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Calling all ASP.net developers

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

We are a small, but fast growing technology company with two brands: ‘The Technology Studio’ develops and manages websites (usually with both challenging back end and front end requirements) for clients across a number of industries including property, travel, media. ‘Earthware’ is a globally recognised interactive mapping specialist helping clients to bring their products and services to life using mapping.

We are looking for an experienced (3-7) years ASP.net developer to join our creative and professional team to develop client facing websites for a variety of clients. Day to day activities would include planning, designing and developing websites (both back end and front end) from client pitch to final delivery and testing.

Applicants need to demonstrate the following essential skills:

  • Strong, full life cycle, Asp.net C#
  • Excellent CSS / HTML / Javascript
  • SQL Server / TSQL

The following skills / experience would also be advantageous:

  • Ajax frameworks
  • XSLT / XML
  • Any web mapping experience
  • Silverlight
  • Unit testing
  • ASP.net MVC

In return we can offer on target earning of up to £35,000. We also offer the opportunity to be part of a growing company with a unique culture built around integrity, enthusiasm, initiative, playing as a team and having fun. We actively encourage your personal and skills development but also look for people that are a bit different and embrace being part of an entrepreneurial, ‘we are in this together’ culture. This is not the place for ‘also rans’!

If you think you meet these requirements and are interested in applying for the position please email your CV to recruitment@earthware.co.uk.

All applicants must be registered to work in the UK.

NO CONTACT FROM AGENCIES

If you think you would be a great member of the team, we look forward to hearing from you.

Yet another award for GoLearnTo!

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

The awards for the travel website GoLearnTo just keep on coming! This time it has been recognised for being one of the UK’s most promising internet companies. ‘First Tuesday’, Europe’s largest professional network for high growth technology companies, shortlisted GoLearnTo down to a final of 8 other entries.

This proves once again how an aesthetically pleasing, functionally rich and easy to use website designed and developed by The Technology Studio with maps by Earthware can do for you.

Travel Website Golearnto.com announced as one of The Independent’s 50 Best Travel Websites

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

Only a few weeks after Golearnto.com Wins Daily Mail Website of the Week it has now been awarded yet another honour.

The Independent, one of the UK’s most respected newspapers, has compiled a list of what it considers the 50 best travel websites and included in this prestigious list is www.golearnto.com.

The flexibility of the site is one thing mentioned in the short review, where you can search for “holiday courses according to destination, length, budget and type of trip: choose from sport, language, cooking, creative or well-being breaks.”

A second award for this site is something that The Technology Studio take great pride in. It also proves that when it comes to professional, functional travel websites we are experts in this field.

Travel Website Golearnto.com Wins Daily Mail Website of the Week

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

The Technology Studio’s first travel website, GoLearnTo, has just been awarded ‘Website of the Week’ by the Daily Mail. GoLearnTo provides a range of  learning holidays to suit any location or budget.

The journalist reviewing the site commented that the site provided, “Excellent search options and a reassuring level of detail”. He followed this with, “If you’re looking for a holiday course with a learning element, this website is a time-saving godsend”.

GoLearnTo invested time to work with The Technology Studio to design and plan the website before the final build. This commendation proves that the more time spent planning your website, the better this is reflected in the end result.

The Technology Studio have a strong background in travel websites and as such we are aware of the issues you may face as a travel provider and how these must be addressed in your website. Through careful planning and good project management, your website should also be one which consumers champion.

Businesses Are Losing Out On Search Engine Opportunities

Monday, February 16th, 2009

Research by Fasthosts has found that half of UK businesses with a website make no effort to optimise their position on search engines.

When it comes to finding a business consumers are heavily reliant on search engine results and they prefer to use organic (main search results) rather than sponsored (businesses have paid to have them displayed) listings when making a decision on which business they should approach. However, with 17% of UK businesses yet to even submit their website to search engines and 35% of UK businesses making no effort to ensure their website is listed highly in search engine results it is not surprising that consumers are failing to find one in two businesses online: and this is ignoring all those businesses that don’t have a website at all. All these companies are losing out on potentially massive sales opportunities simply because they are not being found by the people that are out there actively looking for them.

The main reasons for this failure to cash in on online opportunities appear to be, that business owners and marketing teams do not understand how search engine results are compiled therefore they cannot see how their actions in terms of search engine optimisation (SEO) can influence their website ranking. In addition to this, there appears to be a lot of mis-understanding in regards to the amount of time and the costs involved in SEO.

The Technology Studio has long recognised the need for SEO when it comes to online marketing and making the most of a website. This is why the web development team ensure all websites they build are done so in an SEO friendly way. But you don’t need a whole new site to improve your search engine listing positions. Simple tweaks to your existing website such as making sure the content on your site is up to date, relevant, and contains keywords that your customers are searching with will make a huge difference to your online presence. The Technology Studio can make suggestions which you can then easily implement in-house as part of your company’s on-going marketing strategy.

Commercial property search engine, NovaLoca is just one company that has already benefited from making some simple changes. Read their story here and if you want to find out more about Search Engine Optimisation and how you can improve your ranking, contact The Technology Studio.

The Technology Studio Is Here

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

The head does what the head is designed to do whilst a leg does what a leg is designed to do, but they both work together (with other parts!) to form a whole body that functions.

This maybe a slightly random analogy to use to explain the launch of the Technology Studio, but let me explain.

The Technology StudioEarthware (the head) was launched back in January 2007 with the aim of using the latest web based mapping technology to bring their clients products and services to life. Seeing the success the mapping had in achieving this we came to see the additional benefits of using the latest web development technologies to create a complete website that would further ensure that the clients services are brought to life and attractive to customers (the arm). The two parts have been happily working independently, and together, for some time and have both shown great successes under the overall branding of Earthware.

However, we believe that now is the time for the ‘head’ and the ‘arm’ to be recognised under their own names. Earthware will continue to be the brand name for the interactive mapping and will be the registered company name under which the web site development will operate, however, the web development will be known under its own branding name of The Technology Studio.

What makes The Technology Studio unique?

The Technology Studio’s web developers have many years of experience in designing, planning and building websites. Therefore, we have a comprehensive understanding of how a website should be designed and built to make it perform well, as well as of the processes we, and you, need to go through.

With all this then put into practice you will sign off the final site with a satisfied smile on your face knowing that you have a site that you, and we, are proud of; one which attracts and converts customers and one which hasn’t caused you, or us, any sleepless nights during the development process.

In order that we can make this happen for you:

  1. We refuse to quote you for a website straight off - We will only put a quote together for once we, or another developer, have created a schematic or wireframe of the proposed site. We believe that it is only then that we are able to accurately estimate the time and cost involved in building your site.
  2. You get what you pay for - Our schematics mean that the website spec is so detailed from the beginning of the build that you and we understand exactly what the requirements, costs, timings and expectations are, meaning that there will be no nasty surprises for either party along the way.
  3. We don’t spend your money unless it makes you money - If we do cannot see how you will generate a financial return after spending money on us we will persuade you not to spend money on us.
  4. We are in it for the long term - Sorry, once you’ve got us, you can’t get rid of us! We aim to get intimately involved in our client’s business and always challenge ourselves on how we can help them make money. If we see something that will benefit you, we will let you know.
  5. You can call any of our clients - We could tell you what we want working with us to be like but only our clients can say what it is actually like. Therefore, we will send you our clients contact details (they have agreed to this!) so you can have a chat with them about their experiences of working with us.

What Does The Technology Studio Actually Do?

For a complete idea of what we do and to see some examples please visit The Technology Studio website, but in the mean time here’s a taster:

For more information about any of these services or The Technology Studio, please contact us and to find out about Earthware’s mapping solutions contact them here.