Blog moved to http://www.cpcommunications.com.au/blog/ October 22, 2008
Posted by Catriona Pollard in Uncategorized.add a comment
Thank you for reading this blog – CP Communications media releases - over the last couple of years. I have moved this blog to:
http://www.cpcommunications.com.au/blog/
So I would loved to see you over there and please subscribe to the new feed
http://feeds.feedburner.com/CPComms
Cheers
Catriona
Telstra Enterprise & Government and PDM announce exclusive partnership focused on Out-of-Home Digital Media October 9, 2008
Posted by Catriona Pollard in PDM.Tags: OOHD Media, PDM, Prime Digital Media, Telstra, Telstra go to market, Warwick Syphers
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Telstra and Prime Digital Media (PDM) today announced the signing of a three year exclusive Go-To-Market partnership.
In a move designed to assist Australian businesses to deploy world-class Out-of-Home Digital (OOHD) Signage display solutions, Telstra’s Enterprise & Government Division and PDM will jointly pursue opportunities for OOHD media within the Australian marketplace through their complimentary product and service solutions.
As respective market leaders in OOHD and IC&T, PDM and Telstra will collectively present Australian businesses with a compelling value proposition designed to accelerate the fast-growing new media market.
Working in partnership, Telstra and PDM can assist retailers develop their own digital signage strategy, providing content, research results, and the benefit of experience. Telstra’s leading edge IP infrastructure will support this key feature in a retailer’s marketing mix.
Randy Lynch, Telstra Enterprise & Government, Executive Director Marketing and Strategy says: “The partnership will focus on joint promotion of OOHD media content as a marketing solution driven by fixed and wireless internet protocol (IP) networks for Australian businesses as well as the joint pursuit of selected OOHD media.”
Telstra’s state-of-the-art IP networks – Next IP™ and Next G™ – provide the reach, reliability and power required to deploy and run creative content at point-of-sale. PDM, which has the largest Out-of-Home Digital Media network in Australia will provide its highly experienced in-house creative team, media management systems and experienced marketing consultants who understand the unique requirements of this medium.
According to PDM Chairman Warwick Syphers, “PDM is delighted by the further strengthening of the relationship between our companies. Working in close collaboration, we will analyse and assess the Australian market to identify, clarify and customise the OOHD content solution needs of individual customers. We will also consider how we can address the potential common solution needs of sets of customers. A partnership of market leaders will only serve to accelerate a fast-growing new media market.”
PDM create and centrally manage content for Telstra TV, Telstra’s multi-channel in-store digital signage network that delivers information, education, promotion and Telstra brand messages to Telstra T-shops and T[life]™ concept stores Australia-wide. Messages can be updated by the minute via the internet when and where the message is most relevant to the consumer.
-ENDS-
Business and Careers Institute in Sydney set to help workers improve productivity October 8, 2008
Posted by Catriona Pollard in Uncategorized.Tags: Business and Careers Institute, Excel, IT, Microsoft Word, Outlook, Paul Neale, Sydney Writers Centre, training, Valerie Khoo
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The new Business and Careers Institute in Sydney is set to help Australian workers improve productivity and achieve more in less time.
Launched this month by experienced trainers Valerie Khoo and Paul Neale, the Business and Careers Institute is a training centre dedicated to “making technology simple” and offers short courses in Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook and more.
“This is responding to the real need for computer software courses that are fun and interesting,” said Valerie. “This demand has increased over the past couple of years as the technological ‘gap’ has widened for many people.
“A generation ago, you were someone who knew how to touch type – or not. These days, you have people in the workplace who range from being able to use software to perform complex economic modelling, and others who barely know how to open a file.”
Valerie said most people barely use a fraction of the functions in everyday computer applications like Word, Excel and Outlook. “Many people complain about becoming a slave to technology,” said Valerie. “But when you know how to use it properly, technology can set you free. It can help you do you work in half the time, which can lead to better career prospects and performance.
“Our courses show that technology can be simple to understand when you have dynamic presenters who can cater to whatever level you’re at.” The Business and Careers Institute in Sydney offers courses from beginners to advanced levels.
Apart from being a self-confessed tech evangelist, Valerie is also author of five books and founded the successful Sydney Writers’ Centre, also in Milsons Point. “I’m passionate about creating fun and enjoyable learning environments,” said Valerie. “I’ve partnered with a very talented trainer and IT guru, Paul Neale.” Paul is also a popular presenter at the University of Sydney’s Centre of Continuing Education.
Students learn on a state of the art computer network in training premises that has been custom-designed to be interactive and creative. Valerie added: “I’m so excited to launch the Business and Careers Institute. It’s going to be a wonderful hub for the business community and for anyone who wants to get the most out of technology.”
For more information:
Valerie Khoo, (02) 9929 9237
courses@bcinstitute.com.au
www.bcinstitute.com.au
PDM and Pacific Magazines announce exclusive cross-media partnership September 29, 2008
Posted by Catriona Pollard in PDM.Tags: digital signage network, OOHD Media, Pacific Magazines, PDM, Prime Digital Media, technology
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Australia’s leading provider of Out-Of-Home Digital media, PDM, today announced the launch of an exclusive partnership with consumer magazine publisher, Pacific Magazines, providing advertisers with a unique cross-platform media opportunity.
In an Australian first, Pacific Magazines will display branded custom content on PDM’s digital signage network from a selected range of high-profile magazine brands including Marie Claire, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Famous and Virgin Blue Voyeur. Magazine advertisers will have the opportunity to complement print campaigns with Out-Of-Home Digital, reaching their target demographic of a young, mobile and hard-to-reach audience.
Launching with PDM’s Boost TV, located in Boost Juice outlets Australia-wide, the partnership will see PDM’s digital signage network deliver advertiser and brand messages to target demographic groups shared by Pacific Magazines and PDM. This deal provides advertisers with an immediate cut-through required in today’s fast changing consumer world.
PDM National Sales Director, Hamish Guild says “PDM is pleased to be associated with high profile magazines regarded as some of the country’s leading publications. Pacific Magazines can now offer their clients an exclusive value add-on for every magazine advertising sale – something their competitors can’t come close to matching in the current market.”
He continues, “Boost TV content chapters are sponsored by the various magazine brands to provide a dynamic synergy between digital and print media and makes it a desirable format for magazine advertisers.”
Group Marketing Manager, Kathy Skourtis, says “Pacific Magazines are excited to be working alongside PDM on this exclusive partnership. It provides an added dimension to each of the Pacific brands and gives our advertisers a unique opportunity to reach an extended audience.”
Pacific Magazines is part of the Seven Media Group which also includes Yahoo! 7 who PDM have an exciting relationship with using data feeds for live updates for news, weather and sports across its OOHD networks.
-ENDS-
Sydney Writers’ Centre launches podcasts on writing, featuring best-selling authors September 29, 2008
Posted by Catriona Pollard in Uncategorized.add a comment
Sydney Writers’ Centre launches podcasts for Australia audiences on writing, featuring best-selling authors
The Sydney Writers’ Centre has launched its podcast series on Writers and Writing. The podcasts – which are available on iTunes and through the Centre’s website – are part of the Sydney Writers’ Centre’s commitment to bring writing resources to everyone, regardless of geography.
“Many people aren’t able to attend writers’ festivals or attend seminars with famous authors, especially if they live in rural or regional areas,” says Valerie Khoo, director of the Sydney Writers’ Centre. “So our podcasts are a way for everyone – no matter where they live – to hear from best-selling authors about how they got published. These authors also provide great advice and writing tips.”
So far, the Sydney Writers’ Centre podcasts have already featured authors including:
Garth Nix, fantasy author whose books have sold over 4.5 million copies around the world and been translated into 36 languages.
Tim Ferriss, who is author of The Four Hour Work Week – a book that debuted on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal best seller lists, has so far been published in 31 countries and made headlines around the world.
Kate Forsyth, the award-winning author of more than 20 books for both children and adults, which have been sold in more than 10 countries.
Nick Earls, GP-turned-best-selling Australian author of six books for adults and five young adult novels.
David Rollins, advertising guru turned adventure/thriller author.
Rachael Bermingham, co-author of self-publishing phenomenon 4 Ingredients, which has sold more than 720,000 copies.
And many more
“We want to ensure we have a mix of authors who write literary fiction, non-fiction, children’s books and more,” says Valerie. “So many people contact us from outside of metropolitan areas. We’ve harnessed technology to bring our podcasts – and our online writing courses – directly to them.”
As part of its commitment to serving aspiring writers, the Centre provides online writing courses. “These courses are so popular and they are very effective,” says Valerie. “There are so many talented and up-and-coming writers across Australia who just need a bit of guidance. Our courses help them with that. In our online course in Feature Writing for Magazines and Newspapers, some students are being published in mainstream publications before the course even finishes!”
The podcasts are just one example of the Sydney Writers’ Centre’s willingness to embrace Web 2.0. It also has a blog, a Facebook page, and a Twitter presence.
http://www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au/
About the Sydney Writers’ Centre
The Sydney Writers’ Centre is Australia’s leading centre for writing training. The Centre is a hub for people who want to get published or improve their writing skills. It offers courses in creative writing, magazine writing, travel writing, business writing, writing for the web and much more.
Website: http://www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au/
Constructive Recruitment wins 2008 Australian Business Award for Enterprise. September 24, 2008
Posted by Catriona Pollard in Constructive Recruitment.Tags: Australian Business Award, Constructive Recruitment, Enterprise
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Technical recruitment specialist Constructive Recruitment is pleased to announce that they are the winner of the 2008 Australian Business Award for Enterprise.
Constructive Recruitment is recognised for achieving outstanding commercial success and sustainable growth and its professional contribution to the industry as a whole.
“The technical and operations industry sectors have very specific needs when it comes to employment. We certainly pride ourselves on understanding and catering to those needs,” Director Giles Keay said.
“We are driven by dedicated people who have a simple philosophy: we believe that all our clients within the technical and operations sector should receive detailed personal attention and a first class service from our team.”
“We have the industry knowledge to provide the best qualified staff, effectively and efficiently. We are experts in finding the right culture and personality fit for both the jobseeker and employer,” Mr Keay said.
The Australian Business Awards are a national awards program recognising success, innovation and ethics across all industry sectors. The awards honour Australia’s industry leaders through the acknowledgment of innovative business processes, business excellence and overall business success.
The 2008 Australian Business Awards have been presented to fifty-four organisations selected from a field of 1073 entrants across various industries. All entries were rigorously evaluated by an independent judging panel of business experts in accordance with the award criteria across seven main areas: leadership, impact, adaptability, corporate culture, customer and market focus, uniqueness and evidence of success.
Australian Business Awards Program Director, Tara Johnston, said “The 2008 award winners were selected from a pool of over a thousand entries covering all aspects of commercial success, innovation and corporate responsibility.”
“Overall, the standard of entries was extremely high and the number of entries has increased dramatically from the previous year. The winners displayed exceptional performance and leadership in their respective industries, and are role models for any organisation striving for business and product excellence,” said Ms Johnston.
Constructive Recruitment Expands with New Employees September 24, 2008
Posted by Catriona Pollard in Constructive Recruitment.Tags: Anna Pearson, Constructive Recruitment, New Appointment, Steven Hill
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Technical recruitment specialist Constructive Recruitment have announced the appointment of two new staff members to the Sydney and Perth offices in response to the continued growth of the business.
Steven Hill has been appointed as a Consultant managing the civil construction division in Sydney. He is responsible for recruiting in roads, rail, water, waste water, sub division, drainage and tunnelling industries for all position levels in civil construction.
Constructive Recruitment has also employed Anna Pearson as a Consultant for the Building Construction and Project Management division in WA.
Anna recruits for the technical and operations roles including Construction Manager’s, Project Manager’s, Contract Administrator’s, and Estimators through to Site Managers, foremen and cadets. She will further develop Constructive Recruitment’s already strong presence in the WA market.
Constructive Recruitment Director David Marriott said, “We welcome these new consultants into our team, knowing that they will make a significant impact within their markets and will maintain the reputation of Constructive Recruitment as a leader in the recruiting industry.”
While specialising in producing recruitment solutions for its clients, Constructive Recruitment has a great staffing record itself achieving a 75% retention rate since the business began more than five years ago.
Konekt appoints Serhat Oguz as CEO September 23, 2008
Posted by Catriona Pollard in Konekt.Tags: CEO, Konekt, Serhat Oguz, workplace safety
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After serving as acting CEO for the past three months Konekt are proud to announce that Serhat Oguz has been officially appointed to the position. Mr Oguz is a major contributor to the increasing revenue growth of Konekt.
Mr Oguz joined Konekt in July 2007 as Chief Operating Officer and since that time has been driven to succeed for the overall improvement of the company.
Mr Oguz holds a business degree and a post-graduate diploma in business administration. As well as his qualifications Mr Oguz has had over 20 years experience in Finance and General Management roles, both locally and internationally.
Mr Oguz boasts an impressive employment history. Most recently he was working with IBS Asia Pacific as Managing Director of Asean Operations. Other previous positions include Managing Director of CDC Software ANZ and senior roles in multinational organisations such as SAP, Ariba, and ComputerVision.
Mr Oguz said, “I am thrilled to be appointed CEO, and excited to lead Konekt through the next stage of evolution; engaging staff in strategic development, delivering new and unique service lines to the market, and growth through acquisition of businesses in alignment with our core competencies.”
Since joining the business in 2007 as COO, Mr Oguz has influenced the change of direction of the company by focusing on overall sales strategy and Konekt’s approach to market. This in turn has led to stronger financial performance.
Sales grew by over 13% in the last quarter of 2007/2008 year from the average of the previous three quarters. The cost structure has also been realigned to the business to ensure a profitable and financially positive future.
The start to the new financial year has been very positive. Both the top line and bottom line expectations have been exceeded, making Konekt an increasingly profitable business.
Stuart Craig, Chairman of Konekt said “we are pleased to have Serhat as our CEO, and his energy, drive and business acumen have been critical in turning the company around.”
“I am confident Serhat will lead Konekt to its first profitable year, providing value and worth for all stakeholders,” Mr Craig said.
Collaboration of trixbox Pro Unified Agent Edition and salesforce.com’s AppExchange announced September 4, 2008
Posted by Catriona Pollard in Fonality.Tags: communication, CRM, Fonality, phone systems, salesforce.com, trixbox
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Fonality, the leading provider of open source business communications systems, today announced the collaboration of the award winning trixbox Pro Unified Agent Edition and salesforce.com’s AppExchange.
Fonality’s trixbox Pro, Unified Agent Edition (UAE) is immediately available for test drive and deployment from Fonality Australia.
The collaboration of the two innovative systems provides a unique customer centric view of a company’s telephony interaction and contributes to the customer value creation.
Fonality Australia director, Marc Englaro said that it used to take time and budget to create the kind of deep integration between a CRM and a phone system.
“Fonality is creating a clear channel between the two systems and helping organisations get a complete picture of the interactions with a customer or prospect.
“Fonality is the first company to provide automatic logging of phone calls into Salesforce.com. No longer do the sales and service representatives have to manually log calls into the CRM system. Now, all inbound and outbound calls are automatically matched with the corresponding record in salesforce.com, and call data is captured and logged,” said Mr Englaro.
The UAE value cycle includes three stages:
1. Preparation: call centre and support agents are informed of open sales opportunities and any unresolved help-desk cases as they receive the call. They are therefore in a better position to help the customer achieve what they are trying to achieve, in the least stressful way.
2. Engagement: because the agent receiving the call is better informed about the client, they don’t need to ask questions that have already been answered, and the agent sounds more knowledgeable, customer engagements are more effective leading to improved customer satisfaction and improved efficiency;
3. Review: complete and accurate data provides a high degree of visibility across the sales and support teams, providing visibility of agent performance, organisational responsiveness to customer enquiries, and which customers or types of customers require the most effort.
The Fonality UAE value creation process is driven by the following features:
Performance Management:
1. Automatic Call History provides a detailed history of who employees are calling and the duration of each call.
2. Integrated Call Recording allows any call to be recorded from the PBX system and attached to the corresponding record in Salesforce.com.
3. Lead Management Reporting provides reports on how many calls were required for conversion, lead activity, etc.
4. Agent Activity Reporting ranks agents based on activity and productivity.
5. Outbound Call Reporting shows which reports are busiest on the phone, how many calls have been made to leads and customers.
Agent Productivity:
1. Click to Call allows any number is Salesforce.com to be automatically dialled with the click of a mouse.
2. Improved Screen Pops address the problem of multiple matching records. A screen is automatically launched for immediate note taking, and then can be attached to the proper record after the call.
3. Deal Size Alerts pop-up on a rep’s desktop and display the name, company and size of the opportunity before the phone starts ringing.
4. Account Ownership Routing automatically directs incoming calls go to the account owners
Salesforce.com was recently announced the winner for their Midmarket Suite CRM by US CRM Magazine for its 2008 CRM Market Awards, a title held by Salesforce.com since 2005. They have also won the Marketing Automation category. Recipients were determined through an extensive three-month process and proprietary rating formula that involved industry analysts, financial and corporate information, product and functionality assessments, and scores reflecting customer satisfaction.
-ENDS-
For further information or interviews please contact:
CP Communications.
E: cp@cpcommunications.com.
About Fonality
Fonality is a leader in open source, Asterisk-based IP telephony systems. trixbox Pro, Fonality’s award winning IP-PBX product line for small and medium-sized businesses, is widely recognised as the world’s largest commercial Asterisk-based deployment with over 5000 systems in 100 countries making over 225 million calls. www.fonality.com
About Salesforce.com
Salesforce.com is the market and technology leader in Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS). The company’s portfolio of SaaS applications, including its award-winning CRM, available at http://www.salesforce.com/products/, has revolutionized the ways that customers manage and share business information over the Internet. The company’s Force.com PaaS enables customers, developers and partners to build powerful on-demand applications that deliver the benefits of multi-tenancy across the enterprise. Applications built on the Force.com platform, available at http://www.force.com/, can be easily shared, exchanged and installed with a few simple clicks via salesforce.com’s AppExchange marketplace available at http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange/.
As of July 31, 2008, salesforce.com manages customer information for approximately 47,700 customers including ABN AMRO, Dow Jones Newswires, Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE, Sprint Nextel, and SunTrust Banks. Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available.
Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “CRM”. For more information please visit http://www.salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.
New eBook teaching old marketers new tricks August 25, 2008
Posted by Catriona Pollard in Freestyle Media.Tags: Fred Schebesta, Freestyle Media, http://www.freestylemedia.com.au/eBook/, Marketing, Online
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Director of innovative online direct marketing company, Freestyle Media, Fred Schebesta said the eBook acts as a practical guide for marketers and discusses six stages that are crucial for marketers who want to see their campaign achieve results.
“It’s tough to market online effectively and it’s only going to get tougher with all the content on the internet choking up attention. Campaigns can no longer be just good, they need to be great.”
“There is literally so much information on the net, basic online marketing tactics cobbled together are just not good enough anymore. I wanted to teach a step by step approach to executing online campaigns that get results,” said Mr Schebesta.
How to create an Online Marketing Campaign that Sells is valuable for marketers who want to deepen their understanding of the online marketing ‘coal face’ whether they are new to developing online marketing campaigns or want to learn new techniques to teach their team.
In the ebook Fred shares techniques and online direct marketing expertise he has used to create responsive and successful campaigns for his clients in order to increase sales and achieve targets.
It discusses how to set up an online marketing sales campaign, the importance of understanding the customer, developing the creative for a campaign and tracking its effectiveness.
His commitment to sharing these techniques and educating the industry about online direct marketing and its application across the online discipline has seen him acknowledged as one of Australia’s leading entrepreneurial minds under the age of 30.
