Kiswebs Ltd

Or the longer version if you prefer

Kiswebs stands for "Keep It Simple WEB Solutions", and to this day that is still our mantra

Kiswebs website design and development started in 1999 as a general website design and development agency, creating websites for both public sector and private sector clients

At the time of starting, the web industry was in its infancy and there was a lot of "clever" and "impressive" and often "moving" ( or as we like to call them "distracting") graphics, appearing on a lot of websites

We soon identified that much of this was a waste of everyones time, and wasn't adding any real value to the websites or those visiting the websites

To be fair to the designers of the time they were having a great old time to themselves, as they were allowed to express and explore their creative talents

But were the organisations or the website visitors really benefitting because of these "impressive" website designs? We didn't think so We believed that people wanted to get the information they needed as quickly as possible, without the obvious distractions of the time

Hence why "Kiswebs" ( Keep It Simple WEB Solutions) came to be

PHARO stands for "Putting Housing Associations Right Online"

Around 2002 we were commissioned independently by 3 separate Housing Associations to design and develop their new websites

From our discussions with them it became apparent they all had similar needs and wants

So we asked them if they would like to participate, with us, to develop a solution that was specific to their needs and wants, and the needs and wants of the housing sector as a whole

They were delighted to help and become part of something unique and special for the sector

But we didn't just want to create great looking websites specific to the housing sector, we wanted to also enable the housing associations and societies to manage their own websites internally, without having to constantly go back to the designers for updates

The first version of the PHARO Content Management Solution (CMS) was born

PHARO was and still is very much a collaboration between Kiswebs and Housing Associations / Societies

It was created by Kiswebs and Housing Sector organisations, for Housing Sector organisations

Kiswebs have now helped create hundreds of website solutions for the UK's Housing Sector, all using versions of the PHARO CMS over the last 20+ years

This has been crucial to not just the development of the PHARO solution but also the Kiswebs team

The people that know the housing sector best are those that work within it

Many of the ideas that led to new functionality within PHARO have come directly from our many housing sector clients

We at Kiswebs have greatly benefitted from soaking up the knowledge and insights that comes directly from the housing association staff we work with on a daily basis

This means we are extremely well placed to advise our clients in not just design and development but also in many other important legislative aspects you wouldn't necessarily expect a design agency to be familiar with