Synatus – Open for business

Lattice PR Director Richard Dymond has joined a group of independent senior-level Consultants, Interims, Trainers and Coaches called Synatus.

Synatus provides a simple way for clients to find the resource their need. There is no cost to use the Synatus website to search for suitable consultants, and no uplift in the day rate of the individual or team they select.

Synatus covers most disciplines and sectors while each partner has a proven track record which is visible on the website.

Of course, the Lattice PR network of communications specialists continues to exist (and grow). We can provide support for the full range of corporate communications specialisms including social media strategy and management.

 

LooknBe: Opinionated people wanted

People eager to provide their opinions on others’ fashion sense are being sought by new UK social networking site www.LooknBe.com.

LooknBe aims to help answer those sartorial dilemmas such as ‘Is this outfit right for me?’ or ‘Does this style suit me?’ by encouraging members not only to pose their questions but also to provide others with their views and opinions.

“How often have you seen an outfit and wondered whether it is right for you? Who could you ask for an honest opinion? The salesperson?  A friend or family member? Really, it’s difficult to find someone who is impartial and who will tell you the truth without fear of hurting your feelings,” says founder Stéphane Castellani. “We want people who will provide others with their advice and experience – keen amateur versions of TV’s Gok Wan, Jenny Frost or Trinny and Susannah.”

Registration on the LooknBe.com site is free and as the network grows more and more expert advice will also be freely available from a range of professional specialists in fashion and appearance. Members can currently upload photos of themselves and their outfits to the site to gain opinions and advice. “We’ll shortly be launching a new range of mobile apps which will allow you to get instant feedback straight to the shop before you have to make that decision to buy,” added Stéphane.

Launched in late 2010, the equivalent French network has grown to over 50,000 in just eight months and currently over 500 keen style watchers are joining the network every day.

Founded by husband and wife team Stéphane and Olga Castellani, an Italian network has also been launched and further networks will roll-out across Europe. While each network is separate, members of one can watch what’s going on in the other national networks if they wish.

 

ENDS

NOTE TO EDITORS

For more information, contact Richard Dymond or Denise Gee at Lattice PR on

Richard  01344 881 443                   07977 242 573    richard@lattice-pr.com

Denise                                                  07793 768109     denise@geeassociates.com

 

Try it and see!

The best way to understand the concept is to try the network for yourself.  Registration is quick and simple at www.looknbe.com.

LooknBe – the first social network that advises you on your look and appearance

A new social networking phenomenon that is already growing rapidly in France is launching a UK network this Spring.

LooknBe aims to help answer those sartorial dilemmas such as ‘Is this outfit right for me?’ or ‘Does this style suit me?’ by encouraging members not only to pose their questions but also to provide others with their views and opinions. Launched in late 2010, the French network has grown to over 40,000 in just six months and currently over 500 keen style watchers are joining the network every day.

Founded by husband and wife team Stéphane and Olga Castellani, an Italian network is also launching and further networks will roll-out across Europe. While each network is separate, members of one can watch what’s going on in the other national networks if they wish.

“How often have you seen an outfit and wondered whether it is right for you? Who could you ask for an honest opinion? The salesperson? A friend or family member? Really, it’s difficult to find someone who is impartial and who will tell you the truth without fear of hurting your feelings,” said Stéphane.

Registration on the LooknBe.com site is free and as the network grows more and more expert advice will also be freely available from a range of professional specialists in fashion and appearance. Mobile applications are on schedule to launch shortly.

NOTE TO EDITORS

Try it and see!

The best way to understand the concept is to try the network for yourself. Registration is quick and simple at www.looknbe.com.

ES Pipelines supports Warm Homes Campaign 2010

ES Pipelines is backing National Energy Action’s Warm Homes Campaign 2010 and is supporting NEA’s call for a national energy efficiency drive to combat rising levels of fuel poverty.

The call comes after recent Government statistics revealed that the numbers of households in fuel poverty is continuing to escalate, with NEA estimating that the figure in England and Wales has reached over 4.1 million.

Nick Clark, ES Pipelines’ Development Director said: “NEA’s Warm Homes Campaign highlights that there are still millions of people who are simply struggling to keep their homes warm and protect their families from the ill-effects of the cold. Fuel-poor households experience a number of detrimental health impacts and reductions in general well-being as a result of cold, damp living conditions. This is clearly unacceptable, and this campaign also demonstrates where help is available.

“We work closely with social housing providers to ensure they have access to all the grants and support on offer to improve the quality and energy efficiency of their housing stock.”

NEA chief executive Jenny Saunders said: “This campaign plays a vital role in ensuring members of the public, local politicians and MPs understand this link between energy efficiency and fuel poverty. By providing practical advice to local community groups and taking MPs to visit their constituents at home and hear first hand about how they’ve benefited from energy efficiency initiatives, we hope to help lift other families out of fuel poverty.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. The NEA’s Warm Homes Campaign 2010 press pack is available on the NEA Website. Click here.
2. Warm Homes Campaign is a national campaign organised by fuel poverty charities National Energy Action (NEA) and Energy Action Scotland (EAS), and is sponsored in 2010 by DECC (England only)and E.ON.
3. The campaign runs from 18th November to 3rd December 2010, with politicians visiting constituents who have benefited from energy efficiency grant schemes.
4. Warm Homes Campaign aims to raise awareness of the problem of fuel poverty and the various grants and schemes that are available to vulnerable households struggling to heat their homes.
5. NEA is the UK’s leading fuel poverty charity campaigning for affordable warmth in the homes of vulnerable people. For further details, visit www.nea.org.uk
6. Fuel poverty is defined as when a household is required to spend more than ten per cent of its income after housing costs on total fuel use.
7. DECC figures for 2008 have shown that fuel poverty increased significantly from 2007 to 2008, from 2.8 million to 3.3 million households in England alone and puts the figures for the whole of the UK at 4.5 million. NEA estimates that as of 2010, more than 5.4 million UK households are considered to be in fuel poverty. NEA estimates there are currently 320,000 fuel poor households in Wales, equivalent to 1 in 4 households.
8. Current grant programmes are:

Warm Front in England (0800 408 2095) www.warmfront.co.uk
The Home Energy Efficiency Scheme (HEES) in Wales (0800 316 2815) www.heeswales.co.ukE.ON is one of the UK’s leading power and gas companies – generating and distributing electricity, and retailing power and gas – and is part of the E.ON group, one of the world’s largest investor-owned power and gas companies. They employ more than 15,000 people in the UK and more than 88,000 worldwide.

For details on the Warm Homes Campaign and MPs’ activities around the country, contact Lesley Tudor-Snodin, NEA Press Officer, on 0191 261 5677 or LTS@nea.org.uk

Swanbay: Leading brands use innovative mobile phone platform

Swanbay, the media and mobile technology company, has announced that four leading brands have begun advertising on its cutting-edge mobile phone platform.

Tissot, Travelport Holidays and Star Cruises and Ceat are using the Swanbay platform to reach customers in India through a service that provides free, high-quality video clips to millions of mobile phone subscribers.

Swanbay provides mobile phone users with free local and international video content including highlights from the world of sports, news, music, cartoons, fashion and movies. Swanbay has partnered with several mobile network operators across Asia, Middle East and Europe to provide advertising partners and content providers with an opportunity to access consumers through networks with over 500 million subscribers today, growing to over 1 billion in 2011.

“Throughout 2010, Swanbay has being expanding its network and broadening its content offering,” says John Haskins, Director of Sales for Swanbay. “We’re now seeing consumers using the service and advertisers looking to sponsor the content. Early portal statistics across India, Pakistan and Asia show that once people have accessed the portals, over 50 per cent of consumers download and watch a video that starts with a short ad.”

“The videos are of really good quality,” says Abhijit Saxena, CEO, Netcore Technologies, Swanbay’s content distribution Patner in India. “This will be a big differentiator in this service.”

Advertisers are able to run targeted campaigns by selecting content and locations that are relevant to their brand. They can also measure the effectiveness of their campaign through a web-based reporting tool. Furthermore, payment is per view, ensuring guaranteed publicity and consumer engagement.

Javed Akkhtar, CEO of TravelPort Holidays adds, “Video advertising over mobile by Swanbay is an excellent and innovative media option. Our campaign received a very high quality response and the ROI was 40% better than the bulk SMS and other over-the-mobile promos.”

Since the beginning of 2010, Swanbay has launched its service in India, Pakistan, Hong Kong and Taiwan with launch programmes underway in UK, Thailand, Malaysia, Middle East, Bulgaria, Turkey and The Balkans.

“We have the technology, the backing and the partners to continue to grow rapidly,” says John Haskins. “With the number of internet enabled phones growing at 30 per cent a year, this is becoming an excellent channel for brands with ambitions to reach a mass market.”

About Swanbay

Swanbay enables mobile network operators worldwide looking to reduce churn and retain loyalty, with the ability to provide premium video content to their subscribers, for free. Swanbay currently has a subscriber base of approximately 200 million with a further 300 million subscribers under contract and launching in 2010. The subscriber base is expected to increase by a further 500 million in 2011.

International and national advertisers are proving keen to market to specific consumers in all territories by embedding video and banner ads into video content, and Swanbay provides the end to end solution that allows them to do so.

Swanbay is a privately held company backed by investors with a successful track record in mobile technology. Its headquarters are in London and regional offices in Middle East, New Delhi, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, & Bulgaria.

Contact

Tel: +44(0)2079179866 Email: info@swanbaygroup.com www.swanbaygroup.com

REM’s Smart Metering Operations Suite achieves SAP-certified integration

UK technology company Remote Energy Monitoring Ltd (REM)’s Smart Metering Operations Suite (SMOS) 1.5.5.7 has achieved SAP-certified integration with SAP® Business Suite software via enterprise services.

REM’s CEO Nigel Rzemieniecki said: “Through this integration with SAP Business Suite via enterprise services, our customers can implement our SMOS knowing that what was previously a complex integration process is now a simple configuration task. We can provide strong support for the SAP AMI Integration for Utilities software development roadmap.”

SMOS enables energy suppliers to communicate with, acquire data from and control a large estate of remote smart meters. Based on Oracle technology it uses an in-memory database for high-speed operations. SMOS is meter-, communication network- and communication protocol-agnostic.

The SAP Integration and Certification Centre (SAP ICC) has certified that REM’s SMOS 1.5.5.7 integrates with SAP for Utilities solutions 604 via the SAP NetWeaver® Process Integration (SAP NetWeaver PI) 7.1 offering via the enterprise service bundle-Utility-Advanced Meter Infratructure (ESOA-Bundle) 1.0.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. SAP, SAP NetWeaver and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries.

2. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

3. Remote Energy Monitoring is a smart metering and data management company. It designs, develops and deploys complete end-to-end smart metering solutions which help its customers – the UK’s energy supply companies – to increase consumer retention, improve operational efficiency and develop brand reach, while reducing consumer churn and bad debt. Chaired by John Roberts, former CEO of United Utilities plc, Remote Energy Monitoring is a UK company, with unrivalled experience in deploying smart metering solutions. Its meter development centre is in Australia, systems are developed in the UK and meters are manufactured in China. For more information, visit www.remuk.co.uk.

Synogis – Equipping senior business consultants for tendering success

The recession has seen many senior-level and highly-experienced business professionals decide to take up offers of redundancy and set themselves up as self-employed freelance advisors.

But what happens when the contract you are bidding for is more than you can handle alone, or requires a greater breadth of expertise and experience?

A new service – Synogis – aims to solve that problem. Founder Richard Ilsley explains that it can be very difficult for freelance advisors to find colleagues to collaborate with. “When you work in a large organisation, usually someone else has done the hard job of recruiting people in other disciplines for you to work with on projects. When you’re on your own, you’ve got to do that job yourself which can be very time consuming and stressful.”

Synogis now has over 150 senior-level consultants and interim managers from a wide range of disciplines in its network. Each has been either recommended by an existing member or has had to demonstrate their expertise, knowledge and skills. Around 30 new consultants are admitted each month.

“We know that each of our consultants can provide professional support to their colleagues and their clients,” added Richard. “Synogis is a resource for the best talent available – a network of seasoned professionals with the experience, knowledge and expertise to take on the toughest of business tasks and advice clients at the highest levels.”

More information on how to join Synogis is available at www.synogis.com.

Synogis: Demand for senior-level advice grows with economic recovery

Synogis, the network for senior-level freelance consultants and interim managers, says that demand for its members services is growing rapidly.

Richard Ilsley, founder of the network, says: “In a recession, many businesses seek to cut short-term costs by ‘letting go’ many of their long-standing, most experienced and, often, most expensive managers. When recovery is in sight, they may find that they have lost the necessary experience and knowledge to take full advantage of the business opportunities.

“Services such as ours offer businesses the opportunity to access that pool of expertise without the expense of recruitment.”

Since it’s ‘soft launch’ earlier this year, Synogis has seen its network of senior business people grow to over 150 – and it is now growing at over 30 per month. New members are recommended by existing members or have to demonstrate the necessary skills and experience to be admitted.

“It’s this quality control which sets us apart from other networks,” explains Richard. “Any business or organisation coming to us to put together a virtual support team or recommend a shortlist of interim managers knows that our resource pool has already been vetted. And our business model means we don’t take a commission or charge a fee to businesses and organisations for our services.”

More information is available on the Synogis website at www.synogis.com.

REM: Partnership unveils SAP gateway for smart meter at new ‘centre of excellence’

Solution enables smart customer relationship management

UK technology company Remote Energy Monitoring Ltd (REM) and its systems development partner Infotech Enterprises Ltd have unveiled a new interface between SAP’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and REM’s Smart Meter Operations Suite (SMOS).

The announcement came at the opening of a new Centre of Excellence in Holborn, London, where REM’s smart metering systems, solutions and meters can be put through their paces for prospective customers.

John Roberts, chairman of Remote Energy Monitoring Ltd, who opened the new Centre of Excellence with Infotech’s Chairman and Managing Director Mohan Reddy said: “This solution offers tremendous opportunities for utility suppliers who already use SAP within their businesses. AMI integration requires a specialist and hard to resource skill set, which can prove to be challenging even for high-profile system integration companies. Together, Infotech and REM have a proven SAP integration capability.”

President of Infotech’s Global UTG (Utilities, Telecommunications and Government) Business, John Renard agreed and stressed how this alliance will bring significant benefits for customers. He commented: “Our partnership with REM represents a strong combination of technology and services to address both smart metering and smart grid marketplaces. Combining REM’s award-winning and Ofgem-certified technologies with Infotech’s proven experience in delivering cost-effective implementation, integration and managed services to the Utility and Telecommunication sectors, this partnership provides an agile and robust platform to underpin significant return on investment.”

REM’s Chief Operating Officer, Steve Mitchell, added: “Our smart metering solutions provide a scalable and high-speed SAP AMI framework that can be used with SMOS’s advanced smart metering functionalist, offering energy suppliers certainty of outcome both in terms of solution delivery and investment return.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

1.Remote Energy Monitoring is a smart metering and data management company. It designs, develops and deploys complete end-to-end smart metering solutions which help its customers – the UK’s energy supply companies – to increase consumer retention, improve operational efficiency and develop brand reach, while reducing consumer churn and bad debt. Chaired by John Roberts, former CEO of United Utilities plc, Remote Energy Monitoring is a UK company, with unrivalled experience in deploying smart metering solutions. Its meter development centre is in Australia, systems are developed in the UK and meters are manufactured in China. For more information, visit www.remuk.co.uk.
2.Founded in 1991, Infotech Enterprises Ltd is a Global IT services and solutions provider specialising in Engineering Services, Geographic Information Services (GIS) and IT services. It provides services to a wide range of industries – Aerospace, Rail, Automotive, Marine, Energy, Plant Engineering, Utilities, Telecom (operators), Government, Retail, Consumer Electronics, Medical Electronics, Semiconductor, Telecom (Manufacturers) and Computing industries. Infotech has a distinctive business model: “offshore services, onshore responsibility”. It operates “Centres of Excellence” such as the new Remote Energy Monitoring centre in London for leaders in key industries. It combines its extensive engineering design and solutions capability based in India with global delivery through its offices worldwide which provide local customer interface and project management. Many of Infotech’s clients are among the top Fortune 500 companies.

REM: Next-generation modular smart meter ready for European roll-out

Regulator approves future-proof multi-mode meter

A UK technology company’s advanced and future-proofed modular smart meter has been approved by the energy industry regulator OFGEM for deployment in millions of UK homes. The meter has received MID (Measuring Instruments Directive) approval meaning that it can be used in all the countries of the European Union.

Remote Energy Monitoring’s V2 multi-mode meter’s modular design means it can be adapted to advances in technology, ensuring that infrastructure investments can be made confidently for the longer term. It can be supplied in three variants – Smart-Ready, Smart-Lite and Full-Smart – with all being upgradable while in service, removing the need for replacement as the smart meter roll-out progresses. The meter also provides remote Prepayment and Pay-as-you-go solutions.

Nigel Rzemieniecki, Chief Executive Officer of UK technology company Remote Energy Monitoring, said: “Energy companies can install our new meter with its interchangeable and upgradable modules, and know that it can be adapted to meet whatever communications or other technology options they may choose in the future. We believe it is the most adaptable and enduring meter on the market, offering energy companies greater flexibility and asset life than any other”

The meter provides a complete end-to-end smart metering system when used with Remote Energy Monitoring’s Smart Metering Operations Suite (SMOS) software. LAN options include ZigBee low-power radio at 2.4GHz, with WAN options including GPRS. The communications modules are logically and physically separated from the metering module – permitting complete modularity and flexibility.

Other key features of the meter include:

• ‘always-on’ secure two-way communications

• prepayment, credit and pay-as-you-go modes

• remote meter reading at flexible frequencies

• ‘time of use’ consumption capture

• dynamic pricing with support for multiple smart tariffs

• debt recovery

• variable interval measurement

• import and export energy measurement

“Our new meter offers energy companies the most adaptable, fully functional, value-for-money product available on the market. It has advantages both for the energy suppliers and for their customers. Having achieved OFGEM and MID accreditation, we’re now ready to enable pan-European roll-out of smart metering technology,” added Nigel.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. Remote Energy Monitoring is a smart metering and data management company. It designs, develops and deploys complete end-to-end smart metering solutions which help its customers – the UK’s energy supply companies – to increase consumer retention, improve operational efficiency and develop brand reach, while reducing consumer churn and bad debt. Chaired by John Roberts, former CEO of United Utilities plc, Remote Energy Monitoring is a UK company, with unrivalled experience in deploying smart metering solutions. Its meter development centre is in Australia, systems are developed in the UK and meters are manufactured in China. For more information, visit www.remuk.co.uk.

2. The Metering Instruments Directive came into effect in 2006 with the aim of creating a single European market in measuring instruments. Under the MID, an approved certificate is valid across the European Union.

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