Vuvuzela-ing 2010 in with a warm welcome! From the desk of Werner le Roux Managing Director @ FLUX

2010, a date which has been eagerly anticipated since FIFA announced South Africa would host the World Cup, is here at last – and can you believe the first month and a half have been kicked into goal already. At FLUX we came back to a pile of projects and have been encouraged by the renewed positive business sentiments we see and feel when visiting and working with our clients.

With excitement building and countdown clocks just a matter of months away from announcing the World Cup kick off, we hope you are sporting your supporter shirt on Fridays and have mastered the art of blowing your vuvuzela in celebration!  Looking back over the challenges of the last few years, the long awaited end of the 21st century’s first decade feels a long time coming. But now that it is here with all its possibility and potential, we at FLUX are already out of the warm up boot camp and onto the playing fields, delivering our best digital solutions ever. We’re not blowing our own trumpet – just warming up our vuvuzela technique!

Vuvuzelas exploded onto the social scene during the Confed Cup last year, but did you know that these controversial instruments have been creating vibey atmospheres at South African soccer derby clashes since the 1990s? They are also known and blown in Mexico, Brazil and Israel (thanks to Wikipedia for this). Love ‘em or hate them – they are a fixture on the soccer scene.

In this digital marketing age, making the most of electronic and new social media to market your business, gives companies a competitive edge over other players. A functional website and carefully targeted e-newsletter deliver dramatic returns on investment and position companies to maximise success. We’d love to chat to you about customising one of our off the shelf solutions for you. Give us a shout and let’s work a perfect solution out.  

Researchers and trend gurus are concerned that as virtual interaction becomes increasingly the way to go (sms, facebook, twitter and all those things), personal relationships may suffer as people lose the ability to interact meaningfully in the flesh (if you know what we mean!). At FLUX our coffee is always ready, our kettle on the boil and drinks in our fridge are always chilled. Yes, we work hard, but we welcome the chance to leave our screens and keyboards and chat with clients, potential customers and friends. So if you are coming our way, pop in to say ‘hi’ and catch up for real.

So a fresh new year lies ahead. Onto this blank canvas we can create anything we choose. Choose to embrace all that is positive, celebrate your successes, count your blessings and above all, be happy.

Communication is the key By Philippa Eady Business Development Director @ FLUX

“True interactivity is not about clicking on icons or downloading files, it’s about encouraging communication”. 
Edwin Schlossberg, 2002

The well known adage, a problem shared is a problem halved, encapsulates the value of communication.

At FLUX we are passionate about all we do and we believe that one of our greatest strengths is in the personal relationships we develop with our clients. While we love the challenge of developing customised solutions, we revel in the times we have shared, the conversations we have enjoyed and the memories we have of meetings which went deeper than briefing sessions.

We love hearing from you – so please chat to us. If you have suggestions or stories for us, please let me know. Successful communication is a two way street and we’re ready to listen to all you have to tell us.

You are invited to contact me on (012) 997 4145 or p@flux.co.za

So much more than a facelift for GIBS Review

The Pretoria University’s Gordon Institute of Business Science’s (GIBS) newsletter, GIBS Review, has been revamped and redesigned, giving the e-newsletter a fresh new face.

Besides the facelift, the publication has a great toned body too – a content-rich read covering everything that is current on the political, financial and business scene. To meet the demand for relevant content GIBS Review is now distributed twice a month – delivering a double scoop of information to desktops regularly.

Nicola Wilson, Communications Manager at GIBS, says: “Everyone in business shares a common problem: there is a flood of information, much of it irrelevant but some of it crucial. Since we all need to keep a competitive edge, information needs to be sifted, but none of us has the time. GIBS Review aims to deliver a round-up of the cream of business and management thinking from around the world, distilled with a South African environment in mind. Readers can rely on the executive summary that the GIBS Review presents, or they can click-through to read the original article. In addition, the GIBS Review will continue to feature content which our readers have come to know well in the past, reviews of the latest business books to hit the shelves, as well as a calendar of upcoming GIBS events and links to our GIBS FN podcasts – all aimed at continuing to ensure that the GIBS Review remains an informative and relevant read for our valued readers.” 

FLUX, digital solutions provider to GIBS, builds and distributes the bi-monthly newsletter on tight turnaround times using the customised package FLUX NewsEasy which facilitates compliance with the strict schedule.

Tamsyn Kent, FLUX project manager, says: “GIBS Review contains a wide variety of different information for different interest groups. NewsEasy’s comprehensive reporting functionality allows for effective segmentation to target specific market sectors. The reporting allows GIBS to pull lists of individuals who are interested in a certain business area and then send out targeted marketing material to specific groups. NewsEasy enables mass customisation and targeted marketing messages which are essential for meaningful marketing campaigns.” Read more

In the credit crunch, maximising credit convenience is a winner

Retail Mobile Credit Specialists, (RMCS), South Africa’s largest independent supplier of mobile  business-to-business offerings for credit retailers, contracted with FLUX to design a new website as a platform to promote the company’s complete IT and business solution for credit providers in the mobile commerce environment.

Estie du Preez, FLUX project manager, said: “Maximising the features of WebEasy.NET Lite, our design and creative team were able to conceptualise and go live within a couple of weeks, giving the client a stylish and functional web presence as part of their marketing campaign. This FLUX software, the WebEasy.NET Lite application, is ideal for enterprises wishing to implement a website in a short time frame, giving them a range of standard templates and the ability to update and control their own content."

Deelan Rama, IT Manager from RMCS, added: “We are thrilled with the professional manner in which the modernisation of our website was handled. The WebEasy.NET Lite tool allowed for a quick turnaround time from conceptualising the website to the actual deployment.”

Estie continues: “The template FLUX used for RMCS was branded and customised with a top quality, professional theme which was carried through to the entire site. This consistent branding gives website visitors a strong sense of the products and services associated with RMCS. All pages are optimised for the top search engines. Page titles, meta-tags, and navigation are all optimised for higher rankings.” Read more