Bespoke
Just recently I read an article recently (Rashid Razaq, Evening Standard) which explained how the Tailors of Saville Row had lost a legal battle over the right for the word 'Bespoke' to refer exclusively to hand made suits.
Menswear retailers Sartoriani was referred to the ASA because it was advertising bargain bespoke suits as "uniquely made according to your personal measurements and specification".
After a fitting session, where the clients measurements were taken, the company admitted that the process of cutting and sewing was then handled mostly by machine.
We often refer to our design and development services as being bespoke.
The word bespoke, is not universally used and seems to be favoured/adopted by some industries and ignored by others, but it originates from the tailors of Saville Row in London.
The word bespoke was a term used to describe how a customer would 'speak' for a length of fabric.
A search on Wikipedia fills in most of the details;
Bespoke is usually a British English term for tailored clothing made at a customer's behest, and exactly to the customer's specification. Bespoke clothing is created without use of a pre-existing pattern, differentiating it from made to measure, which alters a standard-sized pattern to fit the customer. In American English, it is a synonym for "custom made."
Today, it is also frequently used for technical components specifically developed for a certain application (e.g. bespoke software), as well as in the automotive and cake decorating industries, when customers get a chance to have an automobile equipped or cake decorated to their specification.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bespoke
The Advertising Standards Authority upheld the suit manufacturers claim that the word 'bespoke' did not have an exclusivity to Saville Row tailors or should it indicate that a suit was fully hand stitched. They argued that it could also be used to refer to a garment that had been made to an individual customers requirements regardless of whether all of the process was by hand.
In my view the ruling is appropriate and I can draw parallels to how we approach bespoke web design and development for our clients.
When we say our websites are 'Bespoke Developments', what do we mean?
Our designs are certainly individually 'tailored' for each client. Each design is unique, and evolves as a result of a number of discussions with the client. On completion ownership of the design is passed to the client. At this point, you could say that the design has been 'spoken' for.
During the process of building each website there will be the necessity to produce 'bespoke' code to meet individual requirements, but in many instances of development we will also make use of re-useable code if the functionality already exists.
A couple of examples are; the use of re-useable code to produce website enquiry forms and the inclusion of a web page editor for users with content management systems. The website editor has evolved from 1000’s of man hours of development – why re-invent the wheel? Another reason for the practice of using re-useable code is price; we can produce a website in the fraction of the time and subsequently at a far more attractive price than one that has been hand coded line by line.
This comparison can be drawn with the suit company that used automated methods and reduced the time and therefore the cost to the client.
Saville Row tailors likened the use of the word 'Bespoke' to the legally protected term 'Champagne', but I would guess that whilst the process of producing champagne may remain the same, the vineyards may have adopted some machinery along the way to improve efficiency. Also, the word bespoke isn't just linked to Saville Row tailors in the same way that Champagne is linked to a wine growing region.
The Saville Row Tailors arguments seem to be a case of sour grapes.
Ultimately, this argument boils down to money, if you want a fully hand stitched suit from Saville Row it will cost you more.
If you want a bespoke website that has been fully hand coded it will cost you more than a development where some code has been used before.
Will a Bespoke hand coded website be better - No.
Will it cost you more, Yes - substantially more.
So when it comes to bespoke, be it suits or software and dependent on how deep your pockets are (no pun intended) – the choice is yours.
Saturday, 21 June 2008
Sunday, 8 June 2008
Typing errors make me want to Yell
Typing errors certainly can come back to haunt you!
Now, I don't want to come across as too judgemental here. I make my fair share of typing errors and even worse, some remain unnoticed for ages.
It's normally a case of not seeing the 'would for the trees' or the spell checker not picking up on grammatical interpretations of words (yes, I did intend that typo for effect - sorry!).
It can be even more frustrating when the typing error is beyond your control. This situation is amplified if your audience is likely to be particularly scornful of typing errors and is not aware that they were not of your own making.
Hence, it is with some sympathy that I noticed the spelling mistake that I will presume the Yell.com representative has made when adding this entry on behalf of the Learning Centre!
(Wimbourne should be spelt Wimborne).
Perhaps the Yell.Com representative will be able to attend their establishment for a lesson or two?
Wimborne Community Learning and Resource Centre
Another of my blog entries on the topic of typing errors
Now, I don't want to come across as too judgemental here. I make my fair share of typing errors and even worse, some remain unnoticed for ages.
It's normally a case of not seeing the 'would for the trees' or the spell checker not picking up on grammatical interpretations of words (yes, I did intend that typo for effect - sorry!).
It can be even more frustrating when the typing error is beyond your control. This situation is amplified if your audience is likely to be particularly scornful of typing errors and is not aware that they were not of your own making.
Hence, it is with some sympathy that I noticed the spelling mistake that I will presume the Yell.com representative has made when adding this entry on behalf of the Learning Centre!
(Wimbourne should be spelt Wimborne).
Perhaps the Yell.Com representative will be able to attend their establishment for a lesson or two?
Wimborne Community Learning and Resource Centre
Another of my blog entries on the topic of typing errors
Monday, 2 June 2008
The Evolution of British Maths Teaching
I received this from a colleague,
1. Teaching Maths In 1970
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is 4/5 of the price.
What is his profit?
2. Teaching Maths In 1980
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or £80.
What is his profit?
3. Teaching Maths In 1990
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is £80.
Did he make a profit?
4. Teaching Maths In 2000
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is £80 and his profit is £20.
Your assignment: Underline the number 20.
5. Teaching Maths In 2008
A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands.
He does this so he can make a profit of £20.
What do you think of this way of making a living?
Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers).
Yes, I know it is not not politically correct - but hey. It does strike a cord!
1. Teaching Maths In 1970
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is 4/5 of the price.
What is his profit?
2. Teaching Maths In 1980
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or £80.
What is his profit?
3. Teaching Maths In 1990
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is £80.
Did he make a profit?
4. Teaching Maths In 2000
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is £80 and his profit is £20.
Your assignment: Underline the number 20.
5. Teaching Maths In 2008
A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands.
He does this so he can make a profit of £20.
What do you think of this way of making a living?
Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers).
Yes, I know it is not not politically correct - but hey. It does strike a cord!
Sunday, 1 June 2008
A high success rate means cheaper quotes
Putting together a proposal for a customer is time consuming.
Even putting together a proposal for the smallest of developments can take many hours. The larger the website or the larger the client the more costly the process becomes.
Quotes for corporates can be a particular nightmare, the process can go on for months and involve many meetings.
One proposal springs to mind where the requirement was relatively simple and from the initial brief it was obvious that we could complete the development in under 2 weeks.
However the selection process the corporate had put in place for choosing the development team went on for ever.
It required an initial proposal, followed by a selection meeting, The corporate then chose their favourite 3 development companies from the initial 7 that they had started with.
The final 3 were invited back in again for round two.
All had to provide a revised proposal along with another boardroom presentation. Then a finalisation of requirement and back in again to present another proposal to the Directors. This process took over 6 months. The calculated time for putting together the proposal was a lot longer than the actual time on development would have been.
We bowed out gracefully after round one.
The problem with lengthy proposals, is that if you don't win the quote, the costs have to be spread over the ones that you do win and you find your quotes start shooting up dramatically.
We are now very cautious before pitching to corporates for these reasons.
By being a bit more selective with who we do enter quote, you will be pleased to hear that we now win most of the work we quote for.
Beecause of this we are able to keep our prices down and our percentage of conversions high.
It's a win win situation for us and our clients!
Even putting together a proposal for the smallest of developments can take many hours. The larger the website or the larger the client the more costly the process becomes.
Quotes for corporates can be a particular nightmare, the process can go on for months and involve many meetings.
One proposal springs to mind where the requirement was relatively simple and from the initial brief it was obvious that we could complete the development in under 2 weeks.
However the selection process the corporate had put in place for choosing the development team went on for ever.
It required an initial proposal, followed by a selection meeting, The corporate then chose their favourite 3 development companies from the initial 7 that they had started with.
The final 3 were invited back in again for round two.
All had to provide a revised proposal along with another boardroom presentation. Then a finalisation of requirement and back in again to present another proposal to the Directors. This process took over 6 months. The calculated time for putting together the proposal was a lot longer than the actual time on development would have been.
We bowed out gracefully after round one.
The problem with lengthy proposals, is that if you don't win the quote, the costs have to be spread over the ones that you do win and you find your quotes start shooting up dramatically.
We are now very cautious before pitching to corporates for these reasons.
By being a bit more selective with who we do enter quote, you will be pleased to hear that we now win most of the work we quote for.
Beecause of this we are able to keep our prices down and our percentage of conversions high.
It's a win win situation for us and our clients!
Our quotes are free - unless you would prefer to pay instead!
Dear prospect,
thanks for inviting us in to discuss your development requirements, we would love to do the work, the next stage is for us to put together a proposal.
Now where's that cheque book of yours?
Why? - Because we want paying for providing you with the quote.
Does the above sound normal or odd? Would you pay for a development proposal to be provided (or have you paid) by the companies that you invited in to quote for the job?
Whilst visiting a company recently to discuss their requirement, it was remarked that of the companies that had been invited in, one had stated that they would require paying before they started assembling the development proposal.
Pushing your luck a bit I thought - pushing it a bit too far as it turned out, because they were declined the opportunity to quote!
Hopefully their loss will be our gain, we have provided the company with a development proposal with detailed quote - free of charge!
In fact we have never entertained the idea of charging and I haven't heard of other companies that do either, but it did get me thinking! I wonder if they would have been cheaper than everyone else?
Let's assume hypothetically, that we all suggested an identical proposal and all built the development to the same standard, would their actual development quote be cheaper (I would like to think that our standard would always be better, but this is hypothetical!).
It should be cheaper. As they would have already been paid for putting together the proposal, they wouldn't have to factor in the preparation cost for the proposal into the overall development charges. Additionally, if they were charging for every proposal, they wouldn't have to the cover the cost of time spent on proposals for other companies that they didn't go on to win. Our success rate at winning business has always been very high and I am sure this is why our quotes are far more attractive than our competitors.
Somehow, I doubt if the other developers would have been cheaper and I'd love to know how many quotes they actually do win!
The good news is our quotes will remain FREE.
thanks for inviting us in to discuss your development requirements, we would love to do the work, the next stage is for us to put together a proposal.
Now where's that cheque book of yours?
Why? - Because we want paying for providing you with the quote.
Does the above sound normal or odd? Would you pay for a development proposal to be provided (or have you paid) by the companies that you invited in to quote for the job?
Whilst visiting a company recently to discuss their requirement, it was remarked that of the companies that had been invited in, one had stated that they would require paying before they started assembling the development proposal.
Pushing your luck a bit I thought - pushing it a bit too far as it turned out, because they were declined the opportunity to quote!
Hopefully their loss will be our gain, we have provided the company with a development proposal with detailed quote - free of charge!
In fact we have never entertained the idea of charging and I haven't heard of other companies that do either, but it did get me thinking! I wonder if they would have been cheaper than everyone else?
Let's assume hypothetically, that we all suggested an identical proposal and all built the development to the same standard, would their actual development quote be cheaper (I would like to think that our standard would always be better, but this is hypothetical!).
It should be cheaper. As they would have already been paid for putting together the proposal, they wouldn't have to factor in the preparation cost for the proposal into the overall development charges. Additionally, if they were charging for every proposal, they wouldn't have to the cover the cost of time spent on proposals for other companies that they didn't go on to win. Our success rate at winning business has always been very high and I am sure this is why our quotes are far more attractive than our competitors.
Somehow, I doubt if the other developers would have been cheaper and I'd love to know how many quotes they actually do win!
The good news is our quotes will remain FREE.
Small Business - Big Advantage
I read an article recently that had been written by an Aussie guy called Brendon Sinclair. He runs a Web Development Company in Australia, and his company sounds like it is not too disimilar to ours in both size and structure. The way he operates his business also has a lot of similarities to the way we operate ours, so I find myself agreeing more often than not with his views (have you noticed how an article is far more enjoyable to read if you share the same viewpoint as the author!).
Brendon wrote an article recently called "Small Business, Big Advantage" explaining how Smaller Businesses could offer their customers a big advantage in customer support over large businesses or coporates.
He went on to say;
"The big advantage? Easy. Small business cares.
I care about my clients. I can't afford not to care. If I don't care, they won't keep paying me.
Big business doesn't care; the guy on the end of the phone still gets his paycheck no matter what happens with your web site. It's all about accountability."
Brendon went on to site a case where he was able to assist a client, who was in a panic because her domain name had expired causing her website to go offline at the weekend. He took her call at the weekend and was able to quickly resolve the situation and the client was back online within hours. His point was that a larger company would have kept her waiting until after the weekend before even taking a look.
He summed up by saying;
"If that domain name was managed by a small business, it would never had expired in the first place. A small business is far more likely to have a finger on the pulse, because its service is more personalized. A small business will know what's happening, who it's happening to, and what to do to fix it, averting this sort of problem."
Very true, I can fully relate to Brendon's viewpoint - we offer a personalised service and we know our customers on an individual basis, in fact we have forged good friendships with many of our customers over the years. They rely on us for advice and support and we don't want to let them down - after all nobody likes to see their friends in trouble!
Brendon wrote an article recently called "Small Business, Big Advantage" explaining how Smaller Businesses could offer their customers a big advantage in customer support over large businesses or coporates.
He went on to say;
"The big advantage? Easy. Small business cares.
I care about my clients. I can't afford not to care. If I don't care, they won't keep paying me.
Big business doesn't care; the guy on the end of the phone still gets his paycheck no matter what happens with your web site. It's all about accountability."
Brendon went on to site a case where he was able to assist a client, who was in a panic because her domain name had expired causing her website to go offline at the weekend. He took her call at the weekend and was able to quickly resolve the situation and the client was back online within hours. His point was that a larger company would have kept her waiting until after the weekend before even taking a look.
He summed up by saying;
"If that domain name was managed by a small business, it would never had expired in the first place. A small business is far more likely to have a finger on the pulse, because its service is more personalized. A small business will know what's happening, who it's happening to, and what to do to fix it, averting this sort of problem."
Very true, I can fully relate to Brendon's viewpoint - we offer a personalised service and we know our customers on an individual basis, in fact we have forged good friendships with many of our customers over the years. They rely on us for advice and support and we don't want to let them down - after all nobody likes to see their friends in trouble!
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