If you are reading this blog then you will probably have noticed that the website has just gone through a significant change. One of the key drivers for the change has obviously been growth: in customers, in content, and certainly in expectation. While the last 12-months have been a great period for us, this upgrade is a great platform for planned improvements yet to come.  What follows is a summary of key improvements with a view to maximising your time with us each time you visit.

Exposing more personalised content:
Exposing yourself on the web is never a good idea but good netiquette aside the biggest change we have made to our site has been to provide more direct visibility to the content that over 100,000 visitors come looking for each year. The interactive modules on the homepage that provide direct access to "Access All Areas" "Public Research" and "Naked Chief Blog" content are now fully customisable both in terms of quantity  of content (0-15 articles per module) and homepage positioning. Put them in wherever order you would like.

So if you are after industry insights and free stuff just drag the public and blog modules to the top whereas if you are a AAA client, you may wish to bring that to the top followed by a new "Custom Research" module that will appear next time you log-on. Right at your fingertips will be all the customised briefing notes, data cuts, presentations and consulting deliverables we have ever done for you. All this content can be manipulated by a simple click and drag of the target icon in the top right header of each module.

Improved social media:
The Naked Chief (TNC) has had a bit of a wardrobe upgrade and now sports a new tag-cloud, and archive. For our upcoming winter look he'll be adding feedback loops and folksonomy tags. TNC has also jumped on the Twitter rollercoaster and you will find direct feeds to the homepage allowing you to find out what we are doing now whenever now may be.

Providing direct data commentary:
We have added a "Longhaus Says" news bar across the top of the website which we will update with current technology positions and data. This function will make it easier for people to get key facts and a quick hit of topical observations direct from our syndicated research data (that's the good stuff we lock away). We thought that while we perform our own analysis, sometimes you may want to form your own position on the facts. We're always here if you want an independent view. 

More interactivity:
With the success of the Australian Tech Index we have also added an additional page that not only includes the dynamic index but also sample charts from the quarterly CIO confidence polls. The Australian Tech Index page will continue to evolve over the coming months with industry profiles and segmentation personas not far behind. 

On-line polling:
We've got our own opinions but know that you also have yours. With over 100,000 unique visitors a year staying an average of 8 minutes per visit we thought it would be good to get your thoughts. Check out and vote on the polling questions located below the fold on the homepage. You can be guaranteed that we will feed the results back to you.  

Improved document summaries and download management:
So once you've been on the site for 5 minutes you have no doubt found something to browse. We hope that you will find the cleaner, fresher summaries, with direct links into documents a great improvement on the old databases.

Even more transparency:
At the foot of the homepage you will also find information about which technology vendors we are currently taking briefings from, at which conferences and events we are speaking, and in what national, international, or social press we rate a mention. There is a lot of activity that goes on behind the scenes at Longhaus and it is our pleasure to share that with our customers. 

We still have the old favorites:
If you are like many of our clients who prefer a tactile copy of Longview in your inbox every month, or blogs sent straight to iGoogle then we have kept the syndicated feeds to this content and I'm sure more will follow.

Stronger branding:
Finally, brand has always been a very important part of our strategy and we are extremely pleased in the feedback about Longhaus quickly becoming synonymous with quality, and contextualised Australian ICT industry research. Customers get it right away. We hope these improvements to our already strong brand help with the internal appeal. 

My biggest thanks go out to Juan Villanueva. Juan's the guy who beat a strong field of web-developers who responded to our "Seeking Web-Developer" blog all those months ago. Bravo Juan. He has done a wonderful job in getting us to this launch and laying the foundation for our next big online adventures...internet television.

On that note, and with the promise of new service announcements within the next month, we look forward to your feedback and thank you for your continued support.