The Widget UK Blog
http://extranet.widget.com/blog/index.php?blogId=1
<p>Comments on products, promotions and activities at Widget UK Ltd, a UK based distributor of mobile computing products.</p>
widget2010-09-09T02:04:29ZOf Management and Millbands
http://extranet.widget.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=105&blogId=1
<div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">There was an item on Radio 4 yesterday morning, pointing out some of the oddities in the Labour Party election process. All members of the Labour Party and all members of affiliated organisations, such as trade unions, or the Fabian Society, get a vote. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">As a paid up member of the Labour Party, and of the Fabian Society, two ballot papers will turn up for me. According to the Today programme it is entirely within the rules for me to use up both of those votes. I could vote for both Millibands. The researcher from Radio 4 found six organisations who would let him join and place six votes if he wanted to. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">In order to ensure I voted with some personal experience of the candidates I went to the Labour Industry and Finance Group hustings meeting last week. Along with approximately a hundred other potential voters (or multiple voters), I listened to Ed Milliband, Ed Balls and David Millband speak for 20 minutes and answer questions from the floor. The other two candidates were campaigning in other parts of the country, and as this was a fairly small meeting, the general consensus seemed to be that we were lucky to get the big three in. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">I have heard many of the top UK politicians speak and the experience of listening to them live for a whole speech is very different and much more impressive from that of listening or watching clips on the radio or TV. In this case, all three candidates had time to make an argument of their own choosing, rather than handling or dodging the subject given to them by a presenter. Like most of the politicians I have seen speak, they also handled questions from the floor with great skill, and in general gave better answers direct to the voters than they would have done to a paid interviewer. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">A few years ago I listened to an after dinner speech by William Hague on the differences between running a political party and running a company. It was a long, comic riff around the idea that 95% of the people working for the Conservatives were volunteers, over whom the management had no power of compulsion, however dotty some of them were. The audience, from the software industry, all lapped it up. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">In watching the Millibrother show, however, what struck me is how businesses are turning to similar methods of choosing management and staff. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">Currently I am reading </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">Linchpin</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"> by Seth Godin, a US “new work” guru. He reports that </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">“design firm IDEO is hiring marketers using a new technique. They ask applicants to make a Powerpoint presentation of their resumé and then present it to a group of five or six people at the firm.”</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">Duncan Cheatle, CEO of the Prelude Group, was telling me how he hired his management trainee by having all the interview candidates work together for a day. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">And every other business book I read seems to be on the subject of how management must treat their employees as if they are volunteers and enthuse them rather than go round kicking them in the pants from time to time.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">The question I asked David Millband was, given that he has not worked in the private sector, he could represent those who did. He gave a game answer, based on how he had worked with companies in his constituency in South Shields. But perhaps there is something in the idea that businesses now need more of the skills of political movements than they did before.</span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"> </div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"> </div>General2010-09-03T10:34:59ZwidgetByte Night 2010, October 8th 2010
http://extranet.widget.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=103&blogId=1
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif">As for the past 5 years, I will be sleeping rough this autumn to support Action for Children. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif">Along with 700 other people from the technology industry, I will spend the night of October 8th in a sleeping bag on the streets. The Widget team joins Byte Night London, and w</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif">e sleep on the green shown in the picture below, between the southern end of Tower Bridge which you can see, and Boris Johnson's office, City Hall, which is just out of the picture.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><img src="http://extranet.widget.com/blog/gallery/1/27520571.jpg" border="0" /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333300">Last year we helped raise over £550,000 and you can get involved either by joining us or by sponsoring the Widget team. </span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif"><div style="text-align: left"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333300">There is still room for new sleepers if you are brave enough to join us or you can donate online here </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.justgiving.com/widgetbytenight2010"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333300">http://www.justgiving.com/widgetbytenight2010</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333300"> </span></span> </span></div><div style="text-align: left"> </div><div style="text-align: left"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333300">Action for Children supports over 156,000 children, young people and their families at around 420 projects nationwide. The £2.5m raised so far by Byte Night hashelped some of the most vulnerable children and young people. </span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: black"><div style="text-align: left"> </div><div style="text-align: left">Mark Needham</div><div style="text-align: left"> </div></span><p> </p>General2010-08-24T15:34:46ZwidgetWidget in the FT
http://extranet.widget.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=100&blogId=1
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><p style="padding-left: 12px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.3em"> As part of an article on credit control, headed "Measures to keep bad debt demons at bay," FT Enterprise Correspondent mentioned one of the payment methods which Widget offers to its customers. </p><p style="padding-left: 12px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.3em"><em>"Widget, a Stevenage-based distributor of consumer electronics products, is equally aware of the need for good credit control..</em></p><p style="padding-left: 12px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.3em"><em>Consequently, the company has started insisting that some customers settle their bills by direct debit as a condition of extending credit.</em></p><p style="padding-left: 12px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.3em"><em>“There is a certain amount of paperwork involved in administering direct debits, but it is not rocket science,” Mark Needham, Widget’s chairman, says. He notes that, in one case, a customer settled its account by direct debit days before collapsing into administration. “We would have lost that debt if we had been waiting for a cheque in the post,” he says.</em></p><div><br /></div></span>General2010-07-26T11:23:01ZwidgetDAB Radio: Chronicle of Death Foretold
http://extranet.widget.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=98&blogId=1
<div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-family: Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">When I first moved to London in the 1980s, I used to buy a Sunday paper when going home through Kings Cross station on a Saturday night. I loved the idea that I was getting tomorrow’s paper today, because I was in London, where it all happened.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">This thrill at being at the centre of it all has never quite died. Last Thursday,the sweaty heat of a London tube carriage was sweetened for me by reading the headline “Switchover is delayed until more listeners are in tune with digital” over an article in the Evening Standard. I knew that before the readers because I had just come from the Intellect Digital Home Conference, at which the new Communications Minister, Ed Vaizey, had given a speech, in which he admitted that the idea of turning off FM radio transmissions in 2015 was not politically expedient, and the digital switchover for radio would only happen </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Tahoma; color: #2a2a2a"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #2a2a2a">“once most listeners in the country are ready for the change.” </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #2a2a2a"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #2a2a2a">In practice, this means never. Tomorrow I am off on a camping expedition to the Suffolk coast. I would like to take a radio with me to listen to in the morning. Do I think of packing a DAB radio? Of course not. I don’t expect any signal near the coast, and even if I did, on issues such as battery life and size, not to mention sentimental issues, II would choose my 30 year old Panasonic FM radio which accompanied me across Africa in my youth over my Pure DAB radio every time. And, of course, I will drive to Suffolk in a car which, like nine out of ten in this country, has no DAB radio. Heaven help the minister who stopped ninety percent of the population from listening to the radio on the way to work. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">I had gone to the conference to hear about the future of digital TV, which everyone believes is bright. But with both the the ministerial announcement (introduced with the immortal words “as I said in the House this morning”) and the BBC head of radio, Tim Davie denying that the attempted closure of BBC 6 was a cunning marketing ploy (“we are not that clever,” he said), radio dominated much of the day. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">DAB radio was an attempt to build a technology which only works in the UK, which is always a mistake as manufacturers do not get the sales volumes needed to pay for product development. In looking at new technologies to distribute, one of the key questions we ask is how this technology is going to roll out internationally. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial">The UK represents around 5% of the world consumer electronics market, which is an important market for a global manufacturer, but not a sufficient one. </span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"> </div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">Over the next few years, TV and radio programming will be distributed across the internet in a large number of the world's consumer markets. Consumer electronics products which take advantage of this distribution product seem more likely to succeed in the long run than DAB radio. </span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"> </div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px">Mark Needham</div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px">July 2010 </div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"> </div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-family: Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap"><br /></span></span></div>General2010-07-14T09:28:02ZwidgetWriting Blogs and Writing Hymns
http://extranet.widget.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=97&blogId=1
<p><img src="http://extranet.widget.com/blog/gallery/1/thomas%20power5.jpg" border="0" /></p><p><em>Thomas Power from Ecademy waves to the crowd</em></p><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">I am still ruminating on Thomas Power's Ecademy course on social media. The key recommendation I took away fromit was that a blog must have a personal rather than a corporate identity, because no-one trusts corporate blogs, and they are generally pretty boring anyway. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">So what were people to write? Write what defines you, said Thomas Power, adding that people who could not find what defined them in the online world were usually confused about what defined them in the normal world. At times this dialogue reminded me of the scene in ‘Life of Brian’ where Brian tells the crowd that they are all individuals and that they had to think for themselves. “Yes,” replies the crowd in unison. “We are all individuals.”</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">As an exercise to help us define ourselves, we had to do one of those toe-curlingly awful exercises which tend to come up at courses like this - write down the best and worst moments in our lives.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"> </div><div style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva"><span style="font-size: medium"><strong>The best and the worst </strong></span></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">The first to share his moments with the group got off lightly. His worst moment was when his house was burgled, which, while distressing, either meant that he was not giving us the real worst, or that he must have missed the more extreme things which can happen in life. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">As we went round the room, the moments grew more sombre. Births, deaths and marriages appeared, including the suicide of a best friend at school. </span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"> </div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">At last, one man said that he saw a distinction between best and worst moments in business and life was made, and he proposed to give us both. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">The worst moment in his personal life was telling his two young sons that he was leaving their mother, and walking away without being able to comfort them. The best moment was reuniting those sons with his new second family. The best moment in his business life was selling his business for £6 million. The worst moment was finding out, a few months later, that the acquirer did not have the cash to pay him for this purchase, and was in fact going bust itself, taking his business with it. And the very worst thing, he said, was that that night he went home and cried, which he had not done over leaving his first wife and family. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="white-space: normal; font-size: medium"></span></span></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"> </div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">Across the years, the words of my English teacher came back to me. The hymns of the 19th and early 20th century are a vastly underrated social record, he told us. So many times, he said, they express things which we have forgotten and I can think of no better words to sympathise with this man's experience than those of the great hymn “</span><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">Lord of the years" </span></span><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">which talks of </span></span><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="font-size: 11pt; background-color: transparent; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial; color: #000000">“spirits oppressed by pleasure, wealth and care.” </span></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"> </div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial">Nobody wanted to follow the honesty of the last participants and we went back to struggle over our blogs. Perhaps, l</span><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: Arial">ike a hymn, or a Johnny Cash Country and Western song, a good blog is a story around a theme, taking up some small incident which illustrates a larger point. At least, that is how I shall try to use this blog - stories which illustrate issues relevant to consumer electronics distribution.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> </span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"><span style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Mark Needham, July 2010</span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin: 0px"><span style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </span></div><p> </p>General2010-07-04T15:58:28ZwidgetUsing Social Media tools in Marketing Technology
http://extranet.widget.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=96&blogId=1
<p><span style="font-family: Verdana"></span></p><span style="font-family: Verdana"><div style="text-align: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px"><span style="color: #333333"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, geneva"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium">Following satellite navigation to the </span></span><a id="jy:_" href="http://www.warrenhouse.com/" title="Warren House conferencing centre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, geneva"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium">Warren House conferencing centre</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, geneva"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium"> on the Coombe Estate in Kingston, I ended up facing a closed white gate, of the sort exclusive urban communities put up to obstruct non-belongers. While TomTom assured me that my destination</span></span></span><span style="color: #333333"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, geneva"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium">, a </span></span><a id="ezf4" href="http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=meeting&mid=32906" title="Ecademy Social Media Course"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, geneva"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium">12 hour crash course on social media run by Ecademy's Thomas Power</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, geneva"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium"> (@thomaspower) was on the far side of the locked gate, there was no visible way round. I stopped, and asked a man walking his small dog in the half light if there was another way to the hotel.</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px"><span style="color: #333333"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, geneva"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium">"Hotel," he said, perplexed.</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px"><span style="color: #333333"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, geneva"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium">"Warren House?" I said.</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px"><span style="color: #333333"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, geneva"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium">"Oh," he said, "it is not a hotel. No, no, no. We wouldn't have that sort of thing round here."</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px"><span style="color: #333333"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, geneva"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium">Reassured that nothing so indiscreet as a hotel had been allowed on the Coombe Estate, he directed me through the maze of exclusive roads. </span></span></span></div></span><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana">Like the residents of the Coombe Estate, the retailers of consumer electronics in the UK are a small and exclusive group. The established retail names of Dixons (back again), Comet, John Lewis, Maplin and Staples have been joined by internet retailers such as Amazon, Dabs.com, Ebuyer and a few others, and the TV channels such as QVC and Ideal Shopping Direct have made progress in the last ten years, but new entrants are rare. </span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana">While they are all doubtless monitoring what is being said about them on Facebook and Twitter, it is not immediately apparent how these tools could be used to reach the category buyers who are our customers. These individuals tend to be known for their focus on buy price and sell through numbers rather than the soft and fluffy measurements of social media reputation.</span></p><span style="font-family: Verdana"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px">Part of the service <a id="h4e0" href="http://www.widget.co.uk/" title="Widget UK Ltd">Widget</a> offers, however, is that if Widget sells a consumer electronics product, there is an implicit recommendation to our customers. The vendor has persuaded us that this product is going to sell and Widget has a track record of discovering and distributing growing product categories. </div><br /><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px">It is clear that the online social media tools available can help inform this recommendation. Twice in the past week I have seen impressive demonstrations of the sheer amount of data available on the internet. </div><br /><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px">Last Thursday at <a id="glln" href="http://www.cipr.co.uk/events/2010-06-24/cipr-social-summer-what-has-google-ever-done-pr" title="a presentation at the CIPR">a presentation at the CIPR</a>, Andrew Smith (@andismit) from PR and SEO agency Escherman, showed the sheer range of data analysis tools available from Google. Google knows how many people in each geography or each demographic searched for any word or phrase, and it will tell you, free of charge, in the hope that you will use its advertising service. </div><br /><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px">Today, at the Ecademy social media course, Alterian, the course sponsor, demonstrated the SM2 reputation monitoring software, which can show how many mentions a product gets across all social media sites, and whether they are positive or negative. </div><br /><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px">By looking at the number of searches, and the type of mentions products get, there is a lot more we, and the vendors behind us, could do to know where and when products will succeed in the electronics marketplace. </div><br /><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px">Some products are niche, and will sell online where customers are specifically looking for them, but will not sell in a physical store. An example of this is the product CardScan, which Widget has sold for ten years. It does what it says on the tin - scans business cards. It is the sort of product that a small set of users really value, and they will go out and look for it, but the market for it is not large enough for it to sell successfully off the shelf. We have tried it in two national chains, and the results both times were disappointing. </div><br /><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px">Some products, however, hit the shops, and the public love them. Flip Video is a case in point. New, but exciting, it succeeded first in online retailers, then quickly made the transition to the national chains. Some of the people who wanted Flip Video, being early adopters, would buy it online. But there were enough retail park or shopping centre customers in its market to give it sell through for our bricks and mortar retailers.</div><br /><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px">Somewhere, in all that data that Google collects, there is the data which could have helped us predict these two results. I look forward to finding more of it.</div><div><br /></div></span><p> <img src="http://extranet.widget.com/blog/gallery/1/133-Warren%20House.JPG" border="0" /> A gargoyle helps keep the riff raff out of Warren House.</p>General2010-07-01T15:46:17ZwidgetPogoplug makes impact at new price point of £79.99
http://extranet.widget.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=95&blogId=1
<p>At the new average selling price of £79.99, down form £99.99, the Pogoplug device is catching a lot of attention online. </p><p>According to Linux User, even at the old price "<span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica; color: #333333">What’s not to love about a £99 Linux-based device that requires little time to set up, no computer for connectivity, no monthly fees and only a web browser for access to your files from anywhere in the world? Yes, its radioactive pink colour might seem a bit off-putting upon first glance, but after you connect the Pogoplug and discover its power, you won’t care if it glows in the dark (but don’t worry – it doesn’t)." </span><a href="http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/reviews/pogoplug-ii-review/" target="_blank">Full review here.</a> </p><p>And if you are still confused about what Pogoplug does, try watching this 4 minute video from Get Connected. </p><p> <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="350" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/x21fTx5I9E4" id="ltVideoYouTube"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/x21fTx5I9E4" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="allowScriptAcess" value="sameDomain" /><param name="quality" value="best" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded" /></object></p><p>"When I first saw this thing, I didn't really get it. I honestly thought it was another hard drive, which you connect to your computer, but the best way to think about it is as a mini-cloud.." says the presenter.</p><p>Pogoplug is now available in store in John Lewis Partnership, PC World, Currys, Micro Anvika, Amazon.co.uk and from many other electronics retailers. </p><p> </p><p> </p>General2010-06-23T10:30:47ZwidgetMio updates its Navman range of GPS devices
http://extranet.widget.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=92&blogId=1
<p><img src="http://extranet.widget.com/blog/gallery/1/Mio%20Spirit%202010_75p.jpg" border="0" /></p><p>The new Navman range for 2010 includes simplified opening screens, IQ Routes which selects the best route for time and day of week, and many other new features. </p><p>The new models are </p><p> M305 and M405 entry level GPS devices </p><p><a id="res_128" href="http://extranet.widget.com/blog/gallery/1/Navman%20V577%20and%20V777.jpg"><img src="http://extranet.widget.com/blog/gallery/1/previews/Navman%20V577%20and%20V777.jpg" border="0" /> </a> <a href="http://extranet.widget.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewResource&blogId=1&resource=Navman+Spirit+400_475_575.jpg">Spirit 400, 475 and 575 GPS devices</a> </p><p><a href="http://extranet.widget.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewResource&blogId=1&resource=Navman+Spirit+400_475_575.jpg"></a></p><p><a id="res_128" href="http://extranet.widget.com/blog/gallery/1/Navman%20V577%20and%20V777.jpg"><img src="http://extranet.widget.com/blog/gallery/1/previews/Navman%20V577%20and%20V777.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica; color: #333333"> </span><a href="http://extranet.widget.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewResource&blogId=1&resource=Navman+V577+and+V777.jpg">Spirit V577 and V777 GPS devices with integrated Digital TV</a> </p><p><a href="http://extranet.widget.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewResource&blogId=1&resource=2010+line+up+comparison.xlsx">A summary of all the features on all the models is available here</a>. </p>General2010-06-01T12:46:08ZwidgetOpportunity for more channel involvement in Byte Night, the IT industry annual sleep out.
http://extranet.widget.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=91&blogId=1
<p><img src="http://extranet.widget.com/blog/gallery/1/widget%20team%20small.jpg" border="0" /></p><p>The Widget team prepare for Byte Night - from the left Rob Sparrow, Mark Needham, Bart Hoorntje, Liza Childs, Alexis Bridge and Darren Gray. </p><p> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Channel organisations, such as consumer electronicsdistributor Widget UK Ltd, have joined vendors and end users from across the ITindustry in pledging to raise money for Byte Night 2010. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Byte Night founder Ken Deeks urged more VARs, distributorsand other channel players to join in.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><em>“Traditionally, ByteNight was largely supported by the IT vendor and end user communities,”</em> hesaid, <em>“but over the years, as the eventhas grown, our sleeper base has diversified. Byte Night has become themust-attend event for anyone connected to the technology sector - whether thatis as a vendor within the industry, or a supplier to it. And that's what makesit so special - the fact so many different organisations, from different partsof the sector come together to raise money for a very worthy cause.</em><span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><em>“I therefore want tourge any VARs, distis or other channel players to join us for Byte Night 2010.Not only will you be working alongside colleagues, customers and industrybig-wigs, you'll be part of a fantastic movement that has committed itself toending youth homelessness, for good.”</em></p><p class="MsoNormal">Widget chairman Mark Needham commented <em>“Once again a team from Widget will be sleeping out on October 8<sup>th</sup>2010. <span> </span>Byte Night is now one of thecornerstones of our corporate social responsibility programme. It raises moneyfor a very good cause, and at minimum cost to the charity being supported.”</em></p><p class="MsoNormal">CIO and IT directors from a range of end user organisations,and vendors such as Cisco, HP and Dell are regular supporters of ByteNight.<span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal">Organisations or individuals wishing to take part shouldcontact <span> </span>Barbara Gill, Senior Fundraising<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial, sans-serif"> </span>Executiveat Action for Children on <span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial, sans-serif">0207704 7135 or email </span><a href="mailto:bytenight@actionforchildren.org.uk"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial, sans-serif">bytenight@actionforchildren.org.uk</span></a></p><p class="MsoNormal">---ENDS ---</p><p class="MsoNormal">About Byte Night</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 13.5pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444">Byte Night is theIT industry’s annual sleep out in support of Action for Children. Each yearhundreds of individuals and teams from across the IT and business communityspend a night exposed to the elements in a bid to raise sponsorship andawareness of Action for Children’s work.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 13.5pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #444444">It all began 12years ago when 30 individuals from the IT industry slept out and raised£35,000. Since then the event has grown to over 700 sleepers raising almost£550,000 in 2009 alone. Patrons, sponsors and sleepers include celebrities andleading figures, CIOs, systems developers, business managers, marketers andmore.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #333333">About Widget</span></span><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #333333"><br /><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 13px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #333333">Widget UK Ltd distributes a tightly focussed rangeof satellite navigation, networking and video products, for manufacturers suchas Cisco Systems and TomTom. Widget UK Ltd sells only to trade, and notdirectly to the public. Its customers are UK retailers and resellers includingStaples, DSGi, Maplin, Comet, Amazon.co.uk, Dabs.com, Play.com, QVC, IdealShopping Direct, Computacenter and SCC.</span> </p><p> </p><p> </p>General2010-05-26T11:07:47ZwidgetBBC's Working Lunch reviews the Vexia Econav Satnav
http://extranet.widget.com/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=90&blogId=1
<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/default.stm"><img src="http://extranet.widget.com/blog/gallery/1/122-Working%20lunch%20reviews%20Vexia.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p>The BBC's Working Lunch reviews three current sat navs and admires the economical features of the Vexia Satnav. Vexia is distributed exclusively by Widget in the UK. </p><p>The video of this BBC TV programme i snow more than 7 days old and can no longer be accessed from iPlayer. </p><p> </p>General2010-05-19T16:23:16Zwidget