Our Tech Dir Guillaume wins prestigious Sitecore award

Sitecore announced this week their 2009 Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) list, which included our very own Guillaume Buat-Ménard, Technical Director.

The programme recognises exceptional technical community leaders who encourage free and objective exchange of knowledge by actively sharing their real-world Web CMS expertise.

Individuals were nominated by Sitecore employees from around the world, and were reviewed by a board of Sitecore executives.

The program offers members a number of benefits including access to technical resources such as alpha versions of Sitecore software, first release modules and full access to the Sitecore Developer Network and download section and invitations to major events. The term for Sitecore MVPs is two years, after which time, individuals can be nominated again.

Well done Guillaume!

How agencies price a job

It’s the first thing clients look at when an agency proposal lands in their inbox – the price. We’re not expensive, we know this from our rates – compare us with other London agencies in Econsultancy’s latest rates survey – Aqueduct’s rates are on average 20% below other London agencies. Furthermore, we don’t charge for overheads. Many agencies add a percentage to their basic costs to cover for holidays, sickness, general disbursements, laziness and poor project management. We don’t. Despite these factors we sometimes find we lose out on price. Why is this?

There are a number of factors that go into putting together a price for a job. We believe that there are three types of agency when it comes to pricing:

1. “We’ll give you the best price” agencies – usually very small outfits, can afford to do a job for lower than average rates, attractive in price but often poor quality solution – takes longer, cuts corners, fails on business objectives, or ends up costing more to get what you want
2. “We’ll do what we have to to win this job” agencies – will offer a low price for initial piece of work, or sell in a low price at the start then rack up additional charges whenever the opportunity arises
3. “We will give you an honest price for quality work” agencies – like Aqueduct. You may not be presented with the cheapest price, but it’s an honest estimate based directly on scope and quality delivery

Prices often go up. We hear it from client side time and time again. Why? If you’re with agency type 1 or 2, then you can see why. If you’re with agency type 3, it’s most likely down to scope under estimating. Unstated, unrealised or (worse but most common) overlooked assumptions all contribute to rising prices.

What’s our recommendation to clients? Work with an agency or agencies to refine the scope of a job as much as possible. Take their advice on strategy and be honest about budgets and resources available. Invest in getting to accurate scope before committing to the full job with any agency. Accurate, clearly bounded scope results in an accurate, clearly bounded price. Otherwise it’s an “estimate” that may be closer to what you would like than what it will be. Trust honesty and quality, not just the price.

Predictions for 2010

We're looking forward to another year of fantastic achievements in 2010. Here are 10 predictions for the digital world next year:

1. There will be less software running on our computers, more on the web but with offline caching
2. More organisations (including governments, corporates, social networks) will open up their data for others to use in increasingly smart and valuable ways
3. Bing will make gains through default/forced integration but Google will remain the all powerful search engine of choice
4. Chrome OS will launch with partner manufacturers, gaining appeal with students, geeks, mobile workers and light users
5. Microsoft Silverlight fails to gain traction over Adobe Flash and Flex
6. Increasing mainstream market share of phones running Android, boosted by more apps as developers are attracted to the Android’s open app model vs iPhone’s - Apple still wins favour with a new generation of devices including iTablet though
7. Twitter will attract revenue from direct services to businesses and will trial advertising through the platform – consumer and API use will continue to be free
8. Media publishers will continue to seek revenue from consumers by offering more niche and premium content
9. By Christmas, e-book readers will be the must-have, but book publishers and traditional sellers will fail to take advantage of the rapid change in consumer behaviour
   
10. Google Wave will still be no-where big by the end of 2010 but will have its day in 2011

What do you think? Do comment..

Merry Christmas from Aqueduct

Once again Christmas is upon us and this year we've decided to do something different... something we may regret..

We introduce to you Aqueduct's Jukebox Purgatory - your chance to play the music in our office remotely.

Merry Christmas from Aqueduct.

Aqueduct wins Econsultancy Innovation Award

We've just won an Econsultancy Innovation Award for our work on the Manchester City FC website!

It was clear to the judges that the site built by Aqueduct and designed by Poke was leagues ahead of other football club sites.

We used Sitecore CMS and a range of other tools to integrate personalisation, extensive video content, live in-game data and comment from journalists, ticketing integration and full e-commerce capability.

The judges said “The agencies responsible pushed the boundaries of what’s possible on a football website. The use of rich media, in-game visualisations and personalisation combined to make this a stand-out entry.”

Well done team.

We're building the new lloyds.com

Three-hundred year-old iconic insurance institution Lloyd’s of London has appointed Aqueduct to develop a new website, following a competitive pitch.

The site lloyds.com will feature rich resources, personalisation and web 2.0 integration to enable users of the site, who visit from all over the world looking for news and resources, to more easily access the information they require. The first phases of the new site are due to launch in 2010.

Peter Hambling, Head, Lloyd’s Information Technology Group , said: “Digital is becoming, in the financial world as everywhere else, an increasingly important channel. As the internet makes the world smaller, we are competing more than ever before on an international stage and Aqueduct through a tender process demonstrated they had the optimal capabilities to implement Lloyd’s creative designs on our chosen platforms.”

Rob Oubridge, our managing director, added: “Lloyd’s is making a great push in the digital space and is ideally placed to be a global information hub for the sector. We’re delighted to have been chosen as a key partner to support Lloyd’s website”.

Our video promo for AlertMe Energy launches on YouTube

We've just launched a 4-minute video promo for AlertMe Energy on YouTube. AlertMe provides affordable, easy-to-use home management systems that allow customers to track and reduce energy use, as well as protect their home even when away. We're proud to work with them to achieve their goals.

This video also shows on AlertMe's homepage as part of their marketing push to UK consumers. See it here:

Manchester City FC awarded Sitecore Site of the Year

Manchester City FC just won Sitecore's UK Site of the Year! It now goes on to the European and then world finals. Well done MCFC, one for the trophy cabinet.

Aqueduct implemented MCFC's site onto Sitecore earlier this year to rave reviews, and we're continuing to use Sitecore for a number of projects in the coming months. Look out MCFC, you're gonna have some more competition soon, not just on the pitch.

We're on the telly!

“Trespass” goes viral. Just goes to show that things ‘go viral’ because they stimulate people to talk about them, rather than because they’re frivolous and on the interweb. Aqueduct’s “Trespass” campaign for Network Rail has been all over the telly this week because it’s arresting and a little controversial, creatively. We’ll be consulting the bible of advertising agency twaddle to see if we can work out some grand statistics and a convoluted diagram to explain how this has amplified an important public service campaign, and how many lives that might save. We’ll keep you posted.

Video courtesy of ITV Central.

Andy Mac... new head chef in the creative kitchen

Aqueduct has a new creative director: Andy McLane has joined the agency today from VCCP. Over the years Andy has worked at some of the leading agencies in town (BBH, Claydon Heeley, Tequila TBWA, Miles Calcraft DDB and a few more besides). He’s produced award winning and effective work in campaigns that were executed in digital and traditional media above, below and through the line for clients such as O2, Skoda, Persil, The Army, Compaq and Theakston, to name but a few.

Andy is heading all creative functions at Aqueduct and will be immediately working with the core creative team of Clive Russell, Nicole Shelley, Leigh Maclellan and Sam Willard to support them in current projects and imminent pitches.

“This is a very important appointment for us – creativity is a fundamental in how well our work affects our clients’ worlds and as a ‘reasoning first’ agency, the lead creative role is absolutely pivotal” said Rob Oubridge, MD. “Crucially, Andy brings deep experience and a principled approach across the digital and non-digital media, which nearly all our work now encompasses”.

“I chose to join Aqueduct because I became quickly convinced that the agency represented the next generation of agile, energetic and entrepreneurial agencies, gifted with the nous to know how to answer the brief without being tied to proprietary thinking.“ said Andy.

Aqueduct’s core creative team, led by Clive Russell and Nicole Shelley, will continue to push development on long-running and established campaigns such as Safety 365 at Network Rail, while Andy learns the ropes and works with the teams on the next evolutions to those campaigns.

With some major and exciting projects about to start, with both existing and new clients, there is plenty for Andy to get his teeth into, and in due course he will no doubt be breaking a few eggs to make omelettes. Easy over please!