The inaugural Manufacturing Pool event takes place on Tuesday 15th May at the Fab Lab in Manchester. The Manufacturing Pool has been set up to bring together industrial and manufacturing organisations from across the North West.

The first event will include a mix of networking, highly informative seminars and business clinics where a team of experts will be on hand to answer your questions on a variety of different business subjects.

For more information & to register please go to the following link http://www.manufacturingpool.co.uk

With the assistance of J2 Interactive, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council has completed a project to improve the performance, reliability and scalability of its on-line presence.

“Our citizens expect to have access to a dynamic, modern and accessible website – on whatever device they may be using and at whatever time suits them. Improving the availability, performance and adaptability of our websites encourages people to make better use of the wealth of information and resources that the Council provides through them, and that is an important part of our channel strategy.” said Andrew Kirkham.

“To cope with the existing significant peaks in demand caused by events such as severe weather, and to lay the foundations for new sites, ever increasing traffic and new functionality we embarked on a project with J2 Interactive, our long term support partner, to improve our internet delivery capability.”

J2 provided us with high level design, technical management and testing services that were vital to the project.

“Virtualised and re-engineered to support increasingly strategic use the Council’s Alterian based Web Content Management System now provides resilient, flexible 24 hour access to an increasing number of services online.”

As we move into 2012, I think it’s safe to say that although Councils are facing budget constraints and cut backs their on-line presence will always be at the top of the agenda as a cost effective way to communicate information to the public. So what’s in store for Council websites in 2012?

From speaking to a number of different Councils, improving their website(s) design and usability is key, this also includes removing complex and misleading  jargon from their website, whilst reducing the number of pages and content within the pages to improve information access.

User centric design has also taken front of stage in the approach to re-designing a potentially complex and cluttered Council website home page. In order for the site to be successful, users must visit the site and find information or accomplish tasks no matter what objectives or task they are looking to accomplish.In our experience we have found that usability testing usually uncovers the basic issues within the site fairly quickly into the user sessions. This can include both navigation and signposting of information as well as certain terms that are people still use when looking for information. A recent example was during a session an elderly gentlemen was searching for “community charge ” rather than ” council tax ” Another example being when a user highlighted that a phrase, “coping with retirement” could well be changed to deliver a more optimistic outlook !

What are the main areas to consider when testing the website

Efficiency: Once users have arrived on the website how quickly can they perform tasks

Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design

Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they re-establish proficiency

Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors

Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design

If you would like more information about real life examples, then please see the contact us page

What are the key factors to develop an effective channel strategy?

Detail – the deliberate design of the channel strategy for each type of service, bearing in mind the level of human interaction required and the needs of the targeted customer base

Flexibility – the constant reviewing of the effectiveness of the channel strategy for each type of contact bearing in mind changing technologies and changing customer habits

Simplicity – the optimum channels for the organisation should be the easiest to use for the customer to drive a shift in customer behaviour

Inclusion – no group should be denied access to a service because of disability, language or cost of the access channel (e.g. mobile phone costs, broadband access). Options should be made available other than the organisation’s preferred method of contact.

Cost effectiveness – particularly in the current economic climate, finding ways in which to deliver services effectively but at lower cost will be increasingly important.

If you would like to learn more about how we help Councils develop their on-line channel strategy please get in-touch Contact

When it comes to using email as a means of communicating services to the public many Councils are still not convinced about it’s relevance. However a reecent survey carried out by the DMA look pretty positive overall, with consumer approval ratings of email marketing having risen dramatically over the last 12 months.

For example, the study reports that the number of consumers surveyed who found 50% or more of the emails they received to be of interest to them rose from 9% in 2010 to 30% in 2011.

Similarly, message relevance seems to be improving, with just 24% reporting that less than a tenth of the emails they receive are relevant to them. Contrast this with 2010 dissatisfaction figure of 64%.

On perhaps an even more positive note, the survey reports that consumers are signing up to receive emails from brands they trust, in ever-greater numbers and without resistance – 50% report receiving 20 or more trusted, opted-in email campaigns each week.

If you would like more information about real life examples, then please send your details to the following link   Contact Details

Could Councils use behavioural tracking to understand what individuals are looking for? How could you Council improve their communication channels to serve up relevant and timely information?

Digital marketing of products and services at a B2C level is common place.However, could G2C work in the same way? The best example of implementation of behavioural tracking of B2C sites is Amazon.com. Targeted email campaigns from Amazon let users know when the items they are interested in, or have looked at in the past, go on sale. Campaigns like this are triggered by information gathered and analysed by tracking the behaviour of the online visitor.

The Public Sector is striving to improve the way it interacts and communicates to it’s citizens at every level, the use of email marketing tools and keeping people informed will be a key component for the communication and marketing teams within the Council. Some Councils are already using this technology, if you would like more information about real life examples, then please send your details to the following link   Contact Details

The most difficult part about trying to justify the existence of an intranet is that you’re trying to get management to invest hard cash for mostly soft returns. These soft returns come in the form of improved employee productivity and self-sufficiency, higher staff morale, a higher level of inter-departmental collaboration and communication.

However this does not mean that you cannot develop a business case and show a return on investment model. So, if your Council intends to increase efficiency, whilst driving down costs and at the same time considerably improving communication and collaboration among employees, then it seems that investment in an intranet is the only way forward. Measuring value and return on investment for internal business systems has always been important, but now Councils want to be assured that the systems they’re spending money on offer a significant return. ROI has never been more vital than it is now. You need to be able to prove the business system is actually helping people do their jobs more efficiently.

If you would like to receive a white paper outlining the approach to developing a business case or would like to talk in general terms about how Councils are saving time and money by developing their Intranet then please contact us on the following link. Contact

Emails and E-newsletters are now accepted by many people as the most cost effective and efficient way of receiving information. Marketing & communication departments within Councils are now looking to email marketing software as a solution to provide accurate and timely information to the public.

Managing your Email Marketing Campaigns

Why would Councils use email marketing?

1. Maintain Council brand guidelines through template based development software.Templates can be created using a WYSIWYG interface.

2. Re-purposing content from the Council website. Content which was originally created for the Council website can be used in either emails or E-newsletters.

3. Content can be dynamic and sent to specific groups or individuals, dependent on their requirements. ie the public, businesses or partners of the Council

4. All emails are browser tested and spam checked before they are sent. The Council can also check whether the email arrived and/or was opened by the recipient.

5. Manage subscribe and unsubscribe lists whilst keeping compliant with the Data Protection Act.

If you would like to discuss this topic in more detail or attend one of our product workshops then please contact us on the following link. Contact

When we talk to some Councils about Social Media they invariably think that having a Facebook or Twitter account is the answer to this form of communication. However, many Councils now realise that social networks and communities will influence customer perceptions and relationships.

The future for Council websites sites is being able to recognise social relationships and customers preferences and deliver customised services to them in real-time. We are still some distance from this scenario; however some companies are already leading the way in Social CRM.

Most Council are now taking steps to fully appreciate the role of social media in the community, they are beginning to look a ways to stimulate 2 way communication, pushing information out so that they start to engage and communicate with specific groups and individuals.

If you would like to discuss this topic in more detail or attend one of our product workshops then please contact us on the following link. Contact

What is Red Tape Challenge about?

“It’s about harnessing the experience and ideas of those who deal with regulation day-in, day-out to help us cut red tape.” say the Government

The website will gather the publics thoughts on which regulations can be scrapped so Ministers and government officials will then use this information to help them cut the right regulations in the right way.

The challenge aims to look at the stock of over 21,000 statutory rules and regulations that are active in the UK today. The priority will be to focus on regulations that place the biggest burdens on businesses and society.People can come to the website and comment – and those thoughts will be collated by government officials to provide a clearer picture of which regulations should stay, which should go and which should change.