By Jeff Peel - I have started a new blog.  Yes, another one.  This time it’s about (”yawn“, you may say)  market research. 

But then you might ask, “Why?“.  Well I’ve been working in or around market research for most of my career.  Even now, even though I get heavily involved in through-the-line consulting and communication projects, around 50% of our client billings still relate to research.

The research market is in flux.  The marketing services industry generally is feeling the pinch and, at times like this, there’s a strong whiff of consolidation in the air.  Shakin’ out is bound to happen.  Moreover, the big agencies are falling over themselves to appear cool and web 2.0 savvy now that YouGov has shown them how to do it. 

It’s in that context that I’m launching the new site.  I’m aiming for a minimum of daily posts related to news, my opinion on developments etc.  Plus there’ll be a heavy emphasis on Web 2.0 research developments.  The blog will also be the place where I’ll launch our Web 2.0 in Market Research seminar that will be held in London in October. 

It’s early days but check out the marketresearchersblog.com

Tags: marketresearchersblog

Jeff Peel of Quadriga Consulting will be attending the Microsoft Connected Policing Framework seminars at the ACPO-APA 2008 Conference and Exhibition in Liverpool, UK on the 25th and 26th June 2008. Quadriga has undertaken several projects focusing on law enforcement software markets. 

Microsoft will be delivering a series of seminars with its partners on a wide range of Policing technology related topics. Guest speakers and  partners include 2e2, Boldon James, ESRI, E-Sponder, GoPro, Infusion, Norfolk Constabulary, Twisted Pair and Unisys.

The Microsoft Connected Policing Framework is the result of work between Microsoft its partners and many public safety and law enforcement organisations to build solutions, technologies and services that assist in integrated and collaborative policing to combat crime and assist with citizen safety.

A report will be available from this site after Jeff’s visit.

Tags: APCO-APA, Connected Policing Framework, Law Enforcement Software, Liverpool, Microsoft, Quadriga Consulting

Replify targets medium to large corporate with distributed operations for the most complete virtualized WAN optimization suite available…[Client Media Release]

Replify - the WAN optimization and application acceleration software firm - today announced a new enterprise manager that now fully rounds-out the company’s REPTOR suite.  With the REPTOR Enterprise Manager, companies with distributed operations and mobile workforces will now have complete visibility of application acceleration from data center to client.

The REPTOR Enterprise Manager makes it easy to manage a large REPTOR Accelerator deployment comprising many clients and REPTOR WAN optimized appliances. REPTOR Accelerator deployment is configured in the Manager using a simple-to-use and highly intuitive web interface.  The REPTOR Enterprise Manager automatically configures clients and appliances with the necessary rules to ensure optimal WAN performance.

The Enterprise Manager fits seamlessly within the wider REPTOR virtualization approach to application acceleration.  The software can reside in data center or branch office application servers – rather than dedicated machines or physical appliances.  Indeed Replify is the only WOC (WAN optimization controller) player in the world to have such a comprehensive suite of all software based components.  Together they achieve industry leading acceleration with minimal requirement for increased computing or connectivity infrastructure.

According to Kevin Donaghy, CEO of Replify, “Our approach to making corporate applications run faster has already been proven.  Applications that have been REPTOR-optimized over wide area networks run hundreds of times faster.  But with our Enterprise Manager users will be able to see at first hand the acceleration upside at data center, branch and client. Appliances and clients will be configured based on how the network has been described by the administrator - removing any complicated rule generation. Subsequent changes to the system configuration are broadcast instantly to all connected clients and appliances.  The result is simple configuration and administration everywhere our REPTOR components are placed.”

Replify’s virtual appliance and client-side software, incorporating XDR bi-directional data reduction technology, is available to download for trial today.  Network managers can see for themselves the improvements that can be achieved through Replify’s REPTOR solution by visiting http://www.replify.com/downloads/

Replify was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The company’s objective was to be the first to develop an all-software based WAN optimisation solution that would exceed hardware based performance.  The Replify principal management team has gained considerable experience developing and bringing to market WAN optimisation products at both Swan Labs and F5 Networks.  Now the team is focusing on the next generation of WAN optimisation and intends to make Replify a global player in software solutions.

Further information about Replify and its products can be found at www.replify.com

Tags: application acceleration, software, virtualization, wan optimization

Company becomes member of Alliance, providing unified access to dynamic subscriber and service data… [Client Media Release]

Barcelona , June 2nd 2008 – Mobility Data Systems (MDS), the systems and data integration company, has today announced that it has become a member of the SDP Alliance.  The Alliance offers pre-integrated service delivery platform (SDP) components that reduce the costs and risks associated with SDP deployment.

Flexible service delivery platforms are essential for telecommunications service providers in terms of offering better customer experience, new service roll-out, strong customer engagement and maximized revenue per user.  MDS is responsible for architecting and pre-integration the SDP Alliance solution and maintaining the SDP Alliance Test Lab.

MDS is one of a new breed of agile data solutions players that has built particular expertise in enterprise information integration.  At the heart of the MDS approach to data integration – the biggest challenge in most SDP projects – is the idea that change is constant.  Agile systems allow service delivery platforms to adapt over time to facilitate new service delivery and the business models to maximise return on investment (RoI).

According to Colm Hayden, MDS’s Chief Technology Officer, “Our Agile Data Integration Framework is the integration glue right at the heart of an SDP deployment.  Our view is that hard-wiring components together in a Service Delivery Platform is a flawed approach and has caused many operators to become locked in to what effectively becomes an inflexible and highly proprietary platform.  What may have started out as a means of servicing the business becomes a liability.”

He continued, “We have developed a dynamic data broker for the SDP Alliance that unifies access to consolidated subscriber and service data.  After all, such data is the focus of all the key enablers of a mobile and Web 2.0 SDP –including personalisation, search and targeted advertising.  Each component needs to have common access to critical subscriber and service data.  Our agile framework makes this key data available to all components and can accommodate new functionality in the SDP by having an open API right at the heart of the system.

“Flexibility and future-proofing is optimised while lock-in and hard-wiring becomes a thing of the past.  Our resource oriented architecture is a natural part of a SOA-based SDP. Our REST-based data federation means that the addition of new data sources and applications is a simple configuration task.”

Colm Hayden will be presenting at IIR’s Evolving Service Delivery event (Mon 2nd June 2008 to Thursday 5th June 2008 at the Hotel Fira Palace, in Barcelona).  Now in its seventh consecutive year, IIR’s Evolving Service Delivery Platforms Conference 2008 is widely recognised as the telecom industry’s leading forum on SDPs and service architecture.  The SDP Alliance is a silver sponsor of the event and will be holding a SDP and Telco 2.0 focused conference on June 5th. 

About MDS

Mobility Data Systems was established in 2004 and provides software and solutions to telecoms and enterprise customers – with a particular focus on enterprise integration challenges.  The company has applied its unique technology to various sectors including telecoms, financial services and government.    The company is headquartered in Northern Ireland but has operations in Eastern Europe.
 
http://www.mobilitydatasystems.com

About The SDP Alliance

The SDP Alliance is a collaboration of five companies that collectively provide a fully integrated, product-based approach to the service delivery platform (SDP).  Alliance members include Aepona, Changingworlds, Cibenix, MDS and OpenNet. 

The key components of the SDP architecture provided by these member companies cover the following:

Secure and open access to core network capabilities
Intelligent personalised navigation for content discovery
On-device portal solutions
Agile data integration
Transaction management

The SDP Alliance offers a pre-integrated, product and SOA-based SDP that reduces the costs and risks of SDP deployment.

Further information can be obtained from http://www.thesdpalliance.com/

Event Postponed

Unfortunately this event has been postponed until later in 2008 because of client commitments.  We hope to announce a new date shortly - likely to be October 2008.   You can, however, pre-register your interest.  Just drop an email to jeff@NOSPAMquadco.co.uk (removing the words NOSPAM from the address) and we’ll ensure you’re first in the queue for a place. 

Quadriga Consulting has been providing B2B marketing consulting services for the last 6 years with clients including some of the leading B2B brands in the world as well as early to mid-stage firms.  We are one of the leading proponents of B2B digital marketing strategy development in the UK and our Managing Consultant, Jeff Peel, has spoken at events all over the world on the Web 2.0 revolution.

Jeff is the author of a book on CRM and has advised government departments, technology firms and B2B marketers on digital marketing strategy. 

Supported by a line-up of speakers with specialist Web 2.0 marketing and market research expertise, he will present the massive opportunities for B2B marketers to create huge competitive advantage through adoption of best practice strategies.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Confirmed speakers include:

Jeffrey Peel
Managing Consultant
Quadriga Consulting (Seminar Leader)
Web 2.0 Marketing Techniques, Tools and Strategy Development

Marek Vaygelt
Head of Technology and Telecoms Consulting
YouGov plc
Research 2.0 and the B2B Marketing Process

Adam Parker
CEO
WebITPR
Newswires, SEO and Social Bookmarking

Jeremy Brown
CEO
Sense Worldwide
Social Networking the Business

Tags: Events, Internet, London, Marketing, Public Relations, social networking, Web, Web 2.0 seminar, web monetization

By Jeffrey Peel - At last week’s Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco there was, as expected, lots of discussion about social networking.  The discussions didn’t just focus on the usual suspect social networking sites either.  There was a lot of discussion about how so-called “micro-blogging” sites are becoming increasingly influential.  Micro-blogging sites like Twitter allow for much more rapid one-to-many interactions and are now considered a key component of the social networking/blogosphere.  In fact, I’d go even further and say that by the end of the conference on Friday I was all twittered out.  And this morning I read that Twitter may just have closed a round of funding. 

All this means that social networking is becoming more and more granular but it also means that the distinction between b2b networks and consumer networks is blurring.  Twitter, in particular, is becoming a day to day interaction tool for the celebrity tech bloggers who were there in abundance last week (like Robert Scoble and Stowe Boyd).  In fact Boyd has now come up with the idea of the Twitchpitch that mandates PR types who want to pitch a story to him have to use Twitter.  When I ran into him at a drinks party last week he made clear that he didn’t care much for Facebook pitches either. 

Therefore if you thought that all you had to do to get your B2B social networking strategy together was to have a Linked-In profile, I’m going to have to tell you that you need to think again.  Complex social networking ecosystems allow people to pick and choose - and people will define themselves in the ecosystem according to their favourite tools (and none of us has time to use them all). 

This, of course, means that there is an increasing role for marketing services companies.  Social networking elements in the marketing mix are essential in order to elicit information on how markets are evolving.  B2B networks are becoming the definitive communications media for channel owners, consultants, journalists and other ‘influencers’ in the tech space - not just celeb bloggers. 

As Stowe Boyd said in a panel session last week, social networking is about people talking.  And, when people talk, marketing people should always be interested. 

Tags: B2B, social networking, Twitter

CLIENT MEDIA RELEASE 

New social housing development provides residents with choice of high speed broadband alternatives…

A new social housing development in Belfast is one of the first parts of the UK where residents will be offered a choice of next generation high speed broadband services. This is the result of an initiative by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) who are responsible for telecommunications policy in Northern Ireland.

Following the trial, residents will be offered both high speed copper-based broadband services and fibre to the home. Virgin Media and Bytel - the service providers - are currently offering 20 megabits per second speeds.  As a result of the trial both companies now plan to offer customers even faster connectivity in the future based on this technology being installed.

Northern Ireland was the first region in Europe to have 100% broadband access. DETI is actively exploring what will be needed to deliver widespread access to next generation broadband in its private sector.

Economy Minister for Northern Ireland, Nigel Dodds, agrees that all broadband access is only the first goal in providing a high speed infrastructure in Northern Ireland: “We cannot be complacent. First generation broadband is rapidly being overtaken and the debate in the UK and in other countries is increasingly about higher speed, next generation broadband.  We must look to the future and what has to be done to ensure our businesses and home users continue to have access to world class telecommunications.”

The trial shows that developers and service providers can work together now to install high speed technologies in new residential and commercial builds. Paul Robinson, of DETI’s Telecommunications Policy Unit, said: “These trial high speed residential solutions were both implemented with little technical difficulties or major challenges. The cost of installing high speed equipment is no different to installing first generation broadband.  These high speed service offerings will allow residents to obtain ‘next generation’ broadband services such as video on demand, high speed video and TV streaming, Voice over IP services and even more as new services which are purpose built for high speed IP are rolled out.”

DETI has prepared a case study outlining the high speed residential trials in Belfast.  Click on the link below to download.

High Speed Case Study

Further information for journalists (photo and full media release). 

Continue Reading »

Tags: Bytel, DETI, Next Generation Broadband, Northern Ireland, Virgin Media

CLIENT MEDIA RELEASE 

Replify’s Reptor allows enterprises to deliver content and run applications faster to branch offices and distributed workforces over constrained networks like broadband and wireless connections…

Belfast, Northern Ireland, 16th April, 2008 – Replify (http://www.replify.com), the WAN optimisation company founded by former Swan Labs executives Kevin Donaghy and Wesley Darlington, today announced general availability of the world’s first all-software based WAN optimisation solution.

WAN optimisation has become mainstream for enterprises that need to speed application performance – messaging, financial, sales and marketing applications – across relatively low speed wide area and mobile networks. In the past companies have been forced to install expensive hardware appliances in both data centres and remote locations. But now Replify has cracked the development challenges to bring to market a world first: an all-software based enterprise class solution that straddles data centre HQ, branch office servers, client PCs and mobile devices.

According to Kevin Donaghy, CEO of Replify, “the challenge that enterprises face with distributed applications always relates to bandwidth or latency (and sometimes packet loss). Large companies have attempted to address the problem by purchasing WAN optimisation hardware devices. But these are notoriously costly to purchase, install and maintain – and hardware solutions are costly on the environment too.  They consume more power and occupy rack space. Our software solution gets round the inherent disadvantages of the hardware led approach. Server-side, Reptor sits on the customer’s preferred virtual appliance – such as VMWare or Microsoft Hyper-V. The Reptor server-side solution can be configured for the corporate data centre or branch office. A Reptor client-side application is installed in users’ PCs and mobile devices and, hey presto, applications run faster. The network administrator also gets a detailed picture of overall application performance improvement through our Reptor Enterprise Manager.”

The benefits of this approach to the user are huge. Critical business applications run significantly faster over existing network and computing infrastructure. Mobile data charges are also reduced. But, according to Wesley Darlington, CTO of Replify, there are even more important strategic advantages.

“There is more and more demand from the boardroom to reap the advantages that centralised corporate computing can bring – faster reporting and a single view of company performance across regions. This places huge demands on creaking distributed computing networks. However, by adopting our all-software approach to application optimisation across corporate networks, companies suddenly get the advantages that we have built into our solution. In effect we create an optimised tunnel down which application data flows. By adopting Reptor end-to-end our customers achieve vastly improved data services upon which to run distributed information systems. And we all know that unless an optimised infrastructure is in place, corporate apps will just come creaking to a halt.”

Replify’s server-side and client-side software is available to download for trial today. Network managers can see for themselves the improvements that can be achieved through Replify’s Reptor solution by visiting http://www.replify.com/downloads/

Replify was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The company’s objective was to be the first to develop an all-software based WAN optimisation solution that would exceed hardware based performance. The Replify principal management team has gained considerable experience developing and bringing to market WAN optimisation products at both Swan Labs and F5 Networks. Now the team is focusing on the next generation of WAN optimisation and intends to make Replify a global player in software solutions.

Further information about Replify and its products can be found at www.replify.com

Tags: application acceleration, software, wan optimization

By Jeffrey Peel - Often I’m asked how it is that as a company that started in research we ended up doing so much more. 

The conclusion  I have come to is that research and analysis firms have more interesting things to say because our thoughts, and perspectives, are based on market knowledge and understanding.  While much of the work is client-confidential we, at the same time, build tacit knowledge that gives us some right to take a stand on issues.  Admittedly we have to operate within a frame of reference - and in our case that ‘frame’ would be heavily influenced by information technology.

But, think about it for a minute, the fact is that just about every business these days is becoming a technology business.  Even David Cameron in his latest election broadcast - just last week - made overt reference to the Internet as one of the most fundamental reasons for social change in the UK.  After all, entire swathes of our population no longer watch television.  Internet advertising is set to overtake TV advertising in the next two years.  And where the web used to be the domain and stomping ground for big business, suddenly - with Web 2.0 technologies - it has become democratised.  Even my own 11 year old daughter can now design her own Bebo ’skin’. 

The Internet is a super-medium.  In the past all advertising was a tell-sell.  Now it’s an interactive sell and it has become much more complex, interconnected and, obviously, viral.  If brands offend they will be pilloried online in seconds. 

The impact on marketing services is massive.  Frankly, unless one is immersed in the world of interactive web technologies one will quickly lose touch.  Indeed I recently went on an Internet-free, one week, beach holiday and felt I had lost touch a bit when I returned. 

But, let’s face it, marketing services firms can’t have the luxury of being type-cast these days as one thing or the other.  The Internet will inevitably make us all chameleons - admittedly with our own specialisms.  Therefore as a researcher I will present my research - socialise it - using new communications media.  I will also collect it in new ways making use of social networking communities and online data collection techniques.  And my clients must be prepared to act on research by reaching out to these new global communities, search engines and news portals via more and more flexible and target-able media. 

Tags: Analysis, Internet, Market Research, social networking