Well, the Dotcom era came and went, and now the Mobi era is upon us.

But what is all the hype around Mobi sites?

What is a Mobi website?

Quite simply, a .mobi domain is similar to the .co.za, .com and .org domains. There is nothing special about the domain, although most .mobi websites are customised for optimal viewing on a cell phone. However, you can view any .mobi site on a normal PC web browser, it may not look pretty but it works. The other way around however, it is not, sure you can view, but boy is it ugly,cumbersome and slow.

The typical website is designed for a full screen PC, it does not cater for a small screen found on a mobile phone. The website designers have typically made use of Flash graphics, which will not work on a mobile. The layout is designed primarily for visual appeal rather and fields to enter data are dotted around the site.

The Mobi site is customised to suit the Mobile phone, and the ease of use is key to a Mobi sites success.

But why Mobi and not PC ?

There is a huge market for companies to exploit. There are far more mobile phone users connected to the internet than there are PC’s and it is growing daily!.

It is estimated that there are 2.5 billion mobile phones in use globally, compared to an estimated 900 million Internet users. It is estimated that there are only 1 billion television sets in use by comparison.

In South Africa we have an estimated 36 million subscribers in comparison to a lowly 5 million internet connected PC’s. As for the TV viewers, we are looking around the 25 million mark.

It is pretty obvious then, that with the advent of multimedia mobile phones and GPRS it is a prime candidate for companies to advertise and sell their products.

South Africa and Africa have easily adopted the mobile phone in preference to landlines, the wireless connectivity is cheaper,easier to maintain and quick to deploy.

This is the new era. Companies can connect with their markets anywhere and anytime. Companies can place place advertising, product launches, subscription forms and even a retail outlet on a mobi website. The mobi websites are optimised for the mobile technology and even beat traditional websites down load speeds on ADSL (broadband)

Sites can also connect to a companies internal systems. Sales reps can place orders online, maintenance forces can access job card systems and security access systems can be integrated.

Given the potential and the growing use of mobile phones connected to the web, companies should seriously consider the Mobi option to reach the consumer market.

Beware!

The common pitfalls of having a traditional website still applies to a Mobi site. It’s the “post it” sticker in the Amazon rain forest multiplied !!!. You need to define clear strategies and plans to bring your Mobi site on stream, whilst protecting your investment in your existing website.

The two go hand in and hand will extend your reach, but think before you rush off and register a .mobi – you don’t want a repeat of the .com again.

Feel free to contact me and I will give you a hand!

PS: I don’t have a Mobi yet, but it is coming !

In the emerging online media world the rules of engagement and the understanding of how your customer behaves have changed significantly.

If one compares yesteryears customer to Pavlov’s dog’s, they have been loyal and brand faithful. When you issue a command they sit, stand to attention and bark. But no more, customers behavior is becoming more and more like a cat’s. They prowl around the internet silently then suddenly appear, knowing more about your product then even your sales people.

The online world has opened an unprecedented opportunity for businesses to redefine how they communicate with customers by leveraging the power of the increasingly connected media channels.

It is now the “Art of Persuasion”, or simply put the Persuasion Architecture model that provides your business with a tool rethinking customers and res killing marketers in the new rewired world.

We can assist you to :

• Gain understanding for todays increasingly fragmented always-on customer who demand pinpoint relevance.
• Understand how interactivity has changed the nature of marketing by extending it’s reach into the world of sales, design,merchandinsing and customer relations.
• How to deploy a Persuasion Architecture model that allows you, the business, to create a powerful, mutlichannel persuasive system that will anticipate a customers need.
• To measure and optimise your return on investment for every component of the persuasive systems.

So stop trying to call the cat to your business, rather make them curious and they will come !

Miaauw !!!

One of the services we offer is a Business to It Alignment plan and strategy.

What is Business IT Alignment?

Business/IT alignment is an ongoing process that will optimize the relational mechanisms between the business and IT organization by working on the IT effectiveness of the organization in order to maximise the business value from IT. The objective of B/I alignment is to establish a trusted relationship between the business and IT that allows for an innovation driven climate in which IT becomes a strategic enabler for business growth.

It consists of a framework in which processes, communications, IT functions and technology decision making are further synchronized and aligned to ensure a full integration of the business goals and objectives with the IT strategy.

In this day and age with companies needing to contain costs, IT requirements need to be reviewed. Often IT has moved away from supporting the prime business drivers and processes. There are many reasons for this, in the larger companies this can take the form of legacy systems that are expensive to maintain and have not grown with the business. In smaller companies it could be the over-capacity in the hardware or functionality in the systems that is not being used or even unnecessary licensing costs.

Too often we have seen that companies do not use their existing resources to maximum effect.

The wood has grown so thick, you can’t see the trees!

Our Business to IT Alignment (BTA) will map the existing business drivers to your existing IT infrastructure.

During this process will we map and prepare a “GAP” analysis of the difference between your business and IT.

IT needs to support your business and not the other way around.

This GAP report then becomes the main input to see what needs to be done to align the two entities together for maximize effect.

Once the BTA has been reviewed it is continually monitored to make sure the as the business grows, you can plan your technology to grow with it, so that you have no surprises.

What is “Impact” project management?

In all industries projects are subjected to common deadlines and restrictions, namely time and budget (if you have the budget resources become a non-issue).

The most common problem that occurs within even the most structured project plan, is a phenomena called ‘project slippage’. let me elaborate in the context of a typical IT project.

The project starts with a defined project charter and all it’s supporting infrastructures, such as documentation, change management, milestones and user requirements. Initially these documents are respected and become the well followed ‘bible’ of the project – Thou shalt not deviate!

As time goes on, with the simplest of ease, there is slippage. Milestones are not met for a million reasons. Some of these are hard logistics and others more softer personal team issues. Team dynamics change, and as the pressure increases with the project, these dynamics can be the make or break of a project coming in “on time, on budget”.

It normally starts with the client (the user), they will ALWAYS see a gap to try and squeeze in those requirements that were “nice to have”. Users are dangerous manipulative beings, and I don’t mean that in a nasty way, I am guilty of the same tactic. They get close to someone in the team and before you know, a new requirement (a quickie) is in the project and so the slide into slippage starts!.

Of course, this isn’t the only reason that projects are subjected to slippage. Third party suppliers and vendors are also on the top of the list. These ones are particularly difficult to handle, as invariably they do not form a part of the core team and manage to ‘slip’ away on their own accord.

So that brings me to the Impact Project Manager.

Who is this super hero? IPM’s are the ‘Bad Guy’ of a project under pressure, while the project manager remains the ‘Good Guy’. They (IPM’s) are focussed on getting the project back on track. They are your negotiators, facilitators, ombudmans and if necessary even the team psychologist.

They take an unbiased independent review of the project status, they audit back to the original requirements and find the points of slippage, they are third party watchdogs, they take an unbiased, unemotional view of the situation with the prime objective of getting the job done.

They are friends of the project team and allies of the client. They ensure that the relationship between you and your client does not breakdown and most importantly they bring the project back on track.

It must be understood that these IPM’s are not bullies or nasty people, but on the contrary are very approachable and reasonable. They have the major advantage of being the ‘outsider’ that can rise above the notorious project politics. They make sure no one looses face and most importantly that the business get it’s project in.

Seems like a super hero to me, but take a prime example of an IPM at an extreme level – people like Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama.

So maybe you should consider bringing in an IPM at your next ‘slippage’ project meeting…it could mean extra business and projects for your company and your clients (who hate you at the moment!).

Contact us, we can help, we don’t guarantee that we can bring you Madiba or Mr Obama, but we certainly have the skill sets that you require.

Drop us a line before you slip into the abyss, email us now!

Twenty seconds and that is it….

Twenty seconds is the attention span of your prospective customer or client on your website.

The rules have changed and window shopping happens at hyper-speed. No longer do people browse, and touch,feel, smell your product, they have one human sense that they rely on….sight.

…and sight is limited by time. Dowload time, flash load time, scanning the site for a link – you have got twenty seconds.

So make EVERY SECOND COUNT!

Twenty seconds and that is it….

“IT’S A GREAT LOOKING WEBSITE…but where is everything?”

You need to be able to draw your customer into a comfort zone. Make navigation bars easy to find and read, never hide them in a graphic. People will loose interest if they can’t find what they want and move on to your competitor.

“STOP TRYING TO MAKE THE CAT BARK!”

When website’s came out, consumers had loyalty to a brand, now with the pinch in the economy, the loyalty (like a dog), tends to wane. Consumers are now becoming more “cat like” in their behaviour. They know what they want and know how to get it! So stop trying to make the cat bark and make sure that you get the cat purring!

YOUR WEBSITE MAY BE A FERRARI – BUT IT HAS A LAWNMOWER ENGINE

With all the fancy multimedia tools around ( and now they are talking VLOGS!), the emphasis has been on the graphic design and cosmetic look of the website. Don’t get me wrong here, it has to be appealing, but time and time again I look at websites, and find that they are not content rich. Worse than that they have content, but it is not structured or designed for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). With that your website never gets a ranking.

(I have seen websites developed by large IT corporates that fail with this)

DON’T BECOME A “Post-it Sticker”

To many people think that because they have a website for their business, everyone will come running! With over 1.5 billion websites (and growing everyday), your website, no matter how spectacular, is like a yellow Post-it sticker in the Amazon rain forests.

You need to follow a multi-channel marketing strategy to get people to come to your store. Just as if you had a store in a busy city, you need to get people through your doors. In cyberspace, passing trade moves at hyperspeed and you are in the universe’s biggest shopping mall!

Remember 20 seconds…….is all you have got!