I know B2B companies that are still struggling to maintain a decent web site. I'm not talking about one man bands, but companies with 20 to a few hundred employees.
These companies and their customers don't do business online. A website for them is more like a brochure than a business tool. I know this may sound strange to social media savvy bloggers and Facebook devotees. But there are still those who are satisfied with that level of online presence. As a CEO of a medium-sized company told me recently, "The trouble with the news section on our website is that we don't have that many news."
Perhaps you recognize this chain of events: At some point the company's management starts to feel ashamed of their obsolete website. They send requests for proposals to 2-3 companies that provide "easy to use" content management systems. After the client has picked up one of them, the vendor holds 1-2 definition workshops. There is probably a web designer involved. Once the new version is up and running the client is happy. They send an email to the customers inviting them to visit the renewed site.
But the initial enthusiasm wears off gradually. Eventually nobody finds time to maintain the site. The news are -once again- over 12 months old. Finally the company's marketing guy suggests that it's time to renew the website. He says that the original vendor was not that good, and the system is too complicated. The next cycle begins.
