5556Mall - Launch - New Zealand's Text Message Shopping Network

Great News!!!!

5556Mall - New Zealand's Text Message Shopping Network has launched today (very soft launch, as we are still getting more stores on board )!!!


What is it?

Know what you want to buy, but not sure where to get it? Or how much its going to cost? Introducing 5556Mall ... New Zealand's text message shopping mall! Simply text the name of what you want to buy to 5556, and we will text you back the details about where can buy it and how much its going to cost... its just that easy!!

Here's an example... if you text 'ipod touch' to 5556 you'll get a text message reply saying: "Available from: Geekzone Apple iPod touch 8 GB (2nd Generation) USD$219.94, Available from:ShopX APPLE iPod Touch 32GB $952.00".

You may also be in one store and want to check the price for the same product at another store. Simply text the code of the store that you want to check plus the name of the product to 5556, and we will let you know the current price... easy! For more details, or to find a list of the store codes, check here.


Why is this great news?

5556Mall is a new service that is available whenever and wherever you have your mobile phone, giving you complete freedom to check stores and prices!


Who is behind the service?

The best place to find out what stores are available on 5556Mall, or to find their unique store codes, is to have a look at us on-line at http://5556mall.co.nz , check out our store codes page, or to sign up to the update list, and we'll email you when new stores are added. 5556Mall is proudly brought to you by Serendipity IT Ltd.


Why not give it a try?

Text whatever you are looking for to 5556 now!! We are also still signing up new stores, so whilst we build or base of stores, you can trial the service on-line completely free! Currently Geekzone is enabled with more stores coming asap.


How do I get on the Stores list?
Check out the Contact Us page.


How do I find out about new Stores?
Send us an email and we'll keep you up to date. We will also use Twitter (@5556mall and @serendipityit) to alert the technical community.


Happy shopping!


Thanks,
The Team
Serendipity IT Ltd

When Social Networks and Blogs go right

We thought we would share a small success story with you around our experiences with on-line polls, Social Networks and Blogs and how they can help your business.

On October 10th a competition to find the Top 10 Start-up companies in 2008 was launched by Start-Up ( @startupnz ) and by Ben Young ( @bwagy ) using Squidoo an on-line poll service. Start-Up magazine offered a 3 page spread as first prize and mention for the next 9 placings. You should still be able to see the poll here http://www.squidoo.com/nztop10startups08 - You may even still be able to vote!! We put ourselves up there as an option, then talked about it quite heavily on twitter, Yammer and other social networking tools - as well as in real life :) . So with the Poll setup, the Twitter community and the Blogging community went into overdrive advertising it. The reason they did this is the people who twittered / blogged normally get close to the start-up companies as it's a great source of information for them. They use this to build trust with the people they get to know, and form relationships from there.

So you still want to know how this can help your business success!?!?!

From the poll hosted on Squidoo, Two separate people/companies, who had good ideas, but not the skills to take it further, linked to my site and read my blog post on Developers - Getting the good ones. We met them on Friday / Saturday and we are are helping one of them develop their product, and we are looking into different options for the other, with a view to aid them.

So, from an on-line poll that used Social Networks to advertise it and having valid content on our blog - we have created 2 linkages with companies who are trying to get their idea off the ground.

Cheers,
The Team
Serendipity IT Ltd

Selling your product - from day zero

So you have just completed creating a product that you've worked late nights, maybe with a team of others. Early on, of course, you did some prototyping, and got a sample of the target segment to test that they want it. Now what??

How do you take that leap? What leap should you take? How do you get it from your PC, into the public arena, then let the public know it's there.

Below are some of the things that we have, stumbled on, thought about, planned for, missed completely - hopefully a memory jogger for you.

1. Get all your legal documents in order - create any non-disclosure or financial agreements and terms and conditions that you will need. Run through a scenario of buying your product with someone playing devils advocate.
   
2. Figure out how your going to make a buck! (if that's your aim) - it may be something that initially will just build brand, and allow you to charge later on.
3. Figure out who is going to buy it - get their contact details - name, phone, fax, address, website etc - often all available via Google / Yellow pages then just calling the main number and asking for the person who is in the role you are after.
4. Create a couple of price lists - one with details and one brief overview - maybe a couple of different prices so you can adapt your prices on the fly based on how your conversation is going.
5. Ensure that your website is complete - there is nothing worse than not being able to give a website for further info.
6. Have a solid go live plan and / or release date and how your going to market it.

Once you have all these details in order, take a day out of your normal week and call the people who you identified that will buy it - yes cold calling - but guess what it usually works. Give away enough information to get them interested, but not so much that they can replicate it themselves. The main aim of this call is getting a face to face meeting! - nothing else (so you'll need your calendar with you). Guess what... If they say 'no thanks', then move on to the next on on the list -it's no biggie - the up side is they have heard your company name and product :) If you get a few people saying no thanks then maybe review your product and you list of numbers to call - do they match?

At the meeting, remember, they are not just buying your product, they are buying into your company and your companies reputation. Remember that your there to sell the product, but, they are there to learn about your product - otherwise they would have told you to go away at the phone call.

This is how we tend to run our conversations, it tends to work and builds trust between parties.
Hi ...{their name}... .
I'm ...{your name}... from ....{your company}... thanks for taking the time to meet with me. We do ...{what your main focus is}..., and you may have heard about us regarding...{previous products}.... . The reason I'm here today is to (show you / tell you about) ...{your product}...

At the end of the conversation, ensure you thank them for their time, and create a future contact point, an email / phone call / 2nd meeting / whatever. - This last bit is very important!!! Without this you have to effectively create a new cold call.

After this you only have to launch on the date given, and advertise through the mediums you said, and have a flawless product - but no pressure!! - More on this in another post

This has been based on some of our experience (and our customers) - feel free to comment and add yours!

Hope it all goes well!!

The Team,
Serendipity IT Ltd

Twitter User Importer - Simple Web Tool

The Twitter User Importer tool.

Just a quick note to let you know that there is now a tool to do any of the following with your Twitter account:

• Sync users between your multiple Twitter accounts
• Move all your old Twitter users from one account to another
• Follow another users followers (if you can follow that logic, you've had enough coffee for the day)
  

All of this from one handy little tool - The Twitter User Importer tool

Twitter is a micro blogging tool, but don't let that scare you. It basically allows you to chat like MSN Messenger but to a group of people who choose to listen to you. From a start-up point of view it's a great way to build networks of people and from a personal viewpoint you can let your friends know when it's coffee time.

A few users to get you going / follow / follow their followers:
@serendipityit - that's us!! Our official Twitter user

@scollings - that's Simon Collings' personal Twitter account - our Solutions Manager

@bwagy - Marketing / blogging etc @gianouts - High level technologist

@TechCrunch -Gadgets etc

@Twitter - Yes they use it themselves

@vodafoneNZ - Vodafone New Zealand

@freitasm - Mauricio Freitas from Geekzone and many many more.

Hope this tool helps - let us know if you want changes or if you want other tools to be built.

Cheers,
The team @ Serendipity IT Ltd

TelecomONE Innovation unconference

Over the weekend we were lucky enough to be invited to the very first "TelecomONE Innovation" unconference that was held at Mahurangi College, Warkworth.

Firstly a few definitions:
"unconference" - Like an invite only conference except the agenda is developed by the attendees at the event on the first day of the event, using big whiteboard schedule that can be rewritten or overwritten by attendees depending on passion for topics. Commonly called a FooCamp.
"TelecomONE Innovation" - The name given to the Telecom New Zealand focused event held over the weekend.

This event was like the BarCamp we sponsored a back in July except attendance is by invite only. There were about 60%-70% Telecom Staff from across the business including a couple of senior managers and the rest were made up from external companies (Tim Norton from Plan HQ, and Mauricio Freitas from Geekzone to name a few). Most of the attendees slept on the marae at the school.

Even before you arrive at one of these events you know it going to be different as there is no agenda only timeslots. The agenda gets created on the first day when the attendees put up the topics they want to talk about. Then a bit of juggling to get rid of duplicates, and after about 15mins you have an agenda full of topics that people are passionate about.

As you can imagine the topics that were discussed have to be kept under wraps. However we can say it was refreshing to see Telecom people talk about (actually talk about) how do we engage the customer and work with the customer, even though the people who attended were mainly tech based. Don't get us wrong there were some tech discussions but these were far outweighed by business related topics.

So given that we can't really talk too much about the topics, please take away two things form this post:
1) Telecom are now trying to be customer focused / become a joined up front
2) At Telecom there are some really passionate, smart people

Cheers from the Team,

Serendipity IT Ltd

Products - What defines Cool?

So what is the difference between 'Cool' for customers and 'Cool' for the IT community - and how do you tell?

All too often we see a Tech based company offering products that they think will take the Cool market by storm, but they don't take off in either the Tech market or the Mass market. We all know that we want to create Cool products and I'm pretty sure that most of us start out aiming for our products to be Cool, which now begs the question - Why don't we all have Cool products?

Some of the reasons for this could be that your product is great in your eyes only. See start-up.co.nz's article titled '10 ways to tell if your product is crap!' for a quick test, or codesqeeze.com's '101 Ways To Know Your Software Project Is Doomed' for a more comprehensive list of things to look out for.

Or maybe you have the wrong target audience - being Cool in a business market requires the 3 R's Rigour, Reliability and a Reason for being there, where-as being Cool in a consumer market may need features at a reasonable price and that's all.

Or maybe the fickle Cool market has moved on to a new Cool - Maybe brown isn't the new black any more maybe orange is - Keep in touch with the market place. Who's saying what about you and your products, and review what you are saying about your products (old info is just as bad as no info). For this Google is your friend, and http://search.twitter.com for twitter conversations.

Or maybe your price point is too high and people can't afford your Cool, or maybe the price is too low so your not Cool your just cheap.

Or maybe, just maybe, the product isn't Cool.

Or maybe we should all stop aiming at Cool and go with "it does what it says on the tin, is a reasonable price, and has had the right marketing". That way if the market makes it Cool then it's a bonus but if the market makes it useful then it will last in that market and you'll actually stand a better chance of making more money from it.

We would love to hear your thoughts on this one, especially as even after all that was written above, everyone is still trying to find the next Cool.

Cheers,
The Team at Serendipity IT Ltd