If, like me, you hunt down and use apps and software to make your life easier & more manageable, you may be interested to hear that the DIY and paint industry is increasing its involvement in interactive digital activities – to ensure that those home improvement projects get off to the best possible start.

And at the forefront of this innovation is AkzoNobel – the World’s largest paints and coatings company - and in particular their clever people working at Dulux.

The Problem: There is no doubt that creating colour schemes for a home, or turning disparate pieces of inspiration into an affordable offline decorative reality, can often be a painstaking task. And despite inroads made by the likes of online solutions like ColourLovers, getting the right combinations of colours from a screen, into a paint tin and then onto a wall is not child’s play (not for me anyway). To be honest, I could quite easily have a colour in mind but not really know where to start. And furthermore, it’s frustrating to see a colour I like when I’m out and about (e.g. on a poster or already on a wall) and not know what the colour is, or how to bookmark or reference similar paint colours.

The Solution: The answer to my problems is the new Dulux Let’s Colour Studio App which Salmon have been involved in developing, working closely with Dulux’s in-house team.  It’s great.  And is available already for the iPhone, with other smart phone and tablet variants to follow.

How it works: When you have downloaded the app, first up you can simply ‘Browse the Colour range‘.  Easy peasy. And I like the benefits.  No more driving to a store, to be confused by all the brands, to choose a tone, to choose a paint type (matt, gloss etc)….just to pick up the relevant paint swatch card or sample pot.

But even better, using the app allows you to ‘Pick a colour from a photo‘, providing instant colour scheming help when you are out and about.  All you do is take a photo on your phone and select the area of the photo that contains the colour you like – and hey presto, the app selects and displays the closest colour from over 1200 Dulux Tailor Made Colours, giving you its name.

Better still (and I love this bit) as ‘colour experts‘ the clever people at Dulux have then gone a big step further, by showing not only ‘similar’ colours, but multiple colour schemes that coordinate with your chosen colour.

Brilliant.  Saving the amateur DIYer like me from a certain colour coordination #fail.

But that’s still not everything.  Not by a long shot.  The app also showcases some Dulux Masterclasses – ‘how to‘ video demonstrations – with tips and tricks to get the best possible results.

And for the armchair-bound DIY enthusiast you can also order and pay for paint testers (via a neat PayPal integration) which Dulux will then deliver direct to your door.

Lastly there is a neat ‘find your nearest paint stockists‘ facility too.

Lovely.

Salmon have been working with AkzoNobel for some time. Prior to its £8bn ($15.8bn) takeover of Dulux paint maker ICI, we worked on a number of initiatives that you can read about here.  Today we still provide Application Management and Support (AMS) services for their portfolio of pan-European consumer websites.  For the app, Dulux have integrated with servers managed by Salmon and our technical services team developed the PayPal mobile checkout integration code to allow colour samples to be purchased directly from the mobile handset.

Go here to read more about the Dulux Let’s Colour Studio app for iPhone.  Download, be inspired and enjoy!

We often find ourselves saying the words ‘eCommerce platform for life‘ with prospective clients, because we are very much in the business of developing and shaping longer term or strategic eCommerce plans and solutions – as opposed to providing band-aid or stop-gap solutions.

Which is why it is particularly gratifying to see multi-channel retailer Kiddicare’s online offering moving forward in leaps and bounds as reported in various circles (it was also covered here).

When we first starting working with Kiddicare in 2006 (they are still a customer today) they were using an eCommerce platform and provider that fell short of their requirements.  We helped them change that and continue to provide expert eCommerce advice and 24x7x365 application management and support.

This is what Kiddicare Partner, Scott Weavers-Wright had to say back in July 2008.

“We replaced our existing platform with SAFE™ as we needed to obtain control of our eCommerce business.  Our online plans are sophisticated and we need to address our requirements with a higher degree of autonomy, flexibility and responsiveness to change.”

It never ceases to amaze me how empowered a business can be when it has a true handle on its eCommerce infrastructure and architecture.  And when the eCommerce platform itself (as part of that infrastructure) is capable of scaling to be ‘an eCommerce platform for life‘, merchants really can focus on thse aspects of eCommerce that really matter…….like helping customers with regard to merchandising, product imagery, navigation, product page layout and the shopping basket and checkout process.

How time flies and how stupid of me not to mention that Salmon recently won a significant ‘Application Management and Support‘ contract with ICI Paints. 

We were awarded a further two year Application Management and Support contract extension – to support, maintain and tactically develop ICI Paints 27 European consumer facing websites.  The brands that the contract covers include Dulux, ICI Paints, Julien Peintures, Dulux Decorator Centre, Hammerite and Cuprinol.

We have developed a close working partnership with ICI since 2003 – as their European Regional Systems Integrator – helping to develop the Internet as a consumer marketing and service channel.

This deal centres on Salmon helping ICI Paints ensure their branded websites reflect their leadership position, as well as providing customers with the optimum online service.  Under the terms of the new contract, Salmon continue to be responsible for the day-to-day operation of the 27 websites, providing a portfolio of services to ensure they remain operational and performant.  Additionally Salmon are responsible for ongoing development work and operational support and management of ICI Paints European Internet platform.

At a time when web 2.0, and front-end enhancements take centre stage, it is important to remember that it is essential that eCommerce websites are robust, scalable and intuitive in order to meet spikes due to seasonal demand and TV advertising campaigns.

By outsourcing Application Management and Support tasks to Salmon, ICI have been able to focus their attention in the core areas of their business – leaving code installation, configuration, Apache Lucene, J2EE, Java and Java Script, EJB, JSP, HTML, XML, IBM WebSphere Commerce, IBM WebSphere Application Server, Database Administration and SUSE Linux to the experts!