You may have noticed we took a bit of time with this update. The Christmas rush caught us a bit early, like six months ago... But in the spirit of Christmas, I've been a bit more generous with this update, so I've got A LOT of stuff to talk about!
China Office
Recently our valiant leader (see, it isn't Todd who writes these things!) took a visit to the city of Qingdao in the Shandong province in China to talk shop with the Qingdao Software Park. The Chinese were very receptive to his irresistible charm and the work we produce and invited us to set up an office there! ...and Todd had a great time as well by the sounds of it!
After actually seeing the park, there was no question about opening an office there. So with the help of Xiaodong Wang (Dong) our new GM for China, we'll have an office up and running early next year. Dong comes to us from services vendor giant EDS, with an extensive array of diploma's and degrees under his belt as well as a decade of industry experience. Welcome Dong! Gruden now really is international and will have offices on three continents in January 08!
Qingdao is about a 1 hour flight north of Shanghai and is a really nice beachside city. From all reports, this place rocks... the people are fantastic & the facilities are the best available. But more importantly, it provides a strategic / solid base for our future expansion into Asia.
There's a number of reasons for the China office and on the top of the list is the access to new talent - we'll be able to expand our ever growing interactive team and increase our core skills like .NET & J2EE, mobile development and our Flash/ Flex & ColdFusion. We're also in the process of expanding our services to include 3D animation, outsourced 3D Rendering Services and more enterprise level development with products such as LiveCycle from Adobe.
Disney Dance Off 2
A huge round of applause for the Gruden Interactive Team! Disney Dance Off II (DDOII), launched last month and is getting some major traffic and buzz online...It was a truly epic job for the team, who created & executed a great idea, worked some long hours (BIG thanks!) and with a delivery that went smoothly across Phases 1 and 2.
DDOII is the sequel to the Astra Award winning Dance Off viral game we built for Disney to promote the newly released High School Musical 2 movie (and to get a heap of new users to the Disney site!). DDOII is similar to DDOI, but on steroids! Phase One of DDOII had stacks of new moves added, as well as new music, sound effects and cool special effects like the Matrix effect for your dance moves! Big props to our designer Abe who reviewed real dancing clips to get the routines just right - those late night Rage sessions do work!!! Nice one Abe.
Phase Two was where things got really cool with the inclusion of a multiplayer component; players can now create joint routines together. With two dancers, two routines and some special touches, you can get some pretty funky moves and dance routines down. We've also included an area to save routines for viewing and sharing with friends and a leader board to compete against other players. DDOII also sets a standard for online Flash multiplayer gaming by using the latest version of Adobe Flash Media Server and Flash.
The game has been a truly spectacular effort and everyone is ecstatic with what we've achieved. (Well done everyone!) Check the game out on the Disney site!
New Zealand Update
Our new GM in New Zealand, Rob Cooke is powering with some excellent projects underway and more importantly a new office! Rob comes to us with a wealth of experience with major brands and companies including PepsiCo, Bridgestone, Nissan, NCR and a number of other high profile companies.
We're also happy to announce that Gruden NZ is moving to new offices by January 08! The exact location of the new Gruden batcave is still hush hush but we can tell you that it will be in the digital hub of Auckland just off Newton Gully. As you read this, big fat data cables are being laid into the funky new space that Gruden New Zealand will call home for the next few years.
Rob is feverously getting the pieces in place to allow for a smooth transition into the new office, and says "we're really excited at the prospect of a new home for both ourselves and our clients in the heart of Auckland. We will have new paint and new furniture in place over the Christmas break with our move-in date around mid-January. Then we will have room for our existing team to feel at home, but also room for the new faces we are looking to have join us in 2008. Sweet!"
On the subject of Kiwiland, the Straker, Gruden and Adobe sponsored 'Web on the Piste' seminar was a huge success! All of those at the seminar said they will be back again next year! With around 100 high quality attendees, 21 top local and International speakers, awesome sessions, the most amazing location, great social events and some skiing to boot - it really was the best conference of the year!
Check out some of the FaceBook photo's here. Feel free to "friend" some of the team while you're logged in too!
Macquarie Bank is about to send the new GSP Product selector live which sees our work with the Mac Bank team continue over a number of projects. GSP is an awesome Flex based product selector designed to help Macquarie Bank investors understand the many products they offer.
Gruden produced a creative design concept and HTML templates for the core website shell and designed & developed an interactive product selector to showcase the many funds available. The application ties in seamlessly with their backend internal systems, providing live updates and data feeds as they are made.
It's really exciting for us to see the emerging use of Adobe Flash and Flex based applications & tools in the financial industry. So for those that haven't heard of Flex, here's a quick update: Flex enables the creation of high-performance applications that run on all major browsers, to create an exciting & engaging user experience that effectively communicates information in a user friendly way; with the added bonus of slick looking graphic interfaces and dynamic navigation.
Flash is no longer the sole domain of web animation and online media advertising - its proving its effectiveness with industries that once shied away from that type of technology. It allows companies to deliver intuitive interfaces with a higher completion rate than typical languages today.
Colonial First States' Colliers Banner Campaign has recently been launched. Working together Colonial First State and Colliers are offering a new product called "Colonial First State Colliers Global Property Securities Fund". The fund was created through an alliance with Colliers International, one of the leading real estate organisations in the world.
Of course, we were there to help with the web & online strategy requirements! We were tasked with creating and presenting high level themes, developing a set of graphic concepts and refining them down till they were just right.
SKYCITY Adelaide is South Australia's only casino destination and the city's most exciting gaming and entertainment venue. Gruden was tasked to redevelop the home page and calendar pages to improve the way users navigate to the content on the site. We also reworked the templates to gain an improvement in their search engine rankings & SEO (search engine optimisation). While we were at it we also gave the main SKYCITY Adelaide homepage a fresh look with a spiffy new redesign. Hope you like it!
There's been some more great work out of the New Zealand office with the GenNet Intranet. Genesis Energy is New Zealand's largest energy retailer with a diverse electricity generation portfolio and more than 700,000 residential and SME electricity and gas customers..We'd already done some work on their customer support forms and they invited us back to make a few solid changes to their Intranet.
Gruden re-worked the existing Intranet Home Page and redesigned all the screen elements. An important consideration for us was reflecting the Genesis Energy master brand and supporting the public site design, (www.genesisenergy.co.nz) whilst clearly defining each content area to create a uniform visual browsing experience for the user.
We also preformed a few other tweaks and enhancements, like a new search functionality. Previous searches of the Staff Directory within the intranet had taken the user out to an external application. The search facility that Gruden developed and integrated means that users can now login to Gennet and search the Staff Directory without leaving the Gennet site, dramatically increasing site usability for this business tool.
More news to come on this one because of a second phase of the project! Look forward to the update next year!
The good people at Lend Lease selected Gruden again to work closely with head office and 10 of their retail centre locations around Australia. We love working with Lend Lease, and have been looking forward to this project for a while now! Our task this time was to strategically direct the functional requirements and new creative design for the new centre websites - a big project that really needed a strong creative backing to be successful.
The previous Lend Lease Retail websites were developed based on the style of the Lend Lease corporate sites and were launched over five years ago. The aim of this project was to align these sites with the current Lend Lease Retail brand & target audience and to increase the consumer focus & relevance to each individual centre location.
For the project we redesigned the 'master' brand website along with 10 centre location websites and to make sure we got it right from the start we conducted an in-depth review which included stakeholder workshops, competitive reviews and technical specifications documenting.
The challenge for the centre websites was to produce a concept that could maintain consistency of the brand across all centre locations, whilst showcasing individual features to each location.
Of course, in order to manage all of these projects plus much more, we needed to have the right people. We're growing at a massive rate so we're grateful to have so many wonderful new (and talented!) faces here in the office - BIG Welcome to Guy, Bernard, Jemma, Melissa, Dong and Adam. (Not forgetting everyone else here in the offices for a truly spectacular year of hard work on great projects with excellent results).
So there you go! A pretty generous update to round off the year. Stay tuned for the next GSpot with news about a huge ShadoCMS driven media site and major Straker release which promises to be a major overhaul with a stack of new features.
We're also got some pretty nice / big things in the pipeline, so the best way to keep up to date and hear about these new projects is via our new Newsletter! Yes, be surprised! (I am) We're going to attempt to send out a quarterly newsletter keeping you up to date on Gruden niceties and things that are just cool & that you should hear about!
Lastly before we go, please remember that our Offices will be closed down between Christmas and New Year (starting 21st December through to the 1st of January (AU) 2nd January (NZ).
From everyone at Gruden, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe and smashing New Year!! To all of our clients, we thank you for your continued support and belief in us over the past year, we're all gearing up for delivering you more outstanding results next year!
You'll see that this is the April update of G-Spot, which precedes May, which means this section of the site is getting regular updates again! Its hard not to though, as we have a stack of recently completed projects and fantastic new clients that we've been working with, as well as the fact we have a shiny new website to put them on, it would be 'e-crime' not to keep you up to date with what's going on at Gruden.
Allow myself to introduce ... myself. I'm 'Guy Incognito'. The other fellow who was entrusted with these updates has failed to deliver and subsequently he has been demoted. I'd say these updates are my 'job' but Grudenites are generally a pretty positive bunch and we actually like coming here to put projects together, 'it isn't really work you know?'
So, what have we delivered recently? I'm wrapped to report the big news first. The indefatigable commerce team have worked to the bone and delivered the new, feature rich AusTender application for the Department of Finance & Administration! So what is AusTender??
"AusTender is a whole of government solution that provides a centralised procurement management facility for 150 Commonwealth agencies and 60,000 suppliers. It is also the primary compliance mechanism for these agencies to meet their obligations under Australia's free trade agreements with other nations."
This has been a simply spectacular effort from the team over the last year with a huge effort put in by everyone to get the system live and running. The project was delivered in partnership with the Department of Commerce where we essentially rebuilt the system from the ground up. There's a case study (coming shortly) you can have a read over explaining it in depth or alternately visit the website at www.tenders.gov.au.
Some other big news came our way recently where our good client Disney Channel put us forward for an award... Unbeknown to us until it was in the list of the finalists, the Disney Dance Off campaign for the High School Musical was nominated for and subsequently won an Astra Award for "Most Creative use of Technology" (for a consumer application). Well done to all in the Disney team!
More successes include the delivery of a new design and templates for Sparke Helmore Lawyers, which encompassed a full overhaul of the existing design and new templates for their CMS driven website. Check it out at www.sparke.com.au.
We've deployed new sites for Lend Lease's Hyatt Coolum brand and developed three sub-brand sites, which you can see here. Personally, I'm really impressed with the team's flash work on these pages, the effort that goes into them is spectacular.
Also launched is a new set of templates and a revised design for ASIC(The Australian Securities and Investments Commission). Working with our partner PTG Global, we helped deliver a solution to ASIC that aims to make it easier for visitors to navigate, whilst reflecting a more contemporary look and feel for the site.
Our friends at Macquarie Bank have launched their new product called 'Prime CFD's' where we designed the site & built HTML templates for them handed to their internal dev team to implement on their CMS. For those traders / investors out there, if you haven't heard about Prime, I strongly recommend that you check this product out. It's going to be huge. We're currently working on another site at the moment and really excited to be involved with Macquarie Bank. They've got some exciting projects under development utilising cutting edge web technologies such as Adobe Flex.
I got word first hand from HQ Consulting that "They were expecting something good, but not that good!" and plenty of praise for our approach to project management to avoid all the unnecessary stresses of lack of communication on projects like web development.
Other success includes the office getting a PS3 at last - Thanks directors, the team loves it..! While we're talking 'team', I'd also like to take the opportunity to introduce some new members, Joel: ColdFusion developer and challenger to Mark's self imposed title of 'Gran Turismo King'. Judy: ColdFusion specialist with a multitude of skills in other technologies. Esmond: Gruden's best dressed developer with years of CF experience under his belt. Deniss: our newest Flash specialist who's wrapped that he's 'finally getting paid to do what he used to do for fun at home' and Fiona: project manager extraordinaire! Welcome guys and girls!
It's a bit worrying actually, we only have a few seats spare but we still want to fill them with talented people here in Australia and abroad in our New Zealand office. So if you're out there let us know! Check out what we're currently looking for on our Jobs page.
There's some big news in the pipeline that I'll be sharing with you next month... So till then!
Well lots and lots to tell this month..! It's been ages since we showed the G-Spot enthusiasts some love! So hopefully this edition will make up for the lack in communication.
So... Where to start... (I always have this problem), but this time I think we have a clear winner in relation to the 'hot topic of the month' and that is that we have now opened a New Zealand office!
To celebrate the opening of the NZ office, we created an online game called Paddock Dash (will upload shortly to play) for the yearly WebDU Conference in Sydney which we sponsored again this year. The aim of the game was to see how many sheep you could deliver from one side of the paddock to the other - whilst dodging and weaving around objects in the field!! Cool little game... It was hotly contested, but the winner was Dean Jezard - so congrats to Dean on his fine form and skill! Hope you enjoy your free return flight to NZ!
The NZ office sees us working very closely with our New Zealand partner Straker, who are currently moving into a purely product focus on their Shado CMS which is a Coldfusion / Flex based framework. As such, they require skills in the services area to support current clients and provide development and integration with the Shado CMS. This is a great opportunity for Gruden to showcase our skills as both ColdFusion, Flex and Shado specialists with high profile clients, as we have done for many years in Australia.
Aside from the excitement of the NZ office, we have also released a fair amount of new websites since the last edition, as well as picked up a number of new clients along the way... A big welcome to all of these people - hope you like the Gruden way!
New stuff that has gone live over the last few months includes Cybersmartkids an Australian Broadcasting Authority website targeted at educating the nippers about safety on the net. We also launched a site for Sunbeam for their Cool Creations product line with some wicked (and very addictive!) flash games on the Cool Creations site. Check out 'Treasure Hunt' and 'House Party' when you have got a spare 5 mins, purely for research purposes though of course!!
We're also underway with this year's Annual ARIA Awards voting development. Although this year we're not only doing the voting website and platform, but also creating the new Nominations website! The nominations website will allow the record companies to nominate their artisits and upload all of the associated assets for that artist into a centralized management system. This will streamline the nominations process enormously for ARIA and create a easy to use tool for the record companies to use.
A website design refresh was in order for the guys over at ARTOG, and development has now finished on the Passport to Rewards website, including the addition of new members to the loyalty programme and functionality updates & reporting.
Over the last few months we have been working hard with Henry Davis York laywers producing their new Intranet, implemented on Shado which is using a number of the pre-built modules including the new Events Calender with great results.
We always have to mention Disney Channel in the G-Spot and this edition is no different! Heaps of work is going on with these guys - really cool stuff as well, but the big news is that as a result of our success with Disney Channel Australia, we are now doing the same for the Walt Disney Group! So we must be doing something right!
A number of the other projects are also underway at the moment such as developing a survey website for Avon, goat loads going on with the Department of Commerce & the Department of Finance and Administration, a new website for Pharmaxis's new product - Aridol, Website and CMS upgrade for Fulton Hogan, a new website is underway for Loumbos Recycling, widget design and development for Yahoo! and a number of other projects that I've forgotten about...!
So as you might have guessed from the above - its busy days at Gruden at the moment!! As a result we have brought on a number of new staff members of which I would like to welcome into the land of Gruden! So a big welcome to Ronaldo, Emanuel and Cary! Additionally I'd like to Farewell Lucy and thank her for her hard work whilst at Gruden and wish her all the best back home.
While I'm here, I'd like to pimp the fact that we need more people to join the ever growing team at Gruden and have jobs available in the creative department, Project Management and Development areas. So if you're damn good, have the experience and want to work on some cool stuff - drop us a line at jobs@gruden.com with your CV.
Now - I know that this G-Spot is a little long winded and don't think that this is due to the fact that we've missed a few months! I've actually culled it a fair bit, but lots to tell and some big stuff happening within Gruden at the moment, so stay tuned and keep an ear to the ground for 'The Gruden Movement' - Crazy fool I hear you say?!! Maybe, but be pre-warned!
Anyway peoples, it's that time again - Time to bid farewell and part with one of our many words of wisdom (if you can call them that..). So remember - If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail...
Till next time!
P.S. For all of those die hard G-Spotters - You can now get your monthly fix via an atom feed!! We got some time off from beefing up our client sites at last to spend 10 minutes on our own, and now you never have to miss a G-spot again! (Cool - I know!!)
Late again with the G-Spot - I should be shot... But boy - is this issue worth it!! (Aren't they all ?!!) Where to start..?! With summer just around the corner and the silly season into full effect, all at Gruden are working hard so that we can have that well earned holiday we deserve... and a huge Christmas party!
Things have been powering along as usual and to cope with the flurry of work, we've added a few new superstars to the team. So I'd like to take the time to welcome Emerson Todd and Lucy Crowley; and I'd like to welcome back - Nick Mountford after a year of being overseas! All of these guys will be joining the Project Management (PM) team.
BIG congratulations is to go to our Senior PM Lindsey Falconer who has recently left to go on maternity leave; and more recently had her first baby girl - Evie Star (great name - she has to be famous with a name like that!). So big congrats to Lindsey and Chris - nice one guys. Whilst on the topic of babies, I'd also like to congratulate Abe and Kel for their new baby boy, Indigo!
It's been stupidly busy of late with lots of new cool stuff going on. We've recently launched the following sites: destra business, Sunbeam - Cool Creations, a re-skin of The George Institute, Disney Channel - School of the Future and a number of other developments and updates to various sites.
A few months ago we played a major part in the re-branding and redesign of our favourite charity - Childfund Australia. Childfund (previously know as CCF Australia) underwent a global re-branding exercise to reposition their message in the market - much nicer I think! We also recently represented them in the Charity Golf day event - sorry guys, I know we suck!!
Work with the NSW Government and the Department of Commerce for the online style guides is still moving along. The consortium, which includes all NSW government agencies, has been working hard to provide standards in development, templates, Information Architecture, User Interfaces, coding standards and a heap more for all NSW government departments.
We've also been working with the Department of Commerce on a few of their website applications (can't say which ones just yet!) and providing a number of services to streamline and upgrade their site(s). More to come on this later!!
The Sunbeam - Cool Creations website has been a lot of fun, developing funky interactive content for the kiddies...! Any parents out there looking for cool Christmas presents for their kids, make sure you check out some of these products..! and while your there, try your luck at the Mikey Martian's House Party game...
What else,... We're also in the process of developing Henry Davis York's Intranet on the Shado MX CMS and Framework. Group Event Travel is also undergoing some enhancements and new features to their loyalty & incentive application we developed a few years ago. Disney Channel has some really cool things under development - keep an eye out for these early next year.
And there's heaps more to tell, but I can see that I've just been blabbering on about work and boring project stuff way too much - I'd be surprised how many people make it this far down...! So enough work talk - I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy, merry and safe Christmas and New Year..!
I know I'm looking forward to my break over the Christmas period - sun, surf, speedo's, beers, BBQ's & bikini's - bring it on! Which reminds me that the office closes on the 22nd of December and re-opens on the 4th of January. A nice little break for us all.
But whilst your on holidays, kickin' back, a little something to remember this festive season, is that a drunk mans' words are a sober mans' thoughts...!
Till next time!
Well Boys and Girls, its been another few silly months here at Gruden since you last heard from us. With the office move now out of the way, we've been head down - bum up and working hard, with little time to do anything - hence the lateness on this G-spot...! But it hasn't been without a bit of excitement....
But firstly, happy new year to all of those concerned with numbers and those that care! It's a pretty big milestone with this financial year over, as it oficially marks our 10th year in business - and boy has it come a long way since the humble beginnings of sharing a computer between two of us!
The big news is that we have now moved! Yay thank god its over!! Everything ran pretty smoothly despite the fact that we signed the lease on the 13th, had to move office on Friday the 13th and we moved to the 13th floor! We thought we were doomed!! But alas, the new bigger, better, sexier and more centralised office is proving to be a very comfortable new home. So now we're at Level 13, 60 Carrington Street - handy for everyone!
Besides the excitement of moving, we've been keeping very busy working on lots of new projects and enhancements for clients. We've recently launched a number of new sites, one being the Rosemount Estate website for Southcorp and the new Disney Channel Suite Life Competition Site. The super site was based upon the new framework that Disney Channel worldwide are now using offering a larger screen size - and lots more advertising! Check it out..
We've also recently been awarded a number of new projects that will definately see us busy for the next few months. The most interesting project is the development of the NSW Government and the Department of Commerce's online style guides. Working with our partners at PTG, we'll be looking at the whole of government with the aim of standardising development, templates, Information Architecture, User Interfaces, coding standards and more for all NSW government departments.
Work with Southcorp is continuing with the development of the new Lindemans website and we were also recently awarded the project for Pandana's resort based in Darwin - which has now been launched, the Destra Business website, the Lively Group website and again working with ARIA on this years ARIA Awards voting website.
Also, the Tripoint website is almost complete, as is Budget Hot Water and the Australian Institute of Management have just launched the new Intranet which is using the Shado MX CMS - as well as a number of other projects!
Collex have recently implemented the Shado MX Content Management System on their website to provide an easy to use, yet powerful solution to base their internet developments on. Blacktown City Council are also in the process of upgrading Shado MX to the latest version, taking advantage of the integrated Coldfusion Enterprise and Flex package that we can now offer.
This offer is a world first, where Macromedia and Shado MX 7 have joined forces to offer a truley enterprise solution that has unlimited capability in this very powerful product.
That's it for another few months here at G-Spot central, but remember; "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away"!
Till next time!!
How time slips by... I'm sure it was only in the last week or two that I wrote the last G-Spot (really 4 months ago) - and then I think back to the time when I wrote it - just before the Christmas holidays... Yes the holiday period! what a time,... relaxing, catching up on all that reading, sailing, just enjoying - outstanding! And how long ago was that? Much longer ago than writing the last G-Spot....
Work at Gruden has been powering along over the last few months. We've wrapped up a few projects since the you last heard from us, the largest of them being the Sydney Convention Centre and Visitors Bureau (SCVB). The SCVB is the driving force in securing and promoting meetings, incentive travel programmes, conventions, exhibitions and special events for Sydney. I think its a very tidy looking site...!
We also helped Henry Davis York (HDY) with their new branding and logo launch. Working with HDY's brand company who designed the site, we provided all development and implemented a custom CMS to manage it. Check it out - To HDY, Great work guys we think it looks heaps better than the previous branding!
We're also very happy to say that we have been selected by Rosemount Estate - The prestige wine of Australia, to design and develop their new website. The Rosemount Estate site should be a pretty nice site by the look of the designs so far..... Check back soon to see when it's launched.
One thing that has been keeping us busy is our upcoming office move! What a nightmare - Never again.. For all of those that know Gruden, we haven't been shy on the old office move in our past, but the good news is that now we won't have to move again for ages!
Due to out growing our current office (and the lease being up), the move to bigger and better office space had to be done. We're still staying in the city, only moving to a leafy outlook at 60 Carrington Street - just near Wynyard station. The new office will be excellent for everyone - lots more space, brand new and comfy!
We're just completed stage 1 of development for Re-place.com.au. Re-place is an innovative application that streamlines the recruitment process. The system effectively manages the recruitment process and provides features such as scoring and ranking your candidates based upon your own custom criteria.
Re-place.com.au doesn't do away with the need for recruitment companies, rather it's used by both the corporate and their chosen recruitment companies to streamline the process of recruiting staff. As this is phase one of delivery, it's currently being trialled in a number of large / household name organisations that recruit large numbers of staff. Make sure you have a look because this is a first of its type!
What else... We've been working with the Department of Commerce on creative design and templates for their intranet, a screen saver for the Department of Corrective Services and always lots of stuff with Disney Channel. Also Tripoint's new website is almost live and should be launched in a few weeks.
I think I've probably bored you enough, but I will be back shortly to let you know about the office move and where to find us.
Till next time!
Wow...2005 - There's something special about this year and no doubt we've all felt it so far! The craziness has plagued everyone in January... who hasn't been madly busy? - too scary... a conspiracy?
So is it something in the air, the water? Maybe the greenhouse effect is kicking into the Aussie economy? Who knows, but there is something weird and big that will take place this year - and the Tsunami kicked it all off....
For us at Gruden, it's something a little less hocus pocus / other worldly. Yes - it's our 10 year anniversary!! My Lord! I hear myself / you saying... has it been that long? Well kiddies, we've been through the boom, the bust and now onto the unexpected.... and we can't wait!
After the normal shenanigans that go on over the Christmas period, we've been made to forget our wonderful and relaxing holidays. Thrown head first, neck deep into projects - "where's my ease in period?" everyone's been asking!
So what's been going on since the last edition of the G-spot??? Lots! The Southcorp website is now live and running! Yay! Gruden was responsible for the graphic design and HTML template creation for the new site. Our Partners PTG provided the wireframes and Southcorp developers implemented this on their new Reddot CMS.
Work continues on with the Southcorp interactive training site for the US sales team, which is getting very close to being wrapped up. More Disney Channel work is live with the release of the new Recess Competition minisite. I heard a great little statistic the other day - through Gruden's involvement with Disney Channel, online entries have increased 10 fold and they are now positioned as the leading children's entertainment website in Australia.
The Blacktown City Council (BCC) website is now up and running on the Shado MX CMS, and personally, I think its damn sexy for a local Council site. Check it out and let me know if you've seen a better Council site! The team at BCC was an excellent group to work with and I think that the results are a testament to this - Thanks guys for being such great clients.
We also recently won the contract for the development of the new Sydney Convention Centre and Visitors Bureau site, which is being built on the Shado MX CMS platform. This is currently under development and should be a great improvement over the existing site by offering a heap more features and tighter integration with their existing systems. Keep an eye out for this puppy!
Anyway, lots going on this year G-spotters, a heap of things currently under development, some that we can't let you know about - yet, but that's why you'll be back for the next edition!
Henry David York, Tripoint Corporation, CBRelocations and Re-Place are all under development. For all of those developers out there, the MXDU conference is on again in February, I highly recommend you get along to see some of the new tools, applications and tricks within the Macromedia suite of products. Go here for more info on it - in any case, a great event not to be missed.
There is a sad note to this month as we bid farewell to Peter Costello. Pete's been a big part of Gruden for over 2 years and he's one of our rock star senior designers. It's with deep sadness that we see Pete move on, as he's been such a loved member of our team. Everyone at Gruden will be in mourning for weeks Pete! - but, we understand the desires of living the life of a worldwide traveller. Good luck Pete & Jade, have a great time! And Pete - you're always welcome back!
It's that time again peoples... time to say farewell, enjoy 2005! Our big 10th year and the year of something weird.... What is it? - Just remember that patience is a necessary ingredient of genius...
Till next time!
I've conceded - I officially must make the G-Spot a bi-monthly publication. I have failed you all on this sombre day, where anticipation, excitement and joy cease to exist on a monthly basis...
But alas, let's focus on the bright side - it's been another crazy few months at Gruden. Lots of work, but also a bit of down time. We recently all (most anyway) ventured out for an afternoon of sailing and relaxing around the Harbour.... Great day - lots of wind, drinks and stumbling people!!
We also attended the yearly ARIA Awards a few weeks ago - another great night, but a change in the after party venue led to all kinds of chaos. Quite funny really, but we strutted down the red carpet like the superstars we never could be - not sure what happened after that, but from all reports it was another great night.
This being our 4th year working with ARIA for the Awards, we're always so keen to see the end of it - not because of the pain, but the great feedback we always get! Cheesy, yes! But true!! Have a read - it does so much for our ego's....
"Good work with the website - it makes the voting very easy." & "Love it - so simple and effective to use - well done team!"
And we love the first timers......
"Hi, being my first time voter for ARIA. I found the site very easy to follow and reminder emails great. There was no hassle at all." and;
"I thought the voting process was well explained and that the toolkits and all other aspects were very well set-up for smooth and easy voting. Many thanks"
Well Shucks - They're so formal!? Then we get the careless and the obsessed....
"EASY - PEASY - JAPANESEY!", "Excellent site James (our developer)... I love your work... no, really I do... I love Gruden".
Enough yet? How about...
"I thought you couldn't top last year's voting process, but you did."
Oh, we never get tired of it!
But it's not all fun and games, we have been working hard! We recently were awarded the development of the new Henry Davis York website, which will see our work with some of Australia's leading law firms increase. The site is still under development, so make sure you check back soon!
We were also the chosen design and development partners for Replace - a new start up company. We're developing an application that is quite innovative and long overdue,.. if that makes sense? Wish I could tell you more, but I can't - check back next G-Spot....!
Work is continuing with the Southcorp website, and I believe that it's in its final stage of rollout! We worked with our partners PTG on this one again. PTG created the wire frames, and we designed and created the templates for use on their Content Management System (CMS). The development of a wine education learning system is also currently underway with Southcorp - We give the Yanks a few tips and tricks about Aussie wines - should be entertaining!
The Ministers website for the Department of Corrective Services is about to be wrapped up, more work on the Department of Commerce and Smartbuy have been keeping us busy as well. We're also about to kick off on the development of The Australian Institute of Management's (AIM) Intranet after recently completing the AIM NSW website.
The new Studio-D website is now live on the Disney Channel, which is pretty cool I have to say! Definitely worth a look! As are a number of the other mini-sites we've recently finished. But the best part is that Disney have been the no 1 site in the children's entertainment category for the last 6 months!
Apart from that, Gruden life goes on. There are some great projects underway at the moment which we're keen to get cracking on, but with the silly season upon us - I'm looking forward to an actioned packed next few months!
Our Technical Director - Mark Stanton recently published an article on the Macromedia Developer Center titled "Integrating Contribute Publishing Services with ColdFusion". The great thing about this was that at the Annual Macromedia conference - MAX, they showed his presentation at the keynote speech in the morning! Nice! For all those geeks that are interested, have a read over as it runs over how the Contribute 3 can work with Coldfusion.
Since this is the last G-Spot before Christmas - 'Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Enjoy your Break'! Hopefully you're off too somewhere exotic and far away, but for those like me, just enjoy not being at work! Ho Ho Ho!! Aahhh the cheese.. where would we be without it?
Remember - when your cruising around on holidays, the real trouble with reality is that there's no background music...
Till next time!
It's been a great start to the new year with some exciting sites launched and some damn cool projects in the pipeline. Everyone at Gruden has been working hard and having a little bit of fun at the same time! (Don't be too concerned with the hands - WWW Man!)
After many, many months of talking about it, the ARIA website is now live!! Some G-spotters may recall, but newcomers - you don't know how long we've been waiting for this day.. There's been some great feedback so far - everyone's loving it and hailing it a huge improvement over the previous! (I would like to think so!)
Our strategic partnership with PTG is powering along - with a number of good projects underway, our clients are seeing the benefit of two specialist companies coming together. To everyone that keeps asking - no we haven't sold out and there hasn't been a merger! We're still two separate companies working closely - and working very well!!
We recently launched the new Australian Institute of Management (AIM) website at the start of this month running on Shado MX CMS. AIM required a revised design in order to better promote services and portray a professional targeted website. Check out the AIM website and have a look at the cool flash history tool.
Before I forget - we have finally publicly launched Deliverance!! Deliverance is our email and newsletter marketing system that has been in beta testing with a number of our clients for 6 months. Cool system, that is easy to use and it works! Check out Deliverance for your next big mailout or newsletter delivery
We've also kicked off with this year's Annual ARIA Awards, with the voting period just wrapping up. Gruden is again working with ARIA, Deloittes and Mark Pope Music to provide the e-voting system for the 1200 judges. Every year we add a few new features to enhance the experience and provide a richer and more interactive voting experience. For those voting enjoy!
Some cool flash work is continuing with Disney Channel Australia with the launch of the Studio D Goodbye mini-site and the new site Studio D site currently under development.
We're almost there on the new Southcorp corporate website, more tweaks and enhancements on East Coast Sailing with their online booking system, still working on the Department of Corrective Services, Blacktown City Council (so, so close!) websites - and a heap more projects that I'm sure your going to forget in the next 5 minutes anyway!
Till I dribble again next month!
What's going on? I know,.... I've been letting it slip... am I slack, lazy or just too busy? Who knows, but I could say I'm a bit of everything and not lie! Sorry for the few months I missed peoples - I forgot about you G-Spotters... but everything has been cranking!
Gruden has been powering along since I last wrote - lots of exciting projects, and everyone at Gruden has been working hard - nice work guys... One of our more recent projects that we're working on is Southcorp's new corporate website!! Working alongside of PTG will ensure that not only will it be a well structured and highly usable site, but it'll also look damn sexy!
We're getting to the final stages of the Australian Institute Management's (AIM) new website, which is running on the Shado MX Content Management System & application framework. This is first stage of migrating to an integrated website, Intranet and B2B application.
Work continues on with Disney Channel Australia and with some great jobs in the pipeline, it's looking like an action-packed year ahead. Keep an eye out for some of the new mini sites that are just around the corner.
Stage 2 of the East Coast Sailing's website and online booking system is now live and operational. East Coast Sailing is a new chartering company that is operating in Sydney Harbour. They're a fantastic group of people who specialise in making sure you always have a memorable time - ask some of our clients who recently joined us!
So what else.... The ARIA Awards are just around the corner! Yes! Always great night to be had there - I think..! Once again Gruden is providing the online Voting system for the awards, and adding more features onto the system. With over 1200 judges voting in 13 awards, and over 700 nominations from all around Australia, it's going to be tough to see if we can beat the outstanding results from previous years.... The test is on!
Before I forget people - yes I know, it almost slipped under the carpet there. But the ARIA website! How could we forget?! Well.... would you believe me if I said it was in the final stages?? Just about ready to launch? I've been told the green light is just around the corner! So keep an eye out for it...
**NEWS FLASH - 09/07/2004** - The ARIA Website is now live!
A new project with the Department of Corrective Services is about to kick off, and the Pharmaxis website redesign is now live and launched - looking heaps better I must say! Pharmaxis is running on the Shado Lite CMS to deliver its regular updates and announcements.
While we're talking about the Shado MX CMS, the new version - Shado MX 7 has just launched in NZ - lots more features and a heap more flexibility. The ability to really extend the CMS is made possible through a major rewrite of a number of the core modules. We can't wait - we'll be having an Australian launch sometime in August or September. Drop us a line if you're interested in going to the launch.
Anyway peoples, I'm boring myself talking about all this work! I'll do my best to make the next edition on time, (not good enough I know....) But alas, if you don't hear from us it means that we're heads down and have no life. Just jokes.. I don't know what it means.....
Till next time!
It's all happening! With another move under our belt, we feel that we could all become removalists if the web game ever becomes too much. But exciting times for Gruden! Just in case you haven't heard or noticed, we've just recently formed a Strategic Alliance with our long term Partners The Performance Technologies Group (PTG).
The best thing to do is read the press release, but what does all this mean in short? It allows us to provide you, our clients, with a one stop shop integrating superior usability, performance centred design, graphic design and application development.
Who are PTG and what do they do? PTG are a professional group of consultants, many of them psychologists, specialising in improving business performance and customer experience with technology. We've worked with them on a number of our larger clients such as Vodafone, QBE Mercantile Mutual and Department of Commerce to name a few.
We're also excited to announce that Gruden has successfully won the bid for the Australian Institute of Management's (AIM) new website, Intranet and associated websites! AIM will be utilising the powerful Shado MX CMS and Application Framework to deliver all their new projects.
I'd also like to announce that we've taken our relationship with Disney Channel Australia that little bit closer, where we are now project managing all online content for them! We now offer them the full package, starting from the concept stage / yearly planning and strategy to total development and maintenance services for the Australian / Asia pacific region. Nice hey!
It hasn't all been wheeling and dealing, we've also had a number of websites go live over the last month; Safcol is now completed and live, as is Eastcoast Sailing which offers corporate and pleasure yacht sailing around Sydney harbour. Russell Kennedy Solicitors is also up and running and work continues on the ARIA website!! Yes - It's still going - but ohhhh so close!
Anyway fellow G-Spotters make sure you check back next month as hopefully I'll be able to tell you about another outstanding client/project that is coming on board!
And remember - The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.
Till next time!
It's all happening! With another move under our belt, we feel that we could all become removalists if the web game ever becomes too much. But exciting times for Gruden! Just in case you haven't heard or noticed, we've just recently formed a Strategic Alliance with our long term Partners The Performance Technologies Group (PTG).
The best thing to do is read the press release, but what does all this mean in short? It allows us to provide you, our clients, with a one stop shop integrating superior usability, performance centred design, graphic design and application development.
Who are PTG and what do they do? PTG are a professional group of consultants, many of them psychologists, specialising in improving business performance and customer experience with technology. We've worked with them on a number of our larger clients such as Vodafone, QBE Mercantile Mutual and Department of Commerce to name a few.
We're also excited to announce that Gruden has successfully won the bid for the Australian Institute of Management's (AIM) new website, Intranet and associated websites! AIM will be utilising the powerful Shado MX CMS and Application Framework to deliver all their new projects.
I'd also like to announce that we've taken our relationship with Disney Channel Australia that little bit closer, where we are now project managing all online content for them! We now offer them the full package, starting from the concept stage / yearly planning and strategy to total development and maintenance services for the Australian / Asia pacific region. Nice hey!
It hasn't all been wheeling and dealing, we've also had a number of websites go live over the last month; Safcol is now completed and live, as is Eastcoast Sailing which offers corporate and pleasure yacht sailing around Sydney harbour. Russell Kennedy Solicitors is also up and running and work continues on the ARIA website!! Yes - It's still going - but ohhhh so close!
Anyway fellow G-Spotters make sure you check back next month as hopefully I'll be able to tell you about another outstanding client/project that is coming on board!
And remember - The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.
Till next time!
Another year ticks over.... and boy - has it been tough getting back into it all!! But judging by the craziness so far, it's looking like it's going to be a fantastic year! With some excellent projects in the pipeline, everyone at Gruden's excited and pumped up!
We recently launched the CCF Australia website (formerly Christian Children's Fund) with some great results - donations are up and registrations are coming thick and fast! They love it - we love it and hopefully you do too!
The site is managed via the Shado MX Content Management System, which provides an application framework, which we can build upon. We currently have a few other projects under development that are using Shado MX as their CMS. One of those projects about to launch shortly is The Institute of International Health - so keep an eye out for that one. For more about Shado MX and CMS options have a look here.
We're also working full steam ahead on the Blacktown City Council (BCC) website. BCC selected Gruden and Shado MX over 50 other companies and Content Management Systems. This one's a biggie, so you may not see anything on this for a while!!
We're still talking about it, and it's almost there! The ARIA website is just about finished and it's damn sexy people..... There's a fair few new features and differences from the current site (thank god!), that old and young music lovers will enjoy. This baby is hopefully being launched in early Feb - so watch out for it.
For all those people out there that are interested in web development and technologies, the MXDU conference coming up is a must! To use their description of what it's all about - "it's all about how to build and deliver the best experiences on the web, how to engage your customers, and deliver unprecedented returns to your business".
Gruden is one of the sponsors of the event, so if you want to hear some of the worlds best talk and showcase what's possible with Macromedia's MX technologies, make sure you get a ticket and come along. For more details visit the MXDU website.
There's lot's of exciting things in the pipeline at the moment: Beaumont Consulting, Russell Kennedy Solicitors, Loss Prevention, Safcol, IIH, more Disney Channel sites and a heap of others are currently under development and are oh so close to being finished!!
Anyway fellow planet inhabitants, that's about it for this month, but there's some great stuff going on at Gruden at the moment, but unfortunately I can't say a word! So make sure you check back next month for the new edition of the spotting of the G, and hopefully I'll be able to let you in on it all!
Before I go, remember - If you can look into the mirror without laughter, you have no sense of humor......
Till next time!
The fish! - now I haven't talked about them in a long time..... Don't think that the lack of mention implies a happy existence, because it's farrr from a happy little ecosystem. The death and cannibalism that goes on within that wet and fishy environment, makes me wonder if I should really be encouraging this type of thing.
The amount of money that is pumped into that tank to endorse such activities would be criminal in air land. But they look so happy....... and a death always provides a bit of excitement in the office.
Anyway, thank God the turn over in Gruden is no where near the level of the fish tank - a death I would wish upon no employee!!! I'd like to welcome two new members of staff to our ever growing team - Chris Benson and Peter Costello. Chris joins us from the West Coast of Australia (Perth) in the role of Project Manager and Peter as a Senior Designer. Welcome guys - we're sure you'll love it here and already we've seen the great work that you're producing.
It's been another ridiculous month again... all good, so no complaints. The Department of Commerce's (DOC) new website is now live, check it out at www.commerce.nsw.gov.au and the DOC Annual Report is hot on it's heels.
Earlier this month we graced the music industries night of nights at the ARIA Awards! T'was a big night with lots of messy famous people trying to be remembered, but unfortunately there's no real goss... I got the stupidity award for not knowing what Delta Goodrem looked like when it mattered, and I think Gruden & guests took home the silly dancing award too... But once again it was a great night and we look forward to next year's one.
We're still hammering away on a number of projects at the moment, Christian Childrens Fund (CCF), Capital Partners website/ Intranet, Beaumont Consulting, ARIA, Institute for International Health are all well underway. Inmark has just launched their loyalty program, and we're currently working on the font end redesign.
We're also well under way on the Russell Kennedy Solicitors, Loss Prevention, Disney Channel, Blacktown City Council websites / Intranets.....and it's supposed to be the quite time of year! Ugly days - bring on the chrissy holidays.
Anyway peoples it's getting close to man-in-the-red-suit time.... I know I've been good! So I'm expecting lots and lots of pressies from the fat man!
Before I go, what do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus? Claustrophobic!
Poor, I know..... Till next time!
With the ARIA Awards only days away and after the long hours, we're ready to bust out and celebrate! Lets hope that Brent our Art Director doesn't piss Rove off this year, but if he does, let's hope we can remember it! Ooohhhhh yes people, it's going to be one eventful affair!
As we all may or may not know, the Department of Public Works and Services (DPWS) is no longer! It's now combined a number of different units under the one banner called the Department of Commerce (DOC). Interesting eh? Anyway the good news is that Gruden has designed the new DOC website and Annual Report so keep your eyes peeled for those 2 sites coming soon!
The Collex website is finally live! YAY! And we think that its not a bad looking website for a garbage company - sorry, "Waste Management" company. There is a heap of good information on there, and now that they've updated their services, it's a very comprehensive and well structured site - even if I don't say so myself! Check out the Collex website here.
The Institute of International Health (IIH) is well underway, and should be complete for the next edition of the G-Spot. IIH will be utilising the powerful Shado MX CMS for their website as are the Christians Childrens Fund (CCF) where we've recently been chosen to develop their new website. CCF is using the Shado MX Lite which is a scaled down version of the internationally renound enterprise version of Shado MX.
On the success of the recently launched Kemp Strang Lawyers website, Russell Kennedy Solicitors, the Melbourne office of their national group also require a website redesign. This will be underway shortly, so keep an eye out for this one.
The Capital Partners website and Intranet are currently being developed. The website is a simple brochure website, while the intranet is a complete knowledge management system. Capital Partners provide high quality independent investment research for large investors predominately in Australia and NZ markets.
What else?? Oh, the new Disney Channel's page is well under way and should be completed by the next G-spot, but feel free to check it out Disney's site as it may be up there sooner than you hear about it here! The ARIA homepage is almost there - it's in its final stages of development and will be up shortly. I have to say it's a pretty unique looking site, and leaves the old one for dead - as you'd expect!
The development of the travel loyalty system for Inmark is powering along. Oh, and how could I forget - Beaumont Consulting's new website is also currently being worked on. This site should be pretty different from your typical recruitment website, so make sure you check that puppy out when she's finished.
There is a heap more going on at the moment, but if I were to write it all down, you'd be bored shitless, I actually doubt if people are reading this far down..... Anyway, stay tuned for the next G-Spot, because I'll bring out the trash about the ARIA Awards, new clients and our recently completed sassy projects!
Till next time kiddies!
Great news this month, we've been selected by one of Australia's largest Councils, Blacktown City Council to be their development partner for their new Website / Intranet and CMS implementation! With over 35 companies tendering for the project, it has been a great success for us. The Shado MX Content Management System will be the implemented for Blacktown's new online strategy. With Shado, Blacktown joins a number of councils around the world who have chosen this CMS and will be the first council is Australia to utilise this powerful system.
It's been another bumper, crazy, fun, actioned packed month this month. The Kemp Strang website is now live, which showcases their new branding as a result of joining the national group Kennedy Strang. The Disney Channel's new AMTV website is now live with stage 2 rolled out. This flash website was a great job to work on, a little game, a bit of set redesign should keep the kiddies entertained for hours! It did for me anyway.... We're just about to kick off with another new project for the Disney Channel, so make sure you check back soon to see the progress.
Smartbuy stage 2 is now all live and rolled out. Smartbuy is a whole-of-government electronic marketplace developed by the NSW Department of Commerce. This stage saw us redevelop the website to accommodate the different types of users that are now using Smartbuy.
The ARIA Awards Voting Website has just recently gone live. This years voting website saw us build upon last years system, with a number of enhancements and new tools. Prior to the voting period opening, voters were able to access the 'Voters Toolkit', which allows them to listen to all tracks and view cover art for the 650 nominations. Gruden is working with Delloittes, Mark Pope Music and ARIA to deliver this years voting system.
So far the voting site has had some great feedback, with comments like "Excellent Service yet again Mark Pope and Gruden! Your always providing the best navigation in a voting site which helps make the experience enjoyable and painless." and my personal favourite:- "I think I can rightly claim to be the only person who has voted for the ARIAs from a phone booth internet box in He?lsinki, Finland!!" nicely done....
We've recently just kicked off on another large CMS implementation for the Institute of International Health (IIH). Gruden was successful in its bid for this project, after knocking out some stiff competition. This project will also utilise the Shado CMS for the project. IIH, which is an offshoot of Sydney University, has a very short timeline. So you should hear lots about this one in the coming months.
Something that I almost forgot to tell you all - we now have a Brisbane office! YAY Gruden has taken the step and gone interstate! We have seen a lot of potential and a lot of enquires come through from Brisbane, and to provide a better service and facilitate the needs of the local companies we now have a presence there.
Lots on the cards at the moment, Beaumont Consulting website is about to kick off, the ARIA homepage is almost there, Cookie Man are going through some enhancements and upgrades, Henry Davis York require some Intranet functionality, Inmark are developing a loyalty program, Capital Partners website and Intranet are under development, the Safeflame website was recently launched, the Collex website is just about to go live, Saunders Business Cards website is not far off and a few other large CMS implementations and various other jobs are coming up.
It's going to be a busy next 6 months for Gruden, and those die hard G-Spotters have noticed my slackness in keeping the monthly updates coming - sorry kids, but I value sleep a little more these days!
Again it's been another long edition of the G-Spot, so in parting, remember - The strong give up and move away, while the weak give up and stay.
Till next time!
Well,.... busy, busy, busy!! It's been a crazy month here at Gruden. Unfortunately long hours for all, but we've had some great projects to work on this month. Good projects make it a little more bearable when I have to work on the weekend instead of going to the snow!
One of the most exciting things that has taken place this month is that we have now officially become the Premiere Partner of Shado MX in Australia! If you haven't heard about Shado MX yet, don't fret - because you definitely will soon!
I hear you ask 'What's Shado MX??'. Shado MX was developed by Straker Interactive and is a powerful, stable and versatile Content Management System and web application framework for Intranet, Extranet or Internet applications. Shado MX has over 60 installations in Australia, NZ and the UK. It's built to serve large amounts of information to diverse audiences, major success has been experienced in the public sector of Government, Education and also large corporations.
It's that time of year again people, and as our CFO says "happy new year!". Yes boys and girls - it's tax time.... Joy! Because we are such nice people here at Gruden, we've been providing free tax advice on our website Taxpack.com.au for some years now. Taxpack was recently invited on the ABC radio for their tax special show. Our CFO was bombarded with a heap of tax questions from callers around Australia, and some interesting questions about our website too! Need help or advice?? Check out Taxpack!
This month saw us start our relationship with the Disney Channel, where we created the website for their new morning breakfast show called AMTV which is hosted by previous Popstars winner - Scott Cain! This is a pretty cool little flash website, stage 2 (launched very soon!) will have a 'change the set' feature and a breakfast game to keep all the kiddies entertained. You can check it out here!
Our work for the Department of Commerce has continued this month, but with the Office of Information Technology this time. Gruden was required to redevelop & package their Privacy Training Program, which is to be distributed to all government departments in NSW.
We're also kicking off on the second stage of development for the Department of Commerce's smartbuy website. This stage requires changing the focus of the website from a 'What is' to a 'How to' website. Stage 2 of the smartbuy website will be live in mid August.
Our legal clients are continuing to grow all the time, this month we've started working with Henry Davis York where we carried out some mods on their Intranet and Extranet web services. Kemp Strang are almost ready to roll over to their new website - only a few days off now! Acuiti Legal are continually enhancing their website with their new features and services, some of which will be launched shortly.
The Collex redesign is now underway and starting to look pretty spiffy if I say so myself! The new ARIA homepage is also well on track - this puppy is gonna be one sexy beast, so keep an eye out for this one.
Gruden has been chosen once again to carry out the voting for this year's ARIA Awards. Last year saw the awards voting move to an online only environment for the first time in it's history, this year we are building upon it and adding more & more features to make it one powerful system!
We've got some great projects coming up shortly, a few large CMS implementations, a rewards & loyalty program, website redesigns and more!
Anyway boys and girls, if you've made it this far down the page - nice work. It's been a bit of a long one this month, but I'm sure you found it a riveting read!!
Be good, look after yourselves and remember - It was a brave man that ate the first oyster!
Till next time!
I almost suffered a cardiac arrest last week, snippets of my life flashed before me - I saw images and visions that I never knew I still retained. Yes the drink, the smokes and general bad lifestyle could have been the blame, but fortunately it was something much bigger - something that we're all familiar with.... Our beloved relationship with Microsoft!
The pain I experienced when I received the error - 'Sorry you've just lost 3 years worth of emails' was indescribable.... I'm not going to harp on about MS as I eventually sorted it out and got back the 3 years I thought I had lost.....
What's the point to this ramble I hear you ask ??? Backup, kiddies. Because if it wasn't for our backup procedures and practices, I'd be screwed and looking over the edge of a very big cliff...
Now that I've given my HOT tip for the month, on to what's been going on in Gruden in the last month..... Well, obviously I didn't win Powerball, my SARS paranoia appears to have subsided and Supagas is still being worked on! Yes - it's all been happening here! Very exciting stuff!
Pharmaxis have recently had Stage 1 of their website launched, still much more to go on that site yet. Kemp Strang are in the final stages and Home Partners is a few days off launch as well. The Home Partners website is being developed in conjunction with our partners at the Haygarth Group - where they are carring out the design and we're doing the backend.
The Collex website is about to go live with the newly revised content and hot on it's heels is the site redesign, so make sure you keep an eye out for that one!! - Finally - All those years of pain looking at that site... - no one else to blame though!
ARIA and Gruden are to join forces again for this years ARIA Awards. Last year we developed the Voting website for the awards which had some fantastic reviews, and this year we're adding to the system, automating and streamlining the tools and processes to make it a fully contained voting system for the following years!
The ARIA homepage is being redeveloped at present, and should look pretty spiffy once completed! The creative juices have been allowed to flow on this puppy and I'm pretty sure you'll be juicing too once you see it!! OOOhhhhh - tackless humour... Fantastic...
The Smartbuy (DPWS) Supplier Registration Toolkit is being touched up and redeveloped, also a CDROM for the Office of Information Technology has seen our government work continue this month - Hopefully with a heap more to follow!
Anyway - There's loads of exciting things going on at the moment, but again it's something that I can't pass on yet. I know, pretty frustrating hey? But what can you do... The new tax year should be the time where I can share all, so make sure you check back to hear about it all - that's if you don't read about it elsewhere!
Ohhh - I almost forgot, our new Email & Newsletter Management System is in the final stages of testing and will be ready & available to all next month. Deliverance is it's name and boy - it's one powerfully sexy beast....!!
Well peoples, my apologies for the slight delay in getting this months G-Spot up, I'll try not to let it happen again,. but it's looking a little crazy over the next few months so please bear with me!
Till next time!
I feel proud. Proud to be an Aussie, proud to be part of 'Fast Fingers Jimmy's' global annihilation. Fast Fingers Jimmy - ala James Trusler, recently smashed the Guiness Book of records with his lightening fast fingers to be the worlds fastest 160 character TXT message composer - and not using predictive text. Nice one James - the ladies must love you!
We recently finished Fast Fingers Jimmy's website - which I think looks pretty cool for a personal website. I strongly suggest having a look. If you think that your pretty fast on the old text messaging, then make sure you visit the SMS Trainer that he has there - make sure he knows about it if you think you're faster!!
Discrete Investment Research have recently engaged the services of Gruden to design and build their website. It's managed through Macromedia Contribute, and for a simple brochure website, we think it's a pretty nice looking. For all those budding personal punters (investors), make sure you have a look at the research section and get some of the tips!
Collex, everyone's favourite environmental yellow hippo, is currently undergoing a content restructure, which will be completed shortly. Then,..... the long awaited, in dying need of, look and feel rework will be underway! YAY!
Acuiti Legal have recently made some improvements to their website by providing newsletter subscription services for their Monthly publications. BANGitUP are about to launch their new Trade Select service, which provides consumers with a very easy to use application to contact tradesmen in your area. Keep an ear out for the launch of this puppy.
There's lot's of exciting things on the horizon for Gruden at the moment: ARIA Awards, a few Council's websites, Intranet projects, online practice management systems, email / newsletter management tools, Kemp Strang homepage redesign, Pharmaxis and more.
So, I guess the only sensible thing to do would be to check back here next month and see some of the cool, colourful and wonderful things Gruden are pumping out to the world!
Till next time, I hope this pathetic weather eases, my flu disappears so I don't get continually hassled about being a SARS victim, and I win Powerball.........
Adios!
Vamoose! - Another month has gone and I'm still struggling to get the g-spot out on time... This time though, I decided to wait until a week later to post it up as there's more to talk about, so I'm really on time! It maybe an excuse, a convenient outcome to a typically struggling task - but not to worry because it's now done!
You'll also be happy to know that this months G-Spot has no ramble about dead fish - rest in peace Tets,.. or strange folk talking about offensive swimwear - No,... because, although we've had one death in the fish tank - (very cannibalistic attack) we've got too much to tell!
This month saw us kick off with the Pharmaxis website development. Pharmaxis is a pharmacutical research and development company with offices in both Syndey and Canberra. I'd say that by the time the next G-Spot is due, it'll all be finished. So stay tuned for the launch of this one.
James Hardie required a portal page for their homepage to be developed for their two core departments websites, the building products website and their FRC Pipes website. We were required to design & develop the page, whilst ensuring that the colours and layout of the page complemented each of the websites. Let's hope that this is the start of a long relationship with James Hardie!
smartbuy was another project that kicked off this month - and launched on 7/04/03. Again we were burdened with a tight deadline (I'm starting to think we're just suckers..) but luckily we pulled it off! Everyone at the smartbuy team are a great group of people to work with, so getting the job done was painless. smartbuy is a whole-of-government electronic marketplace developed for buyers and suppliers by the NSW government. This is just the start of the smartbuy government initiative, so be prepared to hear lots about it in the future!
What else has been happening,.. The Kemp Strang Lawyers website is about to kick off. They're after a content management solution to manage their people profiles and numerous newsletters and publications. They have recently joined a national group called the 'Kennedy Strang Legal Group' and require their new website to reflect their new corporate identity.
We've been working hard with our partner Straker on some exciting CMS prospects, hopefully we'll have some information to pass on in the next few months... the Vodafone - My Bill section of website went live last week. I'd love to tell you how easy and cool and everything like that it is - but I'm still yet to have a look in it's live environment! Maybe you Vodafone people can tell me???
Some very exciting news for the Grudenites out there - we have a new Business Development Manager on board now!! Yeaaaah! After great pain in selecting the right candidate, Jean Paul Lena will be taking on the challenging role. Everyone at Gruden wishes Jean Paul the best, but with his previous experience and skills, he shouldn't need it! Nothing like a bit of pressure is there Jean Paul??
Hahaaa,... ohhhh it's getting late..... anyway I hate to say this, but last week I was boasting about the fact that Supagas would be finished by now..... and it would have been except, they just keep adding more and more to it! So unfortunately - you're going to have to wait until next month's G-Spot again! but then - is there really a Supagas project?? or something that I've made up to appear as if we actually do work in here??? hhhmmmmm something to think about kiddies.....
Anyway boys and girls, we're already well into 2003 and looking good so far... If the sale of my 49er is any indication - I'm going to have even less of a life as the months continue on...
One last thing before I go - keep your eye out for James Trusler - the SMS king! He should be starting out on his world record attempt this month - go james, go james, go - go - go james.. (for all those who don't know how to read that, it's my Ricky Lake take off)
Till next months nail biting edition of the spotty G.... Adios!
As another month races by, our beloved summer months are coming close to an end - not that we've had that much opportunity to enjoy them... My speedo's haven't had the workout that I had planned - could be that I've looked at the beach far more than been on it, but i think it's more to do with the fact they are just plain offensive....
Anyway,.. we're here to talk work, not the colour of my speedos! Cbonline have completed their 2 year project, which saw the Data Collection Module added, plus complete site wide administration. Most recently we've added the Indigenous Almanac component of the website, which provides information about Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander issues and historical events in relation to Radio stations around Australia.
Poochie is now completed and live! Poochie required a website to showcase their products on offer for their fundraising services to inform possible clients of the various fundraising options they provide. We wish all the best to Poochie , and last we heard they've already got a number of schools on board! Go the Australian product!! Good luck guys.
EE-Oz have rolled out their latest version of the website. This new version sees the activation of the online shop, WYSIWYG CMS capabilities, bulletin / message board implementation, members only area and site search. EE-Oz promotes and provides advice on training related technical matters, and on the industries' vocational education, training and skills needs.
James Trusler is in the final stages of his website, so keep an eye out for this one! It looks like his world record attempt is going ahead - Go Son!! James' website was part of the prize he won for winning the 2002 Text Message Championships.
Pharmaxis have recently requested the web services of Gruden. Pharmaxis is a pharmaceutical product research and development company, dedicated to the discovery and development of selective medicines and therapeutics for the treatment of a variety of diseases and ailments including asthma, bronchitis and MS. Check back soon to see the new website!
AAhhh what else, Supagas..... Funny how this one keeps creeping in each month! but believe me peoples - this one will be finished in the next G-Spot edition!!
Saunders Business Cards online ordering system is going great guns at the moment - with over 50% of their orders being placed through the system! Saunders is one of the largest business card manufactures for Australia, providing services to most of the large corporates around Australia. Their new website is coming along and should be released soon.
Now Tett's is flushed and decomposed (our beloved ex-fish), we've grown our little family to include a few new siblings.... but there's one problem - I don't know if one of these new fishes is from that island down south, but it's got some pretty weird ideas as to the types of fish it should be courting..... it's almost like a dog and cat getting it on!! I'll keep you posted if we have contact, as we might shift our focus to fish breeding if this one comes off!
Until next time....!
p.s Once last thing,.. we've recently published our great software prices online! If you can find better elsewhere, let us know and we'll see what we can do... Here is what's on offer.
Time just keeps slipping away.... I almost managed to update the G-Spot on time! Next time for sure - but, save the applause till later because unfortunately there's some sad news to pass on. There's been another death in the Gruden family.
We should have known - the look in her eyes, the colour of her skin (or lack of). She just didn't have the glow that we always knew her to have. The poor little thing, we all tried so hard to make sure she rested up - but all she wanted to do was go about her business. Last Monday spelled the end of her short but actioned packed life - no longer will we all come in and to see her swim gracefully around her tank. Yes,..... Tetts is gone, but what a fish she was - so much love to give....... Rest In Peace Tetts.
But, onto a brighter note, we've been flatout here! Lots of new work & exciting projects on the horizon, problem is that our life outside of work dissipates to a distant memory.... But what else in life is there except for work, hey???
EE-Oz, Bromic, Supagas, Acuiti, Kempstrang and Poochie are all just about to release either a new website or modifications / enhancements shortly - so keep an eye out for these puppies. Australia's Fastest Text Message Champion - James Trusler is currently having his website developed - just in time for his world domination challenge!! (dunno what I'm talking about????) well, you'll just have to wait and see!!! Good Luck James!
We recently completed working on the Vodafone - My Bill section of Vodafone website, working with our friends at The Performance Technologies Group (PTG) who carried out the usability testing. There's a heap more to be done with Vodafone and PTG in the future, and if you're a Vodafone customer have a look and see how easy to use it is - perfect!
There's a fair few other very exciting projects in the pipeline which are going through the motions,... I'd love to enlighten you further - but sorry, I'm not going to count my chickens and there's a confidential thing that we like to stick too.... maybe in next months G-Spot I'll enlighten.... maybe....
For all those of you out there who have been reading on the G-Spot that BANGitUP has a new site on its way, then be excited, because it's finally gone live!! YES, it took a little longer than expected, but it's now there. We think it's a pretty sexy looking site, mostly built with CSS and minimal use of tables, XHTML 1.0 compliant and showcasing a new service called WEBit.
WEBit is essentially websites, with & without CMS capabilities, for both Builders and Suppliers. At present only Builders are able to integrate successfully with the site, but once the online catalogue is completed, Suppliers will be able to have a fully integrated CMS and ordering system - and that's just the tip of the iceberg! Make sure you check out BANGitUP soon!
January - The month of Australia Day - and what a top day we had mate! Beers, barbie, thong throwing and egg & spoon races (which turned into egg throwing... tut tut..) good ol' aussie fun! Our neighbours from Pearman Media joined us in the celebrations to make a great afternoon. Check out a few of the photo's from the day.
Well kiddies, it's time to bid you all farewell for another month. Tett's RIP, to the new 8 or so fishies - welcome! We hope you like your new home. To everyone reading this, we hope you had a great January. To Jon Gruden, nice work on another win for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers! We hope you kick it in again this year! a