News Blog

Activedition CMS V4.2 (build 4)

Richard — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 09:57:00 GMT

Just before release of Activedition V5.0 we have a point release that incorporates a new version of the ActivBuilder/CMD Module. This incorporates a number of enhancements that clients have requested making the flexible listing and tailored CMS tool more powerful than ever. Release Notes are held within Activedition eCommunity http://www.activedition.com/CS/files/folders/release_notes/entry581.aspx or can be supplied on request via info@c2software.com.

Anything Relationship Management (XRM)

Richard — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 06:43:00 GMT

Over the last few years C2 has been doing more and more CRM work, web enabling solutions like Microsoft Dynamics CRM with the Activedition CMS. Through this period C2 has seen CRM solutions mature, develop and provide a platform for delivering business intelligence / return on investment. Today's CRM offerings now represent tailorable solutions that facilitate designs beyond their sterotyped sales roots.

Finlay Carmichael our Consultancy Director at C2 who has been architecting web enabled CRM for clients was recently invited to write an opinion piece for Entrepreneur Country Magazine - www.entrepreneurcountry.net - in which he explains how CRM has morphed into XRM (Anything Relationship Management). The C2 feature from this popular magazine is attached to this posting for review. If you have an interest in this subject or have an opnion of your own please do not hesitate to email Finlay - finlay@c2software.com.

Social Intelligence - Integrating CMS, CRM and Social Media

Finlay — Thu, 12 May 2011 09:32:00 GMT

The presentation from our Internet World 2011 presentation is now available. The session at Internet World was packed out so this is obviously a hot topic.

Topics explored include:

Next generation CMS - Social CMS
Community features
Social networks - pushing and pulling content
Integration with CRM
What makes a Social CRM
What are the business benefits.

We're excited with these developments and look forward to rolling out a wide range of these features in our forthcoming releases.

We'd welcome your feedback and comments.

Download the presentation - Social Intelligence

CMS Driven Social Media Strategy Presentation

Finlay — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 13:45:00 GMT

We recently presented at Technology for Marketing 2011 at Earls Court on how to develop and implement a CMS Driven Social Media Strategy. The presentation was extremely well attended and shows that this is a very hot topic in the market place. Content is becoming more fragmented across channels and organisations are looking at how they can manage customer interactions across the social networks and their websites. Hopefully the attached Powerpoint from TFM will provide some ideas on how we see this area developing.

We would also very much welcome your feedback.

Activedition Multi-Stage Forms

Richard — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 16:04:00 GMT

C2 Software is pleased to announce the release of a Multi-Stage Forms engine within the latest version of the Activedition CMS. The Multi-Stage Form feature comes with conditional logic to allow organisations to deliver complex form scenarios that are tailored for use. This allows for the next step of a form to be shown based on the answers given in the previous step e.g. show additional driver form based on “Additional Driver” being Yes.

CIWM Clean Up With Activedition

Richard — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 16:00:00 GMT

C2 is pleased to announce the launch of the CIWM website www.ciwm.co.uk which is based on the Activedition Platform. In developing the solution the design included Membership Management functionality integrating with the CIWM APT Membership System in conjunction with a comprehensive custom designed Event Management System developed by C2. Integration with Exchequer Accounts Systems for renewals, events and publications eCommerce functionality has been provided along with payment processing through Sage Pay.

The Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) is the professional body which represents over 7,000 waste professionals working in the sustainable resources and wastes management sectors - predominantly in the UK but also overseas. CIWM sets the professional standards for individuals working in the industry and has various grades of membership determined by education, qualification and experience.

Teach First Trilogy of Sites

Richard — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 09:36:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce that the Teach First website www.teachfirst.org.uk based on the Activedition CMS has now been redeveloped. Teach First is an independent charity whose mission is to address educational disadvantage by transforming exceptional graduates into effective, inspirational teachers and leaders in all fields. In the 2010 Times Top 100 Graduate Employers, Teach First were ranked 7th.

Teach First’s new website is also complemented by 2 other websites; for ParticipantNet http://participantnet.teachfirst.org.uk and AmbassadorNet http://ambassadornet.teachfirst.org.uk.

The secure ParticipantNet presence is a social networking platform for new graduate teachers who are progressing through the Teach First Leadership Development Programme which combines working, training and qualifying as a teacher with leadership development training, coaching and mentoring. At the end of a participant's second year of teaching, they graduate to become a Teach First ambassador, joining a growing movement of Teach First graduates working, with the support of Teach First, to bring about long-term change in education. Beyond the two-year Leadership Development Programme, Teach First works to empower, equip and mobilise all ambassadors with the skills, tools and networks they need to support the Teach First mission, by driving forward sustainable change in education from both inside and outside the classroom and the AmbassadorNet website represents a supporting resource and collaborative platform.

Simon Arnot, C2’s Project Manager for the Teach First project commented:

“The Teach First initiative represents a significant web development project that is underpinned by the Activedition CMS. It also leverages off of best in class social media applications and integrates with their Salesforce CRM to push and pull events and bookings based on complex hierarchical event rules.

In addition Teach First can present opportunities registered within their CRM and OpenSSO authentication for sign-on has also been used. We look forward to continuing to work with Teach First.”

West Midlands eTicketing

Richard — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:51:00 GMT

Network West Midlands has one of the most comprehensive rail and bus networks in the country and getting around the West Midlands has been made even easier through its new eTicketing system which has been designed and delivered by C2 Software, developers of the Activedition content management system. In all there are 488 ticket online options as standard, each having a number of different add-ons that the customer can consider select.

The design of the eTicketing system leverages off of the structured content management capability of the Activedition platform and includes; search, address look-up, shopping basket, checkout, customer notification and back office order management functionality.

Aberdeen City Council Top Slot

Richard — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:01:00 GMT

Top slot of council website 23/06/10

Aberdeen City Council's website has ranked first in the top 50 best local authority websites in the UK. The independent study carried out by Site Morse tested more than 400 authority sites for a range of functions including compliance, performance, accessibility and code quality. The checking process is rigorous, testing the sites on hundreds of technical criteria.

The council's e-Government Manager Ian Watt is delighted with the recognition. He said: "This is our highest ever placing in the league table, having been in the top 20 for 10 straight months to January 2010.” "I am further pleased to note that this is the first time a Scottish authority has made it to the top slot. This ranking is testament to the hard-working team that puts huge effort in to ensuring the consistently high quality of the site."

Source: UK Local Government Qtr 2 2010 Survey

http://www.sitemorse.com/survey/report-table.html?rt=665

The Aberdeen City Council website is underpinned by the Activedition CMS. Activedition and the team will be exhibiting at the Building the Perfect Government Website 2010 which is on at Olympia 2 in London on 14th July 2010.

Maclay Murray & Spens LLP launch knowledge based website

Richard — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 08:00:00 GMT

C2 Software the developers of the Activedition CMS are pleased to announce the launch of the new Maclay Murray & Spens LLP website at www.mms.co.uk. The MMS website represents a forward thinking value add web resource for clients and prospects and leverages off of the advanced features within the Activedition CMS. In addition to a striking design the website includes processes for registration, subscription preferences, finding smart people within the practice (synchronised with Active Directory), knowledge library, smart guides, MMS events, integrated email marketing and a whole range of other useful features and tools.

David Sanders, Director of Marketing at Maclay Murray Spens LLP noted: “At MMS we see our website as being the hub at the centre of how we deliver added-value services to our clients. In taking the decision to invest in redevelopment of the website during a recession we were reaffirming the importance we put on being at the cutting edge of knowledge provision in the UK legal sector. There is no doubt that the flexibility of the Activedition CMS coupled with the experience, expertise, and enthusiasm of the team from C2 / Activedition, were invaluable in allowing us to get to where we wanted to be. We are delighted with the new website and, more importantly, our clients seem to be too.”

Read about Picador Books & Activedition

Richard — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 07:30:00 GMT

Designed by digital agency, Chameleon Net, the new look Picador website based on the Activedition CMS and replacing the imprint's previous website and CMS is now live! This uniquely designed site at www.picador.com acts as an inclusive hub for a community of book lovers to interact with each other and the authors of their favourite books and poems.

Integrated with Twitter, You-Tube, Vimeo, Flickr and Facebook, this user-centric site enables both consumers and the trade to join the discussion and keep up to date on the latest news, in whatever way they choose. Updates on events, reviews, webcasts, blogs, polls and comments are displayed on the site's "wall", with a commenting system allowing registered users, authors and staff to post their views on content relating to authors and featured titles. A 'suggest a link' function, dedicated book page, and an emphasis on Picador poetry all help to further extend and rejuvenate the site's existing community.

"This is an exciting time for Picador online. Our new site will give a great user experience to our existing audience and will help draw a new audience to Picador authors and their books." says James Long, Editorial Director, Digital at Pan Macmillan. "It's an extensible technical platform designed to maximise ROI, so as well as offering a great service for users, this site is an extremely clever tool for our business" says James. "Just like the books they publish, Picador wanted a site that set them apart, so it was important that this idea was conveyed through our design. The Picador website will always contain a selection of current titles, so the design aims to mirror the fluidity and currency of the content, and facilitate discussion from users."

Finlay Carmichael, Managing Director of C2 Software, developers of the Activedition CMS, states: "we are really pleased that Picador Books, who are part of Pan Macmillan, have selected our technology to develop their community based website. Chameleon Net has done an excellent job of delivering this innovative and fresh looking website".

Dynamic Leisure Company Selects Activedition

Richard — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:21:00 GMT

A dynamic leisure company has selected Activedition for content management across their suite of existing websites. In commenting on their selection of Activedition the client intimated they were:

"Searching for a CMS system to met our requirements and budget. The evaluation has been time consuming but finally with Activedition we found a product plus a support & licensing model that worked for our business. Support was a major issue for us. We have in-house technical skills but wanted to make sure direct technical support was on hand to in order to get effective use from the product early on.

We found many CMS products on offer in the UK - generally supplied via distributors. The licensing models offered, in our opinion were complicated and as direct technical support was excluded we felt it would take much longer for us to become efficient with the product and that would impact our ROI model.

As an existing business with a substantial web based offering, understanding the impact of the installation and migration to the Activedition platform was key to our business. We took the time to ensure that we were 100% comfortable with our selection which stood out from the competition.

Functionally we feel Activedition will substantially increase the ability for us to roll out quality content, enhance the user experience, increase our appeal for natural listings on the major digital networks like Google and to cut down the time to market for new product offerings.”

Activedition V4.2 to Launch

Richard — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:18:00 GMT

The C2 Software product development team is pleased to announce that Activedition Version 4.2 is in final Beta test and will shortly be available for release. In addition to providing a range of new features and functionality, the publishing functionality within Version 4.2 has been re-engineered to further improve the performance and scalability attributes of the Activedition CMS.

The publishing improvements have been designed to ensure that pages are published in the blink of an eye. Full website republishing of sites containing thousands of pages takes seconds.

Enhancements have also been made for batch and time sensitive publishing features. Collectively these enhancements ensure that Activedition provides organisations with complete control and with continued uptime. Organisations with large websites with many content contributors can look to derive efficiency gains and further develop their return from investment.

The C2 Software product development team have plans to launch additional products and features throughout 2010, so, watch this space.

Wealden District Council go with Activedition!

Richard — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:09:00 GMT

C2 Software the developers of the Activedition CMS are pleased to reveal that Wealden District Council has selected Activedition to underpin the redevelopment of the Council’s public facing websites along with an intranet development.

Finlay Carmichael, Director at C2 Software stated “we are pleased to welcome Wealden District Council to our client portfolio and to add them to the growing list of local government organisations that are actively using our solutions. While it has been a miserable start to 2010 weather wise we are delighted to gain another local government client and we look forward to working with Wealden in the months ahead. We also look forward to announcing & launching a range of exciting solutions in the near future which we believe are unique”.

ISO 27001 Certification Gained

Richard — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:58:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce that C2 Software, developers of the Activedition CMS have secured ISO 27001 (Information Security Management) Certification. Our Research & Development director Mr Kirk Potter stated “We are committed to continuous improvement and implementation of best practices throughout the organisation. IS0 27001 is complementary to the ISO 9001 (Quality Management), ISO 14001 (Environmental Management) and Investors in People Accreditations which we already gained”.