M & A Rainmaker

Cisco phone systems provider Poundbury Systems ( http://www.poundbury.com/ Telephone – 01305 259849  ) is providing futuristic phone and video conferencing systems for Dorset based Small and Medium Businesses under the banner ” Futureline “.

Awareness of the installation of High Speed Fibre Optic networks in Dorset has been raised by eg http://www.dorsetforyou.com/broadband and http://www.teamdorset.org.uk/Business/Broadband-Survey?pgid=153 and Poundbury Systems is building on this awareness by offering local businesses low entry cost phone and video conferencing systems from Cisco Systems
( N.B. BT and Cisco are sponsors of the 2012 Olympics ).

Poundbury Systems are offering a package that will provide Small and Medium Businesses with a phone and web conferencing facility starting at

only £99 per month.

Cisco and Poundbury are thinking ahead to the time when Dorsets roads will be full of people heading to and from Weymouth and Portland and the Sailing Olympics and also thinking back to the recent winter months when snow prevented travel around Dorset.

For many reasons we need to ensure that we can conduct business irrespective of whether we are physically at a place or not. Of course there is always a need to meet people in person but many of the business discussions that we have can be conducted via email, phone, video conferencing and the Internet.

If we prepare for extreme road or weather conditions then this is a basis for a high speed, resilient, reliable communications system.

It is also the basis for a ” Digital Dorset ” which will encourage inward investment and migration.

Poundbury Systems phone and video conferencing systems is flexible and scalable – phones can be added incrementally – one or two at a time and at very low cost.

Call Clare on 01305 259849

to discuss your requirements in more detail.

Poundbury Systems is in the Cisco mentor programme and receives a regular monthly mentoring session from Cisco mentoring partner Channel Intellect.

The bad weather in January and various issues in December meant that the Channel Intellect representative John Shannon could not get down from the Wirral to Dorset.

In December the mentoring session was carried out using the telephone. During the session a number of critical areas were discussed such as the order forecast and the commitment to those orders being received and personal coaching. The mentor came off of the December update feeling that he had heard the words but needed to see the facial reactions and other body language that accompanied those words.

Given the appalling weather conditions in January it was decided that another remote review was required but this time Cisco Webex video conferencing would be used.

Cisco Webex is a low cost video conferencing solution that is suitable for small and medium sized businesses to use. ( ie suitable for Poundbury, Channel Intellect and Poundbury’s customers ).

When John came off the January remote review he was convinced that messages  were received, understood and committed to.

Cisco Webex video conferencing makes business sense for a  number of reasons: Reduced travel time and cost; reduced carbon emissions; business continuity and the ability to see the whites of peoples’ eyes !

In February the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics Games will run video over Cisco Networks. In 2012 Poundbury hopes to do the same in Dorset.

Cisco Systems will be providing the video and all-media network that will allow NBC to broadcast the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

See the official Cisco Systems Press Releases here:

http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2010/prod_010610.html

http://blogs.cisco.com/sp/comments/nbc_leverages_cisco_video_network_at_2010_olympic_winter_games/

Poundbury Systems is already promoting the use of Cisco Systems for communications during the sailing section of the 2012 Olympics based in the U.K.

The company is also developing video conferencing and remote networking
technology, to reduce the need for local businesses to travel during the Games.
‘We see video conferencing as the next big thing for businesses,
especially those outside London. We’d be developing it even if the
Games weren’t happening, but the event gives everyone an extra
push. I think it will be a catalyst for Dorset in many ways.
‘It has already given Dorset a short-term motivational boost. In the
long-term, the benefits of improving the area’s infrastructure will be
enormous.
‘Team Dorset is not about opting for a quick fix; it’s about building
long-term business relationships and improving the environment.
We all stand to benefit from the exciting and demanding challenges
the Games will bring. Dorset is a wonderful place to live and work
and we want it to remain so for many more generations”

Team Dorset is the lead agency in Dorset for promoting the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Weymouth and Portland. Thier website is here:

http://www.teamdorset.org.uk/

Poundbury Systems Limited, Dorchester
Poundbury Systems Limited (PSL) is an award-winning computer
and telephone systems integrator based in Poundbury, Dorchester, which provides
forward-looking technology solutions for SMEs across all sectors.

Since starting out 2001, PSL has enjoyed rapid growth and won numerous
awards including the British Chamber of Commerce’s South West Business
of the Year in 2007.

Director Clare Jenkins is in no doubt about what makes PSL special: ‘Our staff
are exceptional. They are highly skilled, but able to translate a technical issue
into everyday business terms.’

PSL runs an active community relations programme and gives time and
resources to local education establishments, including The Thomas Hardye
School and Weymouth College, as well as donating to Dorset charities.
As the 2012 Games approach, Clare and her team are aware they’ll need
extra staff and are increasing their interaction with schools as part of a futureproofing
recruitment drive.

If you have read a couple of my Marketing related posts here you will know that I consider Internet Video to be one of the  ” referrers ” of people and links back to your website and you.

My interest in Internet Video Marketing goes back some way. In fact I realised that I had a couple of timelines for this that I could check and I’ve surprised myself with how the time has flown by !!

In  December 2006 I produced ( or had produced ) a video for the Glan Yr Afon Inn. Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1YGFgQHsno

and it comes up on Google alongside it’s Google Video version when you search on The Glan here:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=glan+yr+afon+inn&meta=&aq=f&oq=

Now, I think that the thing that sparked me off then was that I noticed how simple and high quality online videos had become. ( not all of them were simple and high quality but some were ).

I came across Mike Koenigs ( who I will talk about later as it is he that has sparked off the recent renewed interest ) and his ” Internet Video Marketing with Internet Infomercials “(  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5R660ePBuI )  and also came across Guy Massey of The Internet Video Company ( see examples of thier work here http://www.ivc4.com/ivn/ ) . There were other people and companies that influenced me at the time – I just don’t remember them all. 

I guess that it was probably Mike who made me decide to produce a video myself and get it online. Fortunately for me I had access to a professional filming and editing team that had been recommended to me and I hired them, gave them a brief and sent them up to The Glan for a couple of days.  A couple of weeks later I went to thier offices and they showed me the demo. of the film. We made a few tweaks, added some ( not expecially brilliant ) music and I had my film on a disc. One of the children ( young adults now ! ) ” ripped ” it off the cd and  put it up on YouTube  and Google ( before Google bought YouTube ) and the other integrated it into The Glan website. So, we had videos on YouTube,Google and the website. Hey!! – I was pretty proud of the whole team !! Although I did not do it all myself it was great to know that we had started from nothing and got to a video on the Internet.

Then we started on our ” biking videos ” , with a new filming and production team. Aberdare Park was our first video:

http://thebikechannel.ning.com/video/945189:Video:4

which we all thought was great and then we moved on to our ” bike upgrade videos ” e.g.

http://thebikechannel.ning.com/video/945189:Video:962

here

http://thebikechannel.ning.com/video/945189:Video:1945

and here

http://thebikechannel.ning.com/video/945189:Video:2222

What exactly were we doing – Hey !! we were just exploring and having fun – ok ??

By this stage I had experience of working with three filming and production crews !!!

Now to put it simply you could say that The Glan video was just about improving the experience of looking at The Glan website and nothing to do with search. Hopefully if people looked at the video they would be even more interested in visiting The Glan. 

The Aberdare Park video was about us starting to produce a programme or a channel of bike related films and the upgrade videos were about educating people as part of the channel content and also some product placement ( Mikuni Carbs and Kuryakyn Hypercharger ). Again not about search.

However, I knew that Mike Koenigs was focussed on using internet videos to get good search rankings. In many ways he worried less about content and quality of the video and more about getting it up there  to generate more traffic and leads.

I also knew that Mike was developing a product called Traffic Geyser whose basic purpose was to upload videos across multiple video platforms. I also knew that Google was ( apparently ) going to start taking more notice of pictures and video. 

Fast forward 4 years ( yes 4 years !!!! ). What’s changed ?? What happened ???

Well I signed up for Traffic Geyser for about 18 months but I didn’t use it ( I was not producing any videos and I did not need to upload them to one video site never mind multiple video sites ) so I let the license fee lapse. I was also off exploring various other way of getting good rankings on the Internet. Oh !! and of course I was busy learning about Social Networks. That’s how I have at this point thousands of connections on Facebook, Twitter, Ecademy and LinkedIn ( not as many as some but more than most ! ).

I was also developing my ideas for the equivalent of the ” great universal connection theory ” or something, latterly known as the ” Marketing Whirlpool ” !! So, I have just expounded my theory when this   

http://www.trafficgeyser.com/poweredby/?p=3

lands in my inbox. Now Mike is also very good at email marketing and obviously tends his database with loving care 🙂 so, despite the fact that I let my Traffic Geyser account lapse I am still on his mailing list. ( I just have not taken any notice of his emails for the last couple of years I guess ! )

After viewing his first videos and having a bit of ( very interesting ) email discussion with him he ends up sending out another email and video here

http://www.trafficgeyser.com/poweredby/?p=160

Now, what you’ll notice here ( and Mike pointed this out ) is that in the first video case study Brian was clearly not very experienced but managed to pull in some good business really quickly whereas Valerie was clearly a pretty switched on and experienced lady ( let’s ignore the ” stay at home mom ” disguise shall we 😉  ) who had developed her business out of another business. Really focussed and niche.

Ok – so what’s the issue here then ??

Well, it’s sort of the old quality versus quantity debate:

Is it better to produce high quality videos and content that are distributed in single or small numbers and are optimised carefully OR is it sufficient and indeed effective to produce loads of  mediocre videos that rank highly in Google – at least for a while ???

Stay tuned while I explore – and please let me have your thoughts !!