76% of Office Workers Steal from work!

The results of a recent survey showed 76% of employees have stolen from their place of work. Men are particularly light-fingered, with an astonishing 82% admitting to helping themselves, compared to 71% of women.

The stationery cupboard was hardest hit, with pens (60%) and printer paper (42%) being the most commonly pilfered.

Stamps (31%), mugs (28%) and toilet paper (24%) were also frequently taken items. The stapler - often thought of as a frequent target of office thieves - was only taken by 6% of those surveyed.

One in twenty employees admitted to having taken more valuable items - ranging from printer toner to laptops. More unusual items declared included chairs and office plants, even filing cabinets, carpet tiles and entire desks.

This is exactly why UOE helps its customers take control of purchasing (using the latest online order management technology) and direct, named delivery to the order person. Having an unlocked stationery cupboard with hundreds of pounds of stuff sitting around is too tempting for some!

These days some stationery companies are even offering to top up the cupboards without customers auditing what has been used in any clear and controlled manner - this just makes the matter worse (a constant fresh stock of new stuff to steal!), hides the truth and is certain to increase cost at a time when every company needs to curb their unnecessary wastage. Their claim is that you'll never need to worry about stationery again - I'd suggest you'll never know who or how things are being used!

To find out how you can take control of your stationery spend contact us

Toners - A No Fly Zone!

The recent attempt by Yemen based terrorists to detonate a bomb built inside a toner cartridge on board UPS and Fedex cargo flights last week has led the British Government to issue a complete lock-down on the shipments of machines, toner and ink cartridges in, through and out of the UK.

With immediate effect the following restrictions have been put in place:

1. No toner or ink cartridges over 500gm can be carried in hand luggage
2. No unaccompanied shipments of printers, fax machines, copiers are permitted on board airlines in/out or through UK airports
3. No unaccompanied shipments of toner or ink cartridges are permitted on board airlines in/out or through UK airports.

This lock-down is in effect for at least 30 days from now and will be reviewed by COBRA (the government emergency response committee) after that.

The knock-on to this will undoubtedly be a mix of stock availability issues, delays in order fulfillment and a drop in exports of the product out of the UK - none of this good news for the UK economy.

The powder in question was previously secreted in a pair of under-pants and in a shoe worn by a terrorist and they didn't ban anyone wearing Calvin Keins or trainers did they?! This powder can be hidden in ANYTHING - stopping toners and inkjet cartridges being distributed legitimately just does not make sense and does not really do anything to make this country safer.

Ryanair says "lets get rid of co-pilots"

In a typically headline-catching manner Michael O'Leary, head of Ryanair announced today that he thinks having a second pilot in the cockpit is a waste of money.

He suggest that a member of cabin-crew could do the job if necessary...well perhaps a cheaper answer would be to offer a free ticket to anyone who wants to "have a go" at flying the plane for him too!

It's one thing to do away with food, baggage, free toilets and even seats but the pilot - come on Leary grow up....next you'll be cutting costs on servicing and maintenance - with calls of "we know best"

There will always be people who just want to go the cheapest way possible, but more and more people I meet don't want to fly Ryanair for precisely this slapdash attitude. Ryanair? More like Ryan-don't-care.

Scan and Print on your mobile phone

Brother UK is launching the world’s first iPhone app that allows users to scan to and print from their mobile phones!

Brother iPrint&Scan is free to download and allows customers to wirelessly print from and scan to their iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad – with a compatible printer from Brother’s latest inkjet multifunction printer range.

The companys says they are the first and only company to develop an app that performs both these tasks, and they are providing customers with a unique feature to maximise further the functionality of their printers.

The mobile application, developed in response to the ever-growing popularity of smart phones and the development of more advanced handheld devices e.g. the iPad, is released and ready to be downloaded now.

Phil Jones, sales and marketing director at Brother UK, says: “Smart phones are becoming an essential modern day business tool and we are pleased to be able to offer even more convenient features for our customers.”

All of Brother’s latest inkjet multifunction printers introduced from 2009 onwards that have a wireless interface will be fully compatible with the application. Models with network interface are also compatible when connecting to a wireless network.

Brother is developing similar versions of the app for other types of smart phone including Google-based Android 1.6 handsets and above.

Jones adds: “iPhone users have been waiting for an app like this for quite some time. We’re really pleased to be at the forefront of innovative printing technology, providing businesses with the means to succeed.”

The application has been initially launched in English, with plans to introduce French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch versions by the end of 2010. For more information, or to download the Brother iPrint&Scan app for free, visit http://itunes.apple.com/app/brother-iprint-scan/id382775642?mt=8

Compatible printers are available from Brother resellers (including UOE!)

Back to School Promos? The kids have only just finished!

Walking along Oxford Street in London's West End you could have been forgiven for thinking it was mid/late August...not only was it fairly empty but any shop with even a vague connection (and some that didn't even seem to have that) were announcing Back to School promotions!

Most schools had not ended for the summer break more than 48hrs earlier....I remember when I was at school that seeing the Back to School signs was always a pre-cursor to the end of the fun, summer day and return to uniform and dark afternoons of the Autumn term....but to start telling kids (and parents) to get ready for school only as they finish just seems, well mean spirited! What happened to a Summer Sale or something - give the kids a break!!

Now I'm all for offers/deals/promotions - call them what you will, but next thing they'll be advertising Christmas in September...oh hold on...they already do don't they?!

Every little helps the planet - except Tesco.

It would seem that Tesco has been helping to keep prices low at the cost of one of the most delicate eco-systems on the planet by sourcing its own-brand stationery items from a discredited paper mill that uses rainforest trees to make paper - and it has known about it for years!

More environmentally focused Sainsburys and Marks & Spencer have chosen previously to cease buying their own-brand paper products from the Asia Pulp & Paper group (which lost is Forest Stewardship Certificate 3 years ago) but, accordingly to The Times, Tesco seems to feel that the paper it is using for more than 80 of its own brand products (which The Times believes to be cut from Indonesian Rainforest) is still ok in this day and age.

It is a shame that a company that can influence so much chooses to move so slowly on such an important issue - whilst hypocritically shouting loudly about it's other environmental efforts! We at UOE call for Tesco to join us in promoting the use of recycled and FSC products and stop using excuses like "we expect to stop using this source by the end of 2010". You can stop today. Right now. Come on Tesco - every little helps!

Dance To Charge Your Phone

Festival goers will be able to charge their mobile phones simply by stomping their feet at this year's Glastonbury Festival thanks to an new ingenious product!!

Orange has launched wellington boots which can recharge your phone using the heat generated by your feet! They estimate that 12 hours of walking, dancing and general festival going will give you one hour of talk time....

Whatever did we do before Post-It Notes?

It's 30 years since the humbled post-it note was invented by 3M and what ever did we do with all those scraps of paper we used before???

To celebrate, our friends at 3M have erected a huge post-it note (5mx5m) at Liverpool Street in the City of London and launched a facebook game at http://www.dontforgetyourfriends.com/ with a holiday up for grabs for the winner!

So make a note - 2040 will be 60 years of the post-it!!

Probably the worst strike in the world..?

So recently there have been strikes by cabin crew at BA, tube workers on the Underground, the AA are threatened with one by a major union, the dockers in Finland refused to ship paper into the UK and other territories but now the worst of all is upon us... workers at the Carlsberg Factory in Denmark are on strike! Why? Due to a ban on drinking beer throughout the working day!

Up until last week workers (and drivers!!!) were permitted free beer, water and soft drinks everywhere but on Wednesday the beers were removed from all refrigerators. Now workers can only have a beer at lunchtime. An old Carlsberg policy permitted drivers to have up to 3 beers per day outside lunch hours and the warehouse workers had the same right.

Now I'm all for giving people the rights afforded to them under their employment, but these rights seem dangerous in a driving and warehouse environment!

But Carlsberg workers obviously feel strongly about it as 800 of them have walked out in protest...will it get resolved soon? Probably.

Innovate or Die: A lesson from Bebo

Trying to hold a share of the market in a world dominated by big brands can be tough and none tougher than in the fickle world of 'social media'.

The inhabitants of the world of myspace, facebook and until more recently Bebo are a demanding crowd. After all, like the best bars, clubs, shops and brands you only go there if your friends do - and in social media it's even worse - whilst you might chose to wear clothes to stand out, there is no point or way to 'stand out' on a website that no one visits or joins...and so Bebo - once inhabited by c.6m members in the UK & Ireland (that's nearly 1 in 10 people!) - has been put to pasture by AOL - the company that bought if not just 2 years ago for a staggering $850m! Now try explaining that one in the board meeting - ouch!

In contrast, during the time of Bebo's demise, Facebook not only gained about 8m new users (more than Bebo had it total) but also monetised its model into a high-targeted ad-space. I do wonder how much of this assumption that things could stay the same and be ok is as a result of the previous owners (Michael Birch and co) entrepreneurial spirit being removed from the development process at Bebo? Perhaps the era of big corporates thinking they can just stuff and make money from it is over?

The lessons for me are clear - if you aren't focused on delivering to your audience the experience they seek you will die (in a corporate sense at least!) This doesn't mean yesterday's rules are acceptable today. If you're not careful it won't be just the rules but the entire game that will have changed before you even knew!

This means choosing either a target market (niche) or being not only early to market but consistently fast and best of market for innovation.

Online communities relying upon an existing base to remain loyal must either become the medium of choice (as for now at least, Facebook has been come) or have a solid and clear niche (like Keiron O'Neill's Playfire.com has become for online gamers). It doesn't mean it is impossible to top Facebook's reign - it just becomes harder the ubiquitous it becomes.

Offline the rules are the same - albeit a little slower - but if you stand still you will be going backwards and on the slippery slope to doom, disaster and death.

In a sentence: innovate or die.

The Power of Paper

Few will deny the delight of opening a birthday card, wedding invite, job offer letter or even a brochure for that new car/gadget or product you desire in your wildest dreams, but in recent years as texting, tweeting and ecards and ebrochures have become the norm and with a green agenda some have struggled to reconcile traditional hard-copy vs the online alternative....plus in these frugal times you don't want to waste budget on time wasters!

Only last week, I went to test drive a few new cars and despite the brochure for each brand being online I wanted to take away a hard-copy to review at leisure - all 3 of the car dealerships I visited had only a over-thumbed internal copy to peruse at their desk and didn't have any to give away. I felt robbed of the enjoyment of reviewing the car, page by page whilst I sit in the bath or sipping a coffee at the dining table. As rich as the video and flash technology on their respective websites for me it just doesn't become part of the rich shopping experience I seek from a luxury purchase... even a "request a brochure" on the website has failed to make the brochure appear on my doormat.

I can almost understand that an online enquiry should solicit an e-brochure - the enquiry mirrors the medium of response but why not demographically profile me using some clever technology and decide whether my request for a hard-copy brochure is warrantied (do i have the credit score/lifestyle profile to match my enquiry etc) then send me the extra-value brochure as it would seem I'm a worthy bet for the extra investment and then follow-up with a phone call or a personal email (not an automated one!)

I would suggest that these days hard-copy versions of your online documents actually hold more value than ever before (especially if you combine it with intelligent data capture).

We are all bombarded by emails (spam and otherwise), it is so very hard to stand-out when images don't download unless accepted by the receiver (as in outlook), every email looks pretty much the same - you can't smell or feel the difference that a fine paper or finish gives a printed document on screen and I guess that is why - for me at least - the values I associate with a quality printed document retains its value. After all, which has the greater impact another email in your inbox marked "high priority" or the one well-crafted formal letter to arrive in your mail today expressing a customer's concerns/supplier's desire to supply to you an item they know you're interested in?

I think technology gives us huge benefits in not having to produce huge ranges of documents that require constant updating and product data changes but to encapsulate your brand in a way that stands out from the crowd there is still a place for the well-printed, target-focused document. And, it doesn't have to come at a compromise to the planet - with sensible use of environmentally aware inks and papers (even Conqueror - seen by many as the premium brand of paper - is CO2 neutral these days!)

Recently UOE did an email and traditional letter-based comparison communication. Both targeted the same group of interested parties with the same words, but one sent by post on a quality letterhead, personally addressed, personally signed; the other a personalised email (sent from the same person's email address)....the response rate: 40% of those we emailed opened the email, 12% clicked the link and 4% responded. Of the posted version we obviously don't know how many opened it (but as we were sending it to their home - I'd reckon over 95% will have), the response rate was 35%....still think it isn't worth it? Perhaps it's time to think again about targeted offline marketing?

So if you want to stand out - try using some paper, some ink and bit of old-fashioned quality design - the results will be amazing.