Posts Tagged ‘Web’

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Join the iQuote LinkedIn Group Today

June 22, 2010

iQuote is constantly developing and evolving, and the iQuote User Group on LinkedIn is the perfect place to find out the latest news on iQuote. How can you interact with the iQuote group? We want to talk to you about all things iQuote!

  1. Contribute ideas to make iQuote (even) better through the Discussions.
  2. Get pre-release notification of new products and features.
  3. Proactive delivery of new iQuote blog articles.

channelcentral.net and the iQuote development team are always looking for input on iQuote – there is no one better than iQuote users themselves to drive forward and develop iQuote.

To join the iQuote User Group on LinkedIn please visit:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2081850
Or search for iQuote User Group on LinkedIn

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iQuote will have the Power

September 25, 2009

Groundwork for the Power Enhancements is well under way. We’re happy to report that we have made some major advances in this area. The objective is to be able to show an accurate power draw for a system in real-time. This will have many uses (including showing the user how to generate a greener quote) but the main drivers are to allow an iQuote user to accurately size a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) and PSUs (Power Supply Units).

The PSU Sizing thing has become a particularly hot issue recently as we’ve already mentioned on this Blog. UPS Sizing has been around for decades. We feel that it is time consuming (and duplicated effort) to shell out of iQuote to use a separate tool (albeit a very good tool) to size power options and so we are working hard towards integrating them into iQuote. Once we’ve achieved this we’ll be able to provide single click option addition that we know users like. We’ll keep you posted.

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Web & Blog: Consolidated !

September 24, 2009

Web Site Screen Grab for Blog

The new channelcentral.net Web Site now incorporates our Blog. If you are reading this you are either on our WordPress site or you are on the channelcentral.net Web Site. Previously we had a Web Site and we had a Blog – both separate sites albeit linked by a single hyperlink. What we wanted was to use WordPress to create, manage and search engine optimise our Blogs, but display them on the channelcentral.net Web Site.

This seems like such a common requirement however when we looked into it we realised that not many people do this and therefore there wasn’t a great deal of information about how to achieve it. Undaunted Dan has worked out a solution and now when a Blog is published on WordPress it is pulled into SQL and re-published in a window off the channelcentral.net Web Site Home Page. Within a few minutes.

What a brilliant way of keeping what is effectively a Brochure Web Site current and fresh! We’re really pleased with the results and the flexibility it provides for our customers. What’s more if you would like to have this same capability we’re available to help you:

http://www.channelcentral.net/contact1.asp

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Channel 2.0: Convenience

September 23, 2009

What happened when I asked a LinkedIn question on Channel 2.0? I’d read a good blog on Channel 2.0 and wanted to validate that against public opinion. The LinkedIn Q&A seemed the most appropriate place to ask the question – plus it’s free.

The first thing I learnt was that people are generally getting a little fatigued by the whole 2.0 thing. 5 years after it was first used to describe Web 2.0 it seems to be being abused somewhat – maybe to  kick start tired Sales activity. So there’s a level of cynicism out there with good reason.

I was fortunate in that Tom Emrich of ValMark (Value Based Marketing) picked up on the question. He read the Blog article and felt that the author was pointing at specific areas of the following:

Old School (4 Ps)
Product
Price
Place — Channel 1.0 and linear funnel view
Promotion

New School (4 Cs)
Customer want and need
Customer cost of purchase and use
Convenience of customer purchase and use – Channel 2.0
Customer relationship and communication

You can read more from Tom at his Blog:

http://www.thomasemrich.net/

So why am I interested in Channel 2.0? If it is a genuine trend that the focus will move from Push Sales & Marketing to Pull Sales & Marketing (or should that be Pull Purchasing?) then Consumers that make decisions will have to have more information and better systems than they do today. channelcentral.net services could well play a part in this transition: “Convenience of Customer Purchase…”

The Channel Organisations that help their customers move to Convenience will be winners.