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Posted on 06/02/2020
Business Micros has announced the acquisition of Echo Digital Media (EDM), better known in this industry under its twin brands of The Consultancy and The Glazing Vault, for an undisclosed sum.
The move brings together two of the sector’s biggest digital specialists; and demonstrates the scale of Business Micros’ continuing ambition as it looks to strengthen its market leading position in its 41st year.
Graeme Bailey, Managing Director of Business Micros, says the investment in EDM will have long term benefits for both businesses, giving them the opportunity to share expertise and resources, as well as to develop new opportunities together.
He says: “EDM is already a really good business, with a great team and really exciting products, particularly in terms of its pricing and ordering portals. With Business Micros’ backing, we think it has the potential to be even better, and we will certainly be looking to invest further in both the team and the product range.”
For customers of Business Micros and EDM, Graeme says it is very much business as usual. He adds: “Customers probably won’t notice any differences in the short term but, over time, we are confident that they will see some really significant improvements in how we both operate. For instance, EDM will now have access to the datasets held within Business Micros to make their portal development quicker and easier, while Business Micros will be able to utilise the digital design expertise at EDM to enhance the interface on many of our products.
“We’ve got some really exciting new plans as well which will make the most of the obvious synergy between the two businesses, building on our individual strengths and making us even better as a group.”
Moving forward, EDM will operate as a separate business within the Business Micros group, in the same way that BM Aluminium, the specialist aluminium software business, has done since 2007. Paul Callaghan, EDM’s Managing Director, says that he sees only positives for EDM and its customers following the acquisition: “We’re becoming part of the industry’s biggest software provider, which has spent over 40 years building a deserved reputation for service and innovation. That’s a really exciting opportunity for us and gives us the platform we need to push on to the next phase in our growth.”
Posted on 19/12/2019
We work with a lot of companies in the window and door sectors every day supplying website design themes that can hold their own against the bespoke competition, and product designers, that allow users to build their windows and doors online, before they buy. Customers work with us for many reasons, not least because we’re specialists and because the team at Glazing Vault has been working on similar products and projects for over 30 years now. However, if you’re new to Glazing Vault, here are our top five reasons why you might want one of our product designers on your site:
1) 24/7 Salesperson – when done well, websites with product designers incorporated can become like an extra salesperson for your business. End users and installers don’t often operate on a 9-5 basis – they might want to view or order doors at any time of the day or night or at the weekend. Product Designers give you the ability to sell your products 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our automated product designers can also take care of sending quotes and documentation out to customers, freeing you up to look after all other aspects of the business.
2) Personalised – And you don’t need to worry that the e-mails, quotes and information generated online will look substandard to the information you send directly – our system is designed to look good. It looks professional in its quality design but is also completely personalised with your branding for consistency.
3) The Vault – all our product designers come with access to your own Vault account. Here you can manage your product designer, making tweaks and changes as necessary, as well as manage all your incoming quotes. All quotes are stored in the Vault in one central, easy to access location.
4) Flexibility – we find customers choose to use their product designers in different ways depending on their business models and how much emphasis they want to place on their online tools. Some simply use it on their website to encourage engagement from visitors, while others also have it on display in their showroom, to help inspire visitors with more options and ideas. Some also give it to their sales representative to use in the home to help to close the sale. Our product designers are completely flexible for use in any way that suits your business.
5) Pick & Choose – Our product designers have already been created so that we can offer them quickly and cost effectively, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be tailored to your business too. We have specifically developed our designers so that you can pick and choose the product options you want to include from your supplier, and the ones you don’t. And this can all be managed through your Vault account, so can be updated in the future as and when your product offering changes.
We have tried to think of everything when it comes to our range of product designers. We’ve been working with companies in the fenestration industry long enough to understand the variables involved, the challenges businesses face and the opportunities that can reap real rewards. New customers are often pleasantly surprised at the cost of our designers and the speed at which we can implement them, allowing them to enjoy all of these benefits sooner rather than later.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about product designers whether you have one on your website or whether you’ve used one to generate a quote. Please get in touch with us by e-mailing Katie at katie@glazingvault.com
Posted on 29/11/2019
You know you’ve found a special working relationship when the entire process from beginning to end is easy and hassle-free. When you get everything you wanted and more, for a fraction of the effort you were anticipating. We think you stand a much higher chance of achieving exactly that when you work with an industry specialist, but we’d love to hear what you think too.
Added value
The way we see it, the more we can deliver great work quickly, the more value we add to your company. Being a specialist, we can get to grips with your company and objectives faster than we would if we needed to learn about your products and supply chains before we began. In our case, a lot of the work on our website themes and product designers has been done up front, but any new tweaks or queries that arise, we have probably already dealt with before, which means we know exactly how to move forward fast.
Above and beyond
In addition, as specialists who have worked with many companies in a similar field, we might even be able to suggest new ideas for your site, that you haven’t even thought of. For example, we offer a range of product designers to boost lead generation and encourage engagement from web visitors. Customers often don’t even consider designers for their site, or they assume they’re prohibitively expensive, but again as a specialist in the sector we’re able to offer value for money.
More polished
One of the best ways for us to show potential customers what we have to offer is our portfolio of themes. We can talk about the websites we offer all we like, but if people don’t like our design themes, we won’t get very far. Our customers tell us it’s so much easier to choose from a range of website themes from one industry, rather than trying to compare apples with pears looking at themes aimed at different sectors, side by side. A portfolio of themes simply doesn’t look as polished and is not as easy to browse if it covers multiple sectors, compared to just one.
Save time
Following on from this design aspect, the other advantage of working with a specialist website designer is the bank of industry specific images they are likely to hold on file – ready to be used alongside your own branding and images where appropriate. It can take hours to source images from your suppliers, from your own image banks and from generic image sites to achieve the overall look you want from your website. A specialist can remove that hassle.
Specialise and deliver
Our aim is to deliver websites that have the look and feel of being bespoke, but that are affordable, hassle-free and can be online fast. We think the fact we’re specialists in the window and door sectors allows us to do exactly that.
We’d love to hear your views on this topic. Please get in touch with us by e-mailing Katie at katie@glazingvault.com
Posted on 03/10/2019
When a new business is starting out, they might decide that the best way to achieve their online objectives is to spend a lot of money on a website. The more they spend, the better it will be and as a result, the more successful their business will be. So off they go to their chosen web designer and spend thousands of pounds on a new website, and then sit and wait for the business to come rolling in. If only it was that easy!
Start from the beginning
To establish or rebrand a business, the online presence absolutely has an essential role to play, but it should be borne out of an overall strategy. What are you trying to achieve with your business? What do your customers want from you? How easy is it to generate leads in the market you’re in? How important is Search Engine Optimisation?
More established businesses should hopefully have a good grasp on all of the above, while new enterprises might need time to experiment and learn about their potential market. Even with the best laid plans, things are likely to change along the way as challenges are overcome and new opportunities present themselves. While a new business finds its feet and establishes itself by adapting and changing, custom built websites could prove to be a waste of money.
When website themes are a winner
Website design themes are a great option for new businesses, especially when sourced from a supplier that knows your industry. Here are some of the reasons we think design themes trump a customised web build for start-ups:
- Design themes provide a more cost effective and quicker route to getting online. The whole process is faster because a lot of the hard work has already been done up front.
- If you use a specialist in your industry, they will know from experience what works and what doesn’t on a website in your sector. You can use their expertise rather than take time experimenting for yourself.
- No need to compromise on results – a good website theme will generate leads for you as well as a customised site.
- Built-in functionality means your website can stand its ground against competitors without costing the earth.
- Good website theme suppliers will also offer ongoing support to ensure the short and long-term experience of developing your website is hassle-free.
We’ve concentrated a lot on start-ups in this blog, but website themes are certainly not limited to new businesses. We’ve delivered website design themes to hundreds of new enterprises and hundreds of well-established businesses alike and generated real leads and real results for all of them.
A time and a place
As many of you will know, we also have a sister company, The Consultancy, that creates bespoke websites for the window and door sector, so just to be clear we aren’t saying that you should never choose a customised site, we’re simply pointing out that there is a time and place for bespoke and a time and a place for website themes. Which is best for you?
We’d love to hear your views on this topic, or if you need help deciphering which option is best for your business today, please get in touch with katie@glazingvault.com
Posted on 16/09/2019
You’ve decided you need a new or refreshed website, but you don’t know where to start when it comes to choosing the right web design partner. A recommendation is always a good place to start but remember its horses for courses – a relationship that worked for a peer may not be right for you. So how do you make sure you get it right? Here are some suggestions from the Glazing Vault team.
It’s useful to think about what you want before you decide who is best delivering it. Think about what you want your website to be. Do you want it to be a brochure site, or to actively generate leads? If the latter, what experience and evidence can your shortlist of web designers demonstrate to you on previous successful lead generation sites?
Looking good
Once you know what you want it to be, you need to think about how you want your website to look. Look at your potential designer’s portfolio to see if they have done anything you like. A lot of designers also find it useful to see other sites you like, whether from your industry or another, to get an idea of the overall look and tone that appeals to you.
How do you like to work? Do you know exactly what you want and simply need a web company to do the technical bit and create your vision? Do you like to work collaboratively using your supplier’s expertise and experience with your input throughout the process, or can you take a step back and let your chosen supplier take the lead? It might help if your supplier specialises in your market and has proven experience to give you peace of mind.
Cost Vs Value
And finally, think about how much you have to spend on the project and find the right fit for your budget. It sounds obvious but looking for the cheapest supplier is never a good place to start. It’s better to think about what value you could get from the right site. For example, a site that helps you to generate leads will pay for itself more quickly than a straight-forward brochure site. But a brochure site is less expensive to create. Once you know what budget you have and what you want to achieve with that budget, you can look for a supplier who fits the brief.
Our philosophy
Glazing Vault specialises in the window and door industry and works closely with all kinds of customers to deliver what they need. We work for companies big and small supplying everything from the simpler brochure sites, to the slightly more complex lead generating sites. But whatever the size of customer and whatever the brief, we appreciate it’s a big step to take choosing a new website supplier, so try to make it as easy as possible for our clients every step of the way with our advanced management system and ongoing support once the project is completed.
