Media-Insert Communications

Prevent scandals with marketing dashboard integrity
The recent TV scandals over premium line phone-in callers being overcharged even hit some well established and trusted programmes like the BBC’s Blue Peter, Channel 4’s Richard and Judy and competitions like the ITV’s the X-Factor. Was this down to human error, or was it caused by limitations in the technology that they were using for their shows? What is clear is that this scenario could have been prevented.

So how could the scandals have been prevented? “By acting with integrity; this is the simple answer, which is not always easy when the votes or entries are streaming in their thousands and driving revenue”, says Lee Bowden – a Director of mobile marketing campaign management software service provider, Piri Limited.

He adds: “When we built PIRI, ensuring there was a safety net to avoid such consumer issues was vital if we were to convince major media owners that empowerment in this field was not just cost effective but easy to implement.”

Scandals can do two things, provide an increased amount of publicity, albeit not of the kind that one would necessarily want, cause damage to people’s perceptions and trust in the brand. There are times though when the reverse can be true, but broadcasters and programme-makers still have a duty to act in an ethical manner, particularly if they want consumers to participate in their shows and competitions. In essence they should do everything within their power to avoid any unintentional overcharging of consumers.

“While the damage has been extensive”, he says, “It is not unrepairable. When consumers realise they have a true deadline or cut-off time and start realising this when they get sent I am sorry but the competition has closed, they will learn and be satisfied the campaign is being run legitimately. The media owner will still have collected a valuable number for future marketing anyway, even if it is for reminding them to get their next entry in on time!”

Bowden believes that a mobile marketing dashboard is the answer, in order to ensure that this situation never occurs again, “The person responsible for setting up the competition or voting campaign enters a start date and time but also the close time. Any sender of a message received after the close time is simply sent a message that states the competition is closed and they would not be charged. If an incorrect time is entered or edited, there is a log of exactly who is responsible and who made the change.”

Questions also arose over the role of the industry’s regulators, Icstis. Bowden believes that they are too reactive and not proactive enough, which therefore limits their ability to ever have control in “a fast moving and time critical environment.” They should, nevertheless, insist that media owners – the broadcasting companies – are responsible for such premium rate mobile and telephone campaigns, and they can do so by using a dashboard. A dashboard would prevent any charging violations, in which customers are overcharged or charged when a competition or phone-in line has officially closed. Blame should not be “passed around like around like a hot potato”, says Lee Bowden.

A dashboard can empower media owners, such as broadcasters and programme-makers. “The interface gives them a live feed response from the network, shows their profitability and actual live responses and pictures from its audience. Everything they need is at their fingertips and they are not reliant upon others for information and legislation”, he comments before adding that training on Piri’s own system only requires 30 minutes on average.

This responsibility needs to be allocated to your production team. He thinks that, “Audience interaction has been a huge success from a consumer point of view and is here to stay. They need the revenue stream more than ever as advertising revenues continue to switch to online and more targeted campaigns. If they are to protect this precious resource and maintain the confidence of their audience, they must take responsibility for it and not to a service provider who’s sole interest is maximum votes/entries to ensure their percentage equates to as much as possible.”

“Future Publishing were very keen to point this out in our initial discussions with them and to date we have not had a single complaint from a competition entry or vote. That’s in over 20 months and over a million entries. Scott Longstaff could back this up!”

The scandals at the end of the day were perhaps more down to human error than the capabilities of the technology that was in place at the time, but a technological fault could also have been the cause. Did the programme-makers actually set up a proper cut-off time and processes to prevent consumers from being overcharged? What is clear though is that the responsibility for acting in an ethical matter is more down to them, and that’s even though the regulators also have a duty of care towards the viewing-public. It is also apparent that such phone-in scandals can be prevented by using technology in the right way at the right time.

By Graham Jarvis MA

17th April 2007

Further reading on the impact of the scandals:

1. http://www.allmediascotland.com/articles/1097/02042007/another_day_another_tv_phone-in_scandal
2. http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/solution%20hopes%20for%20tv%20phone-in%20scandal_1024374
3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6463901.stm
4. http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=298442007
5. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/03/22/do2203.xml

What is PIRI?

PIRI is an affordable, easy to use web based application that allows you to offer a wide range of reliable mobile messaging solutions to your clients, customers or users. Send out broadcast SMS messages advertising new products, run competitions and opinion polls, gather marketing information, all of this and a lot more can be achieved with PIRI.

To see what PIRI can do for you click here.
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Adapt to changing customer needs to win sales
Fresh thinking, differentiation, and market insight lead to competitive advantage

Customers’ needs are changing really fast today. But even in this climate of constant change, price remains a consideration; but it is now rarely the most important factor when customers choose one supplier over another. Suppliers therefore need to better understand what it is that customer’s are really looking for, which may be some way away from the supplier’s positioning. They need to provide more than just a cost effective cure for their customer’s pains.

There are simply too many vendors out there in the marketplace who just cure their customers’ pains; yet whilst they may take some pain away, they do not leave the customer any stronger after than they were before. The customers’ own businesses are no further forward as a result of the money they have just spent, worse; it has taken time and effort on the part of the customer, as well as money for the supplier to just remove their pain yet there has been no tangible gain. They are in fact only where they would have been some time ago had the problem not occurred, except for being a bit poorer.

Suppliers in today’s cut throat market need to clearly differentiate themselves by evidencing to their customers what value they create for their customers’ business and showing clearly how they leave their customers better prepared to win business than other suppliers. Using this approach, customers businesses will not just be pain free, but will also become stronger after the supplier’s intervention than they were before.

Many sales methodologies around in today’s market are based on thinking that originated in the combative sales marketplaces of the 80’s and 90’s and no longer give companies that competitive edge. Why, because the focus is too rooted in polishing up the supplying organisations offerings to make them look better than the competitions offerings. This is often misnamed ‘Value Add’.

Is this enough? Surely the focus today needs to be on giving the customer a real competitive edge in their marketplace, not just on supplying more ‘stuff.’ Sales methodologies that do not apply this approach are past their sell-by date. They struggle to create competitive advantage or fresh thinking in the companies that implement them. They are no longer unique and fail to stir up any excitement in the minds of the customer. The game has moved on.

The approaches pioneered by some sales methodologies still seem very introspective rather than customer centric. Fine, every company needs to know its core competencies – understand its strengths and weaknesses when compared to its competitors – but the key element of any strategy is customers: what’s hurts them, what heals them, what makes them stand out above the rest in the market, what pleases them, what inspires them, what makes them or you more attractive, what they perceive to be ‘value’, and what triggers an action to buy from you.

This is the message that is being given on a daily basis by Andrew Dugdale, Chairman of ICDL (Intellectual Capital Development Limited). Dugdale states:

“ICDL’s customers are always saying that they believe ICDL to be unique in our ability to drive net new thinking that results directly in competitive advantage and differentiation for our customers.”

Don’t push; pull in customers!

Pushing products or solutions at customers with no understanding of what ails them does not create competitive advantage, nor added value. So while it is important to act like a medical doctor to understand their pains, and the causes of the day-to-day problems they face within their internal and external operating environments, it is also an imperative for them to look fitter and more attractive than anyone else in the market after your engagement (as opposed to just feeling well and great about themselves). Sometimes customers need help to realise their own potential too; there may be opportunities that they may not have yet realised, they may not know why they have the challenges that face them, they may not understand their competitors, and how to turn things to their advantage or how to become the market and marketing leader, and so on.

The time has passed for the ‘walking product catalogue’ sales person – they are the 21st |Centuries dinosaurs. Without detailed knowledge and training in how to achieve maximum performance, companies will not be able to compete as effectively as they could or should within their chosen markets. The trouble is that most companies take an introspective view of their market, looking at the outside world from their perspective, rather than an outside-in approach. Outside-in uniquely enables a full understand of every element of the competitive environment, particularly customer needs, and the emergent market drivers achieved through structured market analysis.

ICDL goes beyond healing

Additional value only comes from going beyond the healing of customers’ pains. Value is only partly achieved by selling customers products, services and solutions that match their expectations and needs. ICDL takes its customers one step further than anyone else in the market. Simon Dando, Business Development Director of Carillion Construction has the following to say about ICDL:
“ICDL has changed the way Carillion does business by changing the mindsets of our account directors to a focus on the language and value of our client’s customers, rather than focusing internally into our world. As a result, Carillion is now always two steps ahead of our competition and fully engaged at a strategic level with our customers”.

Step into the customers’ shoes

Jeff Tull in chapter 2 of his book, ‘Exceptional Selling — How The Best Connect and Win In High Stakes Sales’, says that salespeople should “step into customer’s shoes. The biggest mistake is to assume that customers recognise all of their problems, understand the financial impact of those problems, are able to establish problem priority in terms of resolution, and will be compelled to act”. Another false assumption is about customers knowing exactly what intrinsic value they will get from buying solutions from one company over that of the others – each of whom actually have very similar propositions. This leads to customers focusing on the base value of price and availability, which is not what you want to do as a sales organisation: it will only lead to battle for ever narrowing profit margins.

Customers don’t always understand value

So there are a couple of lessons that emerge from this: ‘Differentiate or die’, says Jack Trout, never assume that customer knows what kind of value your company and its offerings represent. Evidence has to be provided that more value will be added by working with you as opposed to one of the others within your market. A value proposition alone is not sufficient, , there may need to be more of an educational process to enable you to position your products higher up the value chain and this includes training salespeople to avoid being presumptuous:

“I told the customer how much more valuable our solution would be to them than our competitors’ solutions, but they simply didn’t get it”.

How many times must long suffering sales managers hear this plaintive cry, the cry of the 21st Century sales dinosaur, before a new way of thinking is adopted?

Dugdale was recently interviewed as part of the development of the Institute of Direct Marketing’s new B2B marketing qualification, and explained the process:

“Initially the needs of end users within any given market need to be clearly understood, why, because it is then that you can be really sure you understand the drivers within a market. This is achieved through a number of different research methodologies (field, desk, quantitative, qualitative etc). The market needs are then analysed out and mapped to your organisation’s capabilities. Additionally, it is important to understand at what stage of the market cycle you are entering, (early adopter, fast follower, mass market or commodity for example) and this positioning then also needs to be mapped against the optimal market cycle positioning for your organisation.”

“Following this, if the risk/return parameters look good, a capability analysis is carried out, which includes a consideration of the company’s ability to fulfil the identified market needs whilst creating competitive advantage and incremental market value, which is mapped onto an RoI/Net Future Value matrix. Finally, if all the indicators are positive, the gap between current capabilities and optimised capabilities (offering alignment) needs to be filled…”

‘Every business in is a growth business’

ICDL essentially agrees with Ram Charan and Noel Tichy in their assertion that ‘Every business is a growth business’, published by Three Rivers Press. “Growth is a hot topic today. Business leaders who have been through the wringers of repetitive downsizing, re-engineering, and all the rest, are discovering that they must now focus not only on operational excellence but also on growth. Incremental market share gains won’t secure a future for their companies. There’s nowhere else to go now; literally, they either grow or die”, they explain. The two authors stress the following:
1. There is no such thing as a mature business…so get this out of your head…
2. Not all growth is good…but good growth is sustainable, profitable and capital efficient…
3. Growth is a mentality created by a company’s leadership…and this includes the leadership and skills development of salespeople…
4. Balanced growth is the key to prosperity…
5. Growing is less risky than not growing…
Growth is achieved by knowing your markets, your suppliers, your customers and even their own customers. From a sales perspective this means that companies have to shift, as Walt Zeglinki argues in his whitepaper – ‘Are you ready for a sales makeover?’ – from being just product sellers to problem solvers. This means that successful companies will define their value in terms of the problems they solve for the customer (including differentiation and market attractiveness), and not simply by the product they sell. A solution selling capability depends on four elements too: solution positioning, marketing support, organisational alignment, and value-driven sales processes. It’s no longer a case of selling on the basis of the bells and whistles of the product, which won’t necessarily talk the language that customer needs to hear in order to perceive sufficient added value, to buy it.

When your sales approach needs reinvigorating and you are looking for a vendor, perhaps you should ask yourself if their approach is really going to create significant competitive advantage, differentiation, and of course value for your customers, and their customers.

By Graham Jarvis MA, ACIM, MCIJ, M IDM for ICDL (http://www.thebusinessaccelerators.com)
Editor, The Marketing Leaders (http://www.themarketingleaders.com)
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Unlock the Real Value of Your Assets
When you have nearly one million pounds worth of IT and electrical equipment spread out over five unique locations across the South East of England, supporting a vibrant community of 6,500 students, how does one control their assets? The University College of Creative Arts (UCCA) has found the answer – iAM – intelligent Asset Management provided by GOSS.

Without an efficient asset and resource management system to manage physical assets such as those at UCCA, it would be a logistical and administrative nightmare trying to keep track of which student has loaned which piece of equipment, and which equipment has been lost, stolen, or is need of repair. This process becomes even more complicated to manage and track when students take equipment out of the country when carrying out overseas projects.

Integration and Data Headaches

The University College has recently been established following the merger of the Kent Institute of Art & Design (KIAD) and The Surrey Institute of Art & Design. As with the merger of any organisation this has raised data integration and management issues.

Equipment at UCCA used to be booked using one of two methods:
1) Paper-based system looked after by UCCA staff which had to be manually processed and was very difficult to keep up to date
2) Single store systems available only to booking staff

Defining the Needs

Alan Nash, Deputy Technical Co-ordinator for the University College for the Creative Arts, wanted to make life easier for both staff and students. He knew there were a number of IT systems available, which could help solve the asset management problems the college faced, but none of them quite lived up to expectations. So what were the college’s requirements? Nash says he needed:

• An asset and resource management system that was easy to use
• A means of tracking all assets and ability to obtain an audit trail of where assets are located at any given moment, whether a piece of equipment was being repaired, how often it had been taken out of service due to repair and who it had been loaned to
• A solution that would allow for all related and associated documentation to be electronically stored alongside each individual asset
• To be able to use images on screen to provide visual support to on screen text
• A system that could give and keep details of the value of assets for insurance purposes
• Advanced search capabilities that enable assets to be located and found quickly
• A system that would provide the ability for students to self-book equipment within a secure authorisation framework, therefore freeing up administrative time
• A system that would provide trend analysis and reporting in order to provide a better asset management forecast e.g. when should certain assets be replaced? What is the return on any capital investment?
• And finally a flexible and secure system, which could be accessed from anywhere over a wide geographical area

GOSS Creates the Solution

UCCA looked at a number of possible solutions and decided on GOSS and their Intelligent Asset Management (iAM) solution. The company currently provides UCCA with their Content Management System which manages the University College for the Creative Arts website www.ucreative.ac.uk. UCCA has developed a strong working relationship with GOSS, with both organisations understanding the others needs. GOSS therefore seemed to provide the perfect fit, owing to its bespoke solutions and experience with a number of public and private sector organisations. Working closely with GOSS Nash was able to get the solution he wanted, specifically written and implemented to meet the University College’s asset and resource management requirements.

The benefits of the bespoke solution are:

• Ease of use
• Minimal training required for users
• Use of web technology to enable users to access the system and make bookings with a personal log-in and profile from anywhere in the world
• Flexibility – anything can be deemed an asset, from people to video cameras, and it can also track maintenance schedules and asset lifecycles
• Bookings and workflow can be scheduled
• Seamless integration with other UCCA systems
• Real time automation of the data management process, meaning that UCCA are able to keep records up-to-date
• Real-time information about which resources and assets are available to users
• High levels of security; permissions can be controlled and access restricted to certain areas of the system by administrators
• The system allows relevant documentation to be electronically stored alongside assets
• Time and cost savings
• Extensive reporting function and the ability to create audit trails

Secured Resources and Assets

Security is an important part of the GOSS offering. Nash explains why, “Security is of paramount importance as we are dealing with nearly a million pounds worth of assets. The ability to assign competency levels to assets ensures that expensive equipment is only available to those users who are authorised to do so. Students can look on-line at all the assets available to them and we can then authorise the loan”.

iAM – An Effective Asset Management Solution

So what does Alan Nash think about the system?

“I think the GOSS asset and resource management solution is an extremely good system”, comments Nash and adds, “We have had systems before but they have been very limited in their functionality. In this day and age we require intelligent systems that facilitate efficient work flow processes and enable effective use and deployment of all our resources”.

The GOSS iAM solution delivers a wide range of functionality that can be used in a variety of ways in order to ensure maximum return on investment. As Alan Nash says, “One of things that we wanted the new system to do was to provide an audit of all asset failure breakdowns, which we have not been able to track before. This would help us in forecasting future expenditure, and provide us with a better idea of when an assets life cycle is coming to an end. The new system will provide us with a reporting function that really does assist us in our management and procurement processes”.

The GOSS solution provides UCCA with the wherewithal to provide a first class service to its users that provide quick and easy access to those resources and assets required by users to undertake and complete projects that require technical equipment from a single system.

PDF version.

Further information

For further information, pease email Sharron Robbie, Marketing Manager, GOSS.
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GOSS Successfully Launch iCM Version 7.0 at Internet World
Last week’s 3-day Internet World show at Earl’s Court, London, provided GOSS – the Enterprise Content Management company – with a platform to successfully launch and demonstrate the latest version of its ‘market-leading’ intelligent Content Management solution, iCM, and its Asset and Resource management application (iAM).

Internet World GOSS Product Demonstration

Sharron Robbie, Marketing Manager at GOSS, said that it was a very enjoyable event. “Being at the show has led to an extremely large number of good quality leads that have resulted in a number of further meetings being booked”. “Using the show to launch our latest products allows the sales team to demonstrate new products to potential users in a dynamic and friendly environment.”

Visitors to the GOSS stand found its Website, Intranet & e-Tailing solutions to be innovative and dynamic, having a user-friendly interface, which is easy to use, but with a high degree of functionality. Sharron Robbie adds, "It would appear that Content Management market remains vibrant with many visitors to the GOSS stand showing a particular interest in our latest version of our Content management software, iCM and in our new features email to web and our auto-suggest functions".

Judith Price, Head of ICT Teignbridge District Council, Presents at Internet World

Judith Price, Head of ICT at Teignbridge District Council, highlighted many of the benefits of working with GOSS in her presentation at the show. The Council works closely with GOSS, which has provided the local authority with a flexible licensing structure that enables local not for profit organisations to obtain a free web presence via the Teignbridge.info web portal. Organisations are provided with free software training to ensure that participants are able to quickly and easily update their particular areas of the site.

GOSS is better connected and attracts visitors to its stand

The success of the new product launches, and the development and success of the Teignbridge community portal, along with the Dorsetforyou and Cornish Key portals, demonstrate why GOSS are recognised by the Society of IT Managers (Socitm) in its ‘Better Connected 2006’ report as a serious contender and as a market leader, next to Microsoft, of Content Management solutions within the local authority sector.

The new products launched by GOSS, complement the company’s demonstrable expertise and experience within the Enterprise Content Management space, and enable the achievement of legislative compliance, while helping organisations and companies to meet the challenges of managing data and content from a variety of sources. GOSS are successfully enabling the Management of Mobile Content through their innovative approach to providing intelligent business solutions.

Judith Price & Richard George, GOSS MD on the GOSS Stand

Editor’s Notes

About GOSS – GOSS develop and deliver Enterprise Content Management software, associated services and solutions. GOSS solutions are based on a sound understanding of client requirements and the technology we use to meet your customers’ needs.
Learn more about GOSS Brand Values and what we are able to deliver at: http://www.gossinteractive.com/index.cfm?articleid=1910

Visit our website – To read more articles about GOSS, please either visit our website or http://www.media-insert.co.uk.

Contact GOSS – T: +44 (0) 1752 517 350 or E: info@gossinteractive.com
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GOSS – Internet World 2006 Photos
Check out the new photo album of GOSS – the Enterprise Content Management company – at Internet World 2006, Earl’s Court, London, by clicking here.
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The Internet: The key to Your New Home
In the past the main channels for those looking to buy a new home focused on advertisements in newspapers and a visit to the local estate agent. The key to your new home has since moved online; at least 89% of homebuyers now turn to the Internet as a primary source of information when looking for a new home. Berkeley Homes, one of the top 12 contractors and house-builders in the UK, says that more and more homebuyers are turning to the Internet than ever before to help find their new home. The company also feels that online marketing and e-business is no longer something to take for granted. It is imperative to the company’s continued growth and success.

The Berkeley Group use GOSS iCM software to deliver fully content managed sites to support their thriving presence in high quality housing development. The flexibility of the iCM platform has enabled the Berkeley Group to create additional sites quickly and easily. Using the Internet to communicate with potential customers has been an extremely successful strategy for the Berkeley Group who recently revitalised the berkeleyhomes.co.uk website. The Berkeley Group’ range of companies is embracing the Internet as a key medium for selling property through initiating interest and meeting customer needs.

The company’s sites use Flash technology to provide users with a rich interactive experience. The formation of microsites has enabled the Group to provide high quality imagery of their new developments alongside detailed information. Home-buying can be extremely stressful and people have little time on their hands and a very good idea of the kind of property they want in terms of location, specification and price. The Group’s microsites deliver quality information to potential homebuyers who are able to see exactly what is available, using a medium that enables 24/7 access.

The Benefits of Online Home-Seeking

Berkeley Homes believes that consumers can benefit from the following when using the Internet to find a new home:

• New developments within a specific geographic region can be located;
• The availability of plots can be checked and viewed;
• Homes that meet a buyer’s criteria can be short listed;
• Purchasers can take a virtual tour;
• Floor plans, specifications, fitting options can all be viewed;
• Detailed photographs or artistic impressions of properties can be viewed;
• Comparisons can be made between houses that meet their criteria;
• Show homes can be viewed online along with sales office opening times and contact details;
• Local information can be accessed e.g. schools, transport links.

The company says that the increased number of sales and transactions through its electronic channels supports these findings. These channels include Berkeley Homes’ corporate websites, microsites, property portals and other online marketing services. These are not just successful but they are also cost effective, flexible and measurable. It has also seen an increase in the requests for brochures, registrations, viewing requests and email enquiries since it began working with GOSS.

The Berkeley Group in partnership with GOSS has developed “Comprehensive websites that are packed with features and functions, easy to use and navigate and with an attractive design”, says Lisa San. The sites, which include a simple registration process, are considered a pleasurable experience for the company’s customers. They are in effect designed to attract interest in the houses and plots available, and retain customers, while enabling sales offices to track potential prospects and get in touch with them to either arrange appointments or answer a customer’s queries.

The customer also has 24/7 access to information about what is available in the property market, and this includes a global reach. Electronic channels are also seen as being more cost-efficient, with a shorter lead-time, enabling more effective targeting, and with the potential for a higher conversion rate to sales. They can also send out personalised messages to each potential customer to provide a welcoming and customer-specific experience.

GOSS Wins the Key, But Why?

The Berkeley Group feels that the GOSS iCM software is very easy to manage in terms of the content and data that is distributed across its sites. The solution attracted them to GOSS, over and above other providers in the market, because content can be easily kept apart from the design function of websites. This has made it possible to maintain high levels of consistency.

It cites other benefits including the ability of the system to automate approval processes, the re-usability of templates and code libraries. It says that it has also been possible to develop a number of microsites with different designs, but with everything still controlled and managed centrally. Further key benefits of working with GOSS include:

• Good customer service and account management;
• Excellent design, development and Flash skills.
• The provision of excellent technical support, knowledge and advice when necessary;
• The iCM product is flexible enough to enable The Berkeley Group to do a lot of the development without having to continually go back to GOSS for help;
• Continuous enhancements to the iCM system.

Plan Ahead to Feel at Home

Microsites form an important part of Berkeley Group’s e-marketing strategy, particularly so with regards to the promotion of its flagship development projects. These sites are used to provide more in-depth and targeted information about specific projects than the corporate website can provide. This includes the use of various types of ‘imageries’ or graphics to enhance the look, feel, and attractiveness of the available plots and developments. This also has the complementary aim of answering a customer’s enquiries at the first point of contact.

“We have found that microsites have been very successful in driving prospects to our show homes and marketing suites allowing our sales negotiators to convert them into sales or sustain an ongoing communication with them to cultivate the sales cycle”, comments Lisa San.

GOSS iCM has allowed the group to push its design and web development skills to their limits too. All of its microsites use a similar type of structure and common functionality. This allows the developers to create the code once and then replicate it a number of times with ease, so a site can be deployed in a matter of minutes and the templates built in a few days rather than a few weeks.

The solution is flexible enough to help with the planning of the design, data hierarchies, and business processes. Any changes to an existing structure can be easily reflected in a new one with respect to the navigation menus and the site maps. Berkeley Homes have also effectively employed the approval processes contained with the solution to ensure that the content within the site is ‘correct and valid’.

The Berkeley Homes sites have been identified as being up to date, informative and interactive, with the Royal Arsenal microsite winning the prestigious Daily Mail Property Developer Website in 2005. The Group plan to continue developing sites to provide home seekers with an online interface that is attractive and easy to use.

————–
About GOSS Interactive

GOSS provides hosted services and intelligent and enterprise-wide content management solutions. GOSS solutions are based on a sound understanding of your requirements and the technology we use to meet your customers’ needs.

To contact GOSS for further information please call +44(0) 1752 517 350 or email Sharron.Robbie@gossinteractive.com or visit: http://www.gossinteractive.com/BerkeleyHomes
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CIMTech re-branded: The Marketing Leaders
The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s Technology Group is now re-branded as themarketingleaders.com. Over the next 6 months or so the community will be developed to provide a wider range of benefits and services to its 60,000 subscribers. Initially there is the online magazine. There are also plans for both online and offline events, and there are other plans to help vendors meet potential clients, and to help practitioners to use information communications technology (ICT) more effectively for marketing. The focus remains the same: technology is a tool that should enable you and your clients to deliver or achieve a return on investment (ROI).

Meanwhile, are you are marketing leader? Then please contact me at editor@themarketingleaders.com, particularly if you would like to submit an article or ideas for future editions of the magazine.
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Media-Insert is invited to write a chapter for the IDM Marketing Guide on CRM and e-CRM tools
On the following blog it is argued that customer relationship management or CRM has been around for 20 years, but let’s face the fact that it has been around for much longer. This is because CRM is about more than just technology; it is about people and processes in the first instances. So it has, I would argue, existed since the first time man created some form of transaction with another person.

Furthermore, the trouble is that the modern concepts of CRM turn the ‘Customer is King’ paradigm on its head with the implication that they can be managed. Customers in fact want to manage the relationship, and they have the ability with a widening range of channels to decide more and more quickly whether they want to buy a product from, say, yourselves, or one from a competitor.

Even so I think that ‘Picking the right CRM’ is a good read and great blog for those seeking to find the right tool for the achieving a customer-centric CRM or CMR job. Meanwhile, I am seeking some research and commentary into CRM and e-CRM tools for the chapter on this subject that I am writing for the Institute of Direct Marketing’s Marketing Guide. If there is anyone out there who’d like to like to help me with my research, please call me on Skype: gajarvis or +44 20 8661 8965.

Media-Insert: Graham Jarvis Media Services also has a new blog: http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/crm/mediainsert/
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Online Travel Sales Rise Rapidly
The trend for booking travel and holidays online continues to rise. The major travel groups are reporting double-digit growth figures in passenger numbers. Expedia is now the fifth largest Air Travel Organiser’s Licence (ATOL) holder with a 36% growth in sales. Expedia, Freedom Flights and Flightbookers say that passenger sales will rise by 19%, 84% and 188% respectively. ATOL-protected bookings by major online operators, says Travelmole.com, also show a 60% rise in online passenger sales.

A further improvement of 50% (1.53 million in 2006) is anticipated, although 32% less air travellers are covered by the ATOL scheme. Even so the market for the scheme’s protected holidays rose by 4%, equating to sales of £14 billion. In fact a total of 27.3 million passengers bought such vacations and flights in the year leading up to September 2005. There are also 1,100 travel agents and small tour operators who have managed to obtain Small Business ATOLs of a total of 2,440 businesses holding an ATOL licence.

In the USA, a survey by Accenture of 550 business travellers shows that 75% of businesses make their travel bookings online. The trend here is again going upwards with only 22% of the respondents calling an agent to organise their travel requirements and bookings. In contrast during 2003 around 36% preferred the telephone to the Internet. The vast majority, 87%, of business travellers are also using airport kiosks to check in due to its convenience.

Overall, in both the consumer and business travel markets, there is a big push to book directly with airlines and hotels at the expense of the online agents. There is also a shift back to the major airlines from the low-cost carriers. TravelMole quotes an anonymous spokesperson who says:

“Major network carriers and hotel companies should be keenly aware that aspects beyond price, such as convenient schedules, are deciding factors for many business travellers…service and convenience – from the website to the aisle seat, to the hotel room – remain the top concerns for travellers”.

Furthermore, since 1999 travel and holiday reservations through travel agents have remained static according to a report by Mintel. More and more holidays, which is also suggested by US market figures, are being booked independently. In another TravelMole article entitled, ‘The Internet offers compelling advantages over agents’, the research company’s head of research, Paul Rickard, comments:

“For an increasing number of travellers, being in control of creating their own itineraries and do their own booking creates a compelling advantage over the services of the travel agent. Indeed, today, some 34% of adults like to travel independently.”

Around 18% of those surveyed want to get off the beaten track, and some are even worried by the impact of mass tourism on the environment and local communities. There are a number of factors that have stimulated the rate of growth in the industry. The Internet is playing a major role in this, particularly as more and more of us are able to access the web from home and therefore book our holidays online. Most of us, Rickard believes, are better off and this has led to more people taking more holidays and ever more independently from the major tour operators and travel agency outlets.

So, like with every business, if you want to win your company needs to provide the best quality service, a high level of flexibility, with the most convenience for the business or even leisure traveller, and at the right price. With the increase in online sales it also important to have a website that provides the right level of usability and accessibility to information, which makes booking online easy and intuitive.

Sharron Robbie, Marketing Manager of GOSS – the Enterprise Content Management Company – says that the trends are similar in all of the main travel sectors. GOSS’ client Brittany Ferries, for example, has seen an online growth in sales. Steve James of Brittany Ferries says, "Year on year cumulative growth has been spectacular. Visitor sessions are up by over 100%, unique visitors by over 250% and ferry bookings by over 80%. The facility to book holidays online for 2006 went live in December and we are exceeding our ambitious targets. Brittany Ferries was the first travel company to provide complete online management of bookings and more and more customers are using the facility to recall and amend or cancel their bookings."

There is also the issue of information communications technology (ICT) integration with call centres, mobile telephony, airport kiosks, search engine technology, the Internet, and other channels. At the recent Travel Technology Show in London, for example, most of the firms exhibiting focused on content management, digital asset management (DAM) and more specifically global distribution systems (GDS), a reservations system that is perceived as another sales channel in the travel industry.

With regards to integration there are, for example, more than 60 million active mobile phone handsets in the UK, and at least one is owned by 85% of the country’s households. Although it is suggested that most people will only make low value transactions using their mobile phones, Lastminute.com reports travel purchases of around £4,000 via such devices. The importance of this channel is also shown by its growth in sales, which between 2003 and 2004 grew by 2000%, with average sales totalling £200 per transaction.

Experts at the London show also believe that search engines demonstrate great potential for the travel industry as a sales channel with only 9% of search terms overlapping between Opodo and eBookers. Of 17 searches for a destination, about half of them were for an airport claims Hitwise’s director of research, Heather Hopkins.

Meanwhile, Google’s vertical market manager, Daniel Robb, advised the delegates to get the right mix between quality keywording and cost per click: the word ‘flights’ might cost 10p per click, but if you are more specific with, say, ‘flights to Majorca’ then the cost could drop to as little as 5p per click. No matter what the cost, albeit an important consideration, Arjo Ghosh – the managing director of search engine marketing company, Spannerworks – cites that 73% of all online travel purchases begin with a search using one search engine or another.

Another potential case study is that of the Great Hotels Organisation, which talks about the Power Law curve of search in a PowerPoint presentation entitled: ‘Is search the new distribution channel?’ It claims that, within the next 3-5 years, more than 50% of all travel bookings will be made and sold online. It also claims that 20% of all natural search phrases get 50% of the searches and 20% of the group’s bookings. The remaining 80%, it says, get 50% of the search and 80% of its bookings. Natural search can be risky though, so Great Hotels also uses pay per click.

So the message here is that companies shouldn’t be half-hearted about it; the focus should be on the value of the search, the whole process is getting slower and so it should be viewed as a long-term exercise, and you need to keep working at it continually. Controversially, the company also suggest that Google is a ‘fickle friend’ and it advises that no one should rely solely upon it to achieve the desired commercial results, but adds that Google is the only search engine that counts when it comes to natural search. It also thinks that natural search is the most effective Search methodology, the one that provides the best value.

Sharron Robbie adds: “All of the best travel websites will have invested in search engine marketing (SEM). The management of a site’s content is therefore crucial, and it should be where possible achieved in a structured and logical manner. From compliance perspective there is also a lot of unstructured data that must be managed and handled appropriately. So travel companies need to invest in the right technology, knowledge and expertise. Without these there will be many lost commercial opportunities and customers.”

Meanwhile, the latest figures demonstrate that there are many opportunities within this market for both the ICT vendors and their clients, the players within the tourism industry. To stay ahead of the game, and to attract and retain customers, travel companies must innovate and incorporate the application of technology into their marketing strategies in a customer-centric fashion. This is because in today’s increasingly multi-channel marketing world, you cannot necessarily communicate with customers through just one channel. Customers are also demanding more flexibility and choice of how they talk with travel companies, and with regards to the holiday or travel products and services they wish to purchase. Beyond this, there are still many opportunities in the market that have yet to be tapped.

By Graham Jarvis

Editor and Media Services Consultant

Editor’s Notes

About GOSS Interactive

GOSS provides managed services and intelligent and enterprise-wide content management solutions. GOSS solutions are based on a sound understanding of your requirements and the technology we use to meet your customers’ needs. Learn more about GOSS Brand Values at http://www.gossinteractive.com/index.cfm?articleid=678.

To contact GOSS for further information, please call +44 (0) 1752 517 350 or email Sharron Robbie (sharron.robbie@gossinteractive.com) at GOSS.
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Hounslow Council demonstrates excellence – delivering effective, evolving citizen centric e-government
How can councils achieve excellence in a continually evolving market? Well you need to constantly innovate, and that’s even if you are part of a local authority. Being top of a league is great, but no council should wrest on its laurels once it has reached the top. It’s only the beginning! Like many other aspects of a local authority’s business, websites change constantly. So the attainment of excellence comes with change, fresh thinking and hard work.

Therefore local authorities need to continue to look at the big picture (e.g. changes in Government policy, the impact of scaleable websites and the content or developmental changes to them, the impact upon working practices and customer relations, business processes, the integration of various types of technologies etc.), and this will enable your organisation to continually meet Government targets along with the requirements for local authorities called ‘priority outcomes’ in a citizen-centric fashion and with a long-term perspective applied to ensure success.

This is all part of the modernisation of local government and the public sector more generally. This includes moving websites away from just providing information to being fully transactional, enabling citizens to be self-serving, communicating with councils through a wide variety of channels and transacting ‘on demand’.

Furthermore by getting it right, like Hounslow, seems to have been done by incorporating the tools of SiteMorse – the ‘Global leaders in automated website testing’ – into its web development programme, local authorities can take a advantage of a number of benefits. It is said that Hounslow, for example, has saved the council money, because SiteMorse’s tool found a number of errors, which were then quickly fixed to ensure quality and compliance.

Adopt new approaches

So to keep ahead councils need to be proactive, innovative, dynamic and flexible in their approach to the implementation of e-Government and e-democracy strategies. Websites should be viewed as a means of facilitating a greater interaction with their constituents, their customers if you like, of all kinds and abilities. So it is important, not just to gain an invaluable league table perspective, but to ensure that the content enables a level of interactivity, and that the site itself is both useable and accessible. Most councils also strive for efficiency gains, which can lead to a more effective use of available resources.

The process is ongoing, and freeware products may be free at the first point of access, but they may cost much more than other solutions, used for facilitating the drive for e-Government best practice. It is also important to establish some attainable benchmarks, and this usually revolves around saving time, money and human resources.

Costs, for example, can be rationalised by creating economies of scale with an authority-wide delivery of solutions. Individual deployments on the other hand lack control and they can deliver varying results. New and existing legislation and best practice guidelines need to be incorporated into this approach too. This includes compliance to the Freedom of Information Act, the Data Protection Act, the Disability Discrimination Act and the W3C’s website accessibility guidelines. SiteMorse’s tools can help organisations to comply with the latter ones.

Hounslow strives for excellence

Hounslow is just one of the councils in the UK striving for excellence, and its web team has achieved great heights. It has moved the site from the bottom of the SiteMorse league table to the very top. Hounslow used the company’s website performance, monitoring and accessibility testing tools to assist its web team members at all phases of the web development process. The tools were also used to assess the failures of the local authority’s old website, with the aim of planning how to:
- Improve the website’s accessibility and performance for users;
- To monitor the technical development of their new site and post launch;
- To continuously review performance on an ongoing basis.
The challenges facing Hounslow

The council faced tight web development schedules, and so it was important to have a tool that could speed up this process, and so SiteMorse’s tools formed an important and integral part of enabling Hounslow to deliver a user-centred, enhanced website on time and to budget. So the Hounslow Web Team needed to develop a modernised website, capable of electronic government delivery in the context of rising public expectations and all the usual constraints on resources.

“We didn’t have the capacity or resources to conduct thorough website testing and analysis in-house” explains Zoë Laycock, the Hounslow Web Manager. “We used the SiteMorse testing and rankings to help us build a picture of how our website was doing in terms of performance and how to deliver what people need.”

In addition, the SiteMorse website rankings helped Hounslow assess how they were performing in their e-delivery as a council in relation to other local authorities. These two measures also strengthened the business case for improving the council’s online offer. The league tables themselves are considered to be a respected benchmarking tool, and they aim to encourage organisations, both public and commercial, to improve the quality of their websites. The great thing about Hounslow is that it has met the challenge with enthusiasm.

Stepping forward to the technical development phase of the new Hounslow website, the testing and analysis tools were continuously used to measure and test development progress prior to website launch. This enabled the web team to fine-tune and optimise the website to ensure upon launch that the new site not only looked better but functionally performed well. Along with other web accessibility testing tools, SiteMorse testing was integral to assisting Hounslow in improving accessibility and general code compliance. It can also improve customer relationships, whereas a poorly maintained and performing website doesn’t.

On the charge: the Hounslow approach

The council has integrated SiteMorse’s services into the heart of every phase of their web project, which has resulted in measurable online customer service benefits. A month after the new Hounslow website was re-launched, the website earned the biggest improvement in the history of the independent website league tables. This approach demonstrates the benefits of moving beyond viewing the firm’s services exclusively in terms of league tables. Instead, SiteMorse services are central to this West London authority’s strategic e-Government and modernisation agenda.

Moreover, the council has had the foresight to think ahead into the long-term, which is quite unusual in most Government and local authority circles. Most look for short-term gains, which can create greater inefficiencies down the line. Councils should in fact be learning from innovative authorities like Hounslow, and adopt new approaches. This should perhaps include meeting all of the Government’s priority outcomes in one go rather than in costly stages.

There’s no use in throwing good money after bad. In fact Hounslow demonstrates how to achieve compliance, customer or even citizen-centricity, value for money with a tight budget and within a tight timeframe. There is also marketing and PR value in being able to show a commitment to developing quality, well performing websites, with the SiteMorse leagues tables, and the performance, monitoring and testing tools. Hounslow’s strategic approach also sets a standard of best practice that others should perhaps follow.

About SiteMorse

SiteMorse, formed in May ‘2001, provides organisations with website testing and monitoring solutions that ensure websites are delivering a well performing, compliant and error free user experience. SiteMorse requires no customer downloads or technical skills to operate.

SiteMorse tests using established guidelines and standards e.g. IETF, W3C, [WAI accessibility] and Government regulations. SiteMorse also offer a range of user experience, journey and load testing services.

SiteMorse is the most widely use automated testing tool in Local Government. It is also widely used in most other sectors, including; FTSE100, Central Government, Banking, Retail, Travel and SME’s.

For more information about SiteMorse, please visit: http://www.sitemorse.com or email nickles@sitemorse.com.

About Hounslow

Hounslow was one of the first wave of local authorities to take up the challenge to modernise local government in early 1999. A pilot model – of leader and cabinet, scrutiny panels and local area committees – was developed in consultation with local people and their views on issues such as local decision making and the role of the cabinet\executive were taken into account. The eighteen-month pilot has given the Council a head start to move forward enthusiastically towards the modernised local government framework outlined in the Local Government Act 2000. We also led the way as the first Council to webcast live Council meetings in 2001.

For more information, please visit: http://www.hounslow.gov.uk/

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Researched and produced on behalf of SiteMorse by Media-Insert: Graham Jarvis Media Services with the kind help of the London Borough of Hounslow. Blog: http://www.media-insert.co.uk. Tel: +44 (0)776 682 3644.
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