Night Class Software

We have recently written to all of our VEC customers informing them of the new system which they can use for online registrations for nightclasses for this September.  Demo available here .
The VEC can maintain the list of classes while members of the public can search & register for classes.
Any comments on the functionality that VECs (or other potential customers) would like would be very welcome.

Community E-Learning

We have Learning Managment systems installed with 25 Vocational Education Committees in Ireland to manage their Adult Learning. We engaged with some customers during the week to look at supporting the learning process using some elearning supports. There are obviously more challenges implementing elearning in a community environment rather than a corporate environment so any comments or throughts on this would be appreciated. We will be researching this area further and I will update this post with any findings.

Opportunities in China Seminar – May 13th

Attended conference.

Very good background to the history and culture of China, and very practical advice about what is involved in doing business in China.
The changes in the last 20 years in China have been phenomenal and there are over 200 million wealth middle class.
There are still many opportunities despite the global downturn.
Don’t underestimate the large resources that need to be applied to successfully build business relationships in China.

Areas of opportunity IT, Software, Education & Food.

As we are involved in the Software & Education sectors, it is definitely worth us pursuing this market further.

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We are attending the above conference organised by Waterford City Enterprise Board.  The company China Green are talking at it.

We already have two of our software products translated into Chinese and we are always looking for opportunities to expand so it will be interesting to see what the conference has to say.

Existing products – We have 5 VECs around Ireland that have our Language Pulse system. If a chinese student for example wanted to learn or improve their English they could follow all the unstructions and register in Chinese and then undertake a test to assess their current level of English.

We have a product that manages a truck service department on trial in Canada. Parts of the system have been translated into both traditional and simplified Chinese to facilitate the large Chinese community our customer is dealing with.

Support World Asthma Day

I would encourage all to support one of our customers – the Irish Asthma Society - on World Asthma day

Book Your Training online

For all users of our Adult Education system, of which there are over thousand, we have set up a facility to book training courses online.  When they open the system you will have a choice of courses which can be reserved. First come first served with a maximum of 15 people per course.

Training Survey

During January we undertook a survey of our Adult Education Product users to identify what the training needs were. We were delighted with the response and it has helped us to identify the training courses we will run over the next few months. Mid February we will have the facility to let users book courses online.

We recently ran the first of our tailored training sessions for 2009 in the Teachers Training Centre in Kilkenny and found the venue and service excellent.

Read more details of our survey results and some recent feedback from participants here.

We would encourage anyone that wants additional training in any of our products to add a comment to this post.

Thoughts of CRM by Salespulse

20 or maybe 40 years ago, you would have walked into your local shop and the shopkeeper would have asked you about your family, your holiday and would have known exactly what you normally buy and may even have had a special offer for your favourite product. In short it would have been an enjoyable, personalised experience.

 

CRM or Customer Relationship Management is the software that companies have turned to, in order to try to recreate this personalised experience. Used properly, the company will be able to record the full profile of the customer, what they buy, what complaints they have ever lodged, details of any phonecalls they have received from or made to the company, what sales or marketing campaigns that have been targeted with. The theory being that when the customer rings up, then all previous dealings they have had with the company are available at the fingertips of all company employees, This should result in a better experience for the customer as they are not being asked the same questions each time & they are not being targeted with products they don’t want or need.

 

There are many different types of CRM software systems available. They range from freeware to multi million euro systems for large organisations.

 

A spreadsheet with a list of customers and a different column to record every phonecall from them is a type of CRM system, albeit an inefficient one

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Club card schemes from large supermarket chains are a type of CRM system. Without you realising it the supermarket knows how much you spend, when & how often you buy, what different products you buy regularly and which ones you buy occasionally. They will then analyse this information and use it to tailor special offers and even to send out special offer coupons for products you are likely to purchase.

 

In short a CRM uses the information it holds about customers and prospective customers to try to provide a better customer experience and to increase sales.

 

From our experience of providing CRM systems for a number of years, I would say that the purchase of the system is only part of the solution. The commitment by the company to the system, the training of all staff in its use and benefits and the management of the change involved in its introduction are more crucial to its success that the system itself.

 

That is why there have been a large number of high profile failures with CRM (& other software) systems.

 

Adult Education & Salespulse

Adult Education is a significant industry in Ireland as it is in many economies. It takes the form of short training courses, Education programmes, Literacy training, Adult Guidance. It is delivered in commercial training organisations, community education environments, in employment situations & online to name but a few.

 

We are a significant player in this sector in Ireland having a system deployed nationally to manage Community Adult Guidance as well as a number of administration systems being used by over 1,000 users. The products we have include Learning Management Systems, Online testing, Online questionnaires, Student registration systems, Text a student facility and timetabling.

 

I will use this blog to discuss individual aspects of software for the Adult Education sector. I will talk about some case studies in general terms and would hope to get feedback from any parties interested in this area.

Company first posting

by Brian Kelly CEO, Salespulse

 

We started this company in 2002 with the intention of filling some of the niches and gaps that we saw in the software industry. At the time we saw that service & support was an area that left a lot to be desired.

 

7 years is a long time in software development. Areas that have evolved or progressed significantly in that time include Blogging, Selling Software as a Service, Podcasting, RSS feeds, release by manufacturers of Software development tools to encourage organisation to adapt the software themselves and much more.

 

We believed, when starting the company, and still believe that a tailored product that provides what an organisation needs is the key to success. The problem being that people wants the customised software product for the Off the Shelf price.

We have tried therefore to develop products that have appeal to a larger number of customers which can be customised by the individual organisation.

 

We work in a number of different sectors, Business, Education & Health.

 

Overtime I will talk about the technology, the different markets we are in, selling (or trying to sell !) & marketing software in a tighter economy, the issues & challenges that a growing company faces. I would be delighted with any contributions or discussion.