Welcome to Incisor Communications

Published
by
Clive
on April 25, 2008
in Public Relations and Social Media
. 0 Comments

Fourteen years ago, I had the good fortune to be involved in the creation of a new agency. An agency with a simple set of objectives: It wanted to work with technology brands that were having—or were destined to have—market-shifting influences. It wanted to work with brands that touched consumer and business audiences alike, brands that its media contacts would always want to hear about. Most importantly, it wanted to work with brands that gave its people freedom and encouragement to do their best, most creative work. It is, of course, no surprise that the agency that I’m talking about is Bite.

Fourteen years later, I find myself in a similar position. Only this time, I’m not involved in creating a whole new agency but rather a brand new division of Bite. It gives me great please to unveil Incisor Communications—a division that has been set up with the primary purpose of supporting the newest addition to our growing technology portfolio—enterprise infrastructure and mobile software leader, Sybase.

Sybase is a company we’ve watched an admired from afar for many years. We have been keeping a close eye on the business with a determined view to being ready should an opportunity arise. A little over two months ago, opportunity knocked and we had a team ready to grab it with both hands and give it everything.

During the new business process, we discovered that Sybase faced a unique set of communications challenges that required an equally unique solution dedicated to meet and exceed those challenges while respecting the value of other client relationships across the Bite Group—particularly clients with potential areas of conflict. With Incisor Communications, we have created a new and exciting communications solution specifically for a company we believe will be as important to unwiring the enterprise as Bite’s first client, Apple, has been to the digital entertainment revolution.

In Sybase, we represent a brand with an amazing heritage and an incredible future and now, with Incisor, we are lucky enough to be in a position to play a role in helping to shape that future. Given our objectives when we started Bite—and today as we create Incisor—we couldn’t be more excited about rising to the challenges presented by Sybase and helping to elevate its brand to the position of prominence that its heritage and vision richly deserves.

For more background on Incisor, please feel free to view our short video where I talk about the importance of the Sybase win and the rationale behind Incisor. Over the coming weeks and months, the Incisor team will be posting regular entries to the Incisor blog, which will evolve over time but have a distinct initial focus on all things mobile. I encourage you to subscribe to the blog and welcome your thoughts on our exciting new opportunity. Welcome to Incisor Communications.

Death of the Cable Guy’s Dreaded 4-hour Waiting Windows?

Published
by
Drew
on March 26, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

We’ve all been there: you move into a new apartment or house and one of the first tasks at hand is setting up cable and internet connectivity. Only problem is, the cable/internet guy gives you the largest appointment window possible (e.g., 8 am – 8 pm) in which you’re captive in your new, empty place, waiting for his (or her) arrival. Of course, this brings the obvious thought: when are we going to step out of the dark ages and be able to schedule accurate appointments??

Well, it may not be entirely the cable guy’s fault. It must be said that they are only as efficient and technologically dexterous as their tools allow them, and often times their devices don’t allow them much dexterity. Which of course, leaves them limited and of course, at the mercy of the customer that has been waiting for 8 hours for the cable guy.

With the advent of cutting-edge mobile devices such as smart phones and PDA’s, however, the cable guy will be enabled to access sophisticated data from corporate headquarters which enables them to more effectively do their job. They are now empowered to troubleshoot pesky connectivity problems, as well as allow for more streamlined communication between themselves and the home base ensuring greater satisfaction for their customers. In the next 1-2 years, who knows? Not only could these technology advances save precious time as the cable guy installs your cable but the improved communication could allow them to (heaven forbid) give you a reasonable appointment timeframe that you could realistically fit around your daily life.

Advantage: Green

Published
by
Kristina
on March 26, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

A recent post by Green Wombat featuring the opinions of Virgin Group’s Will Whitehorn and our own Bite Communications Cleantech team raises an interesting question: can every business be green?

We believe the answer is yes! Utility companies, oil companies and even chemical companies can reinvent themselves into a more-profitable, less-wasteful company—version 2.0, if you will—which is one of the foundational concepts of sustainability. Often people think of sustainability as, quite simply, walking lightly on the earth. But in fact, sustainability has three basic components: people, plants and profits. Sustainable business practices encompass a broad range of issues, and are actually oriented to create the best business environment possible. How exactly?

By ensuring—through practices that are (yes) often earth-friendly—the long-term delivery of resources necessary to produce and service our businesses. A virtuous cycle that supports the reduction of resource use—especially energy—and neutralizes harm to the supply of raw materials for our industries, help ensure the ability to compete in the corporate world. Thus, inefficient products, poisonous production lines and waste-ridden operations are not part of the equation—these practices are bad for the planet, people and ultimately, bad for business.

The world is full of legacy companies that are stuck 10-, 20- even 50-year-old practices—many of which are not sustainable. So, how does a company or an industry—known for siloing the environment into Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports and charities—remake itself? Competition.

Much like the Virgin Group has invested in green technologies to ensure the company’s survival and incentivized innovation to support its vision, companies seeking to gain traction in the crowded world of green leadership need to begin with the end in mind—profit. If a company is approaching its products and services from a sustainability perspective—with a long-view of reducing environmental impacts to near zero in order to ensure that the ecosystem can continue to provide the raw materials necessary to support the business—the end result will be more efficient and green. Silicon Valley is full of examples that prove this point: Applied Materials, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett Packard, to name a few. These are all companies that took green out of CSR and put in into the C-suite, expanding the company’s brand and growing share price in the process.

If Virgin—including the rail, air and space businesses—is using green to its competitive advantage, so can you.

Talk to the T-Shirt

Published
by
McMatt
on March 25, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

I like it when my clothes say something about me but a recently discovered company called Reactee takes it to whole new level. Reactee makes a shirt that—unlike many dating prospects in my younger days—actually texts you back.

Are you confused?

Here’s the deal: Say I’m an up and coming DJ who’s trying to gain popularity in a major city. I make a t-shirt that says “Want my playlist?” with instructions to text “DJMCMATT” to a certain number. Then, a service sends you my website link to your phone. You go to my website and I have my publicly shared playlist available with recommendations and rankings for the songs I played that night. Pretty cool, huh?

Now while I’m not actually an up and coming DJ, you CAN buy one of these shirts for your own marketing/promotion/casual hobby purposes. Ah… the power of a text.

Then: Sleepwalking :: Now: Textwalking

Published
by
McMatt
on March 25, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

As a kid, I used to sleepwalk to the kitchen and pour a bowl of cereal because I loved cereal thaaaat much. I of course, was a total hazard (what do you expect when you are half asleep?) and would bump into everything.

Now, I love text messaging, especially on lengthy trips like my walk to the F train. Heads down and thumbs a blazing, I’ve bumped into many a tourist, umbrella vendors and occasionally, a small child or two. While I’ve often thought of wearing a padded suit to proactively manage the collisions, London actually did something about it and wrapped their telephone poles in pads. TIME magazine has a great article about it and there is even a cool video (with people diving into telephone poles) that gives a tour of the street.

Have a great night and text safely everyone.

Will the Mobile Phone Soon Replace Television Cameras?

Published
by
Trevor
on March 25, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

At first, my cell phone was just a phone. I could call and talk to people and of course, people could call and talk to me. Then, it became a short messaging device and I could send and receive text messages. Then it became a camera, capable of taking decent still shots. Up next were short, not-so-high quality video capabilities. Throw in web browsing and my mobile phone was suddenly a pretty robust communications device that allowed me to always stay connected to the people and things I cared most about.

A cool new(ish) service is now available that lets me turn my cell phone into the equivalent of a live television camera (and you can do it too!). Qik (pronounced “quick”), a Bay Area-based company, has released a service in alpha that allows anyone with an internet connected phone to point their cell phone and stream live video to their friends on Twitter, Facebook, bogs, etc. At present, the service only works with a select set of Nokia handsets, but the company is working fast and furious to add new devices.

Imagine all the possibilities this opens up—live streaming video from a child’s baseball game or soccer match for a parent who can’t be there in-person. Live coverage of industry conferences, concerts and other public events right from a phone. It’s important to note that obviously, Qik recommends having an unlimited data plan to support the massive amount of data being pushed from such an application.

Oh, what’ll they think of next?