On 22^nd May 2012 senior executives from the likes of Novae, Axis, Chartis, Hiscox, Markel, Mitsui, Torus, Liberty, Marsh, Cooper Gay, and Allied World Insurance attended an Executive Briefing on the theme of ‘In a troubled global economy, how are brokers and underwriters responding to the threats and opportunities in 2012?’.

Feedback from attendees was very positive so I thought I’d summarise a few of the key points here.   Read more »

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. Read more »

Hat tip to the eCommerce delivery teams at Salmon – they have just received a well deserved shortlisting for “IT Team of the Year” at the Retail Systems Awards.

Now in their fourth year the Retail Systems Awards look to recognise excellence and innovation in the field of information technology within the UK retail sector. The primary criteria for judging are the delivery of definable and significant business benefits, innovation and originality of application, ROI and project management issues such as delivery on time and within budget.

Salmon’s entry demonstrated excellent technical expertise and foresight in delivering eCommerce solutions for retailers, as a result of using our Application Framework for eCommerce (SAFE™) – a repeatable eCommerce solution which extends IBM WebSphere Commerce and can be implemented in just 35 days.

In the last 12 months Salmon has successfully implemented and supported the launch of 25 branded eCommerce websites for leading brands including:  Barratts Priceless Limited, Ben Sherman, Boots, Hotter Comfort Concept Shoes, Scotts & Co, Sleepy’s and the Regatta Group.

Today we announced the formalisation of a long standing relationship, in the form of a commercial partnership with Experian QAS, the international provider of contact data management (CDM) solutions.

QAS Pro Web, the address verification tool, has been fully integrated into SAFE™ (Salmon’s Application Framework for eCommerce). SAFE™ is a fully developed, tested and pre-configured eCommerce solution which extends IBM’s WebSphere Commerce™ platform, enabling the rapid delivery of a production-ready enterprise class solution.

Salmon’s customers already benefitting from using QAS Pro Web include, Argos, Ann Summers, Boots, Homebase, Barratt Priceless Ltd, Scotts & Co, Smartlandlord.co.uk and The Regatta Group.

Chris Bulmer, Group IT Director from The Regatta Group said, “QAS Pro Web was seamlessly integrated with our websites catering for our UK and US customers whose online experience is key to our success. QAS address verification ensures the addresses our customers provide are correct and verified, saving our customers time, minimising undeliverable goods and customer complaints and reducing costs associated with deliveries to mistaken addresses.”

Neil Stewart, Commercial Director at Salmon said, “The partnership helps us deliver even greater value to our customers.  As QAS Pro Web is now a pre-integrated component of SAFE™, we can provide our customers with an eCommerce solution that offers the best in address verification and ongoing data quality.  Customers will benefit from being able to capture online customer information accurately, the first time, critical to providing a professional first impression of their website and ensuring the smooth, quick and accurate entry of customer details.”

From minimal information provided by the user, QAS Pro Web returns a complete and accurate address that has been validated and formatted against the relevant country data file. This offers the following benefits:

• Quick, accurate data capture, with search prompts to guide users through each stage of the process.
• Effective profiling with enhanced data.  Contact data records are captured accurately, validated and consistently formatted, making database analysis simple, with reliable results. Valuable information can be added to residential and business records, allowing customers to effectively profile their database for future marketing activities.
• International datasets for 240 countries and territories worldwide are available.
• Speed of service – critical to online customers, ensuring their details are captured correctly and quickly first time round, increasing site conversions and reducing “drop-off” rates.
• Online customers receive a user-friendly and efficient first impression, inputting minimal information and ensuring they return to the website.
• Regular data updates ensure ongoing accuracy of data and support organisational decisions that are based on firm valuable information.
• Cost efficiencies are made as contact data is captured correctly first time round, saving money on wasted mailings to incorrect addresses and reducing volumes of returned mail.

There is more information about SAFE™ here and about Experian QAS here.

What is the likely consumer reaction to a poor online shopping experience?

Since the rise of online shopping in the late 1990s, we have seen many evolutions in the underlying technology infrastructure and in consumer expectations. Elements fueling these evolutions include the rise of broadband access in homes and businesses, improvements to the usability of sites and Web navigation such as search, the number of leading brands and retailers selling online, as well as improvements to the underlying technology behind sites.

In the summer of 2009, Akamai Technologies commissioned Forrester Consulting to help understand how customer expectations around online shopping have evolved and what the implications are for retailers that fail to meet those demands. In 2006, Akamai commissioned a study to address similar questions; this free white paper is a follow-up study to examine changes in consumer expectations.

In this youtube video, Gartner analyst Gene Alvarez discusses how IT organisations responsible for eCommerce are challenged in 2009 to improve online customer experiences to make up for closed stores, lost personnel; all at a time when IT expenditures need to be cut by 5-25 percent.

Sure it’s no easy feat.  But by levering leading off-the-shelf solutions (as opposed to building everything from scratch), Gene argues that IT organisations can free up vital resources and re-focus in areas that really make a difference to the customer.

Whilst this Build vs. Buy dilemma is not at all new, I think it is worthwhile highlighting this is exactly the approach we have taken to heart in SAFE (The Salmon Application Framework for eCommerce) which allows merchants to leverage best-of-breed eCommerce solutions on top of a robust, scalable eCommerce infrastructure (IBM WebSphere Commerce).  Afetr all what’s the point of spending £’s to re-invent the wheel?

The keynote presentation by Ashley Friedlein at Endeca’s E-Business Forum in April highlights the results of two Salmon projects.  The presentation (available for £150.00 for non e-consultancy members) aims to highlight “what you need to be doing really well online to succeed.”

Kiddicare’s implementation of Power Reviews is again mentioned (I highlighted this in a recent post) as Ashley highlights the very ‘personal’ tags attributed to products.

And also Argos’s ‘Check and Reserve‘ and ‘Text and Take Home’ services are showcased, the former a project that Salmon is so very proud of  managing, delivering and supporting for HRG.

The world has changed.  The second half of 2008 saw events that previously would not have entered our wildest dreams. Who would have thought that one of the UK’s largest banks would pass into state ownership? Who would have thought that one of the longest periods of uninterrupted economic growth would stop dead in its tracks?

With this in mind, employees at Salmon recently put their heads together to author a manifesto (in 6 parts)  for Directors and Managers of Insurance companies, who have a responsibility for eCommerce and eBusiness.   Part 1 is available now as a downloadable .pdf, and considers “Will your Customers Change?”

It is our belief that at least six key issues need to be considered by insurers right now.  We will explore each in full in due course so register here to get each part of the manifesto emailed to you.

Here are the issues as we see them.  What do you think?

• Issue #1:  Will your Customers Change? Even counter-cyclical industries, like general insurance, need to carefully consider this question.  After all, any business is only as stable as its customer base.  As we shall see, answering this question is not straightforward.  There are indications that we will have to think about meeting at least three shifts in customer demand and buying behaviour.
• Issue #2:  Flexing our Cost Base Reducing operational costs has been a major component of most organisations’ plans over the last decade but there are new challenges.  Firstly, living through an economic downturn means that we have to rethink the minimum critical size of our operations.  Secondly, economic, political and social pressures may mean that we have to revisit past strategies based on outsourcing and offshoring.  These now established recipes might not serve us too well in the coming years.
  
• Issue #3:  New Channel Relationships Emerging evidence points us to the fact that customers’ buying criteria – how they make purchasing decisions – may be changing both in commercial and consumer markets.  This means that current web based distribution will have to change if it is to deliver real value for both customers and suppliers.
• Issue #4:  How to Unlock Markets Extending the reach of offerings into new markets is a commonly cited piece of advice for organisations facing an economic downturn.  A better and more astute move is to unlock markets that traditionally minded competitors think are either unprofitable or can only be served in one time established way.  To keep ahead of the game we have to consider how technology can act as a key to redefining markets that others pass by.
• Issue #5:  Regulation – The Tool of Change:   There is no doubt that the current downturn will produce a globally co-ordinated push for new regulatory approaches to prevent another financial crisis.  November 2008’s first meeting of the G20 – the countries that will reshape the business world – put regulation right at the top of its global action plan.  All we know now is that the regulatory demands on organisations – especially in the financial services sector – will change.  The impact could range from more disclosure regarding investments, through to increased customer education and new roles for directors.  The demand for information will increase and new co-ordination and control systems will be needed.
• Issue #6:  Information for Tough Times:  Research tells us that organisations that survived the last real downturn – in the early 1990s – managed their businesses in a totally different way to those that failed and disappeared.  Those that succeeded were closer to their customers and used a far broader range of management information than did the failures.  These winners were better at getting and using customer and market information.  So, systems for decision making have to go way beyond traditional financially based approaches if our businesses are to survive and grow in the current environment.

There is no doubt, rather than entrenchment, this is a time for innovation in how business processes and systems really deliver value. I hope you like the manifestos.  Please feel free to share and re-use.

On 17 October 2008, Lord Carter, the minister for communications, technology and broadcasting, began work on a report dubbed “Digital Britain”. The idea was to create an action plan that would secure the UK’s place ‘at the head’ of the new media age.  There is more about this action plan here and here.

Released today, the interim report outlines 22 specific actions, and in so doing commits the government too.  These are based on a range of topics including: Universal Connectivity, Original UK Content, Digital Content, Digital Radio, Digital TV, Mobile Wireless, and Next Generation Networks.

The Culture Secretary, Andy Burnham, outlines the report’s interim findings here (why are the parlimentary benches so empty?) and the BBC editorial team reports on some of the key points taken from the report here.

It seems feedback is mixed with the announcement of Broadband ‘in every home by 2012′ being called a ‘damp squib’ no less.  Potentially a tad party political perhaps, but IT industry analyst firm Ovum said the report was well-intended but “severely lacking in the detail.”  Ouch.

As the final version is due in June, one can only assume this will be even meatier – but for the keenest digerati the complete interim report is here (open’s 2MB .pdf) in its 81 page glory.  Enjoy.