E-conference... sorry, force of habit
One of the things we should have all taken away from this year's PM Forum conference in London was that sticking an 'e' in front of anything does not magically transform it into an e-commerce business. Oh no, as Ann Hazelton, of Hays Allan reports, there's much more to it than that.
Firstly Jay Jaffe told us about the way his business has e-volved (sorry!). Although Jay is a business development consultant and has been running his own company in the US, Canada and the UK for over 20 years he now finds he spends up to 75% of his time on technology issues, which indicates the direction in which the professions are moving. He explained how he ""added value"" to his client service by making the virtual office work for his company. By focusing on what clients wanted and needed he built his virtual office to reflect those wants and needs. He had a serious business strategy which made use of the appropriate technology. Have a look at their website www.getserious.com - you'll see how serious they are.
Martyn Lambert was next up with his lively presentation on what he did in his previous life as marketing director UK/Ireland of Dell Computer Corporation. It's a household name but how did it get there? Martyn explained how customer focussed Dell has become with their simple, but effective, strategy of:
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Making it easier to do business with Dell online,
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Reducing the cost of doing business - for both parties,
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Enhancing customer relationships
Of course it is easy to write a strategy like this but Dell have actually achieved their objectives and are currently selling one million made-to-order computers a year, to satisfied customers.
E-gardening - that's what Andrew Lothian of Demys would have us all doing. He wanted us all to plant our 'golden seeds' and nurture them so that we get the best possible results from our gardening efforts. Andrew's golden seed was his work on Scotbook (online legal directory of solicitors practising in Scotland). The best thing about Scotbook, apart from being the bible to all legal practices in Scotland, is that it can be regularly updated, unlike most directories which are published annually. The site also sells banner advertising, so by launch day it had actually paid for itself. If you want to contact Andrew his e-mail address is
a.lothian@hbjc.com
.
Sad as I am, I'm afraid I was in total agreement with our next speaker, Hilary Warren of Shamrock Marketing. She told us to love our database and that there was nothing more important than our data. It doesn't matter how strong your offer is if you are offering it to the wrong people. Hilary reminded us of that golden quote from Peter Drucker: ""The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer"". Our database is just the tool to help us achieve this, so don't ignore it when using the web - plan how you want to capture and use your data. Sounds obvious but - ignore your data at your peril!
We were then asked to take a SWIPE at our pensions by Ian Hartnell. However, this was not an invitation to dip into them now at our tender age but to go online to discover the Smith & Williamson Interactive Pension Exchange. Ian showed us how he is radically transforming the way pension business is carried out. S&W are creating an online exchange for clients enabling them to access benefit details over the Internet. No longer would clients have to wade through mounds of tedious or out of date literature, but could tap into live data enabling them to make intelligent informed decisions about their pension, irrespective of whether it was a company or private scheme.
Meirion Jones told us about life with Edge Ellison (pre their merger with Hammond Suddards) and how he had been responsible for the development of a client extranet programme which was to provide clients with a unique and somewhat extreme online service. Yes - this firm was actually going to show its clients, with an online work in progress system, exactly how much work it was doing and exactly how much it was going to cost. This was designed to offer clients an innovative added value service by enabling them to have more control over their lawyers!
Next the cowboys rode into town, or at least that's what we thought when we first saw out-law.com. However that notion was soon dispelled when Vincent Gray of Masons explained to us how, when his firm had wanted to aggressively target the 'new media market', they created a sub-brand which their target market could easily identify with. Go and have a look at
www.out-law.com
- Masons are on their way to out-manoeuvring, out-thinking and out-shining the competition.
Last, but certainly not least, we met a man who is to professional marketing what the wooden horse was to Troy. David Thorley is a partner in Deloitte & Touche. However it's OK, because he is one of us. David has the distinction of being the first marketing professional to be made a partner in a top five firm. So, marketing brothers and sisters, he is a partner but he's on our side! He reminded us to keep our feet on the ground when applying e-commerce to the marketing mix. Don't consider it as a panacea because ""rumours of the death of all other areas of the marketing mix are greatly exaggerated!"" Traditional marketing methods still have a vital role to play.
Following this stimulating ride on the e-commerce train Richard wrapped up the day and issued us with a sensible reminder to take home - don't forget the reality check.
Next year's
conference
will take place on Wednesday 12th September 2001 - put it in your diary!
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