NewHorizon

August September 2012

A brighter horizon
Why were Britains Brightest Business
HTK have been voted Britains Brightest Business in a Nationwide competition sponsored by Hewlett Packard

G-Cloud gathering
See how our G-Cloud technology is winning businesss

Are you a local business?

Read inside to find more information about our exciting new Beta programme or visit www.htkhorizon.com/beta

On the Horizon......
We take a look at forthcoming events, product launches and whats going on within the industry.

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August September 2012

New Horizon

We are Britains
What an exciting start to 2012! The first half of the year has been the most exciting so far in HTKs history. HTK was founded by Marlon Bowser and Adrian Gregory, both working from home offices in 1996. Marlons twin brother, Justin joined the company 6 months later and the company has gone from strength to strength. Justin explains; Over the past 15 years we have grown in to a world-leading software company. Weve an established reputation for our work within the public sector, running services such as Police Direct for the Suffolk and Norfolk police (helping the police to stay in touch with the public using email, SMS texting and recorded phone messages) and the Scottish governments national flood warning alert system. Having moved into a newly refurbished warehouse on the Ipswich Waterfront in January this year, we were pleased to be crowned Britains Brightest Business in a national competition sponsored by Hewlett Packard (HP). HTK beat off competition from as far afield as Belfast, Newcastle and Worcester to win, and were filmed in the offices by HP as part of the campaign. Check out the video on the HTK Horizon You tube channel. Everyone at HTK was thrilled to be voted Britains Brightest Business. During the refurbishment process we were very conscious of the effect colour could have on our business and we were proved correct! Its certainly an award to be proud of and we would welcome any local business to visit our new offices for coffee and a chat. It would certainly be a colourful introduction to Horizon. Some other great steps for HTK Horizon include exhibiting at our first local event, The ISSBA at Trinity Park which brought together various local businesses in April. This followed with us exhibiting at the UKs largest business exhibition, The Great British Business Show, in Excel London, as well as presenting a seminar on the five strategies for digital marketing success. What this space. We are currently recruiting for a head of marketing. There is a lot more to come for the other half of 2012.

Brightest Business
So what is Horizon? The idea behind HTK Horizon is to help businesses improve their marketing and customer service (helping them make AND save money), by making smarter use of their customer data and todays digital communications to get the right information, to the right people, at the right time, and in their preferred way whether that be email, text, phone, web or social media such as Twitter and Facebook. Having worked previously with government departments and large corporates, HTK is now bringing the same software technology to small and mid-sized businesses at an affordable price and with the ease of use that smaller companies require. In the current economic climate, HTK believes SMEs should have the same tools at their disposal that a larger business would have, in order to compete on a level playing field and grow their businesses. Fancy a coffee? get in touch and come down for a demo of Horizon. Or go online to our website and sign up to one of our webinars.

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HTK Horizon voted Britains Brightest office in Hewlett Packard sponsored competition

Are you a local business? Would you like to improve your mobile or email marketing, to build closer relationships with your customers and sales prospects? Were looking for 10 local businesses of all sizes, to work with us on an exciting new Beta programme. If youre selected, well give you our HTK Horizon software FREE of charge, and work closely with you to achieve greater success in your digital marketing. Well then help to promote your business with a range of joint marketing activities. Interested? Contact us now at www.HTKhorizon.com

We have seen some excellent companies on board using Horizon, so watch for some great case studies to follow soon.

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August - September 2012

New Horizon

Coming shortly on our website will be a selection of

case studies from local businesses who have been testing Horizon for their email and SMS marketing. To stay up to date and learn how these companies are improving their marketing results, join our newsletter at www.htkhorizon.com.

On the horizon...

HTK & IBC

HTK are working with Ipswich Borough Council across a range of different initiatives. These are mainly geared around helping to ensure that members of the public stay informed and involved about local information and events. IBC are using Horizon to develop a range of services to capture feedback from communities across Ipswich, and to provide timely and relevant information to those who request it. You can find out more about IBC events (such as the Maritime Festival on 18th and 19th August) and have your say by signing up to www.ipswich.gov.uk/direct. If you do attend the Maritime Festival, keep an eye out for our offices on the quayside (were the brightly coloured one with the pink, blue and green interior, you cant miss us!)

Join Laura and Justin in Central London on the

28th September exhibiting at the Capita Warning and informing public conference. Laura is our business continuity expert and has recently won an award at BANG Awards for most helpful person in the industry.

Catch us at Wherstead Park in Ipswich on the

25th of October at the Business Suffolk Showcase event promoting the best businesses in Suffolk.

The local market

If you are looking at targeting your customers geographically (perhaps to send last-minute special offers to local customers), you can do this using one of the segmentation options in Horizon. Recently voted best feature by our customers, our Map Groups function gives businesses the opportunity to target their customers with specific information based on their location (map point or postcode). Were currently extending this feature to use location information from social media apps as well; this will give some amazing opportunities for personalised marketing and customer service.

Olympic fever
With all the recent noise and hype surrounding the 2012 Olympics Games in London, its important to be aware of the possible risk of business interruption. However, with good planning and consideration you can be well prepared. If you are looking for advice on business continuity and how to keep your staff and customers informed if the unexpected happens, please contact Laura Meadows at HTK for some friendly, free advice on laura.meadows@htk.co.uk or Laura_htk Did you know? Ipswich Borough Council used Horizons SMS texting feature to coordinate over 200 volunteers when the Olympic Torch came through Ipswich on 5th and 6th July. It was so successful that they plan to use texting in this way for all future events.

Store Clouds growing!

HTK has been awarded a Framework Agreement for provision of our Horizon software through the new UK Government CloudStore. (www.govstore.net). This is the third significant framework agreement to be awarded to HTK, in addition to Government Procurement Service framework agreements for Mobile Solutions and Local Government Software Application Solutions. As taxpayers, we should all applaud what the government is doing to reduce the costs of delivering IT solutions, which have historically been extremely high, and to encourage small and medium-sized businesses to compete for government contracts. HTK managing director Justin Bowser, sits on the governments SME panel which looks into ways in which businesses can become suppliers into government. Justin explained, Lots of SMEs struggle [to work with government] because the actual and perceived barriers to entry have been very high.

CONTACT
Kayleigh Bendall Online Community Manager Tel: +44 (0) 1473 487285 @kayleigh_htk HTK Limited, Chapmans Warehouse, Wherry Quay, Ipswich IP4 1AS, UK @HTKHorizon

There has been an attitude within certain areas of government that SMEs are going to be difficult to deal with, or that they will not deliver. G-Cloud is a real game changer. It is a very tangible, visible demonstration of the way government wants to change the way it procures. I dont think SMEs can be ignored anymore!

www.htkhorizon.com

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