Group Certificates and Payroll made easy

Posted by MattE on 03 Jul 2009 | Tagged as: Business

The start of the new financial year is a great time to re-evaluate business systems, especially those that only get a good workout once per year.

Things like finalising wages for the year and the production of group certificates.

If doing the wages and group certificates has been a  trial for you this year, why not look at an easy-to-use software program called WagezWindow.

The program does it all and yes, even complete computer novices can use it.

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The quiet shift to small business

Posted by MattE on 01 Jul 2009 | Tagged as: Marketing, consumer engagement

There is a quiet revolution going on in business. In some countries the revolution is a return to the old ways, while in others countries it is a return to the ways of old.

My Musings today are inspired by this article on BBC NEWS  called Where small is beautiful and bountiful.

The article is about attempts by Indian businessmen to emulate Western style supermarkets and malls in an attempt to lure customers away from the small, traditional family run enterprise so common in the populous nation.

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Product bundling - consumer confusion and market needs

Posted by MattE on 24 Jun 2009 | Tagged as: Marketing, consumer engagement

I was reading an interesting article in the The Hindu Business Line : When simple isn’t easy about the author’s attempt to buy a simple phone, without all the bells and whistles.

Of course these days buying a simple mobile phone to make or receive calls only is not so easy. As the author says, it comes bundled with cameras, FM radio tuners and MP3 players.

But one line really caught my eye: Continue Reading»

Why every school needs an SMS alert system

Posted by MattE on 18 Jun 2009 | Tagged as: Communications, SMS

In our last post we introduced our SMS service and how it could have helped with the school that had short notice about closure do to swine flu.

Today in the news is this about another school:

But the school’s principal says she was only informed of the required closure (by the Department) a few hours before school was due to open this morning.

She says any student arriving alone would stay at the primary school until a parent is contacted.

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SMS swine flu alerts - easy to implement

Posted by MattE on 11 Jun 2009 | Tagged as: SMS

SMS is ideally suited for the style of rapid communication needed to alert groups of people about important notifications.

Swine flu notifications by SMS is a perfect example.

Recently in Queensland there was some bad press over a school that was not as prompt in organising notifications to parents that the school had been closed. The use of a simple SMS blast to all parents, would have simplified the process. One text message about the closure could have been used in addition to the usual, slower methods.

Of course such alerts can be used across a range of business and community situations to provide a cheap and effective communication tool.

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Low cost SMS service proves popular

Posted by MattE on 07 Jun 2009 | Tagged as: Communications, Marketing, SMS

The Plusone SMS Central low cost SMS service is proviong popular with businesses who normally would not have easy access to low per message SMS services.

At a price of just 14 cents per message, small and medium businesses can send bulk text messages to their opt in databases for promtions, news about sales, special discount, member-only deals etc.

A huge benefit of SMS marketing is the ability to deliver your message into the hands of your market at a time of your choosing at costs far lower that just about any other form of marketing.

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Six ways to make Customer Service work for you

Posted by MattE on 12 May 2009 | Tagged as: Marketing, consumer engagement

Customer service is an aspect of business that either seems to be done well, or very badly.

This posting comes about after reading a thread on a forum I frequent that was discussing why businesses don’t return call, are slow or fail to reply to emails.

The examples the original poster gave included unsatisfactory dealings with businesses he had been a customer of for a number of years and was for products that ranged in price from $50 up to over $500.

But one contribution to the discussion really floored me. In it, the poster made some direct points; Continue Reading»

Mobile service to extend to Mount Everest

Posted by MattE on 08 May 2009 | Tagged as: General, SMS

The ease of providing telephone services in the mobile spectrum compared to land-line based services is clearly demonstrated by this plan from the Nepal Government.

A Nepali telecom firm plans to expand its mobile phone services to the top of Mount Everest, benefiting climbers on the world’s highest mountain, a company official said last week, the Age reports.

Hundreds of climbers, who go to the 8850-metre Mount Everest every year, depend on expensive satellite phones to speak with their families as the remote Himalayan region does not have communication facilities.

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LOW cost self managed SMS service launced

Posted by MattE on 01 May 2009 | Tagged as: SMS

PlusOne Marketing announces a low cost self-managed outbound SMS service for small business wanting to make use of SMS for customer communications, staff communications etc.

  • Free account establishment
  • No contracts
  • No pre-purchase of messages
  • Mail merge
  • Scheduled sending
  • Messages from under 14 cents

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Backup of hard drives essential activity

Posted by MattE on 25 Apr 2009 | Tagged as: General

If you have ever suffered a hard drive failure, you know how disastrous it is. You have accumulated dozens of personal settings on your PC not to mention important personal documents, such as tax returns, emails and digital images.

Over the month/s years you have installed numerous applications and unique settings for each user. All this is lost if and when your PC fails or your computer or hard drive is damaged by a virus.

Can you say with confidence that you are effectively protected and can recover from a computing disaster quickly and easily? With Acronis True Image Home 2009 installed on your PC you can!

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