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Viewing entries posted in 2003
Recent Projects
Posted by Internetrix on 29 October 2003
Stolway
Stolway Holdings is an internationally renowned company which designs, manufactures and delivers industrial air conditioning systems for extreme environments. With specific expertise in the petro-chemical industry, Stolway works with some of the worlds leading exploration and development companies in areas including oil rigs. Stolway first approached Internetrix to redevelop their existing website early last year, and have now upgraded to a new design and taking the opportunity to build their site on Freestyle, the Internetrix Content Management System. Developed and delivered in near-record time, the site is still being populated, with more sections coming online in coming weeks. Feel free to check it out at www.stolway.com.au.
Shellharbour Council - eDA
A key part of a Council's responsibilities to their community is to act as a consenting authority. To provide consent on issues related to developments, constructions and more, Councils accept applications, and assess them against relevant policies, regulations and laws. Internetrix was approached by Shellharbour Council around 12 months ago to undertake a pilot project to develop an online Development Application form, which would take an application online. Following this initial scoping, Internetrix has delivered the eDA, an entire online application submission and tracking system, based on the Gravity product, which went live with a group of customers this month. Progressively being rolled out, firstly through high volume users, and eventually to the community level, the eDA is an exciting step forward for e-government. You will soon be able to view an interactive demonstration of the eDA in action on our website.
Bio Medical Logo Development
Bio Medical Holdings, a success story in the innovation and distribution of leading safety products for the health industry, is expanding into the global market. As part of this process, they are re-branding to become BMDI, or Bio Medical Distribution International. Robert Archer, a valued client for a number of years, approached Internetrix to design a new logo and then redevelop his website. The website is currently under development, and the new logo and brand identity is being used around the world in the BMDI production facilities. Stay tuned next month to see the new site live in action.
Client Highlight - Wright Home Loans
Posted by Internetrix on 29 October 2003
This month, we highlight one of our more agile and innovative clients - Wright Home Loans.
Paul Wright, Principal of Wright Home Loans (WHL), has many years experience in the mortgage broking industry. Considering the dual effects of residential property boom and the record-low interest rates, Paul's business has been growing steadily for the last few years.
While the climate might be fortuitous, the WHL approach to business is fundamentally strong, keeping an obsessive focus on customer requirements and service. By keeping communications with clients well after settlement - where most other brokers tend to lose touch and interest - and ensuring a very high level of service and transparency in what is often a stressful, confusing and difficult process, WHL gets significant ongoing business, underpinning growth.
To support this growth and success, WHL is investing in future needs by deploying Internetrix Gravity to manage the often complex and challenging application process. By managing the progress of a loan online, WHL will be able to maintain the high level of service and customer focus as the business continues to grow - a clearly innovative investment in the future success of the company. Watch this space in coming months as the outcomes of this project unfold.
If you or your clients are looking to set themselves up with a better deal on a home loan, or you just want to get an idea of your options for when interest rates rise, you can find out more and contact WHL from their websites: www.wrighthomeloans.com.au.
Online Intimacy - get aroused
Posted by Internetrix on 29 October 2003
In our August newsletter, we discussed the need for websites to strive for higher levels of online intimacy to realize their potential. Online intimacy is all about you getting to know your customer, and vice versa, using your website or other online tools.
One of the biggest challenges to be overcome with any website or electronic communications tool is to arouse a response from the anonymous users who visit your site. How many of us would consider visiting a store, hanging around for 15 minutes, and walking out without even being acknowledged by a staff member as good service?
If your website does not encourage online intimacy, then that is the kind of store you are running.
Increasing your levels of online intimacy is a lot harder than building a relationship in an offline, face to face world. Online, people are used to being anonymous, and the strange times of day and night that they surf your website, not to mention the technical challenges, often makes real-time support difficult to achieve (although we will show you how to make that happen in later months). However, we believe, just because it is harder does not mean you shouldn't try.
A good example of a tool designed to boost online intimacy is the small helper on the right of any page on our website. This helper is in place to do two things: firstly, he is a simple way for people to provide us with feedback, and secondly, he can get rankings of our pages, should people wish to provide us with feedback and commentary of that nature.
By using some old fashioned smarts with some clever technology, we can also make him interact with the user. For example, our online helper knows how many pages you have been to on the website, and if you have spent more than a certain amount of time clicking around (and thus seem to be someone interested in what you are reading, as opposed to someone who is just browsing quickly through), he will wake up and talk to you, asking if you would like some help or have some feedback to give.
The benefit of this kind of approach is that we are avoiding those annoying pop-up boxes that are so common in websites today - how often do you go to a website, and, having been there for a whole 10 seconds, get asked to do one of those surveys? What kind of feedback do you think I can provide you considering the homepage has not even loaded yet? Technically, the helper runs in his own little space, sending comments and feedback without you needing to leave your place or page - quick, easy and convenient.
If you are interested in working to arouse more online intimacy from your website, contact us today. You don't even need to be hosting your site with us, and if you are, then this can be a valuable edition to your regular monthly stats provided as part of your package. To find out more, don't hesitate to contact us today.
Join us at the World Cup & Win!
Posted by Internetrix on 29 October 2003
All our domestic readers will be well aware of the Rugby World Cup, the international sporting carnival currently underway around Australia. Internetrix are playing their small part in this event by participating in a trade show at the Wollongong Entertainment Centre from today to Friday.
In a coup for the regional centre one hour south of Sydney, Wollongong was chosen to host two games, Canada vs Tonga tonight, and France vs USA on Friday.
This event coincides with an annual festival in Wollongong, known as Viva La Gong, and there are many activities occurring over the next three days to coincide with these major events, including a Trade Show held next to the Stadium at the entertainment centre.
To help our clients get in on the action, we are giving away two prizes, one online, and one by leaving your business card with us at the event.
These are two collectors items that have very limited editions: a signed framed photograph of the World Cup Opening Ceremony and a full sized poster personally signed by all members of the Canadian squad who have made Wollongong their base during the event.
To go into the running to win one (or both) of the prizes, just drop by our booth at the Wollongong Entertainment Centre some time in the next three days, or fill in our online entry form!
Internetrix Welcomes Miltonbrook
Posted by Internetrix on 29 October 2003
The Miltonbrook Group of Companies is the largest private property development organisation based in the Illawarra region. Since its incorporation in 1972 it has developed into a large and diverse multi-project group with a record of proven success.
The Miltonbrook Group has progressively increased its status and profile particularly in the Illawarra Region. Its excellent reputation, and that of its principals, continues to enhance the Group's standing among its joint venture partners, financial institutions, the many Government and statutory authorities with which the Group deals, and the communities within which the Group's development works are carried out. The Group's extensive local experience and understanding of the regional market is a primary factor in its success.
Internetrix have been commissioned by Miltonbrook to develop a website and communications system to facilitate their work, and build stronger ties with the community in which they do so much fine work. Given the extensive nature of their developments, a strong relationship and communications tool is essential to ensure the continued success of the Group into the future.
We look forward to bringing you news of their online success in coming months!
First Online Development Application Launched
Posted by Internetrix on 29 October 2003
If you have had to build or renovate a property in Australia, you will be familiar with the sometimes painful process of getting consent for a Development Application from your local council. This compulsory process often leaves builders, developers and renovators fuming as a result of delays, confusion and miscommunication - but not for long - thanks to our latest major project, the eDA.
Internetrix this month commissioned an electronic Development Application (eDA) for Shellharbour City Council, which will enable people to submit a development application and supporting documentation, all online.
This is one of the first times such a venture has been undertaken in Australia, and represents a breakthrough for online service delivery by local government.
What makes this development a true first is the ability for applicants to not only submit their application - a handful of Councils have achieved this feat - but the ability for applicants to track it right through to conclusion - all online! Now, applicants can track the cause of any hold-ups, and time of the day or night, and because it makes it easier for assessment officers to get clarification electronically, it delivers efficiency gains at the same time as delivering process transparency. Applicants can even enter enquiries as well as answer questions from assessment officers, straight into the system, via the website or via email.
Internetrix are excited to be taking this new product to the Local Government Association 2003 Annual Conference in Albury, 9-12th November. Working closely with Shellharbour Council, we are looking forward to taking this product forward to many other Councils in the coming months. Underpinned by one of our flagship products, Gravity, the eDA is an exciting example of using the internet to make a real difference.
This initiative, coming hot on the heels of the Online Mapping System deployed by Shellharbour Council a couple of months ago, further demonstrates their leadership in online service delivery for the benefit of their residents. Currently being rolled out in a phased approach, watch this space to see more in the future about how you can access this new and innovative system for your needs!
Recent Projects - September 2003
Posted by Internetrix on 30 September 2003
BIS Shrapnel - BIS Shrapnel are one of Australia's leading forecasting firms. Internetrix and BIS have a healthy ongoing relationship which recently has delivered BIS a slightly altered website aesthetic but importantly a leap forward in the engine that they use to control the website content and downloadable reports. By increasing the ability to control their website and their downloadable reports, Internetrix has delivered a customized e-business solution that increase BIS Shrapnel's ability to maximize their website's effectiveness. Following a final upgrade of content, this site is due to go live in a couple of days at www.bis.com.au
WollongongOnline - Empower Australia approached Internetrix to provide a new home page design for the Wollongong Online portal. The brief was to deliver a design and access point that allowed one click away access to the 3 websites that Empower Australia control.
You can check out the new look at www.wollongongonline.com
Nightlive - A new demographic that Empower Australia sought to actively reach alongside it's wollongongonline.com initiative was the student population of region. Nightlive is a new website that is set up to allow the business of the Illawarra an access point for this often hard to reach age group. Meanwhile the student population has been made aware of this new site and the ability that is has to share be a forum for them to add blogs about any topic as well as read reviews and other information about specials that the business community is offering to them.
Check out Nightlive yourself, and even participate in one of their active Blogs at www.nightlive.com.au
Burn your own DVDs - it's now affordable!
Posted by Internetrix on 30 September 2003
The computing hardware world is an area of Information Technology that follows a constant course skywards - faster processors and bigger storage, more compact features - onwards and upwards at a speed that is truly dazzling to all involved.
As with any new technology, early adopters often pay exorbitant prices and get new and buggy technology that does not offer value for money. DVD burners and the discs themselves have followed that path.
DVD's are well known as the dominant format for watching movies at home. In the last couple of years they have also been available to computing buffs for storing 4.7 gigabytes of data (more than 7 times larger than a CD). For most of us, DVDs have been a read-only format - you buy the disks and just read from them.
To burn data to a DVD requires a DVD burner, which first entered the mainstream market a few years ago, costing thousands of dollars. A mish-mash of standards hampered adoption, and blank DVD discs themselves were available for $30 - about the same price as a movie in a store.
Now in 2003, the cost of this technology has plummeted, with obvious benefits being passed onto the consumer. DVD Burners are now available for under $500 and the discs have dropped to as low as $2 in some places - the same price as many blank CDs. This change is a boon for movie buffs and the IT industry alike.
The applications for the new and affordable format are both predictable and innovative.
Of course there are many movie fans taking advantage of the format to back-up their collections (keeping originals pristine and safe and scratching their cheaper copies in regular use), but there are also a whole range of people realizing the benefits of this format for backing up their data systems. Considering many people have email inboxes containing thousands of emails filling more than a couple of gigs, this kind of technology is removing the excuse many back-up slobs have that it is too expensive and inconvenient to use tape drives and tapes (the only way to back up files larger than a CD up to now).
If you want to know more, contact your trusted computer supplier, or check out online stores like Harris Technology ( www.ht.com.au ) to see what kinds of deals you can get.
New Client - Kells the Lawyers
Posted by Internetrix on 30 September 2003
Internetrix is proud to welcome Kells the Lawyers as one of our newest clients.
Kells has strong roots throughout the Illawarra, having started business here in the 1950's. Today, Kells is proud to be one of the leading regional law firms in Australia, and with a rapidly growing practice in the Sydney CBD, future growth and success of this extensive firm is clearly defined.
In early September, Kells commissioned Internetrix to complete an overhaul of their existing website. Currently we are busily working through the redesign of www.kells.com.au which will be fitted with our popular website management product, Freestyle, enabling Kells staff to maintain site content quickly and easily.
Stand by for more information on this exciting project - the first of many for this innovative legal practice - in coming editions of this newsletter.
Online Music Piracy - are you at risk?
Posted by Internetrix on 30 September 2003
Did you know that the internet went commercial almost 10 years ago now? While the ‘internet’ as a technology has been around since the late 60’s, it wasn’t until 1993 that the first graphical web browser, Mosaic, was released, resulting in a 341,634% increase in WWW traffic!
In these last 10 years, the internet has made a major impact onto a number of industries, and the biggest ‘losers’ who have been adversely effected by the world going online would have to be the music recording industry.
CD Sales have dropped in the last few years by more than 25%, and names like Napster and Kazza have become well known to many people online as a great way to get popular music on demand. Record companies were (and still are) very slow on the uptake of this new medium for distribution, and they are clinging tooth and nail to the physical package that digital music is distributed in – a CD. To keep consumers purchasing music through the only currently legal medium, a CD from a retailer, they are attempting to do a Taliban and turn back time by shutting down new online services through legal action.
So far, success has mostly been on the side of the record companies. Napster, one of the most phenomenal success stories in the internet world was shut down by the courts. In it’s footsteps, a range of new peer-to-peer networks have sprung up, essentially removing the central directory of music that made Napster so vulnerable – now the users are the network, and there isn’t a central controlling authority for record companies to sue.
So, the latest play in the battle over online music piracy – one can’t loose sight of the fact that accessing music without paying for it is piracy and theft, no matter how you cut it – is targeting the user, and this means you could be at risk.
In Australia, authorities have been fairly successful in pursing online pirates, and have done it in a way most people would applaud. By targeting people running large websites of MP3 downloads, often drawing some income from the advertising associated with the massive traffic these sites bring, Australian authorities have been going after the criminals, and leaving the enthusiasts alone. That was until the last day in May, when Federal Police raided the offices of UTS.
Now in the US, things are getting interesting, with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (which erodes more civil liberties in the US than the most draconian security legislation) as their weapon, suing individuals sharing music at home. After forcing Internet Service Providers to reveal the names and addresses of subscribers accused of sharing copyrighted works, the RIAA has filed 261 suits against individuals out of the estimated 60 million Americans sharing music online. This list includes, among others, a single mother from the Bronx, and US Federal Copyright Law provides for damages from $1100 more than $200K (AUD). Considering each person being sued was offering more than 1000 songs for download, each suit is likely to be worth millions of dollars.
Where all this goes is anyone’s guess. While it is not reasonable or likely that the legal landslide from the RIAA is going to extend across the tens of millions of online file sharers in the US, it is also curious to note the Copyright Laws as they stand in Australia were updated in 2000 to make the transmitting party more responsible for copyright violation (thus bring the laws more into line with the US model).
This means that your computer system, if it is serving up files to be shared, is regarded as breaking Copyright Law, giving all sorts of agencies the ability to pursue you. Currently, they can only track an IP address absolutely, and this IP address is the property of your ISP. They can, however, be compelled by a court to release details about you, thus putting you at risk. And if you run a network or are responsible for your company internet connection (as a director or officer) you may find out that you are the one being pursued for any breaches of the Copyright Law eminating from your network. While the Australian experience does not provide clear precendent for an ISP to hand over your contact details in a Civil matter at this time, the US experience shows that it may only be a matter of time, and it is thus a risk you should be aware of and minimising.
If you have an opinion on this matter, please don’t hesitate to contact us using the feedback pane on the right of this site, or get in touch with Internetrix. Stand by in future months as we continue watching this amazing change and its consequences unfold before our eyes.
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