Agency blog – August 2009
RECORD ALL YOUR MOBILE CONVERSATIONS AUTOMATICALLY, SECURELY AND QUICKLY
28 August 2009
The dominance of mobile communication in the business sphere is growing so rapidly that most companies (especially where it is legally applicable) want to record mobile voice calls made by their employees when away from the office. Accordingly it is logical to consider the possibility of extending voice recording from standard landlines to include mobile calls too.
This proliferation of mobile technology has created record keeping and compliance challenges and the Storacall MVR has therefore been created to allow businesses to log and store all their mobile voice calls safely on a central server. Storacall MVR is very simple to use, yet has the ability to record conversations of any length and organize them quickly and easily for immediate access via a web interface! Full details of each recording are available including outgoing/incoming, call time and date stamp, caller/recipient’s mobile number and duration of the call.
After being installed and configured on a mobile phone, the MVR application seamlessly operates in the background in real time with all recordings being sent automatically to a central repository through any defined internet connection. The user can customize recording settings including turning on/off a voice prompt message and a warning beep. In addition the application has a secure storage environment guaranteed by encryption/decryption mechanisms and all calls are stored as secure data files only accessible by authorized persons. Automatic archiving is via GPRS/3G/WLAN.
This technology allows financial and insurance companies or any other business groups to significantly extend their secure and legal transacting ability by recording conversations with clients for later reference, while working ‘on-the-run’, working from home, or working externally because of a pandemic crisis or other situation.
BIGMOUTHMEDIA WELCOMES GOOGLE’S ‘GAME-CHANGING’ ADSENSE ANNOUNCEMENT
27 August 2009
Bigmouthmedia has responded to Google’s decision to open up its Adsense system to third party networks by stating that if successful, the move will change the shape of the online display advertising industry forever.
Under the terms of the policy change, advertising networks that have traditionally focused activity on big brand sites will now have access to Google’s extensive network of blogs, forums and websites. Opening up a potential new revenue stream for thousands of site operators worldwide, the move underlines the search giant’s determination to extend its reach beyond text advertising and into the world of display.
“This is an event that should make all intelligent publishers and advertisers think hard about their activities. Google is clearly determined to make a serious impact upon the display sector and if this move works, their dominance over online advertising will be extended,” said Lyndsay Menzies, Chief Operations Officer at bigmouthmedia.
“Traditional ad buyers will face a new world if Google manage to make this work. They’ll be looking at an environment where site owners can block entire networks if they don’t perform or can block specific advertisers. Display will be less about big deals and negotiating with decision makers and will become much more like search marketing in terms of its scientific and performance led nature.”
Welcoming Google’s insistence that only networks that meet their privacy, speed and quality guidelines will be included in the expanded AdSense, bigmouthmedia believes that the move will require significant changes to the thought process behind a display campaign. Micro-management will become more important as individual publishers are given the opportunity to opt out of entire ad networks or ban ads from certain sites. The agency also notes that the move will be seen as bad news not only for the third-party networks that Google will not qualify, but also for any third-party bid management platform that fails to integrate with the extended system.
“This is a very interesting move which will work if the thousands of
AdSense publishers out there support the move. If there’s enough demand from the AdSense publisher community then ad networks will certainly not want to pass on the opportunity,” said Andrew Girdwood, Bigmouthmedia’s Head of Search.
“If Google get enough extra volume of image ads through this then, as a publisher, why wouldn’t you simply install the AdSense code and let everyone engage in a bidding war to display on your site? There’ll be no need to pay third parties to strike deals with you, and that will mean a significant increase in revenues for existing advertising platforms.”
SHOPS EXTEND THEIR SUMMER SALES WITH BANK HOLIDAY VOUCHER CODES
27 August 2009
Online retailers are releasing more Bank Holiday voucher codes than ever in an attempt to drum up extra business in addition to their Summer Sales.
http://www.SendMeDiscounts.co.uk, a leading voucher code and shopping discount website has noticed a 43% increase in the amount of voucher codes issued by retailers for August Bank Holiday compared with this time last year. But shoppers must be quick to take advantage of them, the codes are being issued at the last minute and are timed to last just for the weekend.
“Many of these secret bank holiday voucher codes are in addition to the shop’s Summer Sales, and can provide extra savings of up to 20%, but shoppers must be quick to use them” said Nick Beeny MD of SendMeDiscounts.co.uk
SendMeDiscounts.co.uk was launched in 2002, and now has about 3000 shops listed in their database. They have been counting the number of new voucher codes released for August Bank Holiday each year and have noted a large increase this year.
“A combination of more people staying at home, the credit crunch, and some typical bank holiday weather has encouraged more shops to try and boost their sales figures by selectively issuing special discounts and voucher codes” added Beeny.
Discounts at Summer Sales already include up to 40% off at M&S and Littlewoods, half price sale at Argos on selected products and up to 70% off at Debenhams. Shops that are issuing special Bank Holiday promotional codes include New Look, Simply Swim, Goldsmiths, Sainsbury’s, Nike Store and Sharp, with more bound to follow at the last minute.
OCEAN BLUE’S CI+ “TURBO” SOFTWARE PASSES THE TEST!
27 August 2009
Bristol, August – 27, 2009 – Ocean Blue Software’s CI+ has been enhanced with extra features and has been verified with the SmarDTV interoperability test kit.
Since 2008, Ocean Blue Software has been working closely with the CI Plus LLP (previously CI+ Forum) to contribute to the launch and testing of the CI+ standard, and has developed both a CI+ software stack and CI+ browser to v1.2 of the CI Plus LLP specification.
The latest version of the CI+ specification details optional features that Ocean Blue Software has already incorporated into their Sunrise CI+ product, those features are;
• Low Speed Communications
This resource allows the CAM to use communication channels that are available on the host. This can be used as part of a conditional access system or as an interaction channel.
• CA PVR Resource
This resource allows the receiver to record protected content and to play it back at a later date.
• SAS Resource
SAS is “Specific Application Support”. This resource provides a communication channel between the application on the CI+ CAM and an MHP application on the receiver.
Ocean Blue’s CI+ software stack, which has passed the conformance tests defined and implemented by the SmarDTV test kit, has now been registered with the CI Plus LLP via the Interim License Agreement issued by the Trust Centre.
The SmarDTV test kit validates the CI+ CAM and host authentication processes, secure communication, transport stream decryption and copy protection information. It also tests the other parts of the specification including software download, localisation and man-machine interface.
“SmarDTV has been collaborating with Ocean Blue Software for the past 18 months and we are delighted that their CI+ software stack is interoperable with our CI+ modules.” commented Conor Ryan, Vice-President of Marketing at SmarDTV.
The SmarDTV CI+ test kit was run with Ocean Blue’s CI+ software stack fully integrated with Sunrise DVB and CI+ Browser components. All three software components can be supplied on their own for integration into third party modules or as a complete turnkey CI+ solution.
Ocean Blue Software developed the world’s first CI+ application, in conjunction with SmarDTV, back in 2008. The ground-breaking application delivered advanced graphic applications inside a CAM, to run on a CI+ enabled television or set top box.
Ocean Blue’s software components are mature, hardware agnostic with well defined and documented APIs; allowing manufacturers to port and validate software with minimal delay and cost.
Demonstrations of Ocean Blue’s CI+ software solutions, amongst other products, will be available on their stand at IBC this year; Hall 5, booth A12.
UNITED PLANET MAKES TIME RECORDING EASY WITH NEW WEB-BASED INTRANET APPLICATION
27 August 2009
London, 27 August 2009 – United Planet (www.unitedplanet.com), one of the leading developers of Enterprise Portal software for mid-sized companies in Europe, has unveiled a new web-based application, Intrexx Time Recording, to enable employees to track and record ‘hours worked’ quickly and easily on the company intranet, from any location.
Employees can create customer and project records and allocate hours worked directly onto the intranet, either using a stopwatch or by entering hours worked manually. Time can be recorded immediately or at a later date, from the office, while with a customer or from home.
Employees and managers are able to view clearly structured reports across all projects and customers at any time in order to track activity, re-allocate time and resources as needed and to simplify the invoicing and quotation process going forward. Analysing working hours in detail and on the basis of time split across customers, projects or time periods also provides an opportunity to streamline and optimise the company’s working processes.
An intuitive menu structure and graphical development environment ensures that the application is completely self-explanatory, can be used without any prior programming knowledge and eliminates the need for time-consuming training sessions. Additional features can be implemented easily and at any time using the Intrexx Portal Manager.
Intrexx Time Recording is based on the established sector-independent portal software, Intrexx, which enables companies to create Web Applications, Intranets and Enterprise Portals with a wide range of functions quickly and cost-effectively. In addition to Intrexx Time Recording, United Planet also offers out-of-the-box solutions for document management, project management, CMS and CRM (www.unitedplanet.com/en/studios).
UK EMAIL MARKETING BENCHMARK REPORT
27 August 2009
UK based permission marketing company Sign-Up.to are excited to announce their first ever large-scale report on email marketing performance for small to medium sized businesses in the UK.
This informative study shows which types of business are getting the best open rates, creating the most effective campaigns, have the highest subscriber loyalty and more.
It’s only natural to compare – we all want to know how we’re doing relative to everyone else! There are several reports already available, but we found they were either based on US data or focused on massive corporations – neither of which are of much relevance to UK-based small and medium-sized businesses.
This report is based on more than 216,000,000 emails sent by UK based Sign-Up.to clients in the 12 months to 31st July 2009. We’ve only included emails from clients who opted-in to our stats comparison service and who declared their industry type. We’ve only included industries with more than 450,000 sends so that the averages are more robust.
Click here for the first edition of the report:
http://www.sign-up.to/email-marketing-benchmark-report.html
PEOPLE IN THE NORTH WEST ARE THE MOST PARANOID
26 August 2009
A study commissioned by the people search website Yasni has found that more than half of people living in the North West regularly check their online reputation; paranoid that incriminating photos of them on nights out or rude comments will crop up online and put them in the dog house.
A study of 1,723 Brits found that people in the North West are the most paranoid about their online reputation; with more than half admitting they search for themselves online at least once a month, looking for embarrassing photos, comments about them or any other incriminating evidence that others could hold against them.
The study from Yasni.com, the world’s leading people search website, found that people in the North West are the most worried about what could crop up online about them, with almost a quarter admitting they need to search for themselves online to prevent getting into trouble with family members or partners regarding photos or comments that could appear on their social networking sites.
In direct contrast, people in the South West appear to be the most laid back about their online reputation with fewer than 15% admitting they search for themselves online on a monthly basis and only 11% confessing that they are concerned about what pictures people may post of them and who may have access to their social networking pages.
Which regions have the most to hide? A list of the most paranoid regions is as follows:
1. North West 53% search for themselves online on a monthly basis
2. Scotland 36%
3. South East 34%
4. Wales 31%
5. North East 27%
6. Midlands 24%
7. N. Ireland 18%
8. South West 14%
Andy Barr, CCO of Yasni.com comments on the findings;
“We always recommend that people regularly check their online reputation, ensuring that information about individuals does not fall into the wrong hands; this could include managers, family members or even strangers.
However, it does seem like the majority of people in the North West are more concerned that their partners will see a compromising photo of them than they are concerned with their own safety or job prospects.
“With the on-going developments that the internet has to offer, people need to be more aware of their actions and how transparently we are now living our lives. A night out with a couple of friends in a quiet bar or even in another country can now be displayed all over the internet within minutes, for all to see!”
NEW MOBILE DEVICE MANAGEMENT SERVICE SECURES LARGEST EVER DEAL WITH MAJOR TRADE UNION
26 August 2009
ESE, the software company behind esemanage.net, has announced it has helped secure mobile reseller Focus4U’s largest ever mobile contract deal with the Transport & General Workers Union.
The T&G deployed nearly 400 Nokia E71’s all enabled with the Nokia
‘Mail for Exchange’ push email application as a cost-effective alternative to the Blackberry service. Nokia’s ‘Mail for Exchange’ provides push email for business without the normal mobile connection tariffs associated with Blackberry devices and therefore reduces the overall mobile costs but still gives the user a fantastic experience with the popular Nokia E71.
The esemanage.net service provides a centralised management platform giving T&G’s technical team visibility and control of any device in their mobile fleet at any time. esemanage.net is a truly network and device independent platform giving customers real confidence to incorporate into their business solutions.
IT Manager at the T&G, Tony Johnson explains, “Our officers work almost exclusively out in the field, so it’s essential for them to have mobile email. They use it throughout the day to communicate with colleagues as well as members.” Unfortunately, with the officers being out and about so much, handsets are frequently lost or damaged. Tony comments, “Having the handsets tied to a contract caused problems. We had to have each phone insured and wait for replacements to be issued, which ended up being time-consuming, frustrating and expensive. So we were keen to find a more flexible and cost-effective alternative”.
Simon Green, Commercial Director at ESE says, “The mobile phone procurement is being handled more and more by the IT department and it is natural for them to require a greater level of control over their systems”. As esemanage.net is delivered in a ‘Software as a Service’ model, the implementation cycle can be reduced to a next day delivery if required. Green says: ”The Service resolves most of the security concerns IT may have and mobile device management can dramatically reduce overall mobile operating costs”.
Mobile technology is providing businesses with feature rich mobile devices that deliver voice, data and applications to users – wherever they are located. This seamless interface between the mobile user, the Business and customers is creating business efficiencies by increasing productivity through availability, inter-organisation collaboration and reduced communication costs. The esemanage.net service provided by ESE builds on the knowledge and expertise they have gained of mobile technology over many years as a former Nokia Intellisync Expert Partner. ESE provide an excellent service package which includes comprehensive user documentation, training and enhanced customer service including trials, webinars and support.
SURVEY IDENTIFIES CONSUMER’S OVERWHELMING SOCIAL RELIANCE ON MOBILE DEVICES
26 August 2009
London: A survey into the social impact that mobile phones are having on today’s society has identified a deep-routed emotional bond with our handheld devices, and that mobile phones are now vital in the social management of our lives. Almost a third of respondents (31 per cent) confirmed they would feel ‘completely lost’ and ‘isolated’ if they mislaid their mobile phone, with a further 25 per cent stating it would have a major impact on their social life and would make them feel out of touch or cut off from friends and family.
The survey, which was undertaken by iome, an events-based digital lifestyle services company, found that only 12 per cent of people would actually find losing their mobile a positive experience, claiming they would ‘feel free’, be less distracted and ‘lead a richer life’.
One in 80 people have admitted to using their mobile internet access to enjoy their vices, including adult content and gambling. The survey also found that the way in which we interact socially has dramatically changed with 12 per cent of people reporting to have been heartlessly dumped via text message.
Over two thirds of respondents are now frequently using their mobile devices to access the web, and of those 81 per cent are favouring to obtain directions or maps, and seven out of ten use it to access social media sites to connect with friends and family, such as Facebook, Twitter or MySpace.
Phil Eames, CEO, iome said: “The survey demonstrates that many people now rely on their mobile devices to connect and interact with friends and contacts – whether via text, calling or even via mobile internet. The way in which people communicate with one another has evolved over the years and the reliance we have on these devices is obvious. It is now seen as a multi-function device that enables conversation, social interaction and keeping up to speed with where your friends are and what they are doing, at any time.”
When asked what feature people would like to see added to mobiles, it ranged from having integrated satellite navigation or the option to watch live TV broadcasts, through to the more unusual requests for teleportation, incorporating an electric shaver for ‘grooming on the go’ and an ever lasting battery so the need to recharge was no more.
The strangest fact resulting from the survey found that over one fifth of people have, at one time, dropped their mobile phones in a toilet!
For further information on iome, visit http://www.io-me.com.
ADVICE ON TWITTER SPAM PROTECTION FROM BITDEFENDER
26 August 2009
What is the Twitter spam invasion? And how can you prevent it?
With the popularity of social networking platforms such as Twitter on the rise, cyber criminals have found an easy target among unsuspecting users. BitDefender offers advice on how Twitter users can avoid falling prey to some of the most common tricks regularly employed by hackers.
One of the biggest spam related security problems facing Twitter are the many link-shortening services utilized for hyperlink posting. Users are limited to 140 characters per tweet; these URL-shortening services allow tweeters to post a longer link under such tight character limitations. Hackers use these link-shortening services to disguise malicious links. Some infections could be easily prevented by allowing users to see the real URL before clicking on it.
BitDefender’s senior antispam researcher Catalin Cosoi says, “Another big problem is the fact that search engines, such as Google, index Twitter profiles. This allows malicious pages that are built and marketed with good social engineering tactics to end up high in the rankings. Additionally, because Twitter messages are so short lived, users could unknowingly send spam messages without having the opportunity to notice that someone else is using their account.”
Some of the common types of Twitter spam include:
1. Tweet spam: Tweet spam comes from someone a user is currently following and everyone following that user will see the tweet.
2. Direct Message: A direct message comes from someone a user is currently following and only the user will see the message.
3. ReTweet Spam: ReTweet spam searches for legitimate tweets and reposts them in the system but with a different, malicious URL.
4. Trending Subjects Spam: Trending subjects spam searches for hot topics on Twitter (like Michael Jackson’s death) and posts similar tweets with different, malicious URLs.
5. Following Spam: Following spam happens when a user’s profile receives a lot of followers he/she doesn’t know. If the user does not start following them back within a week, they stop following the user. Statistics show that one in two users will follow back. Usually these profiles are bots which are programmed to acquire as many followers as possible before they can start broadcasting spam.
Fortunately, Twitter users can protect themselves from falling into spam traps by following five tips:
1. Install a comprehensive security solution on your computer – preferably a suite containing antivirus, firewall and a phishing filter.
2. Follow the spam profile on Twitter: http://twitter.com/spam. Users can find good advice here. For example, a recent post states: “If you gave your login and password info to TwitViewer, we strongly suggest you change your password now. Thanks!”
3. Don’t click on all the links you receive.
4. Disable the “auto followback” option. This will allow you to pick and chose who you want to follow.
5. Make sure you know who you are following.
Cosoi adds, “By following these simple tips, users of social networking sites like Twitter can protect themselves from spammers and other cyber criminals.”
For more information on how to protect yourself from Twitter and other social networking sites, please download our “BitDefender Offers Twitter Spam Protection Tips” podcast or visit the BitDefender website at www.bitdefender.co.uk
FASTHOSTS REVEALS NON-PROFIT WEBSITES GROW AMIDST UK RECESSION
26 August 2009
Fasthosts Internet Ltd, a leading web hosting provider and domain name registrar, today reported a marked increase in the number of .ORG domains registered by non-profit organisations during the past year. The domain suffix has out-grown in percentage terms many other non business top-level domain suffixes, indicating an increase in the number of non-profit and charitable projects being launched in the first half of 2009. The unique growth lends weight to the theory that many such organisations have initiated or grown web-based projects in response to the global recession.
The .ORG domain name is the domain of choice for organisations dedicated to serving the public interest. Data from Fasthosts, one of the UK’s largest domain name registrars, shows that .ORG registrations made by its customers grew by 27% compared to the same period in 2008. The domain has seen the highest demand over all other non-business domains. Whilst domain success can often be skewed by short-term price promotions, the growth of .ORG comprises like for like growth over the 12-month period.
As many UK charities have reported falls in donation income since the economy slowed down, such growth in .ORG domain registrations may suggest that non-profit bodies have stepped up investment in the internet. Web solutions now offer such groups extremely cost effective and scalable channels for gathering support and participation for causes, and taking donations directly from a website.
Steve Holford, CMO Fasthosts Internet Ltd, said: “It is pleasing to note the growth of the .ORG community and witness the remarkable difference that the web can deliver to non-profit organisations. In challenging economic times, such groups are wise to leverage the efficiencies and visibility that online projects can offer.”
Holford added: “Just as the recession has led UK businesses to step up ecommerce efforts, the Internet is the right logical step for non-profit groups to broaden their reach and safeguard their revenues.”
iT4Communities, a Fasthosts customer, is a charity that runs a large
UK-wide network of IT volunteers who support hundreds of charity IT projects a year. They have seen a steady increase in requests for volunteer help with websites for small charities year on year. It remains the largest area of request for help as charities strive for a good website that helps them reduce costs and attract more support.
Anne Stafford, Programme Manager for iT4Communities, said: “Charities are relishing the benefits of websites with a CMS, making it cost effective to update their information and easier for volunteers to help as building a good site can take much less time”.
Affordable and easy to use web solutions have played a key role in accelerating online growth for the charity, non profit and social activism sectors. Nowadays, ‘turn-key’ website solutions from providers such as Fasthosts mean that smaller groups can create a web presence themselves and communicate and collaborate online within minutes.
Fasthosts is a leading provider for shared and dedicated web hosting and business-class email solutions, and is the UK market leader for reseller web hosting.
PUNCH SEEKING FURTHER SUCCESS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA AGENCY OFFERING
26 August 2009
Punch Communications is to seek further business success through the promotion of its offering as a Social Media Agency.
The growing phenomenon of social media is now a factor in the majority of people’s lives all over the world, with Facebook currently having over 250 million active members. Many people have started to use social media as part of their daily routine, enhancing the potential of social networks as a marketing crowd sourcing tool.
Punch has successfully utilised social media as a medium through which it can promote its clients, developing brand awareness and creating conversation as a way of stimulating key audiences. As a result, Punch now offers social media services as part of its overall offering to clients, demonstrating the adaptability of the agency.
Punch is also proficient in search engine optimisation, and has rapidly risen to the top of google rankings for key terms relevant to its industry, with solid number one rankings for the searches “PR Agency” and “PR Company” in the UK. In addition, Punch is also recognised as the number one search return for the keyword “UK PR Agency” in the United States, and also for the term “PR Agency” in the UAE and more recently, Australia.
Pete Goold, Managing Director of the PR Agency, commented: “We plan to provide our skills and aptitude in social media and SEO strategy as an added service to clients, to ensure that they are noticed within the online communities that are relevant to them, whilst also stretching their presence to areas that were previously difficult to reach.
“SEO and social media aptitude are very useful abilities to possess as an agency, and are particularly effective when used in conjunction with a traditional PR campaign. Many people now see social media and search engine activity as a subset of public relations, and this is certainly a perception that we are looking to promote.”
Punch’s aptitude in the fields of SEO and social media has helped it to grow significantly, with the agency hiring a social media optimiser in recent months. Punch has recently announced its intention to expand once more, and has urged all parties interested in PR jobs to get in touch.
PHONE CALL TRACKING ADD-ON FOR GOOGLE ANALYTICS LAUNCHED
26 August 2009
London, UK, 26 August 2009 – ClickThrough Marketing
(http://www.clickthrough-marketing.com) one of the UK’s fast-growing internet & search engine marketing companies, have today announced the launch of a module add-on for Google Analytics that allows you to track phone call conversions from any source including Pay Per Click, natural rankings, forums, banners, affiliates or any online advertising channel.
Launched as a free service to current clients, the system allows marketers’ to track phone call made on your website and display them in Google Analytics as a conversion alongside other conversions like sales, enquiry forms and email subscribes. This means you are able to easily track the true ROI of all your online marketing channels and make informed decisions based on the real Cost Per Acquisition each campaign is delivering.
Phil Robinson, Founder of ClickThrough, “We’ve been tracking phone call conversions for years, however, this new service allows us to seamlessly track phone call data in real time alongside other key conversion points. Key benefits are that we are able to improve the efficiency & effectiveness of our clients PPC and other online marketing activities.”
The call-tracking module has a number of rich features including showing the geographical location of callers, free call queuing, missed call alerts via Email/SMS, free voice mail and customised messaging.
Grant Hardy, MD of Liquid11 an advanced phone and SMS service provider in the UK, who developed the call tracking application in conjunction with ClickThrough said, “We followed Clickthrough Marketing’s direction as to what an advanced call tracking application would need to do for its users and how it could be implemented quickly. We are confident that at this point in time our application is the most effective product available to accurately track your phone call from you web pages or web site. We feel that this is the missing link for many companies, allowing them complete tracking for all aspects of their on line business”.
DNS EUROPE PARTNERS WITH PARALLELS TO OFFER PLESK PANEL 9.0 ON 3TERA’S APPLOGIC CLOUD HOSTING PLATFORM
26 August 2009
DNS Europe Ltd., 3Tera’s primary European AppLogic Cloud hosting partner announced today the launch of Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 on its highly-scalable cloud-hosted AppLogic Virtual Grid Server (VGS) platform. Available with both Linux and Windows VGS services, Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 brings an added dimension of automation and control to DNS Europe’s popular Cloud platform for hosting businesses and resellers. Offer details and pricing are available at:
www.dnseurope.net/gridhosting/plesk.html
“Parallels’ Plesk Panel technology allows our customers to build and manage with ease their hosting business on a platform that provides essentially unlimited scalability and total redundancy through the underlying AppLogic Cloud infrastructure. This means that customers can now choose exactly how much RAM, CPU and Storage they need at any point in time to service their hosting customers and easily administer their users through a highly-professional control panel”, said Stephen Hurford, Communications director, DNS Europe.
“We are now entering a new phase of development of our AppLogic cloud-hosted application services and Parallels Plesk Panel is the first of our so-called ‘Cloud-App’ offerings to be brought online during 2009″ continues Stephen. “We are showing by example how software vendors, Enterprise and hosting companies can easily use the AppLogic platform to make a wide variety of SaaS products available in the Cloud and accessible on demand. ”
About Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0
Parallels® Plesk Panel 9.0 is a complete, easy, and profitable hosting automation solution for hosting companies, SMBs, and resellers. Fully automate your business and offer market leading hosting plans delivered through a professional control panel that will be easy for you and your users to administer.
About 3Tera’s AppLogic Grid Operating System
The AppLogic grid operating system is the first commercial platform designed specifically to enable true utility computing. The system converts commodity servers into scalable grids on which users can visually deploy, operate and scale transactional Web applications without any modification of code. At the heart of the system is 3Tera’s disposable infrastructure technology that packages applications with the definition of the infrastructure required to run them into self-contained and portable entities, able to run on any grid anywhere in the world. As a result, applications become completely separated from the hardware infrastructure traditionally needed to run them, allowing users to remotely manage their applications through a Web browser and provision resources as needed.
CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT AGENCIES SHAKING UP THE MARKETING INDUSTRY
26 August 2009
Alterian Partners see dramatic improvement in ROI through adopting a Customer Engagement model
London – 26 August 09 – Alterian (LSE:ALN), the leading international integrated marketing platform provider, today announced that its partners are seeing dramatic improvements in marketing success and return on investment through adopting a Customer Engagement model to their marketing outreach. Three UK based Alterian partners that are leading the sector are Marketing Databasics (MDB), Targetbase Claydon Heeley (TBCH) and RAPP.
Through recognising a need to change their marketing model, and how to successfully conduct a customer engagement campaign, they are all seeing significant results.
“Traditional marketing as we know it is dead” said James Eiloart, senior vice president sales, UK, Europe and Asia Pacific, Alterian.
“Across our partner base we are seeing an increased focus on customer engagement. Engaging with customers in a two-way dialogue, connecting online and offline channels within an analytics framework, and fully measuring the value of each individual customer is the way of the future. We feel that this ‘revolution’ in marketing calls for a revolution in the strategies of the providers of services to marketers and we are proud to say that three of the market leaders are Alterian partners.” Eiloart continues, “in particular the work that Marketing Databasics, Targetbase
Claydon Heeley and RAPP are doing is revolutionising the market and they can only be described as true leaders in the space.”
Steve Grout, Targetbase Claydon Heeley UK CEO, sees this revolution is driven by technology, “The change we are seeing is a result of the connected world around us. With social networks and the emergence of web and GPS-enabled mobile phones, people are now always online and always contactable by friends, family and brands.” In particular, Grout sees this as the natural way for marketing agencies to move, “The great thing about customer engagement is that it can it fit into people’s existing business models. We are moving from TV to Youtube, social networking and the rest, agencies have moved from a mass broadcast model to one where they are engaging with people on an individual basis. The only barrier we see to this becoming ubiquitous is an agency’s thinking and vision.”
One Alterian partner agency using their vision to realise some dramatic increases in return on investment is MDB. One Alterian partner agency using their vision to realise some dramatic increases in return on investment is MDB. Mark Robinson, Managing Director, MDB can reveal, “Our vision is true customer engagement via multi-channel marketing optimisation where data and insight really drive improvements in ROI. Typically, incremental ROIs from optimised customer engagement has been in the region of an 20-40 per cent improvement across the marketing budget.
This dramatic increase is due to better use of all channels, more immediacy of contact and more appropriate contact; the customer feels like they are part of an intelligent conversation. This can only be achieved by having a holistic view of the customer across all the touchpoints. Our key goal in using a customer engagement based approach is to increase sales while making the marketing budget more efficient. With the results we have seen so far we can most definitely say that has been achieved.”
MDB was placed as a leader in the Forrester Wave™ for UK Database Marketing Service Providers, Q2, 2009. The report notes that MDB “…receive general praise from its clients, especially related to account management, proactive service and client intimacy.”
Commenting on the report, Robinson continued, “We were delighted with such positive feedback. At the end of the day, our goal is to add significant value to the client relationship through data, insight and innovation. As channels become more diverse, keeping on top of the customer interactions is key.
“One of our clients has seen project investment in customer engagement pay back over five times within a year, and the savings will of course be ongoing. In times of recession this sort of efficiency allows the client to leap ahead of the competition by driving appropriate and timely contacts across their marketing programs.”
Gavin Hilton, Head of Strategic Planning, RAPP agrees and thinks that the future lies in effective customer engagement. “People are starting to edit their brand choices. They are looking for brands that they trust and can associate with their values,” says Hilton. “We were a very traditional direct marketing agency up until about 10 – 12 years ago and remain very data driven, but now we recognize that customer engagement is the way of the future and, as we come out of the economic downturn, customer engagement will become a prerequisite.”
Hilton acknowledges that to be effective in customer engagement it is not just a matter of saying you will change; agencies need to look at how they operate and adjust their business model accordingly. “To be effective in this space we realised we had to switch models to become a quality, value add strategy provider. We needed to fully understand who our audience is and what they do. You have to think about measurement in a holistic way.”
Hilton concludes, “If you do this right you can see dramatic ROI from customer engagement.” RAPP’s efforts were also commented on in the Forrester Wave™ for UK Database Marketing Service Providers, with their “…strong strategy, analytics, creative, and execution and fulfillment capabilities” placing them as one of the leaders in the market.
Results like those being seen by Marketing Databasics, Targetbase Claydon Heeley and RAPP, in the UK are also being seen in other markets around the world. One country seeing a similar change in the industry is the US.
BRANDS SHOULD NOT IGNORE THE RISE OF ONLINE VIDEO
25 August 2009
Brands looking to establish a presence on the internet should be looking to utilise the current domination of online video content according to Reality Digital, the leading provider of web community software for brands and businesses.
Statistics from Pew Research have shown that the number of adults that watch forms of video on the internet has almost doubled in the past two years, as more and more websites seek to provide their users with the most engaging content that they can find. Many forms of video social network such as YouTube, and other websites with video platform integration, are already illustrating the benefits of hosting video content, in terms of visitors to their sites.
A much broader benefit of video content is that it is easier to spread
amongst the masses on social networks, with some videos going ‘viral’ through media sharing tools on networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Reality Digital has indicated that by using a brand focused social network for the promotion of a brand, businesses can create their own video content to promote their brand and spread their message in the same way.
Robert Proctor, Head of EMEA for Reality Digital, commented: “Online video content is very important to companies who are investing in internet marketing campaigns and strategies. The vast majority of internet users view video content whilst they are surfing, and being as they are often also part of mass social networks, it is of a huge benefit to brands if they incorporate video into their online presence.
“By using a social networking platform that incorporates video technology, brands can create promotional video content that is very easy for fans of a brand to share across the brand’s social network and also mass social networks like Facebook and Twitter, enhancing the reach of a brand’s marketing activity.”
As online video continues to progress, a great deal of television content is now being streamed across the internet for viewers looking to catch up on their favourite shows. Reality Digital has signalled that whilst most of the video content viewed online consists of small clips and movies, there are signs that the future may hold the complete integration of the internet and television.
NEW ROXIO CREATOR 2010 ADDS BREAKTHROUGH VIDEO ENHANCEMENTS
25 August 2009
Easily Edit and Enjoy High-Definition Content in a Fraction of the Time
25 August 2009 — Roxio®, a division of Sonic Solutions® (NASDAQ: SNIC), today launched Roxio Creator® 2010, a comprehensive upgrade focused on streamlining and accelerating the process of capturing, editing and enjoying personal video, including high-definition content.
Building on Creator’s already extensive feature set for editing and sharing digital video, Roxio Creator 2010 now offers automatic smart encoding to dramatically decrease rendering times while maintaining optimum video quality, and leverages ATI Stream and NVIDIA® CUDA™ technologies to make project encoding up to five times faster. Creator 2010 also adds a range of Blu-ray Disc™ (BD) features including AVCHD Archiving, BD-RE on-disc editing, and complements its comprehensive Blu-ray Disc authoring capabilities with a new array of new high-definition motion menus.
Roxio Creator 2010 also makes it easier to enjoy video on a range of mobile devices with a newly simplified and reorganised output display that enables users to quickly transfer videos that are automatically optimised for the display characteristics and playback features of their particular device.
Adding to Creator 2010’s versatile video capabilities is a Web video capture feature that allows consumers to grab streaming video, such as user-generated content on YouTube®, for viewing offline on portable devices and DVD players.
“Prices on high-definition camcorders have dropped into mainstream territory and a greater number of high-definition players and televisions are now in homes, so we’ve responded by making digital video a major focus of our latest release,” said Matt DiMaria, general manager, Roxio.
“From cutting production times to minutes instead of hours, to simple controls and easy output options for sharing, Roxio Creator 2010 is consumers’ go-to application for working with video and bringing high-definition personal content from capture devices to the big- screen television in the living room.”
Roxio Creator 2010’s powerful new video features are accessed via a redesigned user interface that emphasizes commonly used tasks and includes a built-in Learning Center with dozens of video tutorials and step-by-step instructional guides. Roxio Creator 2010 also expands other functional areas of the suite dedicated to working with photos and music as well as completing burning projects.
Consumers have helped make the Roxio product line the leading consumer toolset for digital media, with over 300 million units shipped worldwide and a North American retail market share of almost 60%, which is four times greater than its closest competitor.*
OPEN WORLD FORUM UNVEILS START-UP COMPETITION
Open source start-ups invited to pitch to potential investors and partners
Paris, 25th August 2009 – Open World Forum, the leading global forum for free, libre and open source software (FLOSS) worldwide, announces a competition open to entrepreneurs looking for increased visibility in the investor community and the open source ecosystem.
Young FLOSS companies are invited to enter the competition by filling in a form on http://openworldforum.org/program/open-innovation-summit. The top 20 most promising projects will be invited to present to an international jury of venture capitalists and major systems integrators in Paris on October 1st, 2009. The jury will announce the winner of the competition at the Open Innovation Awards on October 2nd, 2009.
“Open source software represents a key source of innovation today. It is transforming IT and business models through the emergence of new entrepreneers,” explains Jean-Noel de Galzain, Chairman of the Program Committee for the Open World Forum 2009 and CEO of Wallix. “We are looking forward to meeting the up and coming players in the open source industry and facilitating their continued growth and success.”
The deadline for entries is 8th September.
IOMART WINS HOT MANAGED HOSTING CONTRACT WITH CHILLIBEAN
24 August 2009
iomart hosting is pleased to announce that it has won the contract to provide digital media company, ChilliBean, with managed hosting services.
London based ChilliBean was set up in 2005 and has quickly established a foothold in the digital media market. Its clients include some of the biggest names in global advertising, such as Sony and Saatchi &Saatchi, who trust it to manage and distribute their commercials to local agencies in key global territories. The local agencies then download and distribute the adverts across television, cinema and websites in country.
With so much data being sent back and forth across the world, an average of 40 terabytes per month, ChilliBean required a data centre partner with proven experience coupled with a resilient and reliable infrastructure.
Ben Smith, ChilliBean’s Chief Technical Officer, said: “We’re really proud of the clients we have and to hang on to them we have to be able to continuously prove that their important data is safe with us. To physically handle the data we need solid foundations for our hosting purposes. We have that with iomart hosting – there are a lot of hosting companies out there but we immediately felt that we could trust iomart hosting.”
He added: “When we met with iomart hosting they understood our world, which is a great head start. We’re moving such a lot of content around and we wanted our hosting partner to have a grasp of our business.”
Cost was an issue too, said Ben. “We’re looking at some pretty hardcore storage solutions and we’d been quoted some silly prices in the past – iomart hosting had a very competitive pricing structure, which made the decision that bit easier.”
Sarah Haran, Managing Director, iomart Hosting stated: “We’re delighted that ChilliBean have entrusted their hosting requirements to us. They are a fast growing, successful and vibrant company and we know that they have some very exciting growth plans. We look forward to helping them achieve their goals over the next few years.”
ChilliBean also handles all the digital media for the annual international awards programme organised by advertising charity D&AD, which recognizes outstanding work in design and advertising.
BASILDON COUNCIL USES E-PUBLISHING FOR THE FIRST TIME
20 August 2009
The Digital Publisher, a division of HJ Marketing Ltd, has been appointed by Basildon Council to produce its first e-publishing publication.
The publication, entitled ‘Get Out There’, aims to motivate children and families to get outside and participate in the various activities
Basildon Council is hosting during the summer period. Activities include a mix of sport, drama, dance, cookery, music and arts, with the programme’s purpose to encourage healthy activities and popular pastimes.
As part of the initiative, The Digital Publisher will produce a ‘Get Out
There’ eBooklet that users can download, view or email the link to friends.
Ian Jackson, head of digital at The Digital Publisher, says: “Local authorities can save £1,000’s by simply transferring their printed material into page-turning digital editions. It’s a straightforward process and incredibly economical.” Jackson adds, “It’s good to see progressive and forward-thinking councils like Basildon grasp the technology and use it smartly.”
EMPLOYERS CRACK DOWN ON SOCIAL NETWORKING USE
19 August 2009
Twenty per cent increase in Number of Companies Blocking Social Networking Websites in Last Six Months
ScanSafe, the pioneer and leading provider of SaaS Web security, today revealed its latest data showing that employers are gradually tightening the reins on which websites their staff can view and are increasingly choosing to block access to popular social networking sites.
“When Web filtering first became an option for companies we generally saw them block access to typical categories such as pornography, illegal activities and hate and discrimination,” comments Spencer Parker, director of product management at ScanSafe. “In recent months, employers are obviously wising up to the dangers and negative impact on productivity linked to certain sites and more and more of our customers have chosen to block social networking, online banking and Webmail.”
An analysis of more than a billion Web requests processed by the company each month confirms a 20 per cent increase in the number of customers blocking social networking sites in the last six months. Currently, 76 per cent of companies are choosing to block social networking and it is now a more popular category to block than online shopping (52 per cent), weapons (75 per cent), alcohol (64 per cent), sports (51 per cent) and Webmail (58 per cent).
Employers don’t take the same stern approach to online banking and less than half (47 per cent) of our customers block this category.
ScanSafe specifically found an increase in the number of customers choosing to block the below categories in the last six months.
• 28% increase in travel
• 27% increase in restaurants and bars
• 26% increase in sports
• 26% increase in online shopping
• 19% increase in Job Searches
• 16% increase in Webmail
In economic times like these, having a productive workforce is more important than ever and companies are now often expecting employees to work harder for less. Restricting access to non-work related sites could be a way to encourage this much-needed productivity.
“Social networking sites can expose businesses to malware and if not used for business purposes can be a drain on productivity and bandwidth,” says Parker. “Given the option, companies are increasingly taking a sterner approach to the sites that their employees are allowed to access. I imagine before long, social networking will be up there with pornography in terms of categories blocked.”
ScanSafe Web Filtering provides control over how employees use the Internet. It provides easy-to-use tools to create, enforce and monitor company Web usage policies. Using the most accurate categorization databases, Web Filtering helps manage the firm’s Internet traffic, protecting the network and staff from undesirable Web content.
STUDY REVEALS 1,846% INCREASE IN ‘CHEAP TWEETS’ ON TWITTER PROVIDING SHOPPERS WITH A DISCOUNT, DEAL OR VOUCHER CODE TO SAVE MONEY.
18 August 2009
Internet retailers are embracing Twitter and are increasingly using Tweets to communicate their deals and offers to shoppers, a study by discount voucher code website SendMeDiscounts.co.uk has identified.
(http://www.SendMeDiscounts.co.uk)
SendMeDiscounts.co.uk measured an 1,846 per cent increase in ‘Cheap Tweets’ on Twitter, they are tweets that contained a bargain or special offer, between June and August 2009.
The study was undertaken by identifying 20 of the most common words that Twitter users and retailers posted in their Tweets to identify a bargain, such words or #Hashtags included ‘Deal’ and ‘Sale’. These words were then monitored, by using Twitter Trends and specialist Twitter websites such as Hashtags.org and Twist, for the whole of July to calculate the increase in the number of relevant Tweets posted.
This follows Dell’s announcement in February that it would exclusively announce deals by Twitter on its DellOutlet Twitter account. DellOutlet has over one million followers in August, up from 11,000 in February, they announced in June that their Twitter account had generated over $2Million in revenue.
(http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/archive/2009/06/11/delloutl et-surpasses-2-million-on-twitter.aspx)
“We’ve surpassed $2 million in revenue in terms of Dell Outlet sales,” said Dell-Stephanie N, who Tweets on the Dell Twitter account, in the Dell Community Forum.
“Retailers are getting clued up about the power of Twitter and increasing the amount of offers that they Tweet, making it a real goldmine for bargain hunters” said Nick Beeny, MD of SendMeDiscounts.co.uk who undertook the study to coincide with the launch of the SendMeDiscounts Twitter Page.
The findings also suggested that retailers looking to reach out to savvy shoppers on Twitter should include words or #Hashags that are relevant to their products and that Twitter users monitor for a bargain. Posting unique offers or bargains is a good way for retailers to increase their loyal followers and increase revenue.
The SendMeDiscounts Twitter page aggregates details of the latest voucher codes and other discounts that shoppers can use to save money on their shopping.
Some regular deal tweeters:
@MarksAndSpencer – Deal of the Day from Marks and Spencer
@DellOutletUK – Dell Outlet special offers
@JessopsDeals – Digital Camera shop deals
@SendMeDiscounts – Aggregator of deals and voucher codes.
HAVE LUGGAGE – WILL TWITTER
18 August 2009
Carrymyluggage.com, a leading door to door luggage delivery service, will now be using Twitter as an additional means of informing customers of new services and promotions.
“We see Twitter as a very effective, and fun, way of making our customers aware of what is happening and providing them with promotional details, which can save them money” said Simon Huxford, Director of Carrymyluggage.com
Their Twitter name is ‘Flyingbagman’, as the picture is from when Huxford used to Skydive. “I could have used my own name and a regular picture, but it seemed more fun to do it this way” he added.
Twitter is ‘the’ social media phenomena of the moment, whereby users (or Twitters) send out short messages (Tweets) about what is occurring at that time.
Using this approach may well prove beneficial, as students usually adopt the latest technologies to keep them informed of news and added vale for services, and is bound to appeal to that demographic.
If you want to follow Flyingbagman, or any other ‘Twitterer’, simply go to Twitter.com and type in the name, and away you go. Tweet!
ARE SOCIAL NETWORKS THE NEW WAY TO COMMUNICATE IN BUSINESS?
18 August 2009
A new Survey confirms over three quarters of UK businesses already use Web 2.0 as alternative to email and information sharing. The survey looked at drivers and barriers for adoption of web 2.0 technologies in organisations. It showed that nearly half (46 per cent) of respondents believe there will be a steady increase in the use of Web 2.0 in their organisations over the next
12 months and over 81 per cent are already using it as an alternative to conventional email and for sharing information in the business environment.
The Survey was conducted among 315 respondents in June by Mesmo Consultancy, a leading email training training and consultancy company in partnership with Inbox/Outbox, the UK’s leading forum for e-marketing and collaborative communications.
It investigated the adoption in business of social networking and collaborative tools -generally referred to as Web 2.0 technologies – among IT, marketing and business professionals. Over two thirds of respondents were at management level aged 36-55, over half were female, and both generation X and Y were represented with a quarter aged under 25-35.
The survey showed that within business 47 per cent of respondents use LinkedIn and also voted it the most useful site to them from a business perspective. Facebook was cited as being least useful for business but conversely on an individual basis Facebook was seen to be useful in raising the individual’s profile. It came a close second to Linkedin with Twitter and YouTube in almost joint equal third position. While, over two thirds of all respondents said they did not use social networks at work over three quarters (77.9 per cent) said they used Facebook at home, two thirds YouTube (61 per cent), 41 per cent LinkedIn and 29 per cent Twitter. My Space and others attracted only 11 per cent or less of respondents.
According to Dr Monica Seeley, Founder and Managing Partner of Mesmo, the survey results indicate that the main driver behind increasing Web 2.0 adoption is the need to reduce email volume and the time spent in sending them – as 71 per cent of respondents cited how easy they are to use to share information and the need for an alternative to email for communications.
“Whatever the medium, in my experience, the more volume generated the less useful it becomes. Many people have been turned off by the nonsensical drivel issued by many ‘celebrity’ ‘Twitterers’ but if you carefully select a few contacts in your field you receive interesting nuggets. Additionally we are seeing companies promptly dealing with customer gripes that have been ‘tweeted’ and maintaining Facebook and other network ‘pages’ to extend and enhance their brand reach. My personal favourites are Martha Lane-Fox, Graham Cluley of Sophos, Luke Williams of Social Tech and David Allen the time management guru. These plus a few others link me direct to articles I want to read. I’ve now switched off a lot of newsletters I used to subscribe to and created for myself a pull rather push information feed. I go and look at the few sources I really value when I have time rather than being deluged with information of which only 10-20 per cent may be of use”.
Dr Seeley herself offers daily tips on how to save time dealing with email on Twitter at http://twitter.com/emaildoctor.
Despite the increase in interest towards social networking websites, blogs and wikis with over a third of respondents reporting increased use over the past six months, there is still a great deal of concern and scepticism – and 40 per cent say their organisations are not using Web 2.0 technologies. Top three reasons given, were security, the lack of evidence supporting its effectiveness as a relevant business communications tool and the time it takes to use such media.
Commenting on the results, Dr Seeley said “Over 51 per cent of the business professionals who took part in the survey highlighted security as a potential barrier to the evolution of Web 2.0 in the work place. Judging by the number of emails I receive on a daily basis from IT professionals who are struggling to make conventional email systems bullet-proof, it is clear this will play a key factor. However, time and information overload are real problems for most of us. We are all time poor and data rich and for many businesses, there is no other option than to develop current communication tools and look at new ones.”
“Web 2.0 is exciting and it does offer the opportunity for businesses, large and small, to be more efficient and productive. For this to work, there needs to be more reassuring, proven cases of success before it is more commonly used in business to improve productivity and increase sales,” adds Managing Director of Revolution Events, Rich Tribe. “Already 45 per cent of Internet users spend most of their time on user generated websites but sound policies and clear practice guidance need to be in place to reassure IT professionals and office managers that business intelligence and data security is not at risk.”
The current lack of clear guidelines and training was also highlighted in the survey with 36 per cent citing a lack of suitable training and education. Whilst only 29 per cent said their current Computer Acceptable Policy explicitly covered the use of social networking. The recent publication of the Government’s Digital Britain again highlights the need for far more focus on improving the level of IT competence and confidence amongst UK plc.
For more information about Mesmo Consultancy, please visit: www.mesmo.co.uk or follow the email doctor on Twitter at http://twitter.com/emaildoctor where Dr Monica Seeley provides a differing daily tip to save time dealing with email.
About Dr Monica Seeley, Mesmo Consultancy.
Dr Monica Seeley, founder of Mesmo Consultancy, is an international leading expert on email best practice. She specialises in enabling executives and their organisations to manage their electronic communications (especially email), more effectively to improve business performance. Mesmo Consultancy provide consultancy and training focused at both the individual and strategic perspective.
Monica is a Senior Visiting Fellow at Sir John Cass Business School, City University. Her research studies include the use of social networking tools to gain sustainable business benefits.
TWITTER ATTEMPTS TO SHUT DOWN USOCIAL
Twitter has recently moved to shut down web promotions company uSocial.net, by claiming the advertising agency is “spamming”.
According to uSocial CEO Leon Hill, Twitter recently sent accusations via a brand-management organisation that uSocial are using Twitter for spam purposes. Despite this, uSocial say the claims are false.
“The definition of spam is using electronic messaging to send unsolicited communication and as we don’t use Twitter for this, the claims are false.” Said Hill.
uSocial believe the claims are due to a service the company sells which allows clients to purchase packages of followers to increase their viewership on the site.
“The people at Twitter who are sending these claims are just flailing around trying to look for any excuse they can, though it’s going to take much more than this if they want us to pack up shop.” Said Hill. “We’re not going away that easily.”
The service in question can be viewed on uSocial’s site at http://usocial.net/twitter_marketing.
SOCIAL MEDIA IS HAVING A POSITIVE INFLUENCE ON RELATIONSHIPS ACCORDING TO REALITY DIGITAL
14 August 2009
Reality Digital, the leading provider of social network software for brands and businesses, has identified that social networking trends have had a positive effect on relationships, on both a personal and familial level.
The rise of social media has inevitably spread to a wide range of audiences, an example of this being that parents are flocking to the likes of Facebook and Twitter, adding social media into their everyday lifestyle. As a result, brands are now able to communicate their messages through social media to a more mature generation of consumer, as well as the already present younger one.
As well as being able to communicate through social networks, families can now use multimedia within these networks to share videos and photographs, with video platform integration within social networks becoming increasingly popular. Video social networks such as Skype have also become popular as a way of maintaining relationships over long distances.
Social networks appear to have made big events such as children moving away to college or simply moving out easier for parents, as they no longer need to worry about not having any idea what or how their children are doing. Reality Digital has indicated that this development shows how far the effect of social media can reach.
Rob Proctor, Head of EMEA for Reality Digital, commented: “Social media is really starting to prove its vast worth as a communication tool for businesses to reach out to their consumers. The emerging age demographics on social networks provide a huge opportunity for brands, as it means that their ability to reach out to key audiences is enhanced.
“This is in turn paving the way for brands with a more mature consumer base to start using social networks as part of their marketing activity.”
TOP 10 BROADBAND: PROVIDERS COMPELLED TO GIVE AVERAGE SPEEDS BY 2012
13 August 2009
Broadband providers will be obliged to advertise average connection speeds by 2012, according to Top 10 Broadband.
A controversial report from Ofcom recently found that the average speed delivered by broadband supplier is around 57 per cent of what is claimed in advertising campaigns. The findings prompted a raft of high-profile coverage and fuelled unprecedented demand for Top 10 Broadband’s custom-built online speed testers, with over 75,000 customers logging on to test their speed in the two weeks since the story broke.
To tackle the problem, Top 10 Broadband predicts that by 2012 broadband providers will be compelled to display the average speed that a customer can expect to receive for that provider. Furthermore, to make this as accurate as possible, two speeds will be displayed: one for rural locations, where connections are typically significantly slower, and one for those in urban areas.
Not only are advertisements for broadband devoid of average speed information, but these statistics are also largely unavailable at the point of sale.
Jessica McArdle, marketing manager of Top 10 Broadband, said: “The disparity between actual and advertised broadband speeds could be eradicated in coming years if only average speeds were made available.
“Consumers deserve to know what they’re buying so they make an informed decision. We think it’s inevitable that provision of average speeds by suppliers will be standard within the next few years.”
CORIZON, THE ENTERPRISE MASHUP COMPANY, PARTNERS WITH CAPGEMINI OUTSOURCING SERVICES (UK)
12 August 2009
- Partnership agreed between Corizon and Capgemini Outsourcing Services UK to deliver innovative enterprise mashup services -
Corizon, the enterprise mashup company, has announced a Systems Integrator Partnership with Capgemini Outsourcing Services in the UK. This partnership supports the realisation of tangible capabilities in support of growing activity both companies are seeing with their client base. Clients are now aggressively looking to reap the many newly-emerging business benefits enabled by leveraging enterprise mashup services in their business and applications transformation strategies.
Capgemini has pioneered the adoption of enterprise mashups to support client requirements to deliver rapid business value. Capgemini sees the adoption of enterprise mashups by their clients as an opportunity to continuously innovate and deliver iterative business improvements that result in increased productivity and significant cost reduction.
An enterprise mashup is a business/customer oriented, custom application, rapidly assembled by, or in close collaboration with, business users in short timescales to meet immediate business needs. Typically, they combine data, functionality or processes from multiple existing internal or external IT/Information assets to create innovative services and new business value.
The Capgemini enterprise mashups programme includes a structured set of activities that range from analysis through implementing proof-of-concepts, the production of mashable components and complete end-to-end enterprise mashup applications. Clients can choose the level of service support they require and will benefit from a fast track approach to achieving ‘fit for purpose’ applications that deliver improved user productivity and rapid project payback. The Capgemini CTO Team’s Enterprise Architects work with clients at the juncture between their evolving competitive business needs and the enabling capabilities of leading edge technologies. They have the skills, experience and partnerships in place to help clients reap the benefits of enterprise mashups.
Corizon provides an Enterprise Mashup Platform that simplifies the creation of the mashable components, delivered as easy to deploy User Interface or UI Services and makes them readily available to the business community. Business users can then use these UI Services to build process-based end user applications that deliver the right information at the right time to drive the desired productivity, cost and customer experience improvements.
This robust platform ensures that new applications can be quickly created and deployed on a large scale to thousands of users with the security and governance required of a robust enterprise IT infrastructure.
Karl Deacon, CTO, Capgemini Outsourcing Services, says “We identified a real value opportunity for our clients to benefit from enterprise mashups within their IT strategies. Enterprise mashups are proven to deliver rapid productivity improvements and impressive project payback in the Business lead projects. We have developed a complete package of supporting services to help clients maximise the benefits. The Corizon Enterprise Mashup
Platform provides us with an excellent solution, from which we can deliver our client new business benefits at speed and very low-cost.”
Eric Guilloteau, CEO Corizon adds: “The Corizon Enterprise Mashup Platform is only available from our approved Systems Integrator and Solutions Provider Partners including Capgemini. Each partner is trained to maximize the use of the platform to deliver their clients with fit for purpose mashup applications. Corizon was the first company to deliver an enterprise mashup platform and is the only company to have deployed robust mashup solutions across thousands of desktops.”
ONLINE BOOKINGS – A REALITY FOR ALL BUSINESSES
10 August 2009
What was once the preserve of large companies or those with a hefty IT budget can now be had by even the most modest companies – the innovative Cheshire based software company ‘Smartdiary’ have released the latest version of their diary management solution clearly focussed on providing complex solutions to those with modest IT skills and budget.
Already a provider of booking solutions to Careers Wales, University of East London, ABB, and national Charities such as Citizens Advice, Age Concern and CRI, the latest Smartdiary booking system allows a company with modest means to take real time bookings and reservations from their website, the system even integrates with PayPal and Google Checkout for online payments. “We’re very proud of our new system, it has taken 12 long months to develop this latest version that will manage the bookings of everything from an MOT or Beauty Treatment to a Aerobics Class or a Property Inspection, we even proud to boast Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, host to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, using our system“.
EMPLOYERS URGED TO USE ‘SOCIAL NETWORK TECHNOLOGY’ AS KEY METHOD OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
07 August 2009
Reality Digital, a leading provider of white-label social networking software, recommends businesses adopt social networks as a key method of internal communication to help keep costs down as the recession continues.
Larger companies with multiple offices are being urged to utilise social networking technology to their advantage as a way for employees to communicate with each other more efficiently and effectively, saving costs at the same time.
Robert Proctor, head of EMEA for Reality Digital, commented: “Brands know that social networks are a valuable channel for engaging with their customers, but they are also an effective way for staff members to communicate and collaborate internally, particularly for large companies where employees may be separated by large distances and different time zones.
“In these tougher economic times, business owners are constantly looking for new ways to save money – and a lot of money, not to mention time, can be saved by providing employees in satellite offices access to the interaction and collaboration tools available in social networks. More and more we see businesses embracing and encouraging social networks for internal use to improve productivity and communication in the workplace. We anticipate that this trend will continue well into 2010 and beyond.”
The Reality Digital Opus Platform is a leading white label social network, developed specifically to facilitate the building, management and monetisation of social networks.
Using the Opus platform, businesses can build an internal social network that provides a customised environment for staff to interact, share and collaborate in.
As well as being a cutting edge video platform, the Opus Platform provides all of the latest features in business networking functionality, incorporating member profiles, messaging and email facilities and slideshow capabilities, as well as calendar and event management, all of which serve to streamline internal communications.
