Media Centre

Pyxle, the country’s leading benchmark provider specialising in creative internet business solutions, enabled DFCC Bank, Sri Lanka’s premier financial services group to win the Best Web award as a financial institution.
The deployed site offers the DFCC customer base a comprehensive website that consists of a multilingual platform together with mobile integration and branch locator, based on current web technologies.
Pyxle, with over a decade of experience in helping organisations chart their online potential, aimed at providing a flexible and intelligent retrieval access portal for DFCC Bank’s online users to receive information in their preferred language.
The development team’s use of Unicode, one of the most significant global software technology trends in recent years, has set a unique precedent in creating the first Sri Lankan banking site that uses Unicode for true multilingual capability.
DFCC Corporate Communications Vice President Rosheeni Wijesekera said: “Our technology partner Pyxle, did a comprehensive study of our clientele and roadmap for online technology. One of the key suggestions and since implemented, has been a CMS based Sinhala and Tamil website version. “They are assisting us in our goal to make the Bank’s website interesting, interactive and alluring to all our stakeholders.”
She also added that, “As a pioneering financial institution and with our clients, language should not be a barrier to integrate people into a more informed, cyber savvy society. Pyxle did an excellent roadmap and delivered various online channels necessary to cater to our online users.”
Pxyle Managing Director Presantha Jayamaha emphasised that “Working with DFCC Bank has been a very educating experience. We proposed a comprehensive engagement model to the board, comprising a web strategy inclusive of a multilingual website, internet marketing and a social media engagement plan.
“We wanted a holistic approach to communicate the Bank’s goals, brand objectives and service value to their current and potential clients. Our extensive experience in the financial sector, understanding of the latest technology platforms and skilled in-house teams that handle all aspects of online communications provide us the capability to drive DFCC and their other businesses through the creation of a seamless online business and communication solution.”
Pyxle is a provider of benchmark internet business solutions, empowered through a multitude of platform competencies, process management tools, quality standards and certifications. The organisation has the experience and knowledge to consult, scope, engineer and implement medium to large scale internet applications that transform businesses.

Bread Talk Sri Lanka has been creating waves in the local Facebook and Twitter Communities, through the initiation of a social media campaign that had made an immense impact in familiarizing BreadTalk’s brand name amongst its consumers in Sri Lanka.

The success of the campaign has revealed in the Bread-Talk Facebook page www.facebook.com/breadtalksrilanka, which showcases an expansion of the fan base to over 25,000 followers within a period of five months of the campaign’s launch. The social media campaign included the development of customized Facebook applications, Special give-out campaigns, Gift-voucher promotions and other interactive Facebook engagements which had delivered remarkable results.

“The strategy followed in building the offline and online media interaction has been via the on-going marketing communications campaign for BreadTalk in Sri Lanka. This had been translated very successfully in to the Social Media campaign by Pyxle. When considering the target group for this campaign, it had been important to create a social media mechanism which truly portrayed the style, quality and variety of the BreadTalk food range. The uniqueness and novelty of the campaigns and also the innovative mechanism used in building these social media platforms, have undoubtedly enhanced customer knowledge of the products, thus assisting in our growth,” said Yatilla Wijemane, Managing Director of BreadTalk Sri Lanka.

BreadTalk had brought the best of global cuisine to Sri Lanka. We believe and strive for, offering the freshest products and ingredients to our customers.

The social media channels have been used very effectively to convey this culture and service levels.

For example, customers and followers of BreadTalk Facebook page has the ability to raise questions, request help, provide feedbacks on products as well as post comments to the company. “This definitely lifts our service offering,” added Yatila.

Pyxle devised the social media strategy by working closely with the marketing team at Bread Talk. The final strategy included a number of current and upcoming Facebook applications, promotions and even a Rapid Information Dissemination (RID) service; which enables Facebook fans to expect an on-time response from Bread Talk under an hour.

Oshada Senanayake, Director Pyxle said, “We have been very fortunate in working closely with the team at BreadTalk. The ideas and concepts that were implemented on this Social Media campaign, were astounding in the results and engagements generated. I personally believe that a committed social media engagement, such as this, brings the customers much closer to the brand. Pyxle would continue to build on top of this rapid success and provide enhanced social media products and e-marketing strategies to further enhance the BreadTalk brand and services in Sri Lanka.”

Established in 2003, Pyxle is a regional leader in internet and web based application development. The company focuses on providing its clients the opportunity to harness the true power and potential of the internet.

Pyxle,a software and web development company’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) project for Palagama Beach Resort, resulted in a traffic increase of 650 percent for the hotel within 5-6 months of optimisation. Enthusiastic about the, owner of Palagama Beach ResortJohn Balmond said, “Our primary desire when contracting Pyxle was to get to the top in Google web searches. The support we got from Pyxle to achieve this was amazing. We are very pleased with the web design, the development and search engine optimization solutions proposed and implemented by Pyxle which has significantly improved the web presence of Palagama Beach Resort”. “A traffic increase of 650 percent in six months after the Pyxle optimization surpassed all our expectations. I would like to thank the Pyxle team for their tremendous efforts to put us on the top of the targeted searches They are extremely good in their optimisation approaches and maintain the look and feel of the website without altering it”, Balmond said.

Source : http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2012/06/17/fin42.asp

A traffic increase of 650% in just 6 months after the Pyxle optimisation surpassed all our expectations. I would like to thank the Pyxle team for their tremendous efforts to put us on the top of the targeted searches. They are very good in their optimisation approaches and maintain the look and feel of the website without altering it – Palagama Beach Resort Owner John Balmond Pyxle, a top ranking Software and Web Development Company based in Sri Lanka proved yet again their competency in Internet Marketing solutions when their Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) project for Palagama Beach Resort, resulted in a traffic increase of 650% for the Hotel within just five to six months of optimisation. This success was far above the desired objectives and targeted deadlines of the project. Enthusiastic about this online expansion Palagama Beach Resort Owner John Balmond said, “Our primary desire when contracting Pyxle was to get to the top in the Google web searches. The support we got from Pyxle to achieve this was amazing. We are very pleased with the web design, the development and search engine optimisation solutions proposed and implemented by Pyxle which has significantly improved the web presence of Palagama Beach Resort.” “A traffic increase of 650% in just 6 months after the Pyxle optimisation surpassed all our expectations. I would like to thank the Pyxle team for their tremendous efforts to put us on the top of the targeted searches. They are very good in their optimisation approaches and maintain the look and feel of the website without altering it,” Balmond said. The Pyxle Internet Marketing solutions include Search Engine Optimisation and marketing, Social Media Optimisation (SMO), Online PR together with Online Research and Analytical Performance Reporting. Some of the key benefits enjoyed by the hotel through Pyxle’s comprehensive internet marketing solutions are an increase in online inquiries and sales, a higher hit rate from target countries, a boost in brand awareness, and above all a good return on investment. According to Balmond, Pyxle has been quite transparent about the technical effort behind the solutions they offer. Together with optimising the Palagama Resort website, Pyxle has been meticulously implementing other strategies, such as Social Media Engagement, that would improve the online popularity of this award winning boutique resort. Pyxle Managing Director Presantha Jayamaha commenting on this latest achievement said “We are very happy about reaching the desired results much early than the expected time frame. Small boutique hotels are among the most sought after places in Sri Lanka. It is remarkable to note that the SEO work done has given Palagama the edge over other major hotels in the locality. Palagama Beach Resort obtained the top slot for all the targeted keywords and we are now working on securing these positions in the long run.” Jayamaha also said, “This exercise just goes to show the effectiveness of Internet marketing as in this example; a small hotel in Sri Lanka can attract and convince a prospective traveller in Europe to visit its hotel simply by marketing itself correctly online.” Internet marketing is a broader mix of online marketing components, such as SEO, Social Media and Pay-Per-Click. It is essentially using the Internet to communicate a company’s message about itself, its products, or its services online. It is one of the most economical and far reaching mediums of communication between a company and its clients.

Wednesday, 06th June 2012, Colombo: DFCC Bank (DFCC) and DFCC Vardhana Bank (DVB) consolidated and integrated their presence on the information superhighway into one location through the launch of their new website www.dfcc.lk .With a view to delivering seamless banking services through a convenient, easy to navigate portal, the Banking Group hopes to meet the financial needs of the cyber savvy generation. “In a knowledge-based world, technology plays a vital role in increasing access to information while contributing to economic growth and productivity. It is estimated that Sri Lanka has more than two million internet users with many more having mobile connectivity. The social media networks boast more than 1000 million active users of which, over one million are estimated to be from Sri Lanka. All of this leads to a compression of human connectivity, leading us to re-think the well touted concept of a cyber-village.” said Mr. Nihal Fonseka, Chief Executive of DFCC Bank. He added, “With www.dfcc.lk our web presence is integrated into one location while ensuring high user engagement through dynamic content. We are also presenting the idea of a virtual branch through connectivity to our internet banking portal, which connects our customers to the services they require, at the speed of a key-stroke” The site also features “Virtual MindStar”, the online version of DFCC’s tremendously successful reality TV quiz show DFCC MindStar. Competitors can now win exciting prizes by testing their quiz skills virtually. The new and improved website includes the following features: • Search function – this will enable users to find information on the website through keywords or phrases

• GPS enabled branch locator

• Connectivity to the banks’ social media pages (Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.)

• Web forms related to loan applications, account openings, etc. • Loan and deposit calculators related to specific products displayed on product pages. • Embedded video links

• News blog

• Application/widget delivering the latest financial news

• Forex Rates

Speaking on the new web portal, Mr. Lakshman Silva, CEO of DFCC Vardhana Bank stated, “The richness of the world-wide-web demands us to be more proactive in our information delivery strategy. With consumers living fast-paced lifestyles, their requirements now need to be fulfilled faster than ever. As part of our continued commitment to technological advancement of our delivery channels, this site, along with the connected Internet Banking portal will enable users to access our seamless solutions more expediently. This is just the first phase of the development of the www.dfcc.lk web portal. As the next step in the evolution of the website the DFCC will create multi lingual versions in Sinhala and Tamil while a mobile version has also been planned for the near future.”

Source : http://www.dfcc.lk/news/dfcc-launches-brand-new-website-1

You may have heard that acquiring a new customer can cost up to five times more than keeping the customers you already have. Yet poor customer service continues to irritate many consumers. More than half of U.S. consumers (55 percent) polled for the 2012 American Express Global Customer Service Barometer (PDF) say they’ve turned their backs on at least one potential purchase in the past year as a result of what they saw as poor service. And while only 17 percent of those surveyed say they’ve used social media to seek a resolution to their customer service query, this savvy group carries a lot of weight in how companies should respond. Why? A whopping 83 percent of consumers who use social media to try to resolve a service or support issue have bowed out of a purchase when they have a bad service. What’s more, social media users say they spend 21 percent more with companies that provide great service. And these particular users say they’re far more likely to tell others about their experience. For example, consumers who use social media for customer service will tell an average of 42 others about a good experience — and tell an average of 53 people about a bad customer-service experience. The general population, in contrast, will tell 15 people about a good experience and 24 about a negative one. Zack Urlocker, chief operating officer of Zendesk, the help-desk software behind Zappos, says the rise of social media means customers expect authentic, truthful and open communication and won’t be fooled by excuses, runarounds and insincerity. “Businesses need to develop a proactive customer-engagement strategy that seamlessly integrates social media, in order to temper the likelihood of something spinning out of control.” He said the way to do that is to make sure you talk to your customers through their preferred communication vehicle, such as Twitter or Facebook.

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/223469

Facebook disclosed on Monday that it has 901 million users, making it likely that it will pass the 1 billion mark well before the end of the year. The company, which dropped the stat in its amended S-1 filing, also notes that its network receives 3.2 billion comments per day and 300 million new photos daily. The site also claims 125 billion friendships. Of the 901 million figure, 526 million were described as daily active users in March. Some 488 million people also used Facebook mobile products that month, according to the filing. When Facebook filed its IPO paperwork with the SEC in February, the network tallied 845 million users. Back in January, Gregory Lyons, a senior analyst at iCrossing, estimated that Facebook would hit 1 billion users by August, a rate of growth that appears plausible based on the latest numbers. Even before Monday’s latest numbers dropped, Facebook was by far the largest social network in the world. Twitter, which passed 500 million users in February, is number two on the list — although Twitter says that only 140 million of those accounts are active. How big will Facebook get, and how fast? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Source: http://mashable.com/2012/04/23/facebook-now-has-901-million-users/

The Big Debate

Is email marketing dead? I’ve written about this two years ago and it keeps coming back. Certainly, mumblings around the social media circuit like to evoke the sentiment and I expect we’ll here more about it at San Francisco’s ad:tech this week. I’m sure there’s a track somewhere in the two days which asks: “Is email marketing still relevant in a world full of social networks?” Remember all the talk a few years back about how Social was going to replace email? Dave Scott, CEO of Marketfish does. The sentiment back then was all about how kids 18 and under “don’t know what email is.” But things appear to have come full-circle according to Dave, “If you are a brand and you want people to like your Facebook page, all you are really doing is hoping they are going to like it. What smart social marketers do is use email to drive people to social engagement.” Email Part of Good Social Dave’s not alone in his thoughts. Social media strategists are writing that email marketing is still a very important and relevant part of any complete web marketing strategy. The key now is to effectively combine your email marketing and social media marketing strategies together to execute on your goals. “In order to make social effective,” Dave says, “you have to drive the right traffic.” Email is certainly a good way to do that. After all, people rarely switch email addresses, but they do migrate from one social media channel to another. And a company like Marketfish is able to deliver cost-effective CPCs because email marketing done right is highly targeted. Combining email and social media is becoming easier for marketers, as well, as technology providers have synchronized the two. Constant Contact allows you to include a share bar in your newsletter so readers can share it on your social networks. And MailChimp makes it easy to drop in social sharing icons from an abundance of social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Digg, to bring your marketing campaign full circle. In the end, email may very well be an essential element to effective social media marketing

Source : http://socialmediatoday.com/socialmktgfella/481286/email-marketing-dead-interview-marketfish-ceo-dave-scott

How do the big, name-brand companies stay on top? One answer is innovation. Besides acquiring smaller, innovative companies, most giant brands also put a lot of energy into research and development. So they’re constantly testing out new ideas in every element of their business, from marketing strategy to products.

Here are three of latest and greatest ideas that recently caught my eye, which come courtesy of Starbucks, Amazon and USPS:

Starbucks recently opened a portable store in the Seattle area that’s made from four stackable shipping containers. The store offers many possibilities. It’s moveable like a food truck, but offers a different look and feel. Maybe they could plop it down in different cities, or as a test store in a prospective market. If customers don’t come, they could try again a few blocks away.

At the same time, the store makes a statement about Starbucks’ commitment to the environment. It’s essentially a recycled store. On the exterior reads the company’s motto: “regenerate, reuse, recycle, renew, reclaim.” It also has a tiny footprint, under 500 square feet.

The company says it may use them in the parking lot while stores are being remodeled or constructed. What a great way to start building your audience before you open.

For its part, Amazon is testing out a new delivery method for its many packages — PIN-based, self-service lockers they place at a nearby 7-Eleven or other 24/7 convenience store. If you’re not home much, you could pop by your locker when it’s convenient and keep your packages secure in the meanwhile. They’re trying out these lockers in Seattle, New York and London.

USPS likes this idea, too — they’re testing “gopost” parcel lockers outside post offices in Northern Virginia. The lockers enable customers to receive high-value items such as smartphones in a secure way, then retrieve them anytime.

These news twists show how valuable it is to rethink every aspect of your business. Not all new initiatives should be about products or services. It’ll be interesting to see how these innovations are received by customers.

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/222598

My feelings about Steve Jobs have always been a little mixed. I long admired his entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen and was in sheer awe of his natural instincts for what appeals to consumers. On the other hand I bristled at what I saw as his — and by extension Apple’s — occasionally capricious and even contradictory actions (App store products in or out, inability to get in front of product issues, antennaegate) and super-secretive nature.

Now, having finished the 600-plus page Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, I think I finally understand Steve Jobs. Like most of us, his personality had many sides. He could be aloof, super-intense, odd, gross, passionate, creative, driven, unfair, conciliatory and deeply introspective. He lived a rich and unique life.

As I read the tome on my Kindle, I highlighted interesting, surprising and relevant passages. Now, as I look back at them I realize that many help illustrate some of the larger lessons we can all glean from Steve Jobs’ remarkable life.

Don’t Wait

When the young Steve Jobs wanted to build something and needed a piece of equipment, he went straight to the source.

“He began by recalling that he had wanted to build a frequency counter when he was twelve, and he was able to look up Bill Hewlett, the founder of HP, in the phone book and call him to get parts.”

Make Your Own Reality

Steve Jobs learned early that when you don’t like how things are in your life or in your world, change them, either through action or sheer force of will.

“As Hoffman later lamented, “The reality distortion field can serve as a spur, but then reality itself hits.” – Joanna Hoffman, part of Apple’s early Macintosh team.

“I didn’t want to be a father, so I wasn’t,” Jobs later said, with only a touch of remorse in his voice.

Control Everything You Can

Steve Jobs was, to a certain degree, a hippie. However, unlike most free spirits of the 1960s-to-1970s love-in era, Jobs was a detail-oriented control freak.

“He wants to control his environment, and he sees the product as an extension of himself.”

Own Your Mistakes

Jobs could be harsh and even thoughtless. Perhaps nowhere was that more in evidence than with his first daughter. Still, as Jobs grew older and began to face mortality, he more readily admitted his mistakes.

“I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was twenty-three and the way I handled that,” Jobs said.”

Know Yourself

While not always aware of how those around him were reacting to his appearance or demeanor, Jobs had no illusions about his own formidable intellectual skills.

“Then a more disconcerting discovery began to dawn on him: He was smarter than his parents.”

Leave the Door Open for the Fantastic

Jobs was a seeker, pursuing spiritual enlightenment and body purification throughout his life. He wasn’t a particularly religious person, but did not dismiss the existence or something beyond our earth-bound realm.

“I think different religions are different doors to the same house. Sometimes I think the house exists, and sometimes I don’t. It’s the great mystery.” — Steve Jobs

Don’t Hold Back

Apple’s founder was famous for his outbursts and sometimes over-emotional responses. In product development, things were often amazing or sh_t.

“He was an enlightened being who was cruel,” she recalled. “That’s a strange combination.”– former girlfriend and mother of Jobs’ first daughter, Chrisann Brennan

Surround Yourself with Brilliance

Whether he was willing to admit it or not, Steve Jobs could not do everything. Yes, he could have a huge impact on every product and marketing campaign, but he also knew that there were others in the world with skills he did not possess. Jobs’ early partnership with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak perfectly illustrated this fact. His early success with Wozniak provided the template for future collaborations.

“After a couple of months he was ready to test it. ‘I typed a few keys on the keyboard and I was shocked! The letters were displayed on the screen.’ It was Sunday, June 29, 1975, a milestone for the personal computer. “It was the first time in history,” Wozniak later said, “anyone had typed a character on a keyboard and seen it show up on their own computer’s screen right in front of them.”

Build a Team of A Players

Far too often, companies and managers settle for average employees. Steve Jobs recognized talent and decided that any conflict that might arise from a company full of “A”-level players would be counterbalanced by awesome output. He may have been right.

“For most things in life, the range between best and average is 30% or so. The best airplane flight, the best meal, they may be 30% better than your average one. What I saw with Woz was somebody who was fifty times better than the average engineer. He could have meetings in his head. The Mac team was an attempt to build a whole team like that, A players. People said they wouldn’t get along, they’d hate working with each other. But I realized that A players like to work with A players, they just didn’t like working with C players.”– Steve Jobs

“I’ve learned over the years that when you have really good people you don’t have to baby them,” Jobs later explained. “By expecting them to do great things, you can get them to do great things.”

Be Yourself

Steve Jobs was often so busy being himself that he had no idea how people saw him, especially in his early, dirty-hippie days.

“At meetings we had to look at his dirty feet. Sometimes, to relieve stress, he would soak his feet in the toilet, a practice that was not as soothing for his colleagues.”—Mike Markkula, Apple’s first chairman.

Be Persuasive

While it’s true that early Steve Jobs was a somewhat smelly and unpleasant person to be around, this same Steve Jobs also trained himself to stare without blinking for long periods of time and found that he could persuade people to do the seemingly impossible.

“If it could save a person’s life, would you find a way to shave ten seconds off the boot time?” he asked. Kenyon allowed that he probably could. Jobs went to a whiteboard and showed that if there were five million people using the Mac, and it took ten seconds extra to turn it on every day, that added up to three hundred million or so hours per year that people would save, which was the equivalent of at least one hundred lifetimes saved per year.”

Show Others the Way

Jobs wasn’t truly a programmer or technologist, certainly not in the way that Microsoft founder Bill Gates is, yet he had an intuitive understanding for technology and design that ended up altering the world’s expectations for computers and, more importantly, consumer electronics.

“To be honest, we didn’t know what it meant for a computer to be ‘friendly’ until Steve told us.” — Terry Oyama, part of the early Macintosh design team.

Trust Your Instincts

I have, in my own career, navigated by gut on more than one occasion. Steve Jobs, though, had a deep and abiding belief in his own tastes and believed with utter certainty that if he liked something, the public would as well. He was almost invariably right.

“Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?” — Steve Jobs

Take Risks

Throughout his career, Steve Jobs took chances, first with the launch of Apple, then in walking away from it and then returning in 1997. In an era when most companies were figuring out ways to diversify, Apple — under Job’s leadership — shed businesses and products, and focused on relatively few areas. He was also willing to steer the entire Apple ship (or at least some aspects of it) in a single direction if he thought it would generate future success.

“One of Jobs’ management philosophies was that it is crucial, every now and then, to roll the dice and ‘bet the company’ on some new idea or technology.”

“I had this crazy idea that we could sell just as many Macs by advertising the iPod. In addition, the iPod would position Apple as evoking innovation and youth. So I moved $75 million of advertising money to the iPod, even though the category didn’t justify one hundredth of that. That meant that we completely dominated the market for music players. We outspent everybody by a factor of about a hundred.” — Steve Jobs.

Follow Great with Great

In everything from products to movies (under Pixar), Steve Jobs sought to create great follow-ups. He wasn’t so successful in the early part of his career (see Lisa), but his third acts to Pixar and Apple proved he had the sequel touch.

“There’s a classic thing in business, which is the second-product syndrome,” Jobs later said. It comes from not understanding what made your first product so successful. “I lived through that at Apple. My feeling was, if we got through our second film, we’d make it.”

Make Tough Decisions

Good managers and leaders are willing to do hard work and, often, make unpopular decisions. Jobs apparently had little concern about being liked and therefore was well-equipped to make tough choices.

“The most visible decision he made was to kill, once and for all, the Newton, the personal digital assistant with the almost-good handwriting-recognition system.”

Presentation Can Make a World of Difference

The Apple founder hated PowerPoint presentations, but perhaps somewhat uncharacteristically, believed elegant product presentation was critical.

“Packaging can be theater, it can create a story.” — Jony Ive, Apple designer.

Find a Way to Balance Your Intensity

It’s unclear if Steve Jobs ever truly mellowed, but he did learn that a buffer between him and the rest of Apple could be useful.

“In a company that was led by a CEO prone to tantrums and withering blasts, Cook commanded situations with a calm demeanor, a soothing Alabama accent, and silent stares.”

Live for Today

Even as Steve Jobs struggled with cancer, he rarely slowed down. If anything, the disease helped him focus his efforts and pursue some of his grandest dreams.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.” — Steve Jobs

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” — Steve Jobs

Share Your Wisdom

Steve Jobs was not a philanthropic soul. He had a passion for products and success, but it wasn’t until he became quite ill that he started reaching out and offering his wisdom to others in the tech community.

“I will continue to do that with people like Mark Zuckerberg too. That’s how I’m going to spend part of the time I have left. I can help the next generation remember the lineage of great companies here and how to continue the tradition. The Valley has been very supportive of me. I should do my best to repay.” — Steve Jobs

 

Source: http://mashable.com/2011/12/18/steve-jobs-20-life-lessons/