About

Technical Account Manager

Andy Mardell

In simplest terms, it&#39;s the integration of technology throughout a business, replacing slow, more manual ways of working with digital systems that do the job better, faster, and all over more efficiently. But from thinking about digital transformation strategies and plotting roadmaps, to considering different digital technologies, the change can feel overwhelming. Wouldn&#39;t it be easier to stick with what you know? You&#39;re used to it, after all.Interesting thought, but no. In this case change is good.Unless your processes are up to date and you honestly can&#39;t think of a single thing that doesn&#39;t give you a bit of a headache, there&#39;s plenty that digital transformation can do for your business. And as a rather knowledgeable bunch who enable said transformation, we&#39;re here not just to advise you on what opportunities you have, but to deliver the solution too.

As excited as you are to get stuck in, it&#39;s easy for your enthusiasm to turn into a runaway train, or derail entirely, if you don&#39;t know where you&#39;re going. Before moving on to the &#39;how&#39;, or even the &#39;what&#39;, it&#39;s important to know the &#39;why&#39;. Why do you need to focus on transformation? Because meeting customer expectations and adapting to their needs is now a critical issue. Why does it matter for your business? Because in an increasingly digital world, change happens fast and you need to be able to move with it at pace to at the very least keep up with your competitors.Picking apart your motivations in these early stages means you&#39;re building a much stronger understanding of what to focus on in the exploration stage.

Starting with the important question

While you&#39;re planning the next step for your business, it&#39;s the perfect chance to do more than just ask a few basic questions in a briefing. In our experience, some of the best solutions are <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/discover/workshops">discovered through workshops</a> with your team, helping gauge a deeper understanding of what problems you&#39;re trying to solve and how to set you up for success.After that, we carry out <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/discover/research">our own research</a>, exploring everything from technologies and platforms to user behaviour and design trends to help us formulate the ideal solution to challenges you&#39;re facing.This process was invaluable for our work building <a href="https://sidigital.co/work/wightlink">Wightlink&#39;s user-centric website</a>, where we held regular workshops to understand their pain points and requirements, as well as to discuss key phases of the design and build. While traditional user testing revealed the problems, these workshop sessions held on the actual ferry crossings helped discover why they persisted.

Don't skimp on the discovery phase

Customer research is one thing, but you can&#39;t move forward with the right solutions without first auditing your systems. When done right, this phase can spot transformation gaps and unearth inefficiencies, financial waste, chaotic processes and workflows, giving you a better idea of what areas you need to focus on for proper long-term planning.From tech stacks to workflows, a digital transformation audit is intentionally broad to touch on multiple different areas of your business. You might find that software doesn&#39;t cover your needs anymore, outdated hardware is no longer secure, or that your systems are disconnected. Process mapping also helps you see what might otherwise stay invisible, flagging bottlenecks, jumbled responsibilities and where you can streamline workflows, helping your team communicate clearer.Shining a light on the problem parts is always nerve wracking, but well worth doing – and it&#39;s why our clients trust us to guide them through it.

Make time for a proper audit

With all that data gathered, now you can get on with the exciting bit: finding what will not only transform your business, but keep the door open for future improvements too.In our case, when we’ve collected all the necessary information we’ll design a comprehensive solution tailored to the specific needs of your business. Then once we’ve walked you through our findings, recommendations and overall solution, we’ll make sure we’re all aligned with clear requirements and goals, whether you’re looking to improve processes or develop a whole new site, CMS or app. After that, we can focus on bringing your project to life.<a href="https://sidigital.co/work/tilt">Take Tilt, for example</a>. When Howden came to us, they wanted an experience that matched the expectations of modern customers whilst also operating within a regulated insurance environment. The challenge wasn&#39;t just in building an app, but to establish a foundation that could support a new way of operating and have a platform capable of evolving in a way that was predictive, not just responsive.

Plotting your digital transformation journey

Ultimately change is a fact of life. It can be held up but it can&#39;t be stopped, and you don&#39;t want to end up on the wrong side of it compared to your competitors. So when you&#39;re considering your digital transformation journey, it&#39;s not just about focusing on that first stop, but having the insight to look to the next one and the one after that.It&#39;s exactly how we future-proofed <a href="https://sidigital.co/work/harwin">leading connector manufacturer Harwin</a>. By rebuilding their website from the ground up, Harwin&#39;s various systems now all work together through our <a href="https://sidigital.co/faraday">secure Faraday middleware</a>, keeping products and stock up to date and website speeds 90% faster for a fantastic customer experience. No need for manual updates. A single source of truth for products. And with a 97% increase in filter interaction since launch, we know customers are using the changes implemented.diviD

A more harmonious, future-proof way of working

If you’re fed up of feeling slowed down by frustrating processes, get in touch. We’d love to chat about what the future looks like for your business and help you figure out what to do about it.

Not sure where to start?

For over <a href="https://www.saasacademy.com/blog/saas-statistics" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">80% of businesses</a>, a SaaS system has become a core part of their day-to-day operations, with larger organisations of <a href="https://financesonline.com/saas-software-statistics/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">10,000+ employees using an average of 447</a> SaaS systems within their businesses. This can quickly become an admin nightmare, a data disaster, and a costly expense. Check out the top time and money savings perks below.

Nobody likes tedious data admin, and managing data stored across multiple SaaS systems can be a chore to keep on top of and maintain. This could be product data stored in various systems, images and videos stored in a digital asset management system like <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/integrate/asset-management-software">Bynder</a>, and customer data stored somewhere else like <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/integrate/salesforce">Salesforce</a> or HubSpot. It can quickly become messy, clunky, and confusing.By automating tasks like data entry, invoicing, and reporting with an advanced SaaS integration, you can reduce the need for manual work, freeing up team members across different areas of the business so they can focus on more important things, like business growth and development. In turn, this also cuts back on labour costs, freeing up budget to be spent elsewhere.

Less manual labour = lower labour costs

It might not seem like a direct benefit for you, but integrating can improve your customers’ user experience when they’re browsing your website, portal, or app. We can dovetail various smaller integrations into your wider infrastructure, like ElasticSearch, which can help to bring users the data they’re searching for quicker. In doing so, your users are able to access information and products quicker, meaning there’s less time spent supporting customers behind the scenes.<a href="https://sidigital.co/work/harwin">We’ve done it for clients like </a><a href="https://sidigital.co/work/harwin">Harwin</a>, and they’ve seen some outstanding results. For example, thanks to the ElasticSearch database with Salesforce, we’re able to return filtered results of their 7,000+ products almost instantly.

Speedier user experiences

With so many SaaS systems available, it’s highly likely your business has the same data in multiple places. When this data needs updating, it has to be done manually, which often leads to mistakes that cost time and money.Integrating your SaaS systems helps to centralise all your data into one place, like Salesforce. So if there are updates, you only need to make the change once. This then synchronises across all the various different places the data is used, like your website. By only updating the data once, you massively reduce the risk of human error. It also means you know the data is always consistent and up-to-date across the board, so there shouldn’t be any discrepancies in data across different platforms.

Reduce costly errors

Did you know that <a href="https://zylo.com/blog/reducing-saas-license-waste/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">over 50% of SaaS licences go unused</a> because of duplicated functionality? This costs businesses on average about £15m+ each year. A lot of SaaS systems provide similar tools and services, and with disjointed SaaS systems, you’re more than likely duplicating functionality, so you’ll essentially be paying twice (or more) for services that do the same thing. For example, both Salesforce and Sage CRM offer marketing automations and sales forecasting. But because they’re not talking to one another, you could be stuck using both systems.Integrating your SaaS systems means you’ll no longer need to juggle multiple platforms because you can consolidate some of them into one, which then reduces your software costs.There are more benefits here too. Beyond cost savings, you’ll also be cutting back on the risk of data entry errors and streamlining the tools your team needs to use to do their jobs.

Fewer software licences

When it comes to business decision making, time can be a key factor in ensuring the decision is relevant and effective. Sometimes, these decisions are based on data, so accessing up-to-date data quickly and efficiently can be make or break when it comes to decision making.With a fully integrated SaaS system, you’ll be able to access real-time data as it’s shared between each system, giving you the data insights you need—fast. This results in quicker, smarter decision-making, and fewer costly misjudgements.

Faster decision making

Many CRM SaaS systems like HubSpot, Salesforce, and Monday.com can play a key role in your customers’ experience when dealing with your business, even if you think they don’t realise it.Disjointed SaaS systems often lead to an equally disjointed customer experience. Integrating your SaaS enterprise systems can help to improve this by streamlining support and communications, and simplifying and speeding up invoicing. Your customers will undoubtedly see the benefits, helping to retain your customers and reduce churn.

Better customer retention

While the upfront cost of integrating your SaaS enterprise systems might seem daunting, it pays for itself in benefits by boosting efficiency, reducing human error, and optimising resources. And all of this gives you and your team back the time to focus on growing the business and building on relationships with your existing customers and clients.At Si digital, when we integrate your SaaS systems, we use our <a href="https://sidigital.co/faraday">Faraday™ framework</a> to define tangible goals and KPIs that align with your business to help you maximise efficiency and effectiveness across the board.If you want to up your integration game, <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/integrate">check out our services</a> to see how we can help. Or <a href="https://sidigital.co/contact">get in touch</a> if you’re ready to start a conversation.

The bottom line

Have a read of some of our other articles

How integrating your SaaS systems can save you time and money

Lead Backend Developer

Richard Keen

Middleware is the software that acts as a <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/integrate">bridge between systems</a>, applications and services, helping play a critical part in how digital ecosystems work. Or, in even simpler terms, it&#39;s the translator that helps different processes, systems, components and applications talk to each other.Think of it like a computer hub connecting your mouse and keyboard to your laptop, helping all the different components talk to each other so you can enjoy a smoother experience.

Let&#39;s first ask another question: &quot;Can operating systems, IT, software and apps run without middleware?&quot; The answer is yes. But without middleware, developers need to find a way to connect their systems together, usually by bespoke connectors. That doesn&#39;t sound too bad for one or two implementations, but it can end up feeling overwhelming and chaotic to run in no time.Rather than having to navigate the mess to find the connection between your start and end point, middleware provides the common layer that understands what either end needs. It ensures that systems can interact without having to know each other&#39;s complexities, making development simpler, more flexible and scalable.

Why use middleware?

As digital worlds develop and customer expectations rise, the days of simply-connected websites are long gone. Now with various different platforms and SaaS tools, every change could mean a costly redevelopment. But middleware unifies these services to all users. Meaning that when changes happen, such as moving your website from HubSpot to Salesforce or upgrading your warehouse management system, your customers won&#39;t even notice. Done and dusted.Middleware integration improves communication and acts differently depending on what job you need it to do. Enterprise middleware, for example, is designed to connect various business systems and business software integration like CRM, inventory, and accounting. Helping data flow seamlessly between them so that when a sale happens, inventories update and finances adjust – all without manual input.From message-oriented middleware (MOM) and games engines, to transaction processing (TP) and portals, middleware is the ultimate solution to modern digital challenges. Regardless of whether you&#39;re running a legacy system or starting from scratch and whether your business is large, medium or small.Another important category is application programming interface (API) middleware, which is commonly used in modern applications. Where API gateways act as an entry point to access backend services, middleware often manages these interactions and checks for anything out of the ordinary. Making sure communications stay secure, efficient and consistent.

An unseen hero

Where middleware is designed to sit in the background, you might not realise how or where it helps in the day-to-day running of your business. From mitigating complexity to reducing development time, it does more than simply streamline operations.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Consistent, accurate data</h3>Having a centralised system means you don’t have to hunt for up-to-date data through multiple streams, reducing admin time for manual entry. Your data will be correct in real-time, everywhere you need it to be. For example, if you update your address on your website, that is then synced across the CRM, accounts platform, warehouse platforms, and more. And like most great things in life, consistency is key for better processes and fewer headaches.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Flexible and adaptable</h3>A unified system means changes and updates are no longer a pain to deal with. Your business can switch platforms with ease as you grow and your needs change, such as moving from a digital asset management (DAM) system like Frontify to Bynder. This flexibility gives you more freedom to move to what works best for your business without having to worry about being locked in, scaling with you as and when your business grows.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Cost efficiency</h3>Fewer services to manage means you can reduce unnecessary spending. In establishing middleware, sometimes it turns out that some SaaS systems your business has in place overlap. In these cases, middleware can help you trim the fat. Likewise, with fewer specialised processes and customer applications needed, it may reduce project costs and be less expensive to maintain overall.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Making the complex, clear</h3>Reducing operational chaos means fewer tangles and less overall confusion when it comes to processes and data. For your business, that might look like using standardised tools and templates, simplifying messaging, and helping your teams know that they can trust that the data they’re seeing is accurate.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Connecting bespoke products</h3>Middleware also provides the ideal option for getting more tailored products to work with the rest of your infrastructure. Steering you away from being blocked in by a one-size-fits-all solution and allowing more personalised integration. In fact, we used middleware to help BMW connect their app to an API for a telematics tracking product that people fit in their cars. Allowing us to surface information like car vitals, speed data, cornering data and more directly into an app for users. Read the full case study here.

The benefits of middleware

A fantastic example of this is when we used our own <a href="https://sidigital.co/faraday">secure Faraday</a> middleware to help one of our clients – leading connector <a href="https://sidigital.co/work/harwin">manufacturer Harwin</a> – refresh their online presence, modernise their platform and fix technical issues that had built up over time. And with 4,000+ products to sort through, they needed a website that would make finding the right product clear for customers, too.Now Harwin&#39;s website syncs website data with their Salesforce database, always keeping details up to date. Whenever the team updates a product, those changes appear almost instantly, and with Salesforce in the loop all data is easy to find.

Future-proofing digital presence

It&#39;s only natural that, since middleware bridges communication, it also shines when it comes to improving security. As it sits between systems, it&#39;s in the perfect position to implement security policies and protect against threats. From authenticating users to authorising access, encrypting data and verifying credentials, requests reach this digital checkpoint before they can pass on to the juicy, more valuable areas.Another concern with having various different systems and SaaS tools is dealing with dozens of access points connected directly to your website. That&#39;s a lot of potential vulnerabilities. This is also where Faraday works in our clients&#39; favour, centralising those connections. A single, middleware layer means fewer entry points and total control over how your data flows and what each system can access. Keeping things visible and secure.

Critical security

Got a project in mind that could use some middleware intervention? <a href="https://sidigital.co/contact">Drop us a line. We&#39;re always keen to chat.</a>

Middleware made simple

5 key considerations for digital transformation

Founder & Managing Director

Steve Piper

What happens when your website stops working for you and starts working against you? Whether it&#39;s a reduction in time spent on the website, low conversions, or you&#39;ve simply moved on in your business&#39;s wants and needs, it&#39;s best not to bury your head in the sand. Have a look for these 8 signs it&#39;s time for a website redesign.

As much as we’d like to think people can look past it, first impressions of your website absolutely matter. If you find your bounce rates are higher than you&#39;d like – and you&#39;re sure it’s not because visitors found what they needed in record time – it&#39;s worth investigating why. Elements like trustworthiness, confusing layouts and buried information can make all the difference between users clicking through to the next page or tapping out altogether. Time is precious, especially in the eyes of customers.

01. People visit but they don't stay

If you&#39;ve built a website and customers or potential clients still have little or no idea what your business does, it&#39;s not only a big problem but a missed opportunity. Rather than having at least basic understanding on first contact, your sales team has to pitch and explain the &#39;why&#39; instead of following up with the &#39;wow&#39;. <a href="https://www.forbes.com/advisor/uk/business/software/website-statistics/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">As 78% of small business owners</a> in the UK have a website for their business, with 83.5% of those saying it plays a big part in their business, websites should qualify leads and build confidence. All while providing a reliable point of reference for further reading, ideally before anyone picks up the phone.

02. Your sales team is doing the heavy lifting for your site

Following that point, making users hunt for information is tedious, frustrating, and a surefire way to have them backing out before they find what they need. Likewise, outdated information leaves them with an untrustworthy impression of your business and the experience they can expect by engaging. As you change products or services, update details, and find new ways to <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/design/digital-design">improve the user experience</a>, the best thing to do is keep your website up to date. For more information on why UX and UI iteration is so important, <a href="https://sidigital.co/lab-notes/iterative-ux-and-ui-practices">have a quick read here</a>.

03. Your website doesn't say what you do

If you&#39;re going through the effort of making an up-to-date site that looks great on a large screen, it&#39;s vital you&#39;ve also considered your mobile users. <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1358314/online-shopper-device-preference-uk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">As reported in the second quarter of 2025</a>, mobile phones were the preferred device among online shoppers in the United Kingdom. So if you’re not considering all audiences, especially those used to a smooth mobile experience, an outdated, pinch-to-zoom design that&#39;s a pain to navigate and tough to read will likely turn people away. Your mobile site should be optimised to fit the format, allowing potential customers to focus on what they&#39;re reading rather than trying their patience with inaccurate hit targets and microscopic text.

04. It's not made for mobile

If there&#39;s one unignorable death rattle for websites, it&#39;s wheezing loading times. In the current technological age we&#39;re living in, users just want things to work – and when they don&#39;t, they&#39;ll find something else that will. <a href="https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/7450973?hl=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">As Google notes</a>, 53% of visits are likely abandoned if pages take longer than three seconds to load, so if your team notices your site is slow, visitors will too. And their first instinct won&#39;t be to give it a moment, it&#39;ll be to leave. A few seconds of loading time might not sound like a lot, but it&#39;s enough for people to get an impression of your brand, and that&#39;s not fair to you or them. Google&#39;s also not a fan and will penalise websites as a result, favouring sites that perform better.

05. It's slow and not subtle about it

Though we&#39;ve already covered why it&#39;s important to keep your website up to date, in this case it&#39;s about keeping up with your competitors as well. You might be updating information or considering your brand position in the market, but if you&#39;re still working with a website that looks like it belongs in a different age you&#39;ll stand out for the wrong reasons. Regardless of how strong your information is, your site design is what users will initially focus on, even if they&#39;re not aware they&#39;re doing it. A site that doesn&#39;t keep pace may get left behind altogether.

06. Your website and business are out of sync

Nothing shouts &quot;you might need a website redesign&quot; quite like cringing when it&#39;s shared with current or prospective clients. If sales conversations are bracketed with apologies, URLs are shared with caveats, or you’re just linking users to the information they need rather than the homepage for a browse, you don&#39;t need a diagnosis – you need a plan. On the sunny side, this means you can spend your time thinking about what you want your new site to look like instead of debating whether you need a website refresh at all. And that’s the fun part.

07. You're embarrassed to send people to it

With cyber attacks more active than ever, cyber security is a justifiable concern for businesses internet-wide. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2025/cyber-security-breaches-survey-2025#chapter-6-cyber-crime" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Approximately 283,000 businesses</a> have been a victim of at least one cyber crime in the last 12 months, with phishing as the most common type (93% of affected businesses). From spam emails and untrustworthy links to database breaches, it&#39;s in your interest to keep your business, customers and users safe online. That means even after considering and implementing the right cyber security for your needs, anything you have in place should always run in its latest version. Elements like outdated plugins and software provide an easy entry point for cybercriminals, opening your operation up to compliance risks, financial loss, malware, and more.

08. You've had a security scare

<h3 style='text-align: start;'>How do you know when your website needs a redesign?</h3>If it&#39;s been a few years since you reviewed your website, it&#39;s a good idea to evaluate performance, UX and UI to improve outdated design. Think about your business needs and whether they’re being met.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>What is the three-second rule for websites?</h3>A well-known principle, the three-second rule for website design reflects how long you&#39;ve got until users hit the back button and continue on their way. Three seconds. If your website doesn&#39;t make a good first impression, it probably won&#39;t get the chance to make a second one.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>What are the main signs of an outdated website?</h3>Besides telltale visual elements that date websites like a time capsule, outdated information and poor responsiveness and loading speeds are your biggest red flags.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Should I redesign or rebuild my website?</h3>Be honest, you&#39;d be creeped out if we said yes and how. The best thing to do if you&#39;re asking this question is to evaluate your site performance from a technical, visual and experiential level. Are there just a couple of areas that you can improve on or do you need to start from scratch?

FAQs

See whether a website redesign or refresh is for you. If you get top marks, well, feel free to brag.

Download our free UX & UI Self-Assessment tool

Your company might already have security policies in place, but a quick refresher ensures nothing slips through the cracks. For Data Privacy Day this year, we’re giving you a checklist of security policies you need to keep on top of.

Grab your free checklist. No forms, no faff.

Download our free 8-point security checklist

These are our recommendations for all our clients. Depending on the value and sensitivity of your data, you might want to adjust the frequency to suit your needs.

How to ensure your apps and websites are secure

An annual penetration test from an independent third party identifies weaknesses in your code and server configuration. We always recommend one after completing a website or app build, plus annual reviews or tests following significant code changes. If you need help finding a pentest company, <a href="https://sidigital.co/contact">get in touch</a>.

1. Get a pentest – Yearly

Check who has admin access to your CMS or back office systems. Do they still need it? Could their permissions be downgraded from Admin to User level?And, every six months, have a spring clean. Review everyone with CMS or back office access. Ask if they still need it. Are their details current? When did they last change their password? If you have a Leaver Policy, add system removal to your off-boarding checklist.

2. Review CMS access – Quarterly

<a href="https://haveibeenpwned.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Have I Been Pwned</a> lets you search data breaches to see if your email or phone number has been compromised. This matters less if you use unique passwords for each account, but if you&#39;ve reused passwords, a quick check here is worth five minutes.

3. Check if you’ve been Pwned – Bi-Yearly

2 Factor Authentication (2FA) requires a randomly generated code from your phone alongside your password. Once you&#39;ve entered your credentials, you&#39;ll need your 2FA app to get the unique access code. Some of our top 2FA apps include <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/security/mobile-authenticator-app" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Microsoft Authenticator</a>, <a href="https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1066447?hl=en&amp;co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google Authenticator</a>, and <a href="https://getaegis.app/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aegis Authenticator</a>.While you&#39;re at it, check your 2FA app and remove any old devices.

4. Use 2 Factor Authentication

We&#39;ve all reused passwords or used obvious variations like &#39;Sunsh1ne&#39;, &#39;Sunsh2ne&#39;. Password managers eliminate this risk by securely storing your passwords and auto-filling them. They&#39;re built into operating systems like macOS and browsers like Microsoft Edge. At Si digital, we use <a href="https://1password.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">1Password</a>.

5. Use a password manager

Complex passwords take longer to crack. Mix upper and lowercase letters, special characters, numbers, and punctuation. With a password manager handling the heavy lifting, you won&#39;t need to remember them anyway.

6. Have a minimum password standard

Public Wi-Fi at coffee shops, hotels, or airports is convenient but risky. Hackers can intercept your data on unsecured networks. A VPN (Virtual Private Network) encrypts your connection, keeping your browsing and login credentials safe. This is particularly important when accessing your CMS or business systems remotely. Many businesses provide VPN access to their teams. If yours doesn&#39;t, ask your IT department about setting one up.

7. Use a VPN

This one&#39;s on us, and we often do it without you noticing. Keeping software, packages, and plugins current with the latest security patches is essential. Sometimes these updates happen in the background; other times they need thorough implementation and testing.

8. Carry out general updates

Data breaches happen almost daily. Even to the world&#39;s biggest and supposedly most secure companies. Just look at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/sep/20/jaguar-land-rover-hack-factories-cybersecurity-jlr" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jaguar Land Rover</a> or <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93x16zkl9do" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Marks &amp; Spencer</a>. There&#39;s never been a better time to review your security setup. These steps could prevent a serious headache.Got questions or need help? <a href="https://sidigital.co/contact">Get in touch</a>.

What are you waiting for?

8 ways to tighten website and app security

Lead Frontend Developer

Danny Walker

Payload is a <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/develop/payload">modern headless CMS</a> that uses powerful technologies like TypeScript, Node.js, and React—technologies that form the core of our frontend development stack. Its endless customisation options enable us to build tailored APIs and flexible content structures that perfectly match our clients&#39; specific requirements.

What is Payload CMS?

We’ve seen countless benefits from Payload since we’ve been using it, and they’re benefits to both us and our clients. We’ve picked out our top seven benefits below:

The benefits of Payload CMS

A lot of our clients often come to us with a website and a few third-party SaaS systems they want to speak to their website, portal, or app, like <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/integrate/salesforce">Salesforce</a> or a <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/integrate/payment-gateways">payment gateway</a>. Payload’s headless CMS features an Application Programming Interface (API) endpoint, and when paired with our Si Middleware, we can integrate systems into websites, portals, or apps with ease. It means data can be fetched, updated, and created quickly and easily, so our clients can access their data from the CMS anywhere they like.<a href="https://sidigital.co/services/integrate">We integrate all sorts of third-party systems</a> into our client websites, and Payload makes the process a lot quicker and easier for both our clients and us. It’s a win-win situation.

1. Integration

Nobody wants to have to rebuild their website every year. Not only would it be costly and time-consuming, but it can be a jarring experience for your users too. Payload is a future-proofed CMS option. Using the latest TypeScript and Node technology, Payload is built to be secure and reliable. It receives regular updates as well, keeping everything running smoothly on your site.

2. Longevity

Websites can often be left in the same state for long periods of time, and this is often due to the pain of trying to get changes and code updated. Payload is built around flexible content modelling, which means it’s easier for our developers to quickly add features and fields to your website. This means websites can grow and scale at the same rate as your business, so your website never falls behind.

3. Flexibility

Security is normally our clients’ top priority. Over the last few years, cyber attacks and hack rates have rocketed, meaning there’s more focus than ever before on keeping your website’s sensitive data safe and secure.Payload is self-hosted, which means you have control and oversight of all the data that the website holds and accesses. This is a huge benefit for companies that have websites that contain sensitive user data such as personal information. Your data is fully controlled by you, not a third-party service.

4. Security

Website performance is essential for success in the world of digital. Studies have found that around <a href="https://prerender.io/blog/page-speed-tips-and-statistics/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">40% of desktop users</a> will leave a website if it takes more than three seconds to load - and this number rises to 53% for mobile users. It’s also worth noting that search engines like Google <a href="https://www.debugbear.com/docs/page-load-time#what-is-a-good-page-load-time" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">penalise websites that take over 4 seconds to load</a>, pushing you further down the results list. The message is clear: the faster your website performs, the better chance you have of keeping visitors engaged with your content.Payload&#39;s headless CMS is optimised to load content and images quickly, especially when combined with Next.js static site generation. Users expect to find content quickly and easily—it&#39;s a fundamental UX principle that leads to higher conversion rates, and this performance boost ensures your users are getting to where they want to be quickly.But it’s not just your website’s users that can benefit from the performance boost. The backend of the CMS is lightning quick as well. Building out new pages can take a matter of minutes. Adding in blocks is instant, uploading images is rapid, and saving your page between edits is speedy, meaning clients spend less time waiting around for content and blocks loading in.

5. Performance

Quality is at the heart of everything we do here. Payload supports TypeScript, a powerful enhancement of JavaScript created by Microsoft, to ensure our code meets the highest standards. Its strict typing system helps us catch errors early and write more reliable code, resulting in robust and maintainable websites for our clients.

6. Quality

It’s important as ever to ensure your site performs well from an SEO perspective to ensure the correct users are finding your site. Improving rankings on Google and other search engines means more traffic to your site. Payload comes with a whole host of SEO tools built-in as standard, and they’re super easy to use.Its visual-led design tells you how your meta descriptions and images are performing, as well as giving you an SEO check score out of three. You can upload a custom meta image too to maximise impact. Payload will even give you a preview of how your page will look when it shows up on search listings.

7. SEO

Thanks to Payload’s flexibility, it’s a great option for many different types of websites across all sorts of industries. We’ve built massive websites with complex SaaS integrations like Harwin, to smaller brochure sites like our own. But Payload CMS is also a great option for content-rich websites and blogs, membership platforms, internal enterprise tools, and much more.

What type of site would benefit from a Payload CMS?

From flexibility to security to SEO, Payload excels at being a slick, optimised CMS for our clients that lets them reap the rewards of a fully optimised website. Moving CMS is never an easy decision, and usually involves a full website rebuild and redesign, but the benefits can be huge. Payload is an excellent example of how a CMS should be, and as a modern agency, we’ve loved every minute of our move across to Payload.If you’ve got a website you’re thinking of rebuilding and want to move across to Payload, <a href="https://sidigital.co/contact">get in touch</a>.

Conclusion

The benefits of choosing Payload CMS for your business’s next website

8 signs it's time for a website redesign

  Team Games. Client meetings. Workshops… and dogs.

Team Games. Client meetings. Workshops… and dogs.

July Wrapped 📸

A couple of new team members joined us in the office today.

A couple of new team members joined us in the office today.

Say hello 🐶

With pubs open until 5 a.m. this morning, we're closed this morning to let the team recover from a good result. On to the next game! Come on England! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

With pubs open until 5 a.m. this morning, we&#39;re closed this morning to let the team recover from a good result. On to the next game! Come on England! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

⚽️ What a win!

Despite some team members working remotely and others in the office, we always manage to find time for some fun.

Despite some team members working remotely and others in the office, we always manage to find time for some fun.

Nothing beats Jackbox 🎮

 A busy month here at Si digital. Team days, Mario Kart, workshops and so much more.

A busy month here at Si digital. Team days, Mario Kart, workshops and so much more.

June Wrapped 📸 

Yesterday, we had our quarterly all-hands meeting. It’s always great to get the team together and catch up on what’s been going on and what we’ve got planned. 🏎️ And of course we made some time for a few rounds of Mario Kart.

Yesterday, we had our quarterly all-hands meeting. It’s always great to get the team together and catch up on what’s been going on and what we’ve got planned. 🏎️ And of course we made some time for a few rounds of Mario Kart.

It’s always great to get the team together 🤩

Sun, coffee, and hedgehogs in May 🦔

May Wrapped 📸 

Dan brought in Barnaby, his pet hedgehog, to the office today! 

Dan brought in Barnaby, his pet hedgehog, to the office today!

We had a prickly visitor today 🦔

 Coffee and cake to wrap up April 🍰 

Coffee and cake to wrap up April 🍰

April Wrapped 📸

March, you were busy 👋 New team member. New project. A team day that reminded us why we do this together. And a trip to Web Day Out in Brighton to top it off.

March, you were busy 👋 New team member. New project. A team day that reminded us why we do this together. And a trip to Web Day Out in Brighton to top it off.

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