Some background on Encryptec

Established in 2003, Encryptec draws on over 15 years experience of providing Internet based services and solutions both within the UK, EU and US. All of our technology is derived from Open Source systems and as such the source code for all the products and services we provide is freely available via the Internet. We endeavour to bring components together in a format that is stable, maintainable, easy to use and such a way that it provides the desired end-user experience.

Web Sites, version 1.0 and 2.0

The days of what are now termed Web 1.0 websites are numbered, if indeed they’re not already over. Dynamic web sites (Web 2.0) make such a difference to the online experience the only real excuses for using older ’static’ technology are cost and speed of implementation, both of which we aim to render obsolete.

Content Management

Implementing a website is often a costly experience and not something most companies wish to repeat on a regular basis. Once live, information on a website may need to be changed on a regular basis or indeed new content may need to be added. Traditionally, on Web 1.0 sites this would mean either using your web design company or having someone “in house” who was trained in the use of an expensive Windows based tool, both options had a tendency to be very costly.

Our solution is to provide customers with a website which uses a Content Management System (CMS) as a base, which means before the site design begins it already has a fully-functioning framework which allows users to log in and insert and edit their own content without any specific knowledge of web pages or how they work. This means that typically, once a site goes live, our customers can add and maintain their own content without any additional cost or maintenance.

Zope and Plone

Once our only choice for Content Management, “Plone” which has been around since 2001 makes a fairly mature product in today’s rapidly changing world. Plone is actually a Web 2.0 application that sits on top of an application server called Zope.

Wordpress

For less complex sites which don’t require the same (often pedantic) levels of authentication and workflow enforcement, Wordpress has outstripped Plone in terms of presentation, usability and features and we would recommend it for anyone looking to implement a straightforward website.

Electronic Mail with Zimbra

Once you have a website up and running, you will need a reliable and feature rich Email system in order to make the most of it. We host a system called Zimbra which provides a host of features which provide a very good fit with our other products and services.

Essentially Zimbra provides a WebMail solution which is actually an AJAX powered Web 2.0 application in it’s own right. In addition it provides access via traditional POP, IMAP and SMTP protocols allowing you to use Outlook, Thunderbird, Evolution, or any other standard email reader either in addition to or in place of the web browser based interface. For hardcore business users Zimbra also provides specific interfaces for Microsoft Outlook , Microsoft Exchange and various mobile phone / Blackberry configurations should the need arise. It also covers address books, calendars and other sharing facilities that make it an ideal office based groupware tool. Shared email folders for example can allow different members of staff to share an address such as <sales@domainname.com>, or to share customer emails and facilitate many members of staff to dealing with follow-up queries for a given email address.

Bells and Whistles

There are over 800 optional modules that can be plugged into our Plone based websites, some of which we provide as standard facilities such as an Issue tracker, a Help Center, Forums, Blogging, Slide shows, YouTube video player, Flash player, RSS news, Polls, Surveys, and more that can be added on request. In addition we offer a programming service and can write additional modules to your specification if an existing module is not already available.

Similarly Wordpress and Joomla have a huge base of optional plugins which can be activated to achieve results without the need for resorting to programming and in many cases, web design or HTML.

Open Source technologies

Encryptec fully support the use of Open Source technologies and in addition to being prolific users of Open Source, also contribute to the Open Source community. We sponsor and run the website that can be found at linux.co.uk , and actively contribute to a number of Open Source programming projects.

Questions and Information

If you have any questions or would like any further information regarding our products and services, please feel free to call us on 0845 5082719 or email sales@encryptec.net.

For demonstration purposes, this website is implemented using a standard Wordpress Template, sites based on this template fall within the price bracket quoted on the front page. The above email address is handled using our own mail systems and delivered to one of our Zimbra mailboxes. If you call the above number, the call will be handled by our virtual PABX on the Internet and the call will be routed via an ADSL connection down to one of a number of SIP phones in our office.