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Excitingly for the last 12 months Aspiring Panda have been working on and are now starting to deliver an educational software project in Uganda.

The project revolves around the implementation of our School Reporting Suite as part of the Sustainable Communities Initiative for Bunyoro Kingdom of Uganda.

This has been adapted as part of the CDMS (Community Development Management System) where the ability to set tasks, track productivity and report out are being used to roll out and monitor the projects.

The advantage of having a highly talented multi-disciplined technical team is that we are able to design digital solutions that fit the needs of our clients rather than pitch a solution solely because it fits within our technical capabilities.

This has been important on this project as we work with a large number of stakeholders, so there is a need to be flexible and find innovative solutions to complex challenges unique to the project.

We have enjoyed working with the key stakeholders in the project to identify the requirements of the project and overcome the challenges in implementing a system that is cost effective and meets the project needs.

Our team will be providing ongoing support to the project and we would like to share a little bit more about the software we have adapted to implement this.

Background On The School Reporting Suite

One of the cloud based technologies that showcases our ability to solve complex business challenges in our School Reporting Suite. This educational software is designed to allow schools to accurately assess, track and report pupil performance for curriculum’s all over the world.

The School Reporting Suite has been designed to work in multiple languages and can be adapted for any curriculum that is being taught. In the UK this has already seen implementation in Jewish schools using the Kodesh curriculum as well as the national curriculum.

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

Building a charity website is a balance between adding the vital components to create a visually appealing site that appeals to the audience and keeping a handle on the budget.

Marketing a charity sees a pressure to gain maximum exposure when every pound spent is one less that can go to the primary focus of the charity.

Therefore, when we met Zoe from the Phoebe Research Fund and she asked for help upgrading her website, we knew that a modified WordPress template would give her and her small team the best of both worlds.

Introducing The Phoebe Research Fund

Phoebe is a typical six-year-old from Stamford in the United Kingdom with just one exception, she suffers from an extremely rare skin condition Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa. So rare that there are only 1,000 sufferers in the UK with the type that Phoebe has.

Her mother Zoe has set up the Phoebe Research Fund to research a cure as there is currently no UK government funding in place.

What We Did

The Phoebe Research Fund had an existing website that needed updating and some additional functionality added. We proposed the following:

• WordPress Website
• Virgin Money integration to accept donations
• Hosting set up by Aspiring Panda but controlled by Phoebe Research
• Training on how to manage and update the site

We chose WordPress as we could adapt a theme (template) for the website that we could then adapt to Phoebe’s needs. The template allowed us to keep costs down whilst giving the charity all the functionality they need and the ability to make edits to key information.

We worked with the Phoebe Research Fund to agree on the design and branding of the website and the structure of the website.

This included a blog, a page for events, a way to accept donations and allow sponsors and fundraisers to download branding materials such as logos.

We were able to build this site for Phoebe relatively quickly and train the Phoebe Research Fund team on how to update the website.

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

The internet is a huge opportunity for businesses from both a customer facing and internal perspective as apps, cloud based technologies and websites allow us to do more than ever online.

It is vital we use the internet in a way that protects important information and minimises the risk of being compromised by hackers and online attacks.

The threats facing businesses are continuously evolving, from having a website hacked due to an out of date WordPress site, hacks of private customer information or phishing scams designed to defraud the business.

Update Your Software/Website Regularly

One of the best ways of staying ahead of online fraud is to make sure you are always using the most up to date version of the software you use daily. Updates to your smartphone, PC and web platform often contain updates to fix security issues.

This is particularly true for WordPress where regular updates are the key to keeping the site and the plugin software that add functionality safe to use.

So by keeping up to date and having a schedule for running checks you can stay one step ahead.

Be Suspicious Of Emails Asking For Information Or With A Link

Email is at the heart of most businesses, but always be sceptical if someone you know (even within your own company) emails asking you do to something out of character.

Increasingly there are scams being reported of fraudsters pretending to be them to get you to send money or click a link or download an attachment that contains malicious software.

This could be to review an attached invoice you were not expecting or click a link to something strange. If in doubt ring the person or message them as email scams commonly known as “phishing” are getting more elaborate and professional.

Remember that banks and other professional bodies will not ask for personal information over email.

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

A website is more than what can be seen when you type the URL into the browser bar. To be an effective representation of your business there are a number of important technical aspects that must be in place.

These include aspects that affect the speed, visibility and usability of your website that whilst mainly controlled in the background can have a huge impact on the success of your website.

Looking at some of the projects we have worked on recently we have put together three technical aspects that are vital to your website that often get overlooked.

Page Load Times

The speed at which your website loads is a vital technical aspect.

A lack of patience for sites to load and mobile usage means that if your site does not load in a matter of seconds then users may decide to go elsewhere for the information or product they need.

If your site is slow to load this could be caused by a number of different factors ranging from poor hosting performance to the size and bulk of the content on your website.

SEO SiteMap

A sitemap is what you load onto your website so that Google knows what is on your website so that it can rank it in its search engines accordingly.

This is a small file that can be created using different plugins or third party software and can be managed by using Google Search Console (Google Webmaster Tools)

Mobile Responsive UX

As more than half of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets, we recommend that businesses check their site is mobile friendly.

We have spoken about the importance of mobile friendly websites a lot over the last two years but many older websites are still not compliant with this requirement by Google.

If you are unsure if your website has any of these elements or would like to review call us on + 44 (0)2088610115

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

This means that your homepage must deliver the right impact for your business.

Whilst there is an almost endless combination of ways and techniques to configure your homepage, here are 5 simple elements that we believe every homepage should contain to generate the maximum impact.

Easy To Use Navigation

Making your website easy to navigate for visitors is vital and can be easily achieved with a navigation menu. A search box can make it even easier to connect visitors with the information they need.

Phone Number and Email Contact

Your phone number and email are key ways for customers to get in touch so having them in a standard place on every page (preferably in the top banner) ensures that however people find you and whatever page they visit they can get in touch quickly.

Social Proof

What others say about you is a powerful way to build trust with your potential customers. Having these reviews and information on the homepage can build rapport quickly and increase conversion rates. This can include accreditations, awards and reviews from third parties.

Call To Action

Your homepage should make it clear what you want the potential customer to do next, whether that be to fill out a form to request more information, give you a call or even buy now.

Compelling Images/Video

The job of your homepage is to capture attention and get the visitor to want to learn more about your business.

Images and video are a great way to do this so we recommend that when designing your website, you come up with compelling images and video that support the branding and message of your website.

If you are unsure if your website has any of these elements or would like to review call us on + 44 (0)2088610115

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.