Soon every self respecting business will have a web site. It is important that you ensure that your brand is represented right.

It's time to start nailing down the requirements document for your web initiative - whether it's an online application, a B2C site or an e-commerce site for shopping online.

Here are some guidelines for not only outlining your site's needs but also for choosing your web architecture and design partner for the "next generation" of your site. It's not too soon to get going on your redesign... and soon it could be too late.

Outlining Your Requirements

Is your site's information architecture strong enough? Is it intuitive enough to get rave reviews from your regional online community?

Is your site competitive enough? Is it the very best web site in your competitive vertical? If not, get a comprehensive analysis of your site and figure out the weak parts, chances are that you're ready for a serious architect to improve your site's navigation.

Ask yourselves: "Is our site a well-designed product? Does it have all the key features a well-designed shopping mall site deserves.

Is your copy compelling enough, not in terms of meeting your business plan objectives but in terms of meeting your customers' needs? Are the value propositions rewarding enough for prospective users to say, "Wow, this is worth staying and exploring" or "This is somewhere I'll come back to on a regular basis because ....".

Is your site weak because it was kludged together under intense time pressure? It may be time for an architecture overhaul.

Is your cyber-branding strategy well thought out and comprehensive? Is it consistent online as well as offline? If the answer is no, bring in a design team that can revamp your online branding strategy.

Has your designer/architect built a strategy for scalability into the architecture and navigation so that as you grow, you do build equity into your brand?

Is your site staying current with the constant new look and feel of the web? Remember technology changes faster on the web than anywhere else!

Choosing Your "Next Generation" Partner

Choose a partner who really understands the human factors of a user experience, specifically how a site can engage and empower the user.

Find a web design firm that has information architects who are well-versed in the customer-centric practices of creating strong user interfaces.

Don't let pretty pictures fool you. There are a lot of great design firms but not a lot that really understand information architecture as an art and as a science.

Identify web partners that are willing to engage in a sustained partnership with your web team rather than just working with you on a project-to-project basis.

Make sure your web design firm has a "future planning" program to help train some of your in-house staff on practices to follow in order to safeguard the integrity of the design and architecture put together for you.

Finally, look at the long term. Who is going to carry you through the next generation of ideas when the time comes? Let's face it: We are all growing up in the web world together, and investment in partnership is a lot of work. You want the work to pay off, and part of that means seeing what kind of innovative thinking a firm's visionaries have.

Now that you've got guidelines for outlining your site's needs and pointers on selecting the right design partner, don't procrastinate, call the right web design and e-strategy company now!

"If you have seen the internet bandwagon, you have missed it. The idea is to be on it".