We just secured a large manufacturing company in North Ridgeville as a result of our website presence.”

ABC Refreshments is a Full Service Vending Company located in northeast Ohio. The company was started in Avon Lake, Ohio in 2005 with a single Pepsi machine and through word of mouth has flourished into a thriving vending company with a wide variety of accounts.

Emerge worked with ABC Refreshments and launched the website in February 2008.

Emerge partners with three Lorain County radio stations (WEOL, WOBL, WDLW) to simulcast their local sports broadcasts over the Internet on LorainCounty.com.

This weekend, we simulcast audio from three local teams that competed in the Regional Girls Softball Finals. Elyria and Wellington won their games and will now play for the State Semi-Finals later this week and hopefully the State Championship on Saturday. All of which will be simulcast on LorainCounty.com.

Simulcasting local sports started years ago as a way to provide content on LorainCounty.com, to experiment with audio over the Internet and for the marketing benefit, as the radio stations mention LorainCounty.com and provide us with advertising space.

Over the years, we have heard stories of people listening from far away, grandparents out of town, parents away on business and the occasional service member listening from overseas.

On Sunday, both local newspapers shared another one of these stories. Elyria star Sarah Bracey shared with reporters that her brother, serving in Iraq was listening to the game on LorainCounty.com.

From the Chronicle Telegram:

It had extra meaning for her on Saturday. Her brother, Army 1st Lt. Dan Richard, is stationed at Camp Taji, 12 miles north of Baghdad. He told Bracey he would be following the game via Internet on Lorain County.com.

“I really like this field,” said Bracey, who was the only player on either team with more than one hit. “Today I was really excited because my brother’s in Iraq in the Army. He was listening online and I knew I had to do something good. He’s my favorite person. I love him so much. He’s like my best friend.” Richard comes home in September.

From the Morning Journal:

“I guess that I like this field,” Bracey said. “I was really excited about today because my brother, who is in Iraq in the Army, was watching the game on-line. I knew that I had to do something for him.”

This is a great reminder that our work has meaning. It’s not just about zeros and ones or lines of code. It is about people.

Update (June 5, 2008): The story has now been in all 3 local newspapers.

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Elyria (27-1) will play Mason (24-8) in a Division I state softball semifinal at Akron’s Firestone Stadium at 5:30 p.m. Friday. Richard, stationed at Camp Taji, just north of Baghdad, will be able to hear the semifinal on LorainCounty.com, the Web site linking to Elyria radio station WEOL AM/930.

During the 2007-2008 school year, Briana Palacios has worked with Emerge through the JVS Business & Marketing Academy Co-op Program. I had the honor of attending the 36th Annual Employers’/Parents’ Appreciation Event with Briana and her parents. The event showcased the students and their accomplishments. Employers were recognized and received a plaque for participating in the program.

Throughout her Co-op, Briana has competed in various competitions, won numerous awards and held officer positions within the Business Professionals of America. She was also named Outstanding Senior and received the William Burton Scholarship.

Briana is the Office & Content Specialist for Emerge and LorainCounty.com. While working with Emerge, she provided first point of contact to clients, created advertisements and other graphical aspects of websites, reviewed and managed the day to day content on LorainCounty.com.

As the school year comes to a close, we wish Briana the best of luck in her future endeavors. She plans to continue her education at Lorain County Community College in the fall pursuing a degree in Broadcasting and Journalism.

Today’s Elyria Chronicle Telegram reports on the state of City websites in Lorain County, where Emerge’s Elyria office is located.

The story focuses on the number of local Cities that are in the midst of website redesigns or planning for website redesigns.

Our favorite part of the article is this little gem:

“The only city with no plans for major change is Lorain, which arguably has the best Web site of any city in the county.”

Emerge designed the website and has worked closely with the City of Lorain since the sites launch in 2003. The site includes a number of administration tools to enable the day-to-day content to be maintained by the City.

The article goes on to say:

Lorain Auditor Ron Mantini, who runs the site, said the city gets mostly positive feedback about how easy the site is to navigate.

As evidence of that, usage of the site has gone up tremendously over the years.

In 2004, the city’s Web site had just 14,400 page views. In 2005, that climbed to 30,325, and it has continued climbing with 79,000 views in 2006 and 164,000 in 2007.

So far this year, Mantini is tracking 5,400 page views per day. At that rate, the Lorain site could have close to 2 million views in 2008.

That is because the Lorain site not only has a lot of information — such as profiles and contact information for Council members — it also has useful interactive elements for its residents — such as tax forms, a list of job openings, a complaint center and even the capability to accept bill payment.

For information on how Emerge can help you develop arguably the best website in your industry, please contact us.