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We've written some insightful, entertaining articles that span topics from support to design to content management and beyond!
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As the summer comes to a close we look forward to Labour Day. REM will be closed for Labour Day Monday, September 7th and will re-open on Tuesday.
Have a safe and enjoyable long weekend from all of us at REM!
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Today, it is now essential for all businesses to be able to operate at least somewhat remotely or in a manner which allows remote access to their goods or services. What this means is that if I need to book an appointment somewhere or I need to make a purchase of a product, I should be (and it could be argued that I need to be) able to make that happen online. If this is not the case, the business is most definitely behind the curve and competition when it comes to accessibility.
Even more so, the current health climate is pushing people to want their goods delivered, and for their services to be performed in a manner which exposes them to the least risk possible. As such, putting yourself in a better position to be able to fulfill these requests will give you an edge in the coming economic environment. Having your website able to take orders, book appointments, ship goods, and essentially allow your business to operate remotely will also give you access to a range of customers you did not have access to before, such as ones who simply live too far from a physical location to make a convenient trip.
Lastly, this can give you access to individuals who may require remote services due to disabilities or other life circumstances which prohibit them from accessing your type of goods or services normally. This could be anything from remote counselling to online guitar lessons, but making something accessible without needing to leave the home is going to give you a massive edge in the years to come.
If you have any questions give us a call or let us know in the comments!
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At Stemmler Meats, you’ll find fresh, wholesome foods and time-honoured recipes passed down through generations. We source our meats, cheeses, produce and baked goods from hard-working local farmers for our retail store in Heidelberg, Ontario. Our manufacturing facility, located in Waterloo, Ontario, boasts 17,000 sq. ft. of processing space and top-of-the-line meat processing equipment, caters to the meat retail, wholesale, and co-packing sectors.
Stemmler's Main Contact Person: Kevin Stemmler, CEO, Business, Product Development and Regulatory Affairs
No. of Employees: 50 |
Established: 1985 |
Locations: Retail Store: 3031 Lobsinger Line, Heidelberg Processing Plant: 725 McMurray Road, Waterloo |
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Why did you choose REM?
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We have been with REM for many years and know they also have a great reputation with others in the industry. When it was time to update our website, it was a no-brainer to call REM.
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What was it like working with REM?
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The team at REM is always super responsive, on-time, and professional. During the build, they made great suggestions, we never had any “surprises,” and were kept well-informed of the progress on our project.
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The team at REM is always super responsive, on-time, and professional. |
Learn first-hand how we can help you with your website needs.
Contact us today!
Toll Free: 1.866.754.4111 |
Phone: 519.884.4111 |
Sales: sales@remwebsolutions.com |
Support: support@remwebsolutions.com |
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Over the last 10 years or so, we have seen vast improvements in data storage. Whether it be the storage size, speed of data transfer, or even methodology of storage, we have seen worlds of change. It seems like despite this, we do currently work with a mixture of technology from across this period.
At the bottom of the totem pole for hardware is the standard HDD, which is a physical spinning hard disk having a specified RPM, which will limit the speed of data transfer. This is what you might find in computers in the 5-10-year-old range, and can be very slow to load the operating system or other applications. Next you have your SSD or Solid-State Drive, which is worlds faster. This works off of technology similar to flash memory, where there are no moving parts and so data transfer speed is limited to the connection between the motherboard and drive for the most part. You would find this technology in computers 1-4 years old, and it may only take you 5-10 seconds to load your OS after booting instead of the 2-3 minutes you may see with a HDD. Lastly, you may see a new type of drive called NVMe, which is somewhere in the realm of 7 times faster than SSD and connects directly to the motherboard. It uses similar tech to a PCIe slot, and so the data transfer speed is considerably faster (not limited by SATA connection speeds). If you use a computer with one of these, everything is basically instantaneously loaded (The actual transfer rate is something like 3.5GB/s).
Even from a methodology standpoint thing have changed. It is now very common to utilize something called cloud storage, which remotely stores data on servers which can be accessed from the user’s PC or other device at any time. Typically, these servers are controlled by a company and the space is rented out to the user for a small fee. The speed of data transfer in this case is usually limited to the ISP speed being provided to both the user and used by the 3rd party service providing the storage.
As you can see, a lot has changed in the last 10 years - and hopefully we will continue to see new and interesting innovations in this field.
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When it comes to real estate, the old saying goes: location location location. It is no different when it comes to the virtual real estate on your website, and that is why the placement of your content is so important. It can make or break something even being seen or interacted with at all in many cases, and depending on what the content is, this could be very detrimental.
Most websites make use of a banner area on the Home page, right at the top. This is often rotating, and you should make use of this as often as possible to point to new or temporary things/updates with your business. Your banners should probably change about as frequently as you would expect your common repeat customers to visit. This can be a little bit of work to upkeep, but it is well worth it.
Your navigation is also vitally important in guiding people to relevant information, and keeping your navigation short and concise is a big part of making this effective. Consider keeping the items to about 5 or 6 at most, and consider not even including dropdowns if possible. You can guide to further subpages if necessary, from within your relevant content, but the goal is to streamline your visitors to the places they want to go as quickly as possible to avoid them losing interest.
Finally, page placement itself is a big component. If you want something to stand out on the page, consider leaving space around it to make it more obviously visible, and making sure it is close to the top of the page. It is important not to clutter important information as it can dilute the message and users can be sidetracked or lost. Keep your pages clean and focused, and this will help drive users where they need to go.
If you ever have questions, feel free to reach out to us any time!
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When it comes to the way we interact online, things have changed drastically in the last few years. We have seen a migration from the phone to email, from email to instant messenger, and from instant messenger to server-based community groups such as Discord or Microsoft Teams. Likewise, we have seen many programs come and go such as Ventrilo, Teamspeak, Skype, and many others as better and more robust programs replace them.
These days, it seems that the options are limitless when it comes to professional conference calling, but what if you are looking for more than this? Microsoft Teams can offer additional features such as meeting scheduling, calendar integration, and group chats within your organization. You can also record meetings for later viewing and send it out to participants. Other programs such as Zoom offer a smoother calling experience, at the expense of many other features.
For grouping on a personal level, nothing beats Discord these days. The server customization options are nearly limitless, and for the low cost of $0 it is no wonder nothing even comes close in terms of competition. They even took a major step with the COVID-19 outbreak and expanded their server capacity to allow for up to 50 users to stream video at one time from a server - something even professional services could only dream of offering (and probably at a hefty cost). The UI is unmatched and very easy on the eyes - it is also fairly customizable.
Things will always evolve - I do still recall when Skype was king - it will be interesting to see where the future takes us with these communication platforms, but I am eager to see what emerges in the coming years.
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We at REM Web Solutions are honoured and grateful to be celebrating 20 Years in Business!
Thank you so much to all of our awesome clients that have kept us busy and supported us over the years!
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The Lancaster Smokehouse is a Southern Style family restaurant founded in 2011. We brought Southern BBQ to Waterloo Region with our first restaurant Hog Tails BBQ in 2009 after learning the craft on the Southern BBQ Competition circuit in the 1990's and 2000's. With growing demand, we wanted to expand into a bigger restaurant and catering and The Lancaster Group of Companies was formed.
We now consist of our sit-down restaurant with a banquet hall, our catering and events/food truck company and newly, our Crumb Bakehouse. All our food is homemade, and ingredients are local. We are big supporters of highlighting great local companies, and farmers that keep our economy going. The “Lanc" delights our great customers as the "go-to-spot" for mouth-watering Southern BBQ, amazing experiences, live music and awesome Craft beverages!
Lancaster Smokehouse's Main Contact Person: Caitie Agostinho, Owner/FOH GM
No. of Employees: 53 |
Established: 2011 |
Location: 574 Lancaster St W, Kitchener, ON |
Visit Lancaster Smokehouse website
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Why did you choose REM?
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We really needed to move into a different direction with our website. After finding REM through an industry colleague and looking at REM’s website to see what they had to offer, we called them up to see if they could help us. Rob and his team were overwhelmingly helpful in guiding us to what steps we could take next with our website and the tools they have for us to take our website to where we needed it to be. The support they offer is a big thing for us. It allows us to fix things on the fly and when we need help, we know there is a knowledgeable team that is just a phone call away. Another big driving force why we chose REM was because they are our neighbours! It was the icing on the cake to have them be just down the street from us and being able to continue to support local.
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What was it like working with REM?
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Every step of the process with REM and their team has been efficient, quick, helpful, kind, knowledgeable and patient! Being in the restaurant industry we often work different hours that are not your typical 9-5 business hours. REM was always there and were very patient with us. Christine did a phenomenal job with our design. She really understood what we were looking for and understood our vision. When our business model changed to mainly takeout, we had to get our website up and running for online orders and push the project along a little faster than we had hoped. Rob, Christine, Brad and the rest of the team were more than accommodating to this. The commitment and support Rob & his team showed to helping us with the changes has been overwhelming. We know we can always count on them, and not only did we get a great website, but we gained a great friendship with REM. |
The commitment and support Rob & his team showed to helping us with the changes has been overwhelming.
-- Caitie Agostinho, Owner/FOH GM |
Learn first-hand how we can help you with your website needs.
Contact us today!
Toll Free: 1.866.754.4111 |
Phone: 519.884.4111 |
Sales: sales@remwebsolutions.com |
Support: support@remwebsolutions.com |
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From all of us at REM Web Solutions, we wish everyone a Happy Canada Day! Please note that REM will be closed on Wednesday, July 1st.
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We wish everyone a Happy Easter with their families and friends. REM will be closed on Friday, April 10 and Monday, April 13 to give our team some extra time to refresh.
