Siobhan, September 22nd, 2011
United Utilities, the UK’s largest listed water company, has transformed the way in which its customers can interact with them following the launch of a new self-service web portal, branded My Account.
The portal enables United Utilities’ customers to review current and historic payments, set up and amend direct debits, switch to paperless billing, provide meter readings, and notify the company if they are moving house.
The customer self-serve was developed by United Utilities’ digital partner Mando Group in collaboration with systems integrator Infosys and was soft launched in mid-May. It has already proved very popular with registrations to the service exceeding 30,000, and around 15,000 customers have made the move to paperless billing in the same period. In developing the portal, project leaders at Mando Group concentrated on making My Account a simple to use fully featured service without compromising customer confidentiality and security. Mando Group account director for United Utilities Jonathan Seal said that My Account was already proving popular with customers for this reason. “Consumers want to be able to engage with the utilities providers that help them get on with their lives. Moving this relationship online, and putting the customer in control is therefore very attractive for all concerned. We took a consumer-led approach to designing the user experience that’s at the heart of My Account, and we believe that it’s now an exemplar of how utilities can offer a fully featured self-service portal.”
United Utilities also worked with advertising and design partner One Marketing Communications to develop the launch strategy and creative execution which is currently running across radio, press and online, as well as key customer touch points. One’s Client Services Director Tristan Morris said “We wanted to ensure that the creative work reflected both the end benefits to the consumer and the simple, clean and easy to use service to maximise uptake across their wide customer demographic. We worked closely with United Utilities’ marketing team and Mando Group to maximise integration opportunities and the results so far are testament to this.”
United Utilities’ Online Communications Co-ordinator Caroline Smith said that My Account underlined the water company’s commitment to enhancing customer service while also contributing to cutting costs to serve. “One of the best ways that we can achieve sustainable improvements in customer service quality is to put our customers in charge of managing their relationship with us. My Account does this very well, and we are confident that as we communicate its advantages we will see more customers use the service.”
United Utilities is the UK’s largest listed water company, serving over seven million customers in 3.2 million households across North West England. United Utilities customers can register for My Account here
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Siobhan, September 15th, 2011
In recent months, we’ve been working with hearing-aid specialist Amplifon in order to develop their new online presence.
The new site, which launched in June, represents a refreshing new feel while remaining on-brand and reflecting Amplifon’s position as the world leader in their field.
The website provides visitors to the site with easy-to-use functionality, allowing them to easily locate what they are looking for and includes user-friendly features such as a branch locator for the company’s 200+ hearing care centres nationwide and the facility to request a free hearing test online.
Mando Group built the site using the Umbraco content management system, which allows Amplifon to benefit from much greater flexibility and control over their content and changes a previously static site into a fluid and dynamic digital offering.
We’ve also been working closely with Amplifon in providing design input to support advertising campaigns both online and television based.
Mike Copley, Online Manager at Amplifon, said:
We are really delighted with the new website – it looks great and gives visitors all the information they want about hearing loss and how we can help, as well as allowing people to book a hearing test online. There’s also an excellent branch locator so you can find which of our 200 hearing care centres is near you.
The site is helping us drive our business forward and since the new site was launched we’ve seen a considerable increase in site traffic.
See the site in action at www.amplifon.co.uk
No comments yet Filed under: Awesomeness, Business, Technology
Siobhan, July 21st, 2011
While most of us are stuck here in the office today, Amalie, Ryan and Adam C have been having a whale of a time over in the lakes.
They’re there as a part of the Mando Group foundation’s initiative to develop a Leadership Academy with North Liverpool Academy, acting as mentors to some of the NLA’s students in their Leadership Bootcamp.
The students – along with the lucky Mando Group volunteers – have spent the day participating in outdoor pursuits activities to help develop their leadership skills and GEM attributes, with a view to them leading a Small Action: Big Change Project in September 2011.
More about the activities of the Mando Group foundation can be found on our Foundation page.
No comments yet Filed under: Awesomeness, Charity
Amalie, June 29th, 2011
One of our senior designers, Joanne Finch, has taken on the mighty challenge of running the Liverpool marathon this October. She is running to raise money for the Countess of Chester appeal, Relative Comfort, who are collecting funds so they can create a “home from home” environment for the relatives of patients in the critical care unit.
Over the coming months, the Mando Group Foundation is going to support Joanne with her mammoth challenge and we’ve adopted her charity for the remainder of 2011. To launch our adoption of the charity we are holding Mando Group’s very own Wii-mbledon, a tennish championship with a difference. Our staff have been battling it out on the Wii to become the Nadal or Williams of Mando Group.
Today our 4 finalists will be donning their tennis whites and stepping up to the challenge to determine the Mando Wii-mbledon Champion of 2011. Matches will commence at about 5pm so check out the players profiles below and keep up to date on Twitter @mandogroup and if you would like to support a player you can make a donation.
Semi finals: Chris Vs Oli followed by George Vs Dan
Final: Chris vs George
No comments yet Filed under: Charity, Social
tony.richardson, June 22nd, 2011
What is schema.org?
On June 2nd 2011 Schema.org was announced, this is a new initiative from Google, Bing and Yahoo to create and support a common vocabulary for structured data markup on web pages. This will allow site owners and developers to learn about structured data and improve how their sites appear in major search engines. The site aims to be a one stop resource for webmasters looking to add markup to their pages.
What has changed?
Historically Google would use the meta description field to populate the search results snippet. As more people became aware of this Google changed their approach to look at the content of a whole page and decide for themselves the most relevant piece of text to display in the snippet description based on the keyword used to pull up the results.
What does it mean for you?
For a while Google have been experimenting with ‘rich snippet’ markup, this is HTML markup that provides more information to the search engines on what a particular piece of content is on a page. The announcement of the three main search engines Google, Bing and Yahoo agreeing to use this markup in there results moving forward is a significant step and is applicable to all websites. Failure to start using this markup will mean that over time those that do will supersede those who do not as their content will appear more relevant as a result of using correct markup.
What can be done?
It will take a period of time to identify if this has any significant impact on search, therefore it is unclear at this stage how important this mark-up language will become in the future. Please be aware if a website does not have any microdata, this will not stop the website appearing in search engines. If you would like to include this markup on your website as part of an SEO strategy please contact managedservices@mandogroup.com to discuss your requirements.
No comments yet Filed under: Managed Services
tony.richardson, June 22nd, 2011
As you may be aware a new EU Cookie directive came into force on May 26th this year. This directive requires end user consent to the storing of cookies on their computer. Cookies are used on the majority of websites to track user’s online activity from the capturing of e-Commerce data through to Google Analytics tracking code.
Websites have been given one year to comply with the EU directive (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13541250) and at present it remains unclear in the industry as to which cookies will require opt in/opt out confirmation and what level of action is required.
A key component of the new legislation is that users should be fully informed about the information being stored in cookies and that that the storing or accessing of information on the end user computer is only permitted if the user has given his or her explicit consent, thus establishing an opt-in requirement for the use of cookies.
The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) is responsible for overseeing and enforcing the legislation and as a result have applied their own solution to their website here http://www.ico.gov.uk/
Mando’s view
The responsibility for drawing up guidelines has fallen to the department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The DCMS has announced that enforcement is likely to be delayed pending further consideration, such as working with browser manufacturers in relation to enhanced settings. “We don’t think it is appropriate for enforcement action to be taken while solutions are being developed,” said a spokesman for the DCMS.
However, it is very important to do something as it is possible to fall foul of the law now. Should the ICO receive a complaint about a website they would expect an organization to be able to demonstrate that they have considered the specifics of the law and have a realistic plan to achieve compliance. Consider this in much the same way as any risk assessment that you might have to prepare in a health and safety type matter.
What should you do next?
Mando Group is currently reviewing the options available for those websites we support. Whilst we are waiting for an official line, in the short term we recommend:
- Investigate and understand the cookies that are used on your site. If you require assistance Mando Group can help run a report on your website for this, it is imperative that you identify all cookies.
- If the cookies on your site perform activities that can be considered an infringement of personal privacy, then consider removing these cookies if you do not have a mechanism in place to retrieve consent from visitors.
- Assuming you only use non-harmful cookies on your site, meant to optimize the browsing experience, you should include an explanation of what cookies are used on your site in the “Privacy Policy” applicable to the site. We have included a suggested paragraph below. The Privacy Policy should direct the user to browser options to turn off cookies, if that is required. It is good practice to make the Privacy Policy visible from all pages of the site.
- An example can be found on the ICO website updated privacy statement on cookies here http://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/privacy_statement.aspx particularly the section providing users with detailed information on how to delete and manage cookies.
- For those websites with member login functionality you may want to consider applying an opt-in disclaimer at the login / registration stage of your user journey.
Not all of these measures force the site visitor to explicitly give their consent, however these measures will inform site visitors that their consent is being given to use of both your website and associated cookies. This indicates that you have paid attention to the new legislation and are taking steps toward subsequent measures.
Suggested text for your privacy policy
A ‘Cookie’ is a piece of information that a website sends to your web browser which helps the site remember information about you and your preferences.
‘Session’ cookies are temporary pieces of information which are erased once you exit your Web browser window or turn your computer off. Session cookies are used to improve navigation on web sites and to collect statistical information.
‘Persistent’ cookies are more permanent pieces of information that are placed on the hard drive of your computer and stay there unless you delete the cookie. Persistent cookies store information on your computer for a number of reasons, such as retrieving certain information you have previously provided (e.g. login passwords), helping to determine what areas of the website helping to determine what areas of the Web site visitors find most valuable, and customising the web site based on your preferences.
This site uses <<include what is applicable to your site>> for the purpose of <<include what cookies are used for on your site>>. As such, they are not harmful in any way. Should you wish to disable cookies, you can do so by changing the security options in your web browser.
More information here: www.allaboutcookies.org
No comments yet Filed under: Managed Services
Siobhan, June 7th, 2011
Back in April Mando Group oversaw the successful launch of a new Liverpool-based user group for Microsoft .Net developers in the North West area. The Stack, held at Parr St. Studios in Liverpool, attracted upward of 30 guests who enjoyed talks on security within Windows Azure from Mark Teasdale and on the MVVM pattern in Microsoft Silverlight applications from Mando Group’s own Jon Rimmer.
After a high turnout and positive feedback, The Stack is now set to become a regular feature, with a second event being held on Wednesday 6th July. Topics at the event will include a discussion on “Declarative Refactoring in C#” with Telerik Evangelist and Microsoft MVP Chris Eargle, as well as a talk on “MbUnit – the framework time forgot”.
In addition to the great talks lined up, there’ll also be some excellent giveaways, including various software licenses and a Microsoft Kinect.
The Stack is a free to attend, developer-to-developer group, aimed at providing an opportunity for users of the .NET platform and other Microsoft web technologies to meet up, have a chat with like-minded individuals, and listen to different speakers discussing their own areas of expertise.
The second event has already generated a lot of interest, and there are now only a limited number of spaces still available. If you’re interested, book your place through Eventbrite.com, or get in touch with us via thestack@mandogroup.com or on twitter @thestackug.
No comments yet Filed under: Awesomeness, Creative, Social, Technology
Siobhan, March 23rd, 2011
Friday 18th March rolled around last week, and it wasn’t quite your average Friday. Here in the UK it happened to be the day of Red Nose Day, Comic Relief’s biennial fundraising extravaganza. This year Red Nose Day managed to raise a whopping £74million for Comic Relief.
Over at Mando Group, we’re never ones to miss out o
n a good cause party, so several of our staff members bravely dressed up in ridiculous outfits and went on a fun run through Liverpool city centre, on what turned out to be one of the warmest days of the year so far!
They returned panting and gasping and bearing bucketsful of hard earned cash for Comic Relief – to the tune of over £500. Well done to all of them!
And the efforts of those of us in the office who are happier living a more sedentary life shouldn’t be forgotten – the Mando Group Comic Relief Cake Sale was a sight to behold, with cakes as far as the eye could see. One brave soul determinedly sampled one portion of everything there was to offer, to much applause and stomach ache.
The Mando Group Foundation’s generous offer to match what we raised only spurred on our efforts, and we’re all really thrilled with the response we received. All in we managed to raise over £1,500 for a fantastic cause, and we hope everyone else had as great a day as we did!
http://www.justgiving.com/MandoComicRelief
1 comment Filed under: Awesomeness, Charity, Creative
Siobhan, February 15th, 2011
With the continued success of our previous two SharePoint events in Liverpool and Manchester, we’re moving a bit further afield with our next event. It’s in Leeds on 7th April 2011, at the Malmaison Hotel from 12 noon to 2:45pm, with a great informal lunch provided for attendees.
The events showcase SharePoint 2010′s great abilities as a public facing web platform when combined with the right user-experience led approach.
Once again we’ve got a great bunch of business leaders attending to demonstrate their real-world examples of SharePoint in action, as well as the Mando team. If you’re interested in joining us, please RSVP to siobhan.ohare@mandogroup.com to reserve your place.
For more information please check out our SharePoint showcase @ www.wemakesharepointbeautiful.com
No comments yet Filed under: Awesomeness, Business, Social, Technology
Ian, December 23rd, 2010
Following the success of our event in Liverpool last month we’re taking to the road to present in Manchester on the 27th January at the Malmaison Hotel 12noon to 2.45pm.
As before, we’ll set be painting a picture of what SharePoint 2010 can achieve as a public facing web platform combined with the right user-experience led approach.
We’ll also be incorporating some of the feedback from the last event on key issues being faced along with any other requests for inclusion that attendees may have.
Taking to the platform will be the mando team, some of customers and a special key note from Matt Pilgrim from Microsoft’s SharePoint For Internet Sites (FIS) team.
It’s an event not to be missed so please RSVP to Siobhan.OHare@mandogroup.com to reserve your place.
For more information please check the attached invitation and also our SharePoint showcase www.wemakesharepointbeautiful.com
No comments yet Filed under: Awesomeness, Business
