Red Door Interactive's president gives tips on how to ensure that your web operations remain fully functional and efficient.

We talk to a lot of companies that are either working with agencies or are using internal resources to manage their site. Many of them have one thing that prevents them from making a change: despite all the complaints they have about their current provider, they fear the unknown of a new provider. Their fear doesn't even typically stem from the valid concern that the grass may not actually be greener elsewhere, but from a fear of what will happen to the precious black box. That black box, of course, is where the magic happens; it is where the gears turn, ensuring that the site is operational; it holds the intricacies and nuances of a company's unique web operations.

Does this sound familiar? It is definitely a valid concern. But, in many cases, you may not be as locked in as you think. In most cases, there will likely be hiccups in transition, but nothing is unrecoverable if you have selected a good alternative provider.

Some sites may be houses of cards
Anyone who has worked with a site for any length of time has likely developed a few "workarounds" to help react to the various odd requests that come in on a daily basis. But for most sites, agencies and -- often even worse -- internal resources have created near labyrinths of web architecture to the point where small changes to the site require specific institutional knowledge to prevent massive disruption. Many times, it is not that anyone is doing this maliciously, rather they're getting the job done on a daily level and working to accommodate every request. This is also called "job security" in the employee or agency lexicon, whereas it is called "handcuffs" for the manager.

Companies who've found themselves in this situation need to recognize it and decide if this is how they want to continue to operate. Now may be a good time to make a significant break and "start over." Starting over doesn't necessarily mean that you're scrapping everything, but it may be a dramatic undertaking. Ultimately, though, if you build the new infrastructure as I am about to outline, it will grant you the flexibility you deserve.

Is there really a "black box?" 
There is also another possible reality when you're faced with the "black box" feeling. I hate to say it, but the reported complexity of the site could be outright fabricated. The resource you work with is pulling the ol' George Constanza on you (note the episode where George made people believe he was busy simply by looking stressed out). This clearly is a tricky situation when you're dealing with someone who's chosen to mislead you about how dependent you are on them or their services. Again, if you've chosen the right replacement, there isn't anything that is likely unrecoverable.

How to make sure this doesn't happen in the first place
Standardization, documentation, management and continual periodic review are the key components in ensuring that you don't get stuck with an impenetrable black box running your web operations. 

Consider using standard software and methodologies to run your web business. An option is to use off-the-shelf, reliable CMS's, for example, rather than some web developer's home-grown application. Sure, something home-grown is customized to your business, but it also means that few people are going to truly know the ins-and-outs of it on a moment's notice. Clearly that doesn't mean that someone can't learn your home-grown systems or that there isn't another option; it just means that the next person will have no experience with your unique situation and will therefore be challenged to figure it out, perhaps making some mistakes in the process.

But, before you even get into the long-term issues, be sure to get your site documented early-on. Pre-development planning is critical to ensure that you build something efficient and stable, and planning documents are also useful in allowing others to grasp how all the moving parts work together. Documentation, even if it becomes outdated over time, has long-term value to future development teams.

Managing team development, rather than one individual working on the site, is also a reasonable way to ensure that you don't discover a black box in the future. When you're managing a team that's working together on the site, there is a better possibility that individuals have built fewer "personal workarounds" as they have teammates working with them in the code. To work in teams, mark-up should be standardized and the teams should effectively communicate expectations for how things should be done. This, again, builds enough consistency to ensure that anyone can assume the code and work on it in the future.

Lastly, continually reviewing your software, methodologies and programmers is a useful tactic even for marketers who are responsible for web operations. Too often marketers hide behind the "that's the tech stuff" excuse and ultimately realize they have lost control over their site. It is time for marketers to make a bit of effort to understand how the site is built and what the nuances are. It doesn't necessarily have to be a thorough code review, because it is very likely you'll never understand that, but it should be a challenge to those who are hands-on with the code because ultimately they're getting closer to being hands-on with the customer experience. And since I am sure you care about the customer experience, avoid letting the black box ruin it.

Reid Carr is president of Red Door Interactive. Read full bio.