Consulto is a software product conceived and produced by the team at WebSolvers, an Orlando, Florida-based interactive agency founded in 1995. The product's main purpose is to address a need in the marketplace: to help professional services firms (law firms, consultants, accounting firms, etc.) quickly create and manage powerful Websites. Nothing to download. No software to install, or configure. No requirement for a programmer and no 120 day project to suffer through. What's more, there is no initial investment of tens of thousands of dollars to create a site that has the functionality of a global services organization--just a modest monthly fee with no long-term contract.

But in order to meet this need, we wanted to do it right. We're pretty picky about design and believe in the power of sound visual communication. As such, we wanted to be sure that the product's interface and the resulting output looked stunning. On top of that, it needed to work the way that services organizations needed it to. It needed strong functionality that emerging firms require. Features like:

• dynamic content management (making text updates easy)
• integration with 3rd party services like Twitter, Facebook, Google Analytics and others
• integrated email marketing
• search-engine friendly content
• mobile-friendly site layout
• a marketing metrics dashboard

A system like this didn't exist and we thought it should. The result of that process is Consulto, a distributed Web management platform that will continue to grow and evolve as technology and client needs change.

The Bixby Creek Bridge Photo Credit: Elizabeth Certo

Along the way, one of the many things that inspired us was the Bixby Bridge. It's a famous bridge along the Pacific Coast Highway in Big Sur, California built around the time of the Great Depression (see Wikipedia entry). Over the years, it's become iconic: often seen in television commercials (most recently in a Corona beer ad), featured in songs (Death Cab for Cutie wrote a song about it) and even featured on postage. The US Postal Service commissioned a stamp bearing its likeness (seen to the right) in 2010. You'll notice that our logo was also inspired by the bridge.

But what strikes you about this bridge is not the beauty of your surroundings...those have all been pretty overwhelming for a while. What is really amazing is to think that before the bridge was there, someone (insert name) had the idea or gumption to put a bridge across the canyon.

So while our product is no feat of physical architecture, we were inspired to do something different...something that hadn't been done before. We decided to solve a pretty big problem with software. Namely, how to enable a professional firm to quickly create a Web site, give them the functionality they need, and give them a truly engaging design framework to support their brand identity.

We know the bridge metaphor is a lay-up, but it works. A bridge gets you from one place to another, over obstacles, or somehow makes things easier. So while there are no building permits or raw materials required, we hope Consulto does all those things for you.