Er... this is the twenty first century

I have ranted before about clients who want to do things that are, shall we say, ill-advised.

As a branding company, it is our job to ensure that the client's image is reflected it the best possible light. So if a client wants to do something we feel is inadvisable, we have to point it out.

But, at the end of the day, (did I really just type that awful phrase?) the client can take our advice or, if they wish, ignore it.

It seems pretty crazy to me to pay a company good money for their expertise and then ignore it, however.

But listen to what happened recently. A client wanted us to upload Powerpoint presentations to their website - Powerpoint! Power-bloody-point - do you remember that?

It was a dreadful program when it was popular, which was back in the early nineties. Now, it's a dinosaur. I had honestly thought that no-one used Powerpoint these days. I was wrong.

Whatever your business, you want to give the impression that you are up-to-date and use the best technology you can. Even if you sell antiques, your potential customers would still like to get the impression that you use the latest shipping methods, that you have a modern computerised inventory system and so on.

Or if your business specializes in 'traditional values' that doesn't mean that customers don't expect your business to be in the twenty first century. Imagine going to a Victorian-styled restaurant with beautiful traditional foods, gorgeous antique decor, servers in traditional Victorian garb ... lovely. But you would expect the sanitary-ware in the restrooms to work in a 21st century way, wouldn't you? You wouldn't expect to go into the back yard to pump water up from a well to wash your hands, would you? Your customers would like to think that the hygiene in your restaurant is more 2009 than 1869 - that you have efficient freezers and refrigerators rather than having your fresh foods sitting on a melting block of ice.

There's retro, and there's ridiculous.

So, you're a modern business, no matter how traditional your premises, decor, philosophies or values are. You are competing with other modern businesses. You have a new website which shows your company to its best advantage ... and you want to link to Powerpoint presentations. I despair.

I haven't been asked to do that since 2001 (and that was the first and only time until recently) and it was a simple matter to explain to the client that this was an impractical, old technology. For one thing, Powerpoint presentations can take a long time to load; especially these days when people are using wifi in airports, on yachts and so on. And remember that a Powerpoint presentation will only load for people who have Powerpoint installed on their computer - and I bet that's not many in this day and age.

And when I'm away from a desk-based computer or my laptop, I'm using my phone to access the internet, as are a few million other people.

The solution is simple of course. We can show your presentation as a flash movie or a javascript-driven slideshow.

Or at least, we could have done if you hadn't sprung this on us once your website was finished and everything signed off. Oh yes, we still can of course, but you wouldn't expect that without an additional fee, would you?

Ah. Well that settles that, then.