An email from Paul Dawson went around one of Conchango's internal distribution lists a few weeks ago with a call to action for people to contribute more to our blog site. Apparently our tag cloud wasn't fully representative of the things that we are good at:
I would agree with that. Whilst it is gratifying for me personally that the blogging I do features so heavily I know that I don't represent the work that we do and have always been keen for more people in the company to pick up the blogging baton. Of late that has been happening as Paul himself, Michelle Flynn, Richard Wand, James Saull, Anthony Steele, Paul Galvin, Tayler Cresswell, JRJ (that's what everyone calls him), Derek Dunlop and others (sorry to those I haven't mentioned) have all visibly increased their output. Most notable is the rise of our interactive media team in this friendly rivalry between the different teams within Conchango which is great to see because that is probably the area in which differentiate ourselves the most. Is it having an effect? Let's take a look at the tag cloud as it appears today on the brand new Conchango.com:
At first glance it might not look too different but clearly Web 2.0 activity is increasing, as is recruitment. I would expect it to change more in the coming weeks - I hope it does.
Of course, you won't want to subscribe to all of these blogs individually so in order that you don't miss the wit, knowledge and inane waffle of this highly-tuned machine make sure that you stick our blogs site's all-encompassing RSS feed onto your reader. Go on, you know you want to.
In other related news I've been asked by one of our retail dynamos, Howard Pull, to publicise an event that we've got coming up in the next few weeks.
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Conchango is running a free invitation-only practical workshop for retailers to identify how to increase Customer value, Product profitability and business performance using Business Intelligence (BI). Many retailers have existing data assets that they are not using to full effect, and we will focus on how you can accelerate your ROI using investments you may already have made.
The half-day workshop will be run by Conchango Retail and BI Consultants, along with our guest speaker, Michael Azoff, a leading BI Analyst from Butler Group. We will focus on the areas you identify via a 7 question survey as your most important.
Conchango is working with many of the UK’s leading retail organisations such as Tesco, Comet and Marks and Spencer to help them realise the true benefits of BI. We work with them to identify how to exploit their data to support strategies for Supplier Management, Store Management, SKU rationalisation, Cost Optimisation, increased Customer Profitability or just business Performance Measurement.
Let us help you by joining us in this hands-on workshop, where we’ll expect you to walk away with some practical solutions to your data issues.
What: Business Intelligence in Retail - half-day workshop
Where: Energy Clinic, 132 Commercial Street, London, E1 6NG
When: 09 April 2008, 8:30am – 12:30pm
Register: To register for a FREE place please email talktous@conchango.com
Agenda:
- A Welcome Breakfast
- Introduction – Iyas AlQasem, Technology Director and Head of BI Consulting, Conchango
- BI Market View – A market overview on the latest BI Trends from Michael Azoff a leading BI analyst for Butler Group
- Workshop - Part 1 – Addressing your Top 3 BI concerns
- Performance Measurement & Management - David Ellis, Head of Performance Management at Conchango
- Workshop - Part 2 – Planning your BI strategy
- Range Planning Demonstration using Microsoft PerformancePoint
- Summary - Round up of the days findings & close
We would like to hear what your BI and data issues are by asking you to complete a 3 minute online survey, consisting of only 7 questions. By way of thank you we will share the survey results with you (excluding the company names of course) so you can see what your industry peers are thinking.
To complete the survey click here: http://www.conchango.com/retailbisurvey |
It should be a great event. If nothing else you get to meet my boss, Iyas AlQasem, and ask him what a pain in the @rse I am to manage :)
We also involve ourselves heavily in community events as well as corporate ones and Michelle is the main driver behind this. In addition to hosting the London .Net user group earlier this week and the London SQL Server/BI user group meetings last April we are also going to be hosting the inaugural UK Silverlight User group meeting at our office on the London southbank. Paul has more info.
Finally we are, as ever, recruiting for more talented people to join our team so if you want to see your name up here let me know. Remember, all of our hiring is done through direct contact. We don't use recruitment consultants.
-Jamie