I’m delighted to see that Electronics Weekly has launched a blog about test and certification that is written by our client TRaC. The engineers at TRaC have superb knowledge about this subject, which is not surprising considering they are the leading UK test and certification company. They’ve been supplying posts to EW for some time, so the blog already has some fascinating posts.

Tags: Blogs, Clients, Electronics, Electronics Weekly, News About Napier, Online, UK

Every year I put together a review of what happened in the European electronics media, including some of the highlights from my postings to Napier News. Despite the economic challenges, we saw some positive moves from publishers in our industry, hopefully laying the groundwork for greater success in the future. The Napier News Review of 2009 is available now, simply click here to get your PDF copy.

Tags: Electronics, Europe, Misc Marketing, News About Napier

Thanks to all at Electronics Weekly for putting on such a good show last night for the annual Elektra Awards. We had several clients shortlisted, with Microchip walking away with the Semiconductor Product of the Year – Digital award. Many congratulations to Microchip and all our clients who were shortlisted.

Tags: Awards, Clients, Electronics, Electronics Weekly, Microchip, News About Napier

Congratulations to Outram Research, whose PM7000 power analyser was ‘Highly Commended’ in the Electrical Industry Awards Test & Measurement category. Outram is a fairly new client for Napier, and we’re delighted that they have done so well in such a prestigious award. Many congratulations from all of us at Napier to Outram on their well-deserved success!

Tags: Awards, Clients, ESE, News About Napier, Research, UK

Today was an exciting day, as we went through our first audit for the Consultancy Management Standard (CMS) – the quality standard for PR agencies. The PR Consultants Association launched the standard in 1998, and it is now internationally recognised. The standard combines elements of ISO9001 and Investors in People with criteria specific to a PR consultancy, making it a demanding test for any agency. Achieving this certification is a reflection of our team’s commitment to quality and continuous improvement, and the improvements we’ve made will benefit our clients both now and in the future.

Tags: Misc Marketing, News About Napier

Congratulations to Jennic, LEM, Microchip, Picor and Vicor, all Napier clients shortlisted for the 2009 Elektra Awards.

Tags: Awards, News About Napier

We recently conducted a survey in collaboration with the University of Chichester to understand the impact of social media on engineers. The report abstract states:

This joint project between Napier and the University of Chichester aims to understand whether engineers make use of social media, and if so whether social media provides an effective marketing channel to electronics design engineers in Europe. The research reveals that whilst engineers are making use of online tools to communicate and collaborate – particularly forums and LinkedIn – there appears to be a significant resistance to social media and viral marketing amongst a large section of the engineering audience.

I’m really excited to have completed this project, which shows that although there is some reluctance amongst engineers to adopt social media, the technology is being used to source information about companies and products as well as to collaborate with colleagues. The summary report is available online as a downloadable PDF. A full set of results is also available in Excel format, and are available on request – simply send me an email.

Tags: Misc Marketing, News About Napier, Research

Congratulations to Mr. Anthony T. Jones of EMTEQ – Europe, who was the lucky winner of the iPod Touch in the draw for people who completed our social media survey. The results are very interesting – please contact me for a copy of the report.

Tags: News About Napier, Research

I started work on a project to look at the use of social media by engineers some months ago, which has produced some interesting results. We’re sponsoring research that is being conducted by Chichester University and although the fuill analysis won’t be available until the end of July, I wanted to share some of the initial results with you.

To date we have received almost 300 responses to the survey, providing a sample size that is more than sufficient to draw clear conclusions. Some of the provisional results are:
61% believed social media was a useful business tool, although 28% were blocked from using these tools at work
30% currently use social media for work, 44% for personal reasons, but a surprising 46% don’t use social media at all
Only 5% use Twitter more than once a week, whereas 28% are frequent users of Facebook
Linkedin is the clear choice for business use, with 24% using the site more than once a week
The most popular form of social media for business use are forums, with 45% of the respondents using forums for business purposes.

The results will be available in a month’s time, so if you want to make sure your get a copy of the report when it is available, please email me.

Tags: Misc Marketing, News About Napier, Research

What a nice end to the week, as PR Week named Napier in their listing of the top 40 UK Technology Consultancies, which covers a wide range of B2B and B2C agencies. This is the first year we’ve been in the league table, entering at number 21. Thanks to all our clients for their business and support that has got Napier listed with such prestigious company.

Tags: News About Napier

I’ve started to use my Twitter feed (Mike_Maynard) for updates about Napier News. Let me know you find this useful, as I’m going to run it as a 2-month experiment before deciding whether to continue.

Tags: News About Napier

Everyone at Napier turned into complete softies yesterday when Alexis, who recently provided maternity cover for the irrepressible Emma, brought Alexander into work. Alexander is Alexis’ second child, with a wonderful calm temperament – not a single cry or whinge, even when I was holding him!

Tags: News About Napier