Company Net Attains Gold Competency for Portals and Collaboration in New Microsoft Partner Network

Company Net, Scotland’s leading Microsoft SharePoint solution provider, announced today that they have attained the Microsoft Gold Portals and Collaboration competency in the new Microsoft Partner Network (MPN). Company Net is one of the first Microsoft partners in the UK to attain Gold Competency in the newly revamped program.

 

The new Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) accreditations came into effect on November 1, 2010. The criteria for the new program is much more stringent and promises to better represent organisations who have demonstrated the highest, most consistent capability and commitment within a specific business solution area.

“The new MPN program aims to differentiate more accomplished Microsoft partners and make it easier for customers to align with a partner that truly understands their area of expertise,” said Andy Hamilton, Managing Director of Company Net. “Early recognition under the more stringent accreditation procedures is a testament to our position as a leading Microsoft SharePoint solution provider and commitment as a Microsoft partner.”

Where previously the Gold Partner status reflected an overall capability, the new approach enables Microsoft partners to more clearly differentiate their business capabilities and areas of specialisation. Partners can now earn Gold or Silver competency accreditation in 29 specific areas of expertise. Partners who attain the new certification will be able to display the new partner logo.

Although Microsoft partners have up to 12 months to meet the new criteria, Company Net has met their objective in achieving the Gold competency just 3 months after the program was launched.

Derrick McCourt, Regional Director Microsoft, Scotland & Wales commented:

“We are delighted to recognise this achievement and welcome Company Net onto the New Gold Standard within the Microsoft Partner Network. Company Net’s SharePoint & CRM skills are now formally recognised at the highest level of customer satisfaction, project delivery and technical competence that Microsoft require. We would like to congratulate them on this excellent achievement and on their continued commitment to the Microsoft Platform.”

Why Sitecore is Flare’s CMS of choice for compelling web experiences

Sitecore is one of the first 100% Microsoft .NET / XML based CMS in the world. It is based on Microsoft’s development platform (.NET) and unique business model, by that, you are securing your future; you can freely adjust and integrate with other business applications and systems.

• Sitecore’s layout structure makes it fast and easy to change the websites appearance.

• The layout structure makes it easy to tie the website to different platforms (e.g. PC, mobile telephone and PDA). This principle can be viewed more simply by showing the same content in a browser-friendly version, printer friendly and possibly in a unique version, that lives up to your accessibility demands.
• The content management system has high-performance, and can dynamically generate sites down to 20-30 milliseconds without caching, and 1-5 milliseconds with caching.
• It is possible to run several sites in a single installation.

Complete scalability

• A solution, that’s architecturally, is build to grow with the increasing demand. Sitecore employs from the smallest solutions to the biggest installations of millions of pounds.

More usability

• Sitecore is an award winning CMS with a strong focus on Microsoft designs and workflow standards. This makes Sitecore easily approachable and a recognizable environment, to people with a general knowledge of Microsoft Windows and Office products.

Stability and reliability

• Sitecore is the only CMS system with build-in tools for documentation, bug fix, and test procedure for your choice of operating and hosting setup.

Secure your future

• Sitecore is delivered with a solid and freely configurable workflow framework that secures, that the sites information is modified and publicized by the right people in the organization.
• Sitecore has a sophisticated safety model, which makes it possible to build one or more extranets. Sitecore provides handling of many different editorial and individual roles based configurations using the Sitecore administrative tools.
• Sitecore is developed with focus on the usability. Which makes the administrators IT skill requirements limited

Strengthened business setup

• With a Sitecore solution the license is registered to an individual client. This gives the client absolute freedom to chose the supplier and ensure development.

Respecting the open standards including W3C, XML and Microsoft .NET

• Sitecore is highly documented; this creates flexibility, which is a key for consultants and developers, when optimising concept and system functionalities. Furthermore it ensures that Sitecore indeed can live up to all the accessibility demands that a modern company websites require.

 

Some exciting new portfolio work about to feature in new brochure and redeveloped site

Flare is delighted to be able to showcase some exciting new portfolio work within our new brochure and redeveloped site. By highlighting the increasing and diverse marketing challenges that senior executives face, we hope to demonstrate how the strategic application of creativity and technology are key to realising commercial objectives. In looking at the disparate range of solutions that we’ve developed for clients across a number of vertical sectors, it is clear that creative technology, in our case Microsoft technology, is proving mission critical for businesses:

The Global Juices Division of Coca Cola asked us to provide a dashboard view of all of their KPIs. So we designed and built a major intranet site that provides up-to-date global sales and management data to its corporate teams worldwide. The creative project included an extensive range of data visualisation demands.

For Miller Homes, the leading UK housebuilder, they needed their websites to use live, fresh data and our solution was to design and build a new Miller Homes website that integrated with the Group’s existing technology platform. This created an online channel that now provides property buyers with secure access to real-time information 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with no compromise to the aesthetic design of the sites.

Another housebuilder Galliford Try wanted improved usability and search as a sales and marketing tool for their website. Our solution was to design and build a new website that is used to maximise competitive advantage in its marketplace. It acts as a true sales tool to drive home purchases, enhance the user experience, and be easy and agile to manage for internal sales and marketing staff.

The client marketing challenge for a not-for-profit organisation such as Project Scotland,was to maximise their investment in technology, streamline their processes, and make their user interface visually engaging. Our solution was centred on people, process and technology, and the interaction between them. The new, visually-rich system has introduced an extremely efficient and streamlined operation that focuses on end-to-end life cycles. This ensures a seamless interaction between volunteers and available placements.

 

Twitterfeed now posting blog articles as tweets

We’ve installed twitterfeed, a nice little tool that offers to tweet the last posts published in a blog via the RSS feed. Kills two birds with one stone!

Is there a place for an agency that truly combines creativity with the application of technology?

In the world of digital solutions, clients have a problem: either they can use a technology partner that has some, usually limited, design capability in-house, or they can go down the road of an integrated, or digital agency that can offer a robust creative solution but are unlikely to be able to fully deliver on a technology level.
For many, the ideal agency is one that offers a true-end-to end solution from strategy, creative, technology and programme management without the need for unnecessary partnering and with resultant cost savings inherent in such a model.
As a typical end-user client, would you welcome such a model coming onto the market? Would you consider using the agency if they demonstrated strategic flair, creativity and had a wide range of deep technology solutions on the .NET channel (Umbraco CMS, Sharepoint, Silverlight, Dynamics CRM, Sitecore) as well as offering bespoke and open-source web solutions? Would it be attractive to you, as a marketing decision-maker and purse-holder if you had already invested in technology and realised that you could maximise its capabilities without significant further investment and the need for multiple partners?

Specifically, I’m looking for feedback from those individuals that need all or some of the following:

You need your website to use fresh, live data.
Your website needs improved usability and search as a sales and marketing tool.
You would like a dashboard view of all of your KPIs.
As a not-for-profit organisation or smaller corporate, you need to maximise your investment in technology, streamline your processes and make your user interface visually engaging.
You need to reduce the costs of managing your digital assets.
You want to work with an agency that truly delivers creative technology.

If any of these marketing and business pressure points are pertinent to you, then I’d love to hear from you.

Can I blog through my Blackberry?

…It seems I can!

Welcome to Flare Partnership!

Flare is a collaborative joint venture between Company Net and Shaw Marketing and Design, encompassing further value-added partners where appropriate to give the most robust solution to individual client and project needs. Flare services a wide range of target audiences and business sectors with robust marketing, creative consultancy and programme management, underpinned with the delivery of bespoke and integrated creative solutions and business applications using the Microsoft platform.

Flare was borne out of An ambition to apply a top-quality collaborative approach to business ‘pressure points’ and deliver an effective client solution that delivers both functionally and aesthetically.

The two core elements of Flare, Company Net and Shaw Marketing and Design, remain constants, but the model lends itself to encompassing those partners whom we believe can add value to a relationship or project for the benefit of the client. The web development arm of Company Net and the digital and creative offer of Shaw give Flare immediate traction in this area.

Business and marketing benefits of using Flare will include significant cost savings, new commercial opportunities and the ease of problematic ‘pressure points’ within those organisations. The Flare model is structured for best-practice working but is able to adapt to a ‘needs-based’ partnership solution. It can seamlessly work with both in and out-house creative teams, as comfortably as it can with in- or out-house technology teams.

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