St Lucia Web Design
A warning to all – as I have been writing the post I have found that it has somewhat turned into a bit of a rav… : )
Web design in St Lucia (Caribbean) seems to be a growing field at the moment. A large number of web designers seem to be popping up out of the blue, as skill sets grow and the market expands more and more kids are trying to get into the field.
Now considering the island only has approximately 160,000 people and only a limited number of these have full (daily) access to the internet, it is a wonder that we are doing so well on the web design front. And I have to say, some of the talent out there is quite amazing. I myself have been in the industry for about 10 years and web design has changes A LOT over that time. With new technologies being developed on a day by day basis it is hard to keep on top of it all. But we have to in order to continue providing our clients with the best possible web designs to suit the latest technologies out there.
Recently a company out of Trinidad (or Dubai as they say they have connections with) came onto the scene trying to capture a slice of LOCAL designers bread and butter. I can not say that I am all that happy about the situation especially as they are loudly saying that they have ties and designers in India. The reason I am not happy is that there are a number of fully capably individuals and companies locally that would be happy to work with this firm to cater to their clientele. I guess the reason I guess this firm uses Indian talent is cost, access to lots of cheap labour.. Are we not a third world country? Are we not already cheaper that the likes of web designers in the US and the UK? With the amount of available LOCAL talent in St Lucia why are companies looking to outsource to places like Trinidad or India?
Considering the possibility of a number of hurdles that you may come across: language barrier, time frame, cultural differences (in design) and lack of knowing if you are actually dealing with professionals or just mere beginners masked as pros.
In St Lucia we have a number of established web design companies and agencies that offer web design, web development and search engine optimization plus many other services. The creative capabilities range from good to great and the skill sets much the same.
Some of the companies include -
Server Side solutions: local web developers with international experience.
Converge Solutions: providing internet solutions and lots more.
Advanced Intellectual Methods: one of the top internet marketers on the island.
Matt Render from limedesign: marketing him to success.
Glace Web: somewhat new to the scene
And obviously ourselves – CGDesigns Inc. – providing professional web design and development to a number of sectors around St Lucia.
That is but just a few companies or individuals providing competitive web design in St lucia, might I add that the solutions found in St Lucia are competitively priced and more than comparative if not cheaper to that found in other countries including USA and Europe.
Now that brings me to a new point – St Lucia Corporate and Governmental Logic
There seems to be a logic in St Lucia that anything done outside of Lucia is better than that done locally. The St Lucia Tourist Board is a prime example of a local organization that prefers to outsource. They presently operate two sites that I know of - stlucia.org & stlucianow.com. I recently noticed a few minor changes to the stlucia.org website which would indicate to me that the same firm that produced stlucianow.com has also been doing some work on the newly revised stlucia.org website – this firm is based out of the States (correct me if I am wrong).
Now yes, individuals have the right to pick and choose who does what for their company / organization. But something like stlucia.org – wouldn’t it be nice to know that not only does the site represent the island but the entire thing was home grown. Isn’t it a comforting feeling to know that ALL the money being spent to bring people to this island, all the marketing millions (not taken by the staff – [smile] ok low blow) used to generate local trade and profit for the ISLAND – instead of giving that money to a pride driven St Lucian, the money is given to a group of people that live thousands of miles from the very product that they are supposed to sell. Who knows St Lucia better that the locals themselves?
OK – again, lets get back on track..
There are a number of web design firms in St Lucia that are more than capable of handling projects that are presently being done by the foreign firms. A example in fact: a local organization (no actual names are going to be used) commissioned a US based firm to produce there CMS website for their organization, the process has been ongoing for a number of months if not over a year now and NO real developments have yet to come forth. The organization is now considering going local to rectify the issues realizing now that there are solutions locally.
Anyhow, I have ranted on for some time now. There is a message here that I hope whomever reads this will realize – if you are looking to create a website for yourself, your company or organization look no further than local. Do your research to ensure the company is fully capable of achieving what it is you need from your site, but I am positive you can find the right firm or individual to cater to your web design needs here in St Lucia. For anyone coming from outside of St Lucia – USA perhaps – give us a good look, you get the professionalism, creative ability and possible cost savings!