Francesco Marino

Symbol Media has just been commissioned to Project Manage and implement a new e-commerce platform for a leading nationwide retailer.

The project aim is to engage and provide both existing, and new clients with the opportunity to enhance their own service offering, in conjunction with the retailer’s existing service proposition.

Providing this as a ‘white label’ solution, it is not possible to expand upon the specific details of the project.

In brief, the campaign will see Symbol Media and its client working in conjunction with the retailer to implement a fully bespoke solution comprising of the following disciplines:

• A feature to allow customers to design, build and publish a CMS micro site.
• Development of a bespoke WYSIWYG editor, allowing customers of all levels of ‘web design’, to confidently manage their own profile, whilst still conforming to the style and format of the retailer’s brand.
• Fully managed secure hosting integration and support.
• Retained support for the project, allowing for minor additions, further development, and management of ongoing promotions.

The overriding aim of the project is to encourage and promote loyalty amongst the existing, and new online customer base.

The initial phase of the project is scheduled for completion in eight weeks, with a further four weeks of beta, and live testing.

Symbol Media has reached the significant business milestone of ‘3 years & trading’! (Albeit the official registration, vat registration etc (the boring part) was done some months prior to the first day of full-time business, which makes Symbol almost three and a half).

It is an incredible journey deciding to start your own business/work for yourself, but to all those that have done it, they will know exactly what I mean when I talk about the overwhelming compulsion to do it, regardless of any doubts or voices in your head, & in spite of the ‘naysayers’, it is to some degree, destiny.

There is nothing easy about growing and managing your own business, and in comparison to working for someone else, there are considerable benefits.  Having said that, there are no fewer challenges, simply different ones.

Symbol Media has been fortunate enough over the last three years to have worked with numerous clients and creative’s, and a constant desire for improvement in our product and procedures is now stronger than ever!

The future for Symbol Media will see the business diversifying in to new and dynamic sectors, working with several new partners, providing new services and solutions,  while all the time defining a streamlined, efficient business model.

If asked to summarise only one key thing that we have learned on this journey so far, it would be this:

“Good customer service is not about catering to a client’s whim and want, good customer service is providing an excellent product, at an acceptable price, and solving legitimate problems in the most effective & efficient manner possible”

It is essential that companies and individuals maintain the constant drive toward improvement and growth, and that January simply provides a ‘convenient’ starting point on the ‘conventional’ yearly calendar.

The key things that caught our interest this month:

• http://www.internetretailing.net/2010/01/calculate-how-much-slow-page-load-times-actually-cost-you/
• http://www.internetretailing.net/2010/01/international-survey-finds-consumers-want-to-interact-with-retailers-across-multiple-channels/
• Microsoft IT & UK small businesses study: 10% have no server, 35% no CRM, 50% no web conferencing facilities
• Adidas do it again! http://tinyurl.com/yeqtls7
• Tesco launch iphone app making it easy to shop for wine.
• Jordan Belfort was in Manchester.

"One year ends . . . another begins".

As we prepare to start a new decade, the focus for Symbol Media is the importance of effective time management, and a streamlined business process.

All to often people in business, are so keen to be doing so many things at once, that they end up neglecting the importance of the simple, yet effective things; good communication, doing something when you tell someone that you will etc. People loose site of what they should be doing in terms of the most effective, and time managed way.  One of the greatest business philosophers of our time put it best when he said “Don’t major on minor things, and don’t minor on major things”.

During the last couple of years, Symbol Media like many businesses has fallen in to the trap of mistaking activity with achievement, when quite simply, a great deal of time has been, and often is wasted.

We have streamlined our procedures, and simplified our business process, which in turn will benefit both us, and our clients.

So, as we conclude our business for this year, we have a clearly defined strategy in place for the coming year, and we our looking forward to another productive year in which the business will grow and diversify, A vital part of that growth comes from the acknowledgement that we will need to continually learn and improve on our service offering, and process which for us, will be a never ending discipline.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of the clients that have chosen to form effective business relationships with the team at Symbol, and also a big thank you to all of the exceptionally talented creative people that have helped to implements some fantastic solutions during the course of the past 12 months.

Best wishes and continued success to everyone, and a final thought:

“The person who endeavours to succeed in everything, succeeds in nothing”