Atlantic Business Technologies, Inc.

Category: Strategy & Design

The Most Important Step in a Website Redesign Project Plan
You want to redesign your website! It’s tempting to want to jump right in and skip to design and development. However, skipping this important step could lead to costly delays, budget overruns and poor user experience. In fact, according to IBM, fixing problems in development costs 10 times more than fixing them in design, and fixing them after launch costs 100 times more. What’s the secret behind every smooth, on-time, and on-budget, user-friendly and all around successful website redesign project plan?

It’s the often-overlooked discovery phase.

In web and portal development, this early stage sets the foundation for everything that follows. It’s the hidden ingredient that ensures your project aligns with both your business goals and user needs, all while maintaining the budget and timeline that you sought to begin with. Without it, your project risks falling short of expectations, whether through misaligned priorities, user frustration, or missed opportunities.

What is the Discovery Phase?

The discovery phase is the first and the most important step in any web development project. It’s the process where we dig deep into understanding both business objectives and user needs. The discovery phase is about balancing these two critical elements—because a product that only satisfies one without the other is destined to fall short. By the end of this phase, we develop a detailed blueprint that guides the design, development, and launch of your product.

At its core, discovery is about uncovering the following:
- Business goals: What are the business drivers behind the redesign? Are you looking to increase conversions, improve brand perception, or enhance functionality? Defining these goals early ensures your redesign stays on track.
- User needs: Who are your users, and what do they expect from your website? Gathering insights about user behaviors, pain points, and preferences will guide the redesign toward a user-friendly solution.
- Technical requirements: What are the technical constraints or opportunities that need to be addressed? Whether it’s integrating with existing systems or ensuring site scalability, the discovery phase ensures your project plan is technically sound.
The Benefits of a Comprehensive Discovery Phase

Skipping or minimizing the discovery phase can lead to a number of issues that derail your website redesign. However, when done correctly, the discovery phase sets the foundation for a successful project. Let’s look at the benefits of a discovery process.
1. Meeting Deadlines
Without discovery, unforeseen technical challenges or unclear business goals are almost guaranteed to arise during development. These issues cause wasted time and missed deadlines as the team scrambles to address problems mid-project.
With a clear roadmap from discovery, the development team can work more efficiently, reducing ambiguity and minimizing the need for rework or adjustments mid-project. This ensures the project stays on schedule.
1. Budget
Projects that skip discovery often face scope creep, where new features or adjustments are added without a clear plan. As the project expands unexpectedly, costs spiral out of control and the budget can become unmanageable. By establishing detailed requirements from the start, discovery helps prevent scope creep, ensuring that the project stays within the agreed budget and avoids unexpected costs.
1. Clear Business & User Requirements
Without a proper discovery phase, the project may proceed without a clear understanding of business objectives or user needs. This often results in a final product that fails to meet its intended goals, requiring expensive rework or leading to a failed launch. Discovery ensures alignment between business goals, user needs, and technical feasibility, reducing the chances of miscommunication and ensuring that the project meets both business and user objectives.
1. Stakeholder Alignment
Skipping the discovery phase often means key stakeholders are not involved early enough, leading to conflicting goals and last-minute changes during development, which can delay the project and increase costs. Discovery brings stakeholders into the process from the beginning, ensuring that all departments and decision-makers are aligned. This prevents conflicts later in the project and fosters smoother collaboration.

Discovery Phase in a Website Redesign Project Plan

Without further adieu, here is a typical Discovery that you can incorporate into your Website Redesign Project Plan.

Let’s take a closer look at the key components of the discovery phase and how each contributes to the project’s success:

1. Stakeholder Interviews: Understanding Business Goals

Before any design or development begins, it’s crucial to gain a deep understanding of your business goals. This is done through stakeholder interviews, which are 1-1 meetings with key decision-makers and department heads to uncover what the business hopes to achieve with the website redesign.

Key Questions Addressed:
- What are the main objectives of the redesign? (e.g., increase conversions, improve brand perception, enhance user experience)
- What are the current challenges with the existing website?
- What business metrics or KPIs will measure the success of the new website?
By engaging stakeholders early, we make sure that the redesign is aligned with the company’s larger strategic objectives. The insights gathered here lay the groundwork for the entire project, keeping business goals front and center throughout the process.

2. Technical Audits: Ensuring Technical and Design Feasibility

Before moving into design and development, we conduct technical audits to assess the current technical landscape and identify any constraints or opportunities. This step ensures that the technical and design decisions made during the project are realistic and feasible within the existing infrastructure.

What a Technical Audit Includes:
- Current Site Performance: How well is the current site performing in terms of speed, security, and scalability?
- Analytics: How much traffic is normal for your website? Are there any common usage spikes?
- Content: How many pages exist? If the URL structure changes during discovery we will also need this for our redirect plan.
- Technical: How much customization is there? Are there existing integrations we need to account for?
The technical audit helps to identify potential risks and ensure that the new website will perform as expected, without encountering avoidable technical issues during development. This stage also highlights opportunities for optimization, such as improving site speed, enhancing security, or making the site more scalable.

3. User Research: Understanding User Needs and Pain Points

A successful website redesign isn’t just about meeting business goals—it’s also about delivering a seamless experience for your users. User research plays a critical role in understanding who your users are, what they expect, and where they encounter frustrations on the current site.

Key User Research Activities

Usability Testing: Usability testing is aimed at evaluating the effectiveness, efficiency, and overall user-friendliness of a web site or application. We use real users and walk them through typical tasks to understand their pain points and behaviors.

User Personas: Personas are semi-fictional representations of your target audience. They outline the demographic details, behaviors, needs, and goals of your users, helping the design team keep the audience in mind throughout the project.

User Journeys: A user journey map visually illustrates the steps a user takes to achieve a goal on your website. By identifying touchpoints and pain points, we can streamline the user experience to make the website more intuitive and user-friendly.

This research ensures that the redesign solves real user problems and creates an experience that meets their expectations. A user-centered approach leads to higher engagement, better satisfaction, and improved business outcomes.

4. Information Architecture: Building the Structure of the Website

Once we understand the business goals and user needs, it’s time to structure the website through Information Architecture (IA). IA is the blueprint that defines how content and information are organized across the site.

Key IA Activities:
- Sitemap Creation: Mapping out the main pages and subpages of the website, ensuring that users can easily find the information they’re looking for.
- Content Hierarchy: Determining how content should be organized based on importance, user needs, and business priorities.
- Navigation Design: Designing an intuitive navigation structure that helps users move through the site smoothly.
Information Architecture is the backbone of your website. By organizing the content in a way that aligns with both business goals and user needs, we ensure that users can easily find what they need, and businesses can guide users toward desired actions, such as purchases or inquiries.

5. Requirement Gathering: Keeping Track of Functionality

From the moment discovery begins we must document all functionality into a requirements gathering tool such as a requirements matrix. This involves documenting the business, technical, and user needs uncovered during interviews, user research, and technical audits and assigning priorities based on project scope and timeline. This ensures that the design and development teams have clear direction on what the website must accomplish and how it should function.

Business Requirements: Essential features or improvements tied to business objectives

Technical Requirements: Platforms, tools, or integrations required (e.g., CMS, CRM), Performance, security, or scalability considerations

User Requirements: Features or flows critical to enhancing user experience

The requirements matrix organizes and prioritizes all these elements, helping the team focus on what’s most important and avoiding scope creep. This structured approach keeps the project on track, within budget, and aligned with both business and user goals.

The Outcome of a Discovery-Driven Website Redesign Project Plan

By conducting these steps during the discovery phase, we develop a comprehensive roadmap that serves as the foundation for your website redesign project plan. This roadmap outlines:
- Clear business goals: Ensuring that the website redesign delivers real value to the business.
- User-focused strategies: Ensuring that user experience is at the forefront of design and functionality.
- Technical and design feasibility: Making sure that all design and development decisions are realistic and based on a solid technical understanding.
This detailed plan ensures that all teams—whether design, development, or UX—are working toward the same goal, with both the business and its users kept at the center of every decision. With this roadmap in place, the website redesign stays on time, within budget, and aligned with business objectives, creating a website that performs for both the company and its customers.

Ready to kick off your next website redesign project the right way? Atlantic BT can guide you through a discovery tailored to your business needs. Let’s talk!
October 23, 2024
Maintain an accessible website in 2024
Your probably do not have an accessible website

Making your website accessible to all users is more important than ever. Despite this, over 96% of the world’s top one million web pages fall short of website accessibility standards, leaving a significant portion of the global population unable to fully engage with online content. Creating inclusive online environments is not just a moral obligation but also a legal requirement in many regions. In 2024, the new European Accessibility Act (EAA) and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 updates set the standards for making digital content accessible. By embracing website accessibility, you can enhance usability, expand your user base, and comply with international regulations.

Why make your website accessible?

Designing for accessibility isn’t just about compliance; it’s about inclusivity and ensuring that everyone can use and benefit from your website. According to the World Health Organization, 16% of the world’s population, or 1 in 6 people, experience significant disability. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 1 in 4 people, or 27%, have a disability. Given these statistics, it’s clear that accessibility is a critical consideration.

Everyone will experience a temporary or permanent disability at some point in their life. Whether it’s a broken arm, age-related impairments, or situational disabilities like a noisy environment, designing for website accessibility ensures that your website remains usable for a wide range of users.

Key Takeaway: Creating accessible designs means you expand your user base and increase usability for everyone!

Who needs an accessible website under the law?

In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates that state and local governments must be accessible under Title I. Additionally, any business open to the public must comply under Title III. This includes a wide range of entities:
- State and Local Government: All government websites and digital services must be accessible.
- Private companies funded by the government: These entities are required to ensure their digital presence is accessible.
- Airlines: The Department of Transportation Rule #2 requires airline websites and automated kiosks at U.S. airports to be accessible to passengers with disabilities.
- Universities: The ADA mandates that educational institutions provide equal access to their programs, services, and activities for students, faculty and visitors with disabilities. This includes making college websites user-friendly so everyone can access essential information and resources without barriers.
Websites are increasingly becoming accepted as public spaces, and thus, must be accessible to comply with the ADA.. Public websites may include those for:
- Retail
- Restaurants
- Hotels, Inns, and Motels
- Hospitals and Medical Offices
- Banks
- Theaters and Sports Arenas
European Accessibility Act (EAA)

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) is a significant piece of legislation that aims to improve website accessibility and of a wide range of products and services within the European Union. Compliance enforcement begins on June 28th, 2025. The EAA sets clear guidelines and standards that must be met, ensuring that digital services are accessible to everyone, including those with disabilities.

The European Accessibility Act Applies to the following products and services within the European Union:
- E-Commerce – Any E-commerce that sells to anyone in the EU
- Hardware and software products brought the market after June 2025
- Computers, smart phones, ATMs television equipments, E-Readers, ticketing and check-in machines
- Banking
- Telecommunications
- Transport services
- Audio-visual media services
Exceptions
- Published before June 2025
- Any 3rd party content that you don’t have control over
Non-Compliance
- Financial and Legal penalties
- B2B procurement: UPAT
- Monetary fines
- Reputational Damage
Compliance Standards
- WCAG 2.2 Level AA
- European Standard (EN 301 549)
WCAG 2.2 Updates

WCAG is a set of guidelines developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to ensure web content is accessible to people with disabilities.

WCAG 2.2 introduced several new success criteria in October of 2023 aimed at enhancing accessibility. WCAG 2.2 added personas to the success criterion in order to better empathize with the needs of the users.

To maintain an accessible website in 2024, you need to ensure your website follows all of the WCAG 2.1 Level A & AA guidelines as well as the new WCAG 2.2 updates. These updates include:

Focus Not Obscured (Minimum) – Level AA

When a user interface receives keyboard focus the component is not hidden due to author-created content.

“This page has a big banner that’s always across the bottom. (a sticky footer) When I move focus to items, some are hidden behind the banner and I can’t see them”
– Persona Alex, a reporter with repetitive stress injury

Dragging Movements – Level AA

All functionality that uses a dragging movement for operation can be achieved by a single pointer without dragging unless dragging is essential.

ex, a map allows users to drag the view of the map around, and the map has up/down/left/right buttons to move the view as well.

“I cannot hold down the mouse button and drag it accurately enough to move the items in the list.”
-Persona Yun, a retiree with hand tremor

Target Size (Minimum) – Level AA

The minimum size for any target should be 24px by 24px

“The buttons are so close, I hit “Cancel” when going for “Submit”. Then I have to start all over again.”
– Persona Yun, a retiree with hand tremor

Consistent Help – Level A

Put help in the same place when it is on multiple pages.

“Whenever I use the online app to schedule my medical appointments, I can’t remember what to do at each step. I’ve seen a chat option in some places, but can’t find it now”
– Persona Luis, a supermarket assistant with cognitive disabilities

Redundant Entry – Level A

Information previously entered by or provided to the user that is required to be entered again in the same process is either auto-populated, or available for the user to select.

“Whenever I use the online app to schedule my medical appointments, I have to re-type some information that I entered in a previous step.”
-Persona Luis, a supermarket assistant with cognitive disabilities

Accessible Authentication (minimum) – Level AA

Don’t make people solve, recall, or transcribe something to log in.

“I can never remember my password, it’s really hard to get into this app.”
-Persona Luis, a supermarket assistant with cognitive disabilities

How to ensure your website is accessible

To ensure your website is accessible, follow these steps:
1. Conduct an Accessibility Audit: Evaluate your current website against WCAG 2.2 standards to identify areas that need improvement.You can use a scanner like RocketValidator.
2. Implement Necessary Changes: Make the required updates to meet accessibility guidelines. This may include adjusting contrast ratios, ensuring keyboard navigability, and providing text alternatives for non-text content.
3. Use Accessible Design Practices: From the start of the design process, incorporate accessible design principles to ensure all new content is compliant.
4. Test with Real Users: Conduct usability testing with individuals who have disabilities to get direct feedback on your website’s accessibility.
5. Keep Up with Updates: Accessibility standards and technologies evolve. Stay informed about the latest updates to WCAG and other relevant guidelines.
By proactively addressing accessibility, you not only comply with legal requirements but also create a more inclusive and user-friendly experience for all visitors to your website.Ready to make your website accessible? Contact Atlantic BT today to ensure your digital content meets the latest accessibility standards and provides a seamless experience for all users.
June 18, 2024
Five reasons to outsource your software development project.

There are many scenarios where it could make sense to outsource a software project. But first, let’s clarify the difference between outsourced development and offshore development.

You could outsource to an offshore firm. You could also outsource to a company in your backyard. In this post we are talking about partnering with a software development agency in your backyard, not overseas.

Here are a few reasons outsourcing might be the smarter and easier route.

1. Your team lacks the technical skills needed for this project.

Although It would be convenient if all programmers had the qualifications to work on all projects, that’s far from reality. Each developer has a unique set of technical skills and experiences. You could have many highly-qualified and capable people on your team. But that does not guarantee that they are a good fit to build the kind of software you need at the moment. By turning to an outsourced team, you can find teams that specialize in exactly what you’re looking for. When you’re positive you’ll get the specific knowledge needed for the job, you lower your risk of missing deadlines and making mistakes.

2. A new project could derail your busy team.

In other cases, your software development team may have the right background needed for your project. But companies with in-house programmers usually have many ongoing needs. Your team may not have time in their schedule to give the project necessary attention and care.

Or maybe your team is focused on other features and don’t want to do the upkeep or grunt work on a new application. Adding a large job on top of existing duties can slow down work on critical tasks. It can also leave your new development project in a perpetual purgatory. On the other hand, let’s say your programmers do have the time to tackle the new project. Do they have expertise in using new tools? Buying necessary tools to complete a new project and training your software development team is costly.

3. You need the project finished on a tight deadline.

An outsourced programming team is your best bet when you need a new piece of software finished yesterday. They have the ability to devote a specific group of developers to the job and on your schedule.

When you outsource a project, it is with the intent that the team you’ve hired focuses on your deadline. They’ll go to work knowing that time is of the essence and a vital part of making the project a success.

And let’s not forget about money as motivation. Your outsourced team is working under different financial parameters than your in-house programmers. Payment is dependent on a successful project completed on time.

Your in-house programmers are most likely salaried and not facing the same pressure. In other words, a vendor has more incentives to work at the pace you need than your salaried employees might.

4. You want an outsourced perspective on the project.

Deciding to outsource your software development project brings about many benefits, aside from providing you with extra hands to do the work. You also get the benefit of many years experience and a new perspective. Your vendor has, thus far, not been a part of the process. They weren’t in the same meetings. They can see the project through the lens of their own expertise, finding patterns over time. They know the causes of your pain and can help you avoid common pitfalls.Your vendor can also look at the merits and constraints of the job with a more critical eye. This allows them to ask better questions and give more productive feedback. The result will be a stronger app or piece of software. The project will not only meet your standards, they will exceed them

5. You need user experience perspective.

Let’s face it, software developers are great at writing code and all the fancy DevOps automation, but they often lack the necessary empathy to be critical of the user experience they are creating. A critical step to deliver a satisfactory UX will involve bringing in an outside team to provoke conversations. Have structured conversations around how the user interface and user experience are impacting the software and ultimately business value.Outsourcing software development can reduce stress.It’s always great to have your own team of trusted and talented programmers in your company, but you don’t have to rely on them for every project. In fact, letting a partner handle excess can create focus and boost employee happiness. We’re always game for any type of project thrown our way. Learn more about our process and reach out. We’d be glad to have a more in-depth conversation about your specific needs and what we can do to help.

December 6, 2023
How to tell if my website is outdated?

If your website is not responsive, not accessible, not performant (mobile included), or leveraging outdated or insecure technology, it may be a sign that your website is outdate. This can give the impression that your business is not reliable or trustworthy. In such cases, it’s crucial to consider the services of a company specializing in website development to ensure your site is up-to-date and effective.

Outdated websites that are not compatible with modern web browsers and devices can lead to poor user experiences. This can include issues such as slow loading times, broken features, and security vulnerabilities. And since users expect websites to be reliable and functional, these issues can be frustrating and off-putting.

Add to this the fact that old, outdated websites may not comply with modern web design and accessibility standards – such as a website that doesn’t use responsive web design principles. It may not display properly on mobile devices, or if it doesn’t comply with accessibility standards it may exclude users with disabilities.

You may think that because your website still seems okay, it’s okay to not update things. But in today’s competitive digital landscape, businesses need to prioritize their core web vitals and ensure that their website development is up-to-date and user-friendly. Without it, there’s a chance you could drive potential customers to choose a competitor’s website instead.

Based on our 25 years of website development experience, here are four main things that make a site look outdated:

Non-Responsive Website

In 2024, non-responsive website development is no longer acceptable because of the increasing number of users accessing the internet through their mobile devices. With the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, users expect websites to be mobile-friendly and responsive.

A responsive website adapts to different screen sizes and devices, ensuring that the user experience remains consistent across all platforms.

Non-responsive websites require users to zoom in and out or scroll horizontally to view content, leading to a clunky and frustrating experience. This gives the impression that a business is out of touch with modern technology and trends, which can negatively impact its reputation and credibility.

To address and fix non-responsive websites in 2024, businesses need to prioritize working with a website development company who has experience with mobile-first design principles. This means website development with the mobile user in mind and ensuring that the website functions seamlessly on all devices. This ensures that the user experience is consistent, regardless of the device they are using to access the website.

Another approach is to use modern website development technologies, such as CSS Grid and Flexbox, to create layouts that are flexible and can adapt to different screen sizes. Developers can also leverage frameworks and tools such as Bootstrap and Foundation to build responsive websites quickly and efficiently.

Accessibility

When you don’t run your website through tools to measure accessibility you are potentially limiting your audience. Accessibility is a growing concern due to government legislation, contractual requirements, and more widespread news and information about the business value of digital accessibility. Not to mention it just makes sense.

Website development companies are now using tools like Google Lighthouse to measure website SEO, Performance, and Accessibility. You may also see accessibility referenced as a11y in your browsing.

Needless to say it’s important that your website needs to be accessible!

Slow Loading Speed

Slow-loading websites are also a problem when it comes to outdated features. Users expect websites to load quickly, and if a website takes too long to load, they may become frustrated and may abandon the website altogether. This can result in a high bounce rate, lower engagement, and fewer conversions. Additionally, with Google’s focus on page speed as a ranking factor, slow-loading websites may suffer from lower search engine rankings, leading to even fewer visitors and traffic.

To avoid these problems, website development agencies need to prioritize website speed and performance when building and optimizing websites. This can include optimizing images and media, minimizing the use of large files and complex scripts, leveraging caching and compression techniques, and using a fast and reliable web hosting service. Using a content delivery network (CDN) can also help to distribute website content across multiple servers, resulting in faster load times for users.

Old Technology

Finally, using outdated technology on a website can make it look bad and even be dangerous.

While outdated technology may not be compatible with modern web browsers and devices, leading to a poor user experience, what’s worse is that it can also lead to security vulnerabilities. Technology, such as Flash, which is no longer supported by many modern web browsers can pose security risks to users, for example. Similarly, using outdated coding languages or frameworks can result in slower performance and limited functionality.

To avoid these problems, developers and designers should stay up-to-date with the latest web development technologies and design trends. This can include using modern programming languages and frameworks such as HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. These technologies provide more advanced features and better performance, resulting in a better user experience.

If you’re looking to update your website and ensure that it meets the latest technical standards, consider Atlantic BT as your website development partner. We have 25+ years of experience in website development and design. We can help your business to modernize its website and provide a seamless user experience that engages and converts visitors.

December 5, 2023
Embracing the Future: Navigating 2024 Tech Trends with Generative AI Tools

This year was a big one for tech innovation with the breakthrough speed of AI technologies. As we approach 2024, it’s crucial for businesses to understand and adapt to the rapidly evolving tech trends that are set to revolutionize the business landscape. Such as – generative AI tools, quantum computing, and voice search optimization.

Understanding these trends is not just about keeping up with the times, but about leveraging these advancements to drive growth and stay ahead of the curve. 2024 will be the year when businesses fully harness the transformative power of AI, driving growth and shaping the future of business.

‍Generative AI Tools – Everyday Automation

Generative AI is set to become a game-changer in 2024. This technology burst into the mainstream in 2023, and now we’re seeing its true potential. Unlike traditional AI, which is primarily used for understanding and analyzing data, generative AI tools go a step further. They use patterns and structures in the data it has learned to generate new, original content, be it text, images, or even music.

Utilizing generative AI tools is like having a super-smart personal assistant available 24/7. They can handle everyday tasks such as obtaining information, scheduling, compliance management, and project organization. By delegating these tasks to AI, businesses can free up valuable time for employees to focus on more creative and strategic activities. While there are ethical and regulatory challenges to overcome, 2024 will be the year when businesses fully understand the transformative power of generative AI tools.

Cyber Resilience in the Face of Growing Threats

The threat of cyberattacks continues to grow, with the cost to industry expected to reach over $10 trillion by the end of 2024. Cyber resilience goes beyond cybersecurity and encompasses measures to recover and ensure continuity when defenses are breached. This includes remote working procedures, integrated frameworks that merge security measures with continuity protocols, and awareness of social engineering attacks. As cyber threats become more sophisticated, businesses will need to adopt AI and machine learning-driven solutions to bolster their defenses and protect sensitive data. Yet another challenge that generative AI tools can help businesses to tackle.

Sustainable Technology for a Greener Future

Sustainability will continue to be a top priority for businesses in 2024. As we work towards meeting net-zero commitments, sustainable technology will play a crucial role. Electric vehicles, renewable energy technologies, and green cloud computing are just a few examples of sustainable solutions that will gain traction. The circular economy will become increasingly important, with products designed for durability, recyclability, and reusability. However, challenges such as ethical sourcing, infrastructure demands, and disparities in access to green alternatives need to be addressed. Businesses will also need to be wary of greenwashing and ensure their sustainability efforts are genuine.

Quantum Computing: Unlocking New Possibilities

Quantum computing is set to transition from buzzword to tangible benefits in 2024. These computers can perform vast numbers of calculations simultaneously, thanks to the principles of quantum physics. Quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize fields such as drug discovery, genome sequencing, cryptography, meteorology, and material science. With its ability to solve complex problems and optimize systems like traffic flow, quantum computing holds enormous potential for businesses. Early adopters, such as banks and financial services organizations, are already exploring its applications in areas like fraud detection and risk management.

Hyper-personalization: The Power of Generative AI Tools

Hyper-personalization is no longer just a buzzword; it has become a necessity in today’s competitive market. Businesses are leveraging advanced analytics, generative AI tools, and machine learning to deliver individualized content, product suggestions, and offers to consumers. This level of personalization enhances customer engagement and increases the likelihood of conversion. By harnessing the power of generative AI tools, businesses can understand customer preferences, anticipate their needs, and provide tailored experiences. Check out this article for more ideas on how you can incorporate generative AI tools into your everyday business.

Voice Search Optimization: The Rise of Voice Assistants

With the increasing popularity of voice-enabled devices like smart speakers and virtual assistants, optimizing content for voice search is crucial. Voice Search Optimization (VSO) focuses on long-tail keywords and natural language queries to improve visibility in voice search results. Businesses need to adapt their SEO strategies to capture the growing voice search market, as more consumers rely on voice assistants for information and assistance.

AI-driven Marketing Analytics: Unlocking Data Insights

Artificial Intelligence is transforming the way marketers analyze data. AI algorithms can sift through massive datasets to provide actionable insights, helping businesses make informed decisions. Businesses can use generative AI tools for better customer segmentation, predictive analytics, and optimization of marketing strategies. This level of AI-driven marketing analytics offer a plethora of opportunities for marketers. By harnessing the power of generative AI tools, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their customers, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions.

Generative AI Tools: Planning Ahead

As we look ahead to 2024, businesses must prepare for these technological advancements that will shape the future. From AI-driven personalization to generative AI tools, through the rise of quantum computing, these trends have the potential to revolutionize the way we operate and connect with our customers.

By staying ahead of these trends and embracing the opportunities they present, businesses can position themselves for success in the ever-evolving digital landscape. So, buckle up and embrace the future of technology in 2024.

Atlantic BT has been around since 1998, helping businesses to navigate each new and exciting trend in digital transformation over the past 25 years. If you’d like to learn more about how to utilize generative AI tools, or any of these other trends to grow your business, send us a message so we can schedule some time for a call.

November 8, 2023
Revolutionize Your Business: A Step-by-Step Guide for Implementing AI Applications

The pace of technological advancements we’re seeing in this early part of the 21st century is amazing, almost unbelievable. And now, with the launch of ChatGPT, businesses have the opportunity to utilize AI applications to help them to make decisions faster and more accurately than ever before.

Atlantic BT has been in business since 1998 and has helped over 1,000 businesses to capitalize on the past 25 years of emerging technological advancements. We’re using this deep experience to help our clients enter this new era of technology, artificial intelligence, as well.

In this article, we’ll discuss how “digital transformation” has progressed from data collection and analysis, to automation, and now artificial intelligence strategies. Then we’ll outline the steps necessary to implement AI applications in your business.

The Impact of ChatGPT on Business: Opportunities and Challenges with AI Applications

OpenAI brought Artificial Intelligence to the mainstream with its 2022 launch of ChatGPT. And it still reigns supreme today as the most powerful and versatile tool for natural language processing available to the general public.

One of the key features that sets ChatGPT apart from other AI applications is its ability to generate text that is both natural and coherent, making it well-suited for tools like chatbots and other conversational agents. Which makes it a game changer for businesses. With AI technology, businesses can greatly enhance their operations, improve customer experiences, decrease costs, and further drive innovation.

However, this fast-paced technological innovation has created some challenges for businesses as well. From labor shortages, to inflation, cost limitations, and increased competition, organizations are under immense pressure to boost productivity and maintain their competitiveness. (To be fair, this has always been the case, but it seems to be even more important “now.”)

Incorporating AI applications into a business isn’t much different than the process a business would have gone through when it incorporated any other new technology of its time.

Innovative business leaders, especially those at the enterprise-level, have already turned their focus towards leveraging automation and artificial intelligence (AI) as a solution to bridge productivity gaps. Which means that companies who still haven’t embraced AI face the possibility of falling behind. Lack of understanding, budgeting concerns, or waiting for the technology to mature are some of the reasons holding companies back. While these challenges exist, there are ways to overcome them and successfully implement AI applications in business processes.

The AI Journey From Data Collection to Digital Transformation

Sophisticated technologies are evolving rapidly. These advancements present businesses with the opportunity to revolutionize their day-to-day processes and decision-making. They can do this by incorporating advanced automation, artificial intelligence, and context that goes beyond traditional organizational boundaries.

However, achieving this kind of transformation requires a comprehensive understanding not only of the potential offered by new technologies, but also of how existing information systems interconnect and where current business processes can be optimized.

Most businesses have already recognized the power of automating mundane processes. But now with the use AI applications, we can pass some of the analyzing and decision making on to technology to handle as well. Data collection, automation, and now AI all play important roles in a company’s overall digital transformation strategy. Here’s how:

Data Collection and Processing.

Collecting data from various sources and processing it to make it usable, is pivotal for a business. Businesses collect a wide range of data to help them make informed decisions, improve operations, and better understand their customers. This could involve setting up data collection mechanisms, cleaning the data, and storing it in a structured format.

Automation.

Automation technologies can streamline business processes and increase efficiency. It is essentially programming robots to follow a set of instructions – If ‘A’ is specified, the robot will take action ‘B’. The rules are defined by humans, and the robots just carry out the commands. The goal is to liberate people from monotonous tasks that are labor intensive and thus often ridden with errors.

The majority of automation utilizes software to move data from one place to another. As an example, take this project Atlantic BT completed for Stan Johnson Co. They wanted to improve their integration between their Drupal website and Salesforce. There were areas of information that would be added or updated in Salesforce and then manually re-done in the website. Atlantic BT enhanced the custom integration to include relevant data, set up on a frequent sync, ensuring consistency across two business critical systems. Here’s a link to the Stan Johnson case study.

While automation is merely taking orders, AI applications are designed to actually learn and then act on what they learn.

Artificial Intelligence.

With automation in place and a wealth of data available, companies can proceed with implementing AI applications. The purpose of AI is to imitate the human mind on a higher level – but in a very specific and limited number of tasks. Thus, AI applications will observe patterns and results of prior experiences in order to carry out tasks.

Rather than just following instructions, like an automated application, AI will figure out and act on what it has discovered. This may involve utilizing machine learning algorithms to extract insights from data or incorporating AI-powered solutions such as chatbots or recommendation systems.

But there’s even another distinction when talking about AI. (We won’t go too far down the rabbit hole). Narrow AI is a system that has been trained for a specific task (like ChatGPT or DALL-E). General AI is the more sci-fi scenario of understanding and learning in any domain like humans can (like GLaDOS or Bender).

When we discuss AI applications in business, we’re talking about narrow AI. Why? General AI doesn’t exist yet!

Digital Transformation.

Armed with insights derived from AI, companies can initiate significant changes in their business processes, models, and culture. Digital transformation is the practice of using technology to radically change your business. It’s about leveraging all the digital tools at your disposal – data analytics, automation, AI applications – to fundamentally transform how your business operates and makes decisions.

A Strategic Roadmap for Implementing AI Applications in Business

Incorporating artificial intelligence technologies into a business isn’t much different than the process a business would have gone through when it incorporated any other new technology of its time. Such as, the internet, social media, e-commerce, smart phones, and cloud computing.

When we began building websites, it was to help businesses make use of new technology – the internet. Same theory with AI – others are already doing the heavy lifting to innovate AI technology, we’re simply helping clients to use that technology to advance their business.

A few years ago, we wrote a guide to help businesses manage complex development projects. Since implementing AI is basically a “complex development project”, these same guidelines apply.

Here is a high-level overview of how any business can implement AI applications into their business operations today:

1. Assess Your Business Needs

The first step in AI implementation is to assess your business needs and identify the areas where AI can add value. Check out this article with practical use cases for where AI applications can be implemented across many common business departments like accounting, human resources and marketing.

Partnering with an AI Consultant, like Atlantic BT, will allow you to lean on our 25 years of experience to help you to flush out your business goals, acknowledge your pain points, and identify opportunities for improvement. This will help you better prioritize AI use cases and define clear objectives for your AI projects.

2. Data Collection and Preparation

AI relies on high-quality data to generate accurate insights and predictions. Your data may need to be cleaned, processed, and labeled to ensure it is suitable for AI model training.

3. Model Development and Training

AI models are the core components of AI systems. And if you do not have someone in your organization with development experience, you should definitely consider partnering with an AI Consultant to help you design and develop AI models using appropriate algorithms and techniques.

These models will need to be trained using your prepared data and fine-tuned to optimize performance. Selecting the right AI frameworks and tools for model development are part of the process.

4. Integration and Deployment

Once your AI models are trained and validated, they need to be integrated into your existing systems or applications. Again, you’ll want someone experienced to ensure smooth data flow and compatibility with your infrastructure.

5. Monitoring and Evaluation

After AI deployment, it is crucial to monitor the performance of your AI applications and evaluate their impact on your business.

6. Continuous Improvement

Like any other technology, AI is an iterative process that requires continuous improvement and optimization. Your AI applications will require updates to ensure they remain effective and secure. And as your business needs evolve, your systems will need to evolve with them.

Use this link to download our free step-by-step guide for how to manage a complex development project.

Partnering with Atlantic BT as your AI Consultant

Implementing AI applications into your business can be a complex and challenging endeavor. Partnering with an AI consultant can provide the expertise, guidance, and support needed to ensure a successful AI implementation.

We’re excited for what the future of our own business operations look like with the AI enhancements we have planned at Atlantic BT. And we think it would be just as exciting to partner with other business leaders to do the same for their organizations.

Even if you aren’t sure what you want to do, but you just know that you don’t want to be left off the AI train, let’s still schedule a call. We can help you to discover the right opportunities for improvement through AI. And our technical expertise will help uncover any limitations within your organization’s infrastructure that may hinder its full potential.

Click here to book a consultant with the Atlantic BT team.

Atlantic BT

Atlantic BT has been building websites for 25 years. Great organizations, from startups to enterprise, trust us to design, develop, and secure their most important web projects. We deliver mission-critical technology and build powerful experiences that drive organizations to achieve their goals.

October 25, 2023