Printweek Power Poll’s Innovation Insights…

While we’re generally a bit cynical about the worth of Top 10s and Top 100s here at Webmart, Printweek’s Power 100 did make a few quality observations. Simon skipped along one step from last year’s No.61, but that’s neither here nor there. What’s important is that people are recognising how we’re always searching for new ways to help out or clients and suppliers and that we do this through innovation – in technology and business processes. There’s nothing more important than serving our customers (except perhaps our ability to help others through our Charitable trust). So the messages seem to be getting through – hurrah!

Click to be WOWED and AMAZED by Webmart’s entry into the Top 100!

To have a friendly Webmarteer show you how our tech might be able to help you (in procurement, project management, retail) give us a shout

More good news from the Webmart Charitable Trust

An update from Webmarteer G on the progress of the Webmart Charitable Trust. Taken verbatim from her latest update email. As a print management company that works hard at being the best for our clients and suppliers – it’s truly heart-warming to see we can do well for the less fortunate too.

Morning all

Had a great email from Carol who runs one of the charities we support – Building a Future for Peruvian Children (some of you may remember Carol when she came to visit us last year). We donated £7,500 to the charity last year which has enabled them to continue to support the 500 children we helped to get into school year before last and an ADDITIONAL 203 children last year.  WHICH IS JUST BRILLIANT!!!

This picture is of the children from Marcopampa who had just been given their school rucksacks, dictionaries etc.  This school is in a more remote, higher, northern part of the district where the charity operates and in an area where people tend to be even poorer on average than the children we have already helped. Full report on the notice board in the postroom if you want to have a read.

Doesn't it just give you a nice warm glow!!!

WELL DONE EVERYONE – WE REALLY ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE.   DURING THE PAST  YEAR WE HAVE HELPED/CONTINUED TO HELP …………

703 KIDS IN PERU ;

25 YOUNG ADULTS IN ETHIOPIA;

LOTS OF KIDS BEING RESCUED FROM THE STREETS IN KENYA, GIVEN SAFE ACCOMMODATION AND BEING TAUGHT SKILLS TO HELP THEM SURVIVE;

HAVE PROVIDED A COMPUTER SYSTEM TO GIVE SOMEONE ( AND EVENTUALLY OTHERS) BACK THEIR INDEPENDENCE THROUGH SPECIAL EFFECT’S FANTASTIC EYE TECHNOLOGY AND

SPONSORED STAFF AND FRIENDS OF WEBMART WHO WERE RUNNING/CLIMBING/etc TO RAISE MONEY FOR THEIR PREFERRED CHARITIES.

WELL DONE TEAM!!!

Press Update…

No, it’s not a shot from the ‘Man at Oxfam’  spring/summer catalogue 1979. It is in fact the cover shot from the Feb ish of The Print Business Magazine, where Webmarteers Simon and Craig explain how Webmart is helping the print industry. And after locking and loading grins and settling down onto our 70′s-style black vinyl settee, they expound enthusiastically on all manner of subjects – from how we are building trusting relationships with Printers – how we bring new opportunity to printers to maximise their client-relationships – to how technology can bring sustainability to print pricing and how we bring much more than just print to our clients.

All good stuff. Except that after an hour and a half of feverish gesticulation and heart-felt oratory, coupled with the unfortunate interplay of man-made fibre and unearthed vinyl settee, not only did Simon’s hair start sparking, but the static built up to such an extent that even the military-wing of the Bicester girl-guides and their industrial cutting-gear couldn’t separate them.

And so there they remain to this day. Still talking enthusiastically about print, but with their grins a little strained, and their polyester tops looking slightly soiled.

Check out what they said either here (http://www.printmag.co.uk/) when it’s published online – or by downloading the pdf: Webmart – The Print Business February 2010

Webmart Around the World?

We’re now opening discussions with our first potential licensees to spread the goodness of the Webmart business model and technology around the world.

Having spent 12 years developing the software and the expertise, we thought it’s about time we looked into franchising the business model & technology.  However with potentially complex legal hurdles to overcome in the different territories – and, as always, looking at new and more efficient ways to solve problems – we decided that a much better way is to simply license out our tech instead. We reasoned that since our business model and processes are enshrined within our software, it’s actually much easier for all concerned to offer a simple licensing agreement. By licensing the software, licensors then effectively get an award-winning Print Management business-in-a-box.

And one of the great things about our software is that we were effectively 10 years ahead of the great Software as a Service (SaaS) revolution. All our software works through your browser, meaning you and your team get access anywhere there’s the internet. We take care of all that troublesome back-end systems nonsense that you really don’t want to be bothered with.

Of course, we still need to find licensors with the right stuff. We’re not willing to  licence  our software to just anyone. Licensors need to display the commitment to customer and supplier-care that we do, and be into greenprint and sustainability like we are. All this is great for business, great for building trusting relationships – and of course minimises the impact on the planet.

But once these boxes have been ticked – as Viz might put it – simply plug in people and watch the work flood in!

EcoPrint Update

Don’t you just love it when clients really ‘get it’?

We’ve put so much time and effort into making Webmart the greenest Print Manager in the land, that we were heartened when client Ball Colegrave challenged us to turn their print green.  Ball Colegrave are a wholesale distributor of seeds and plants to commercial growers  and Local Authorities. And since businesses don’t get much greener than theirs, they wanted to make sure their print matched their plants!

So Senior Print Consultant Mark ‘Robbo’ Robinson stepped up to the plate, knowing we’ve invested heavily in all the right areas: carbon-offsetting (for print process and transportation); FSC & PEFC accreditation (making sure the paper is from sustainable and Eco-sources); Inks (vegetable-oil based); Water-based varnish (rather than solvent-based) & biodegradable laminates (so the waste product will rot down more quickly). Mark got to work to make sure our print suppliers understood exactly what the client required and making sure the right printers were found – people who we know and trust to do a great job but never at the expense of quality.

And the end-result? Well, the client was delighted with the job and  found that the Eco version was actually cheaper than their non-eco alternative! A fantastic result for all and surely a real taste of how we’ll all be buying print in the future? I mean, if it’s cheaper, sustainable and carbon-neutral AND gives great results – why wouldn’t you???

If you want to chat through how Webmart Print Management can make your life easier and your print Eco-tastic, Mark’s the man to call and will be delighted to tell you exactly how you can do it.

Webmart Making a Difference… in Peru.

Another Webmart Charitable Trust update – this time from the “Building a Future for Peruvian Children” Charity. A mere £12 donation is enough to equip a child with all the clothing, books, bags and stationery they need for school for a whole year. It’s stunning to think that without this donation, a child simply wouldn’t have the opportunity to go to school and learn; but with it, they have the chance to make a real difference to themselves and their communities.

Webmarteers Lee & G with a preposterously large cheque.

Last year we donated £5000 which Carole, the charity manager, managed to stretch to helping around 420 children into school. This year, we’re delighted to announce we’ve upped that figure to £7500 – a stunning testament to our charitable trust and, once again, showing it’s possible to create a business that’s innovative and successful while taking the time to care for others. Long may it continue.

Webmart Award Update…

Well, we’ve won a few ourselves this year, so we thought it’s about time we gave some out. Pictured is Webmarteer Tracey giving out Webmart-sponsored awards for Achievement to Year 11 Students at our local college – Bicester Community College. Well done kids.

Webmart Charitable Trust update – Matt Hampson visit

We were all delighted to welcome former U21 England rugby player Matt Hampson to the yellow shed on behalf of the charity, Special Effect.

Four years ago, Matt  was paralysed from the neck down after a rugby accident and needs a ventilator to help him breathe. Special Effect is a charity that’s dedicated to providing help for young people, like Matt, through computer games – and the sense of inclusion and improvement in quality of life they can provide. They use a technology called ‘eye-gaze’ which allows people to control computers solely through the use of eye movements. But it’s not cheap. Each system costs £12k – which, though expensive, is a small price to pay if it gives people a real sense of hope and achievement.

Cheque this out Matt

So the Webmart Charitable Trust were more than happy to buy one for Special Effect. As the picture shows, they came in to show us how the system works, and plan to lend the system out to bring relief and independence to several young disabled people. Fantastic news that we can help – and humbling to think that the work we do at Webmart can have a direct impact on those less fortunate.

New Festival Flyer Trundles into the Shed

Well the good old festival flyer died on it’s little rubber rims after Jake K brought it back from Glastonbury last June. Maybe it was just telling us it didn’t want to leave the festival, or maybe it had cheap cider in it’s carbs, but whatever it was, the silly old sausage wouldn’t turn off when it got back to Bicester. We booted it, tweaked it, pulled stuff off it, but in the end we had to call out the local mechanic who pronounced it DOA. And ruling out the possibility that he was trying to pull an antiques-roadshow-style fast one (see hundreds of em missis, I’ll give you a tenner) we quickly flogged it on ebay and bought another. We were a little upset to see the back of the faithful old gal – but it’s probably true to say within about .4 miliseconds of the arrival of the new one, we’d forgotten about the old Merc and FF MkII was booked out for Glasters 2010. We have our sentimental moments at Webmart but this wasn’t one of them!

Webmart Point of Sale update

Jake checking out his packet

We’re always up for a challenge from our customers at Webmart,  and it looks like  The Point of Sale team  are putting on a great show for one of our leading retail clients. They challenged us to kit out 11 stores for the launch of their latest war-based videogame, gave us a budget  and an outline brief  and let our imaginations run riot. So being print managers, you’d be forgiven for thinking we’d get busy with Photoshop and make a stack of 8-foot tall cardboard standees. But you’d be wrong. As you can see in the photo, we waived some nylons and chocolate at a passing Chinook and got ourselves kitted out with cammo nets, helmets, webbing, jerry cans, bivvy bags, and lots of other odd-sounding stuff that’s very green and rough and tough. We came in under-budget and are looking forward to getting them in-store for launch where they should look awesome. And as soon as we have shots, we’ll post them here. Reports that Jake F spent the weekend dug-in and bivouacked in the Webmart car park are as yet unconfirmed (though probably true).