Intellicig expands UK retail team

Success stories are always nice to read, even more so in the current economic climate of gloom and doom. The electroniccigarette industry has been expanding steadily over the past few years, mostly as an online offering, but with companies such as Intellicig also bringing this revolutionary device into the mainstream retail and pharmacy sectors.

Intellicig has experienced incredible growth and continues to expand in the UK, Europe, and worldwide. A groundswell of awareness amongst smokers wishing to try a less harmful alternative to tobacco has seen demand for Intellicig products rocket.

With around 5,000 UK retail outlets, including convenience stores, newsagents, tobacconists, pharmacies, and petrol stations, Intellicig has proven that structured planning, intense reinvestment, and a very hands-on approach to managing customer expectations, all contribute to their current and future success.

Having regularly expanded their retail team, Intellicig has recently recruited Carl Welch, who brings with him many years of retail experience in sales. Faythe Halsall, Intellicig’s UK Retail Manager commented, “We are so happy to have been able to tempt Carl to relocate to the North of England and join the Intellicig team. He has an impeccable track record in sales and is every retailers dream, as he delivers a very high standard of professionalism with an endearing personal touch. All of our team are hand-picked, not just for their skills and abilities, but for their special personal qualities and their passion for achieving great things. Those are the qualities that have enabled our worldwide business success”.

Having recently secured partnerships with Colorama and Costcutter, two key players in the pharmacy and retail markets, Intellicig will no doubt be recruiting again in the not-too-distant future, a future that looks very bright indeed.

E-Cigarettes and Eliquid by Intellicig

Tel: 0845 527 6115

Corporate responsibility. Is it part of your firm's DNA? Provident Personal Credit 'Good Neighbour' programme reaches milestone

Provident Personal Credit's 'Good Neighbour' programme reached a milestone at the end of last year, with the firm having provided support to over 500 organisations over the past three years, highlighting their commitment to corporate responsibility.

In addition, 'Good Neighbour' has provided backing and support to in excess of 30 three year projects, with over 20,000 people benefitting from project and volunteering support.

Peter Crook, CEO at Provident Financial, said: "When asked, as I often am, about how we manage our Corporate Responsibility programme, I say it's part of our DNA. It's a fundamental part of our business strategy and plays a key role in our long-term success."

Established in 2009, Good Neighbour is Provident Financial’s flagship community programme. It helps fulfil Provident's ambition to be the UK's leading community-based lender by creating opportunities for people to work side by side with its community partners. 'Good Neighbour' has three component strands:

- Supporting local projects: working in partnership with local community organisations, the 'Good Neighbour' programme delivers projects which are tailored to meet the needs of local residents. Most projects run over a three-year period, with opportunities available to deliver smaller, one-off projects too.

- Employee volunteering: 'Good Neighbour' supports employees participating in company-led volunteering projects, including one-to-one mentoring projects, the Provident Reading Scheme and team challenges.

- Employee matched giving: Provident wants to help its employees to support the causes they care about the most. Employees taking part in fundraising activities or volunteering in their local communities can apply for matched giving and volunteering grants to make their contribution go even further. Over 1,750 employees have been involved so far and community partners have reported more people are now accessing their services.

Each community partner is selected carefully to ensure that every project is delivered to a high standard and provides real benefits for the community. Provident wants to work with a wide range of organisations, including youth clubs, community groups and schools, so that it can reach people of all ages, from toddlers to pensioners, and address their specific needs.

FACTFILE:
Provident Personal Credit is a  financial services company operating in the non-standard loans market. It specialises in offering cash loans of small amounts, typically from £50 - £500 over terms from 14 weeks up to 106 weeks. Its short term loans are unsecured and all of the costs are included up front which means that customers will never be charged for a missed or late payment. When assessing loan applications, Provident Personal Credit look at the applicants ability to repay now rather than their payment history.

This means that people could still be accepted for a loan even if they think they may have bad credit.

Repayments are collected by agents who visit their customers' homes on a weekly basis. The company has a good reputation with 95% of their customers saying that they are satisfied with their service.

What's more, it is a great alternative to payday loans with small and manageable weekly repayments.

Provident Personal Credit Ltd is a part of the Provident Financial Group. It is licensed by the Office of Fair Trading.

(EDITOR: Whilst most businesses are not in a position to offer the levels of support that Provident Personal Credit can offer, any firm will be able to provide some sort of help, even if it means just buying a copy of The big Issue every time it is published, or having a stall at local village fêtes, or the like.)

How Much Does Website Design Cost? Marketing Quotes Explores Website Design Prices

With in excess of 20,000 website designers around the UK, finding the right one is hard, each one offering different website packages at different prices.

Marketing Quotes commented "There are two things that effect the cost of a website; one is the type of website needed and the other is the website design agency that is doing the work. We always advise arranging a meeting, as you never know from the designers website what they are really like, it could be a student working from home".

As most UK businesses are being careful at the moment with their marketing spend (due to the economic downturn), a good understanding is needed about the kind of websites there are available and what they should be paying for their website.

Marketing Quotes added "Website designers understand the costs involved however everyone else just does not know the costs involved with website design work, what websites are needed for their business or the kind of designer to choose."

Websites generally come in three different kinds:

1 Template Websites - Quite basic websites that only have a few pages. These can cost around £500 to get set up.
2 Brochure Websites - These are more professional looking sites and can include CMS systems (custom managed systems - that allow the owners to update and modify the content). These can cost around £2,000 to get set up.
3 Ecommerce Websites - These are websites that take payments online (such as online shops etc.) and can cost around £10,000 to get set up.

For any business considering getting a website set up, the first thing is to understand the different types of websites and choose the right one. For smaller businesses it is wise to either get a free website set up or a basic site designed (until funding allows for a more professional one); the danger is overstretching or paying to much for something basic.

Marketing Quotes added "One thing businesses forget is that website designers are privately owned companies that need to make profit (to pay for holiday's, houses, cars etc.) and that the price does not reflect the design. Two website designers could design the same website but offer website design prices that are thousands of pounds apart."

With so many website designers around the UK (from students working from home up to top website designers in London that work with global firms) selecting the right sized agency is important. If the business is quite small, then a designer that is also small and local should be good to talk to; if the business is global, then a design agency that has the experience of designing global sites is probably best to talk to.

Marketing Quotes has  put together a few website design tips that may be helpful for anyone considering getting a website designed and was unsure how to select the right designer:

1 Have a look at local designers, a meeting is always good to discuss plans and objectives.
2 Choose a designer that has designed similar sites for businesses in your industry.
3 Shop around, comparing prices is normal these days to ensure you do not over pay someone

A website is a businesses 'shop window' and does need to be given care and attention in order to project the best possible image of that business (whether it is well established or a startup).

FACTFILE:

Marketing Quotes is a marketing resource website helping UK businesses to find local marketing companies that have experience in their industry. The site covers all areas of marketing, from direct marketing services such as telemarketing, media and SEO services from PR agencies and business development and improvement.

Marketing Quotes is a free UK resource committed to helping companies save money and find cost effective marketing partners to help build and develop their companies.

For more information visit www.marketingquotes.co.uk

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A Business Problem Shared is a Business Problem Halved

Announcing the itSMF UK’s Proactive Problem Management Seminar taking place on 8th February at Chelsea Football Club, West London.

 

itSMF UK, the UK’s largest service management user group boasting over 12,000 members, announced today its new series of UK seminars running throughout 2012 on various service management topics such as change, configuration and release management, service catalogues and service portfolios, business continuity and major incident management and problem management.

The first event of the year is the Proactive Problem Management seminar which is taking place on 8th February at the renowned home of Chelsea Football Club, Stamford Bridge in West London from 9.00 to 16.00.

The event is being sponsored by Kepner Tregoe, a multinational management consulting and training services company that helps organisations implement their strategies by embedding problem-solving, decision-making and project management methods. Key speakers on the day include: Vawns Guest from Pink Elephant, John Griffiths from FoxIT, David D’Agostino from Service-Now, Mike Evans from ITS and Rich Starkey from Oasis Healthcare.

The seminar aims to help service and problem managers gain a better understanding of what problem management is really all about. It is targeted at problem managers who want to improve their approach and understanding of problem management by adopting a more proactive focus in order to deliver more successful outcomes.

Those who attend will learn how to achieve value and reduce costs using problem management, as well as gaining a better understanding around how to make time for problem management, which is a key issue for many IT departments. Participants will also gain insight into the key interfaces between the incident, problem and change management processes. In addition, they will learn the benefits and reasons for closing the loop on the lifecycle of a reported incident, the identified problem, the known error and workaround, and the change or release to fix the problem permanently.

Dr. Don Page, CEO of the Marval Group and chair of the itSMF UK events committee, commented on the event: “The fact is, with the current rate of change and our reliance on information technology, our job is getting harder, seconds of downtime can have major impact on customer confidence, our credibility, our financial futures.

"We need to raise our game, our processes, analysis skills and attitude towards problem management. However to get there we need to invest both time and resource, the very things that problem managers and technical specialists have little of.

"This seminar pulls together a great range of experienced and thought provoking presenters who will help to unlock these precious resources. I can’t wait.”

For more information about the itSMF UK seminar series, or if you are interested in attending, please contact Teresa Corre at the itSMF UK office on 0118 918 6500 or events@itsmf.co.uk.

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