ECO Conferences

 

Earls Court and Olympia can provide flexible conference facilities for 50 to 1,000 and more in a central London location. Having visited Earls Court recently, I was impressed to see the state of the art conference facilities available. If you are holding a conference of any size, Earls Court is well worth contacting.

 

Visit the Earls Court and Olympia website

TNT Outsourced Services updated on TNT website

TNT have recently updated the TNT.co.uk web site to show their range of Outsourced Services. There are three core areas:

• Inbound Services
• Onsite Services
• Outbound Services

With the full range of services extending to include

• Archive Services
• Archive Storage
• Box File Management
• Laser Printing
• Computer Tape Storage

TNT Outsourcing Services

It is interesting to see how businesses develop and more into different horizontal / vertical markets. Most of us know that TNT is a logistics company delivering letters and parcels around the UK. How many of is realised the scale of their other businesses. I’ll list some of the businesses that I have come across so far…

• Audio Visual & Media Management
• Computer Tape Storage
• Data Capture Services
• Document Scanning Services
• Archive Storage & Document Management
• Box File Management
• Database Management Services
• Mailroom Management
• Distribution Services & Inter-site Mail
• Laser Printing

 

It certainly makes sense in this day and age, to outsource non-core business functions. Even though this list would appear to be non-transport related, all of these functions can fully utilise the transport network developed by TNT. Whether distributing documents between different businesses or within the same organisation and different depots, all require use of a comprehensive transport network… and if you are distributing those documents and need to store them somewhere either for archiving or security reasons, long-term or short-term, TNT have a solution too.

Online Gaming KPI’s

Whilst looking into the Partygaming aquisition of Gamebookers earlier this month, I notice on the Partygaming site that 6 of the world’s leading online gaming companies gathered in Gibraltar to agree a common approach to the reporting of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Quick summary of a KPI - they are financial and non-financial metrics used to quantify objectives to reflect the strategic performance of an organization. A KPI is used in Business Intelligence to assess the present state of business and to prescribe the course of action.[more on KPI's]

A consensus was reached on a set of KPIs by each company participating in the forum (“primary KPIs”). It was agreed that operators would move to reporting these KPI’s over time. When reported, each KPI will be based on a consistent definition, terminology and basis of calculation. The indicators agreed as primary KPIs with accompanying definitions are:

• Cost per Acquisition
• Real Money Sign-up
• Unique Active Player
• Yield per Unique Active Player

 

This will provide valuable information to parties who can access and assess the KPI’s in terms of the value of, and the value that can be derived from future aquisitions. More can be seen at the Partgaming website.

Gillette Fusion - Marketing Genius ?

Over the last few years we have seen Gillette and Wilkinson Sword battle in the Razer Blade Wars. Gillette launched their three blade razer, then Wilkinson Sword launched their three blade razer… and then rather surprisingly Wilkinson Sword, who always seemed to trail Gillette, came to the market first with a four blade razer. This apparently really ticked Gillette off… and they seem to have ignored entering the four blade market… and instead come back fighting with the Gillette Fusion.

 

Not only is the Gillette Fusion a five blade razer… which seems to have generated much debate over the past few weeks… but the really stroke of genius for me is the addition of an additional blade on the back of the razer. So they have actually launched a six blade razer… Wilkinson Sword will find it difficult to hit back with the first six blade razer as the Fusion can now rightly claim that place… so will we really see a seven blade razer? I thought four blades was going to far… as for seven… five / six is probably enough… for now…

Partygaming buys Gamebookers

More companies look at aquiring and diversifying further into the main stays of internet community sites, online dating and online gaming, with online gaming group Partygaming buying betting company Gamebookers for 102m euros (£69m; $130m). Gamebookers offers online sports betting and has more than 50,000 active customers in 140 countries.

 

For Partygaming, this will protect it from the legal problems of online betting in the US as Gamebookers does not accept bets from customers in the US. The legality of online betting in the US has come under focus after authorities there arrested the head of rival firm Betonsports in July. David Carruthers, who at the time of his arrest was Betonsports’ chief executive, was subsequently sacked by the firm.

 

“The acquisition of Gamebookers is an important step forward in diversifying Partygaming’s business from both a product and geographic perspective,” said Partygaming chief executive Mitch Garber. “We believe that sports betting will be a valuable addition to our integrated gaming platform, which we expect to provide excellent cross-selling opportunities for our expanding base of customers outside the US.”

 

Not only will Partygaming be protecting itself from the US, but they will be able to maximise development savings buy integrating the gaming platforms.

 

Partygaming has bought Gamebookers from Isle of Man-based Trident Gaming. Gamebookers has an Antiguan gaming licence and the bulk of its operations are run from a centre in Bulgaria.

News Corp Buys MySpace

News Corp, the company run by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has made one of its first major internet purchases.  

 

It has bought Intermix Media, owner of Myspace.com, the fifth most-viewed internet domain in the US and owner of other sites for $580m (£332.85m). Last week the company set up a new internet unit. Mr Murdoch has said that newspapers have been slow to respond to competition from the internet. Recent years have seen a downturn in traditional advertising markets, and this purchase will be significant in years to come as ‘old school’ TV, Cable, Telecoms and Newspaper companies look to buy that internet prescence that many are missing. Mr Murdoch’s reasoning for the purchase of MySpace of, “the networking site will drive traffic to his Fox TV sites” illustrates this point. 

 

Advertising advantage

“With a significant amount of advertising dollars moving from traditional outlets to online, News Corp, like most media companies, is looking to boost its internet assets,”. The US market for internet advertising is growing at 15% in 2005, according to media buyers Universal McCann.

 

Myspace.com users connect to the site for dating, making friends, professional networking and sharing interests.