We know that not everyone loves going through a lot of text or pages of information to find out more details about a company. To help solve this, we have been working hard on trying to introduce short, snappy videos to our site to give people a concise and more "interactive" glimpse into what we are about.
We are really happy with the first version of the video and I wanted to share this with the world. We would love hear your criticisms, feedback, suggestions or praise. The video was produced by the excellent folk at YourFilm and I would definitely recommend them if you were looking for someone to produce any interactive or corporate videos.
The world-wide web has had an amazing and sometimes hardly believable effect on our everyday lives whether we are in business or as consumers. One of the major changes has been in the transparency of pricing. Of course this has been a huge benefit to the web-browsing consumer and presents a real challenge to the online shop as to how to catch and keep the price researching consumer.
Take, for instance, a big name UK brand like Halfords selling a multitude of consumable and other products. They are big enough to “own brand” much of their range making it marginally more difficult to shop around for the exact price comparison.
Halfords have a very respectable free iPhone app which is bright, quick and very informative right down to customer reviews of particular products. In fact, in the writer’s humble opinion, in almost all areas it’s as good as Halfords' “desktop” website. Halfords do not say what percentage of sales they take through their mobile app and I can only assume it’s a fairly small part of their direct income, however the app must do a power of good when it comes to product and price research. Once the prospective shopper has done their research online they can, if they choose, go to Halfords network of stores across the country where they can see, touch and try the product. The app does offer reserve and collect and home delivery too.
This sort of app is going to grow in importance as we see the number of smartphones in use increase (currently there are over 17 million in use) together with the use of mobiles (both smartphones and tablets) for shopping processes growing exponentially. In fact it is estimated that web traffic from mobiles will grow up to 8 times faster than from PCs. One retail strategist estimates that nearly 2/3rds of UK shoppers will be using their mobiles for shopping in the near future!
So the answer for any pro-active seller online is to consider carefully their mobile commerce strategy - it is not going to go away. As illustrated by Halfords it is even possible to “app-sell” a huge and diverse product range. Whether your offer is small or big the advantages of selling through the mobile route is manifold. However there is one simple rule – be focussed on ease of use and retaining your customers details and you’ll capture customers.
Our own investigations have shown clearly that consumers tend to became frustrated as each time they purchased from a new website they have to establish a new account together with payment details. They felt this was a time consuming and did not always justify the small amount they may have saved by choosing the cheapest. They also felt that they were maybe increasing risk by using a new supplier with such concerns as payment security, reliable delivery, unknown quality etc. The answer then, is clearly to design and build a mobile app which allows for the simplest possible purchasing process, ideally at the touch of as few buttons as possible.
One doesn’t have to look far to see how mobiles are changing the way we think and act. Look around you next time you are in a busy public area, how many people will you see using their mobiles?
BYOD or Bring Your Own Device is a relatively new opportunity that has arisen because even the largest corporation can struggle to keep up with the constant rate of technological change, providing state of the art devices to all their employees and their often diverse roles.
Very often the devices employees have at home or in their pockets are far more powerful than those provided for them. So what if you as an employee have an ancient desktop PC at work that runs XP and your company mobile phone has a tiny screen and won’t connect to email? Result – frustration. So what happens if you try and get your company's IT department to accept and adapt to your devices? Result – cost, delay and confusion. This scenario is particularly relevant to the burgeoning number of flexible home and away working generation of employees who may well toil away outside of company hours and therefore probably outside of IT department operating hours.
The standard reply to the idea of BYOD has been security, but with improved systems and the growth of the cloud, security, while still a big concern, need not be the buffers that bring this particular opportunity to a halt. Critics of the strategy also claim that people may do things with their own equipment they wouldn't consider with a company laptop. Companies thinking of this sort of change must also take into account that friends and family often have access to personal laptops opening up potential security risks.
There are corporations out there that do offer a BYOD package acknowledging that existing systems were far too limiting, for example if you wanted to use more than e-mail you needed a company laptop. These new systems, sometimes retaining a few “pool” laptops that are available to staffers, encourage their people to buy their own devices and access their desktop remotely from home or “on the go”. The benefits are clear - under the new system the IT support staff are more likely to be free to do other critical work. Understandably in this enlightened age work-life balance is another driving factor - employees can use these systems from anywhere enabling those who wish to focus on work at home in a more relaxed fashion.
There are other business models where an opportunity is given to the employee to purchase their own devices - an allowance provided to purchase a standard model with the employee being given the chance to upgrade at their own cost. Unsurprisingly it appears that most employees love having the freedom to choose and claim to enjoy their computing experience more. Imagine buying a brand new top end Mac on a company purchase scheme, how happy would you be to get the device, and how happy the company would be not have it on their books?
Compatibility is also quoted as an objection but presumably common sense would kick in and the company would have a set of clear guidelines on what equipment could be used, its security systems and usage and data protection policies.
Whether the driving factor for considering the opportunity of BYOD is cost-cutting, employee satisfaction or flexibility any company needs to be very careful to consider all the facts.
Does your company/organisation practice BYOD? We would love to hear the pros, cons, and pitfalls you have faced and whether you agree with our opinion?
One of the major benefits or drawbacks of the web, depending on your position, has been the transparency it has brought to pricing. This has been a major boon to the consumer and often a headache for the seller. Recently we at hedgehoglab were given the chance to explore this conundrum in detail. We received a call from a web-based seller who was frustrated because his website did not seem to be recapturing existing business. “...... Customer’s seem come and go...how can I capture them for good?” was his simple but challenging brief.
We asked for his metrics and, at first sight, it did seem odd, customers bought his consumable item (usually bought on average about 7 - 8 times a year) and then promptly seemed to disappear.
His customer response metrics showed no major issues, his prices weren’t the cheapest, but every buyer seemed happy enough, so why were they not re-purchasing? With some detailed research we found that, when the need for purchase arose, the consumers were using their search engine to look for the cheapest price. On further investigation it appeared that consumers became frustrated as each time they purchased from a new website they had to establish a new account together with new credit card or similar payment details. They felt this was a time consuming and did not always justify the small amount they may have saved by choosing the cheapest. They also felt that they were maybe increasing risk by using a new supplier with such concerns as payment security, reliable delivery, unknown quality etc.
The answer was to design and build an app which would allow for the simplest purchasing process at the touch of a button. The app would remember the consumer’s details so the only action required was to confirm the details as correct – this included the actual spec of the product previously ordered, the consignment address, payment details etc. The mechanism for getting the app out there was even simpler - receive an order from the web site and deliver it with the free app. Now when Mr Customer, on the way home on the train or bus etc suddenly remembers he’s forgotten to buy this particular item, he just fires up his phone, a few clicks and the product is on its way.
The client has been very happy with the results and is happy to be now in the position of taking a large percentage of his business through the app. And the lessons? - yes, price is often, but not always a key buying determinant, certain products however, especially the purchasing of distress commodities are best made simple and this is where a correctly designed and simple to use app wins every time.
Nokia has had a pretty bad decade at the start of this millennium. Declining smartphone sales, abysmal reviews for their latest phones and general apathy from the developer community have reduced Nokia to nearly irrelevant in the smartphone community. Although Nokia is still a dominant force in the mobile market in general, very few people are excited at anything the company has to say.
Given this climate, I am not surprised that Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has published the now famous "burning platform" memo that is doing the rounds in the press this morning. I doubt anyone who follows the mobile market would be surprised at the observations that Elop makes in his memo but it is fascinating watching how honest he is about Nokia's shortcomings.
The most interesting bit to come out of this memo is Elop's hint at an upcoming announcement this Friday that promises to reveal the way forward for Nokia at the company's Capital Markets Day event. What is interesting and worth watching about this event is the wild speculation that Nokia might announce that they are going to adopt Windows Phone 7.
I know the mobile pundits will laugh at how futile and ridiculous this move would be. On the face of it, it seems like Nokia is giving up even without trying. Vic Gundotra, VP of Engineering for Google, tweeted "#feb11 "Two turkeys do not make an Eagle", alluding to the fact that a Nokia and Windows Phone 7 is both possible and doomed to failure.
However, I strongly believe that abandoning their "burning" platforms like Symbian and adopting Windows Phone 7 could be the smart move Nokia makes this decade.
Nokia has always been great at making good hardware. The Nokia 6310i is still the best business phone I have ever used and that is saying something considering I am a staunch iPhone user and Apple fanboy. Where Nokia has failed is in putting together a great software platform and integrating it into an ecosystem that worked seamlessly with the hardware for customers and developers alike.
Developing software for Nokia phones has always been a difficult path for developers that many took while Nokia held market dominance. However, Apple and Google have shown that there is a better way when it comes to smart phones. It would take a monumental effort on Nokia's part to make Symbian and/or MeeGo into real competitors to iOS and Android.
Why not just adopt Android then? Isn't it open, innovative and market leading? This would seem to be a safe choice given the liberal Android terms but the risks Nokia runs is that it will have no advantages against the hundred other manufacturers developing Android phones. Android just won't give Nokia the competitive difference in the market and I doubt Nokia wants to become "just another Android manufacturer".
Windows Phone 7, although very late to the market, is generally accepted as a great technical platforms. By not copying iOS and Android, Windows Phone 7 has provided a credible user experience alternative to people who want to use smart phones. It has even been pitched as the platform "for normal people who aren't addicted to their phones". Reviews across the board agree that the platform is sound and has lots of positives.
What Windows Phone 7 is lacking is a credible manufacturer who can put their efforts behind producing excellent hardware that complements the platform while pushing the devices as flagship products. If Microsoft can accommodate Nokia by relaxing it's licensing terms and strike an agreement, I think we can look forward to seeing a third credible alternative to the iPhone and Android-based devices. Nokia and Microsoft could well be onto something great here.
Can someone just tell that to Steve Ballmer and Stephen Elop?
With the exponential growth of smartphone sales pioneered by Apple's iOS platform and Google's Android platform, a lot of brands and businesses are starting to factor mobile apps and a mobile strategy into their marketing and operational activities.
In this mobile app gold rush, there is a general (and false) perception that the best way to reach the largest number of customers is to target every major mobile platform out there. On the surface, it seems like a good strategy to ensure your app is available to a wide array of users but fails to take into account the Pareto Principle (or the 80-20 rule). Applied to mobile apps, the Pareto principle would translate into "80% of your customers/engagement comes from 20% of the market". In this case, the 20% being Apple's iOS platform.
Finally, an often overlooked fact remains that Apple's iOS environment is a great test-bed for any innovative app concept you have. If your app is a success on Apple's platform, then it is very likely it is a good candidate to be ported to other platforms (as is the case with hugely successful games like Angry Birds).
With development budgets heavily restricted and the nascent stage of the mobile apps market, my advice to our customers is always to start where you will see the most ROI than invest large sums of money on a multi-platform strategy and realise that 80% of your efforts (i.e. developing for platforms other than Apple's) only return 20% benefits. Thankfully for us, it's a strategy that seems to be working.
We launched our hosted bug tracking service 5 months ago hoping to give customers an on-demand choice for our most popular product. We did not anticipate the great positive response to this from Enterprise customers and 5 months later, we will be counting multi-national organisations like AXA and Starbucks within our customers.
Since then, we have successfully launched solomon, our web-based CRM tool to generally positive reception, and we are working hard to implement features our community has requested. However, as with fixx, the single most requested feature is to have a hosted, on-demand version of solomon.
With this in view, we are excited to announce hosted plans for solomon.
Hosted solomon is a great and flexible way to get started with your own web-based CRM without having to set-up your own server and configure it. Despite how painless and easy it is to run your own instance of solomon, we know that many organisations love the ease of having someone else manage their software using a software as a service (SaaS) model. It is also a great way for organisations without IT staff to get started with solomon.
Unlike traditional on-demand/SaaS models, we have gone all out to give you the power of having your own dedicated hosted version of solomon that you have absolute control over. This means, you control when your software is upgraded and which features you want to turn on. We handle all the boring work like configuration, back-ups and upgrades.
solomon Hosted comes with absolutely no restrictions on functionality. You get every feature of the installable version, including unlimited contacts and deals. Which other hosted CRM tool offers that?
Starter plans
Although fixx has seen great adoption in the Enterprise, we heard feedback from a lot of our smaller customers stating the existing plans we offered were geared towards larger businesses and there was little choice for small businesses/start-ups.
We are changing that from today by announcing Starter plans for both fixx and solomon, which means you can get all the on-demand goodness and benefits for the a low starting price of $49 per month.
We have more exciting roadmap features and plans to announce in the coming few weeks but we once again welcome feedback from our passionate community of users.
Last month, BlackBerry announced the PlayBook to much fanfare and press coverage. I managed to catch the live announcement and demo from the Developer Conference, and I must say it was a pretty interesting demo. Of all the tablets announced (iPad included), the PlayBook is probably the most exciting for us as far as our work with Enterprise software is concerned.
It's not Android/Chrome OS
In a world where everything that is not an iOS tablet is an Android/Chrome OS tablet, the BlackBerry OS introduces a refreshing and all-important third alternative. Yes, it is very similar to iOS (the Mail app on the PlayBook is a striking resemblance of Mail on the iPad) but a first look at the demo reminded me more of WebOS than anything else.
QNX seems to have been a very capable company and it appears that not only does the BlackBerry Tablet OS look great, it has a solid mobile platform underpinning it.
Size
Steve Jobs beat me to it but I think a 7-inch tablet just doesn't seem like a great fit for a tablet. Having owned an iPad for a while, I think that a 10-inch screen offers the optimum tablet experience for me. If I need anything smaller, then I would rather drop down to a smartphone screen size rather than anything intermediate.
However, I have not yet held an actual 7-inch tablet in my hands, so I will reserve judgement until I use one.
Who is this aimed at?
I guess that is more of a rhetorical question, as the answer is clearly (from PlayBook's micro-site and spiel) the Enterprise. Therefore, I find it curious that they chose a name like PlayBook for their flagship product in the Enterprise Tablet market.
I will go out on a limb and say that the PlayBook will be an easy sell to Enterprises who have invested hugely in BlackBerry infrastructure with it's immediate integration with BlackBerry servers. I see this spreading quickly in the Enterprise.
It is clear from the demo that BlackBerry wants to pitch this as both a great Enterprise tablet and a cool consumer tablet. A lot of the demo focuses on how "cool" the media capabilities are and a lot of the benefits are squarely aimed at the "iPad crowd". Flash, for example.
I could not help laughing when one of the much-taunted features at the live announcement was "full POSIX support". I know the conference was aimed at developers but clearly BlackBerry is in 2 minds here about it's target market.
The iPad Killer
Like it or not, the inevitable comparisons with the iPad have already started doing the rounds. I personally will not be swapping my iPad for a PlayBook anytime soon but I did notice that with the device not coming out until early to late 2011, it will effectively be competing with a 2nd Generation iPad that could address most of the current differences.
To me, the PlayBook is a credible alternative to the iPad and it's great to see competition heating up in this space with the Samsung Galaxy Tab adding an Android alternative to the mix.
I am more excited about the PlayBook (for selfish reasons) due to the penetration potential it has in the Enterprise and the business opportunities it presents. However, what is more exciting, is that tablets are here to stay and ready to change the mobile computing landscape.
We are pretty excited about this so I cannot wait any longer to announce that after a lot of whiteboard work, arguments and development, solomon 1.1 is finally here.
What's notable in this version of solomon?
Deals and Sales Management
solomon 1.1 introduces one of our most requested features and something we had in planning for a long time, Deals. Deals allows you to manage your your sales process and opportunities by tracking the progress of all your leads. They give you clear visibility into your sales pipeline and are a great way to organise your sales effort centered around a "project" approach.
Have a look at our earlier earlier sneak peek for more details on interesting features in 1.1.
Other than this major feature, 1.1 includes 84 other bug fixes, improvements and features that were requested by our customers.
I have always wanted to publish a blog entry on our experience developing a game for the iPhone earlier on in the year but never got around to it due to things getting extremely busy at the lab (as you can see from the distinct lack of rants from me).
However, Derek Yu has beat me to it by publishing a most excellent article on Finishing a game. Must read for anyone interested in indie game production/development or any budding game developers.
