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2006 News Archive
Regrettably ICON Brand Management's contract for management of the AFLatAuroraStadium.com online ticket sales has come to an end. We would like to thank ICON for selecting Future Medium to develop and maintain the e-commerce site for the past 5 years.
The Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries and Water are working with Future Medium to produce the definitive "Save the Tasmanian Devil website". The website will broaden awareness of the plight of the Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease.
The primary aim of the website is to present information about the Tasmanian Devil to the international public, with specific focus on the United States of America. The website will both introduce and better inform visitors about the Tasmanian Devil, where it lives and why it is so unique. It will also detail the impact that Facial Tumour Disease is having on the Tasmanian Devil.
The site will have a number of additional functions:
- Provide links to multiple resource sites, and will also actively promote Tasmania and it's rich wildlife experience.
- Engage the visitor and provide them with an interface and content that is both interesting and informative.
- Target young people approximately 12 years and older, and families with children in this age bracket.
Therefore the website interface will be modern and fun, whilst maintaining a strong empathy for the Tasmanian Devil's plight. The site will encourage urgency and a sense of reaction to assist and become involved.
As a sub-audience requirement, the site will also ideally appeal to corporate sponsors, and encourage sponsorship opportunities.
Once a site visitor is engaged, the site will also provide channels for donation. This will be done in a manner that is encouraging and appealing, yet respectful, with a view to a 'soft-sell' approach. It is envisioned that adequate engagement and learning within the site will be promotion enough to encourage donation. Donations will be processed online, through links to an existing e-commerce website managed by the University of Tasmania.
Site launching in Late December 2006/January 2007.
Once again Future Medium has provided the online solution for the famous 10 Days on the Island cultural event program. The solution continues to leverage the autopublish content management framework that was produced by FM a number of years ago. The platform has allowed the organisation to swiftly re-brand and re-populate the content without having to redesign the entire infrastructure. Future Medium's involvement extends to HTML email and newsletter management solutions to keep participants updated.
According to the 2007 website:
"Tasmania's flagship celebration of island arts and culture returns from 23 March to 1 April 2007 with a new artistic director and a packed program of free and ticketed events presented in every corner of the State. Under the stewardship of Elizabeth Walsh, this fourth instalment of Ten Days on the Island is the most far-reaching yet, boasting a host of new commissions, world and Australian premieres in 50 locations across the island."
Visit the 10 Day's site and make sure you get to be part of the experience.
Metro Tasmania has engaged Future Medium to provide ongoing support and maintenance of the public website, its timetable information, and the site infrastructure. The Metro Tasmania website receives over 3 million hits per annum whilst the organisation itself services nearly 10 million passengers per annum.
According to the Metro Tasmania website:
"The company trades as Metro and operates bus services in Hobart, Launceston and Burnie. Metro is the largest passenger transport company in Tasmania.
In May 1999 Metro purchased Hobart Coaches which operates services to New Norfolk, Richmond, Blackmans Bay and the Channel area; outlying areas of Hobart. Hobart Coaches is now the regional services division of Metro.
Metro has a rich history, which can be traced back to 1893 when the Hobart Electric Tramway Company commenced operating tram services in Hobart. The Hobart City Council purchased the company in 1913 and operated as Hobart Municipal Tramways."
Future Medium look forward to a productive relationship and hope to be given the opportunity to overhaul the current website with content management technology and a new user centred design.
Future Medium is proud to be part of the unique Freycinet Escape tourism project; Tasmania's first luxury wilderness campsite.
The Freycinet Escape - Immersed in nature…a luxury eco-camp where every day is a discovery.
As written on the temporary website :
"The Freycinet Escape brings a new level of service, style and luxury to wilderness camping. A purpose-built wilderness eco-camp situated within the world renowned Freycinet National Park, Tasmania's East Coast jewel, The Freycinet Escape, offers 2 nights / 3 days luxurious tented accommodation and plays host to just 10 guests at a time.
At our architecturally-designed wilderness camp, you will soon discover that being transported to a remote Tasmanian beach doesn't mean missing out on excellent service and the special touches of luxurious comfort. Expect to enjoy fine food and wine, prepared and served with skill and flair, featuring the freshest Tasmanian produce and wonderful cool-climate wines; enjoy crisp white linen, an inviting queen-size bed, timber floors and a chef on every tour - this certainly isn't camping as most of us remember it!"
Future Medium are producing a sophisticated yet accessible solution to excite and inspire potential customers and ultimately to drive them to make a booking. Future Medium are working with BookTasmania to integrate the V3 booking platform.
We wish Tim and Archana Brammall great success with their project.
Searson Buck has launched its new autopublish® powered website. The website has been designed to service candidates, employers, and prospective customers of Searson Buck. There are a number of integration points for their dedicated recruitment product and these access points feature in prominent locations. The new website offers a content rich platform for communicating with customers and is flexible yet automatically controlled in terms of style and brand consistency. The platform was carefully conceived through a number of workshops on demographics and user centred design principles with senior members of Searson Buck.
According to Searson Buck's website:
"Searson Buck has almost two decades of experience in satisfying the needs of both large and small, public and private enterprises, as well as assisting thousands of people with their careers.
As a client organisation you can access our expert human resource services that include:
- Executive Appointments- sourcing the best people for senior roles
- Recruitment - finding you permanent, contract and temporary management and staff
- HR and IR expertise- general and specific advice and service across most HR issues
- People management- retention, performance, reward and recognition
- Learning and development- assistance with skill development
- Career transition and Outplacement- helping people move on from your organisation
For people in work or in between jobs you can access our help in:
- Career management and direction
- Finding suitable employment
- Skill measurement and aptitude assessment"
Future Medium is proud to service Tasmania's largest locally owned and operated human resources company and we look forward to continuing to ensure a return on their investment.
Every year FM's directors take all company staff on a surprise trip. This year the trip was to Victoria and consisted of a day in Melbourne, a trip to spa country (Hepburn Springs, with lunch alongside one of the beautiful Daylesford lakes) for a relaxing swim and sauna, and a few days in central Victoria exploring the goldfields area. With such a high rate of growth it has been hard to keep everyone close knit. The annual trip is an important bonding experience for all staff and this year was no exception.
Future Medium has reassessed its corporate partnerships.
Notably, due to lack of activity since ceasing co-location in January 2006, Future Medium is hereby publicly announcing that the alliance with Squiz.net will no longer be promoted. Future Medium and Squiz.net still have a close relationship but actual joint project work ceased in January 2006.
Future Medium was privileged to participate in projects with such a disciplined and successful firm. However, the relationship ran its natural course and Future Medium continues to focus on high-end web applications and more flexible dynamic content environments. Outsourcing support of other vendors CMS's did not fit with FM's strategic vision. Future Medium will however consider Matrix related development and implementation work on a case by case basis from hereon.
For the past 18 months Future Medium has been working in partnership with a mainland firm on confidential high-end web applications. It is hoped that this relationship will be able to be promoted in public before years end.
Future Medium also hope to increase its current partnerships through the pursuit of a number of ICT grants through MAPP. If successful these grants would help foster and utilise these existing relationships to create new products.
For further information on current partnerships please visit our partners page.
TasIT -The peak IT body in Tasmania appointed Future Medium's Sales Manager Amanda Bergmann as Secretary for the association in September of 2006. Future Medium look forward to improving TasIT's interaction with small-to-mid sized ICT firms through its involvement at Secretary level.
MD Glen Johnson delivered a critical speech to 3rd Year University of Tasmania Graphic Design and Fine Arts students on the intricacies of Commercial Web Design & Development. The speech was engineered to prepare potential job applicants for the hidden and hard to access topics such as:
- work processes
- project management
- web standards
- accessibility and usability
- specification writing and interpretation inc. wireframes
- information architecture
- dynamic content environments
- search engine optimisation
The speech revolved heavily around business value and driving projects specifically to meet business needs. This cornerstone issue is often misunderstood or totally overlooked in design teachings for online production.
Future Medium has worked with PMM Real Estate to produce an innovative Real Estate website solution. The project is based on entirely new property data management technology built by Future Medium and integrated with the autopublish CMS product.
The following list highlights a number of features that make the PMM site uniquely different in the Tasmanian market place:
- The home page incorporates a number of Flash elements to dynamically cycle through CMS-driven content.
- Property search results are enhanced by bold and clear information and special visual overlays depending on listing status.
- The property detail pages feature Flash elements to present slideshows of CMS-driven image lists.
- The site features dynamic wish-lists that allow users to compile lists of properties into a shopping cart for reference.
- Search results are dynamically filtered on the fly using sets of parameters in the page header.
- Key pieces of typography are dynamically rendered into Flash on the fly as pages are generated. This allows clear and brand sensitive treatment of key pieces of type whilst maintaining search engine friendliness.
- The entire site is built for search engine optimisation (SEO) leverage and contains full plain-English page URL's even when viewing dynamic property data listings.
- Where available the site also offers property suggestions that are similar to pages you have looked at.
Property Marketing & Management Pty. Ltd commenced business in July 1995. PMM Real Estate has continued to grow under the guidance and ownership of Managing Director Nigel Heaven. PMM is a Tasmanian business, and forms part of the 'Pillings Group' of top Real Estate offices Australia wide.
PMM Real Estate is a young company, with around 300 annual sales, and a rental portfolio of 350. It has a turnover greater than $2 million.
Sion Deane joined Future Medium on August 14th to facilitate account management and customer relations. Sion's arrival takes FM to a record 14 employees in its Battery Point office.
She is responsible for general customer contact and support. Sion is new to the ICT industry and looks forward to developing a career path in business and office management with Future Medium.
Future Medium will be assisting Sion with on-the-job-training and TAFE courses to further her capabilities in her new role.
Working in conjunction with innovative design firm Hobart Design and utilising the autopublish CMS Future Medium developed the much awaited replacement to the Biota company website. Working with Biota in such uncertain times (Bird Flu pandemic fears and legal battles with their distributors) has highlighted the value of deploying a dynamic site utilising the autopublish CMS, as it has allowed more rapid delivery of information to shareholders and other interested parties.
The site features a number of integration points with content from the ASX to provide stakeholders with an informative mix of investment and product information.
A description of Biota is provided below (Sourced from the Biota website):
"Biota is Australia's world-leading antiviral drug development company, based in Melbourne.
Biota's initial success was the discovery of zanamivir, the first-in-class neuraminidase inhibitor for the treatment and prevention of influenza. Zanamivir is licensed to GlaxoSmithKline and marketed as Relenza™. Relenza is used to treat seasonal influenza and is currently being stockpiled by various governments for defence against possible pandemic outbreaks of avian (bird) influenza.
In 2006, Biota commenced a phase I clinical trial of its human rhinovirus (HRV) drug for the prevention and treatment of one of the major causes of the common cold which is also thought to be a major cause of exacerbations in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma.
The Company's research pipeline also extends beyond respiratory diseases, including early stage research targeting the hepatitis C virus (HCV).
Biota is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX:BTA)."
Newsletter modules and e-zine capabilities for autopublish
Available in Starter, Automated Lite, and Automated Pro editions, the HTML email news solutions are being integrated and utilised by FM's key clients for valuable market segmented communications. Integrated with an autopublish-powered site, the html email modules allow pre-determined site content to be combined with editorial messages and articles to speedily create newsletters and mail-outs that are automatically linked and integrated to a website. The html mail modules have been developed by FM's development team to add further value to the autopublish platform and meet needs for pushing content to consumers.
E-commerce modules and catalogue management for autopublish
Comprising of a Shopping Cart System (utilising Australia Post), an Order Management System, and a range of 2 or 3-party Payment Gateway options, the e-commerce options for autopublish have been made considerably more robust and feature rich. Recent development work by FM's development team has seen full utilisation of the e-commerce modules in projects such as Cars4Sale.
A large number of projects are under development at Future Medium. Later in 2006 you will see the release of the following websites and web applications:
- A corporate website and portofolio data administration system for a Sydney-based Investment Solutions company
- A website redesign for a West Australian custom computer hardware retailer
- Two e-business portals for regional tourism bodies in Tasmania featuring booking platform integration and connections to Tourism Tasmania's ATDW content
- A public website for an iconic state-wide recruitment agency
- An e-business venture for a Tasmanian Florist
- A business site for a Tasmanian computer hardware and maintenance chain
- A unique tourism venture site with booking platform integration
- An innovative interactive website for a leading Real Estate firm.
In addition to solutions for new clients FM are also working on continued enhancements for key clients such as SMF, connectfinancial, TAFE Tasmania, and RACT.
FM are also outsourcing web project management skills to a high profile government department in Tasmania and look forward to revealing our involvement in greater detail later this year.
With all the hustle and bustle of a growing company we've been beavering away on a number of projects as well as improving our systems and products. A fair number of projects have been for interstate and overseas clients and are undertaken with confidentiality clauses and cannot be revealed publicly. Rather than let curiosity kill the cats amongst our industry we thought we'd better let loose with some updates.
AHA Careers CD Rom
In conjunction with Mischief Business Engineering we released an html-based Careers CD Rom for AHA Tasmania. The CD Rom targets students and educational institutions and highlights the breadth of opportunities for employment within the hospitality industry. The CD Rom's purpose was to stimulate interest in hospitality careers as a professional choice rather than a stepping stone to other careers.
Cars4Sale.com.au
Cars4Sale is a slick new e-business project for online car sales targeting the 18-35yo do-'em-up demographic. The project specifically targets up-market imports and modified vehicles and has a funky lime green design to suit. The project features a comprehensive back-end including dealer and member administration packages.
CrimeStoppers Youth Challenge 2006
Future Medium has continued to support the CrimeStoppers Youth Challenge and have released yet another update to the annual program. As with other years FM has also assisted with print material design and application material.
Department Infrastructure Energy and Resources
Working with Squiz to integrate a MySource Matrix solution, FM designed a number of innovative web flow charts for communicating permit application and approval processes for land use and other developments within IRIS (Infrastructure and Resource Information Service) at DIER. The charts were produced as expandable web pages and where possible were built to provide a degree of accessibility in a complicated interactive situation.
Hartz International
With a desire to increase export potential Hartz International decided to consolidate their brand family and create an online products portal for Liquid Ice, Mountain Maid, and Hartz Mineral Waters. The re-release incorporated a series of brand workshops to understand the key values and signals that had to be communicated online to potential export avenues.
Motel on Alpine
In conjunction with ICON Brand Management, Future Medium participated in the overhaul and re-brand of Myrtleford Country Motel in Victoria into 'Motel on Alpine'. As well as producing the actual brand package (logo, stationery, etc.) Future Medium worked on visual mock-ups of signage. FM also re-released the website using the new brand package and are ecstatic about the modern look and feel.
Partnership with Ochre Information Systems
FM have been working with Ochre to produce a number of pre-packaged website options for Registered Training Organisations across Australia. The websites conform to a predetermined structure that has been specifically built and tested against the requirements of RTO's using Ochre's domain specific knowledge and that of their key clients. There are multiple options for page layout and each package incorporates a predetermined amount of design services to customise each package to the brand and content requirements of the customer. Furthermore each package solution customer has the option to upgrade to a fully custom site at any time.
The SignMakers
Devonport based signage company The SignMakers are responsible for large scale signage for premium clients such as K&D Mitre 10, Federal Group, TT Lines, Oasis Gaming, and Stihl. FM worked with The SignMakers for considerable time, originally designing the site back in 2005. FM has produced a dynamic experience that was reflective of their diverse yet high standing in the signage market place in Tasmania.
With the appointment of 3 additional staff FM has raised its payroll to 13 with the inclusion of extra internet application development specialists; Matthew Watts, Xiao Ming Fu, and Krishna Prasad.
Matthew Watts brings a young and enthusiastic outlook to cross-platform web development. Matt has experience in Content Management System development and online application developments such as booking systems. Matt previously held a position with the Department of Tourism, Parks, Heritage and Arts Tasmania where he worked on components of the Visiting Journalist Program and the Parks Management System. Matthew will initially work within our front-end team to build dynamic websites for corporate clients.
Xiao Ming Fu, a current Master of Computing student at the University of Tasmania joins the Future Medium development team to build data-driven applications utilising web-services. Xiao Ming has previously worked in the Department of Information Services in Shanghai Jin Shan District. Whilst working in Malaysia at Visual Solutions Xiao Ming worked on a commercial software package for Tourism Malaysia for 'Online Souvenir Management'.
Xiao Ming will also be working closely with our Future Systems development team to assist in further product development of our financial services applications. Xiao Ming holds a Diploma in Computer Information Management from Fu Dan University in China, and a Bachelor of Information Technology, Majoring in Software Engineering at Multimedia University in Malaysia.
Krishna Prasad, a Masters in Information Systems student at the University of Tasmania has been employed to work on FM's University of Tasmania web application support pilot project. Krishna holds a Bachelors in Engineering in Computer Science from Visveswaraiah Technological University in India. Krishna is interested in Enterprise Resource Planning and Knowledge Management.
In conjunction with web usability experts Usability One of Melbourne, Victoria, Future Medium ran a special seminar for key clients. The afternoon session was led by Research Director Toby Biddle and covered topics such as
- defining KPI's for online projects,
- establishing true market requirements for projects,
- conceptual design testing,
- actual usability analysis with dedicated testing facilities, and
- mechanisms for insuring usability continues to be an integral aspect of online projects.
Usability One is a niche-consulting firm with specialist skills that blend professional market research and new technology experience.
Through an informal commercial alliance Future Medium will be delivering improved outcomes for web initiatives by incorporating relevant skills from Usability One in projects.
As part of our ongoing commitment to customer service, we are pleased to announce the purchase of a commercial Issue Tracking system.
The purchase of the Enterprise edition of the JIRA software by Atlassian Software Systems Pty. Ltd. (BRW Fast 100 Company 2002-05) represents a significant investment in improving our internal software and website development processes, as well as streamlining client issue tracking, support requests and reporting tasks.
JIRA is a web application allowing authorised users to lodge bug-reports, support and feature requests against any projects they have with Future Medium. Each user has a configurable 'dashboard' where they can view the status of their requests, and others within their organisation. We can work with individual clients to tailor access to their specific needs. For example we can setup workflow such that requests from a staff member have to be first approved by a manager from that organisation before we take any action.
All entries in the system have a full audit trail of changes, with the ability to receive email notification of any status changes.
We will roll out access to the software over the coming weeks to select clients, and hope to provide an official launch event where we will provide a demonstration of the software, and answer any questions on how to get the most out of it.
In the meantime, please contact us if you wish to join our 'beta testing' phase of adoption. Your feedback would be most valuable.
Future Medium has commenced a pilot project with Savage Media for print and graphic design services partnership and outsourcing.
Savage Media is a newly formed Tasmanian-based creative agency specialising in print communications and brand development. Led by its Principal Graphic Designer, Mr. James Cuda, Savage Media has positioned itself as an innovative and contemporary creative firm in the Tasmanian marketplace.
Savage Media is also a supplier of premier media and communications material for companies such as HO-FM, Tasmanian Cricket Association, Euro Modelling, Premier Pacific (QLD) and GM Property (QLD) among others.
Through partnership with Future Medium Savage Media gains access to management skill, resource scale, and commercial stability whilst also offering valuable specialisation in print and brand development services to Future Medium's client list.
Future Medium and Savage Media are tendering for business both locally and interstate and look forward to a prosperous and rewarding partnership into the future.
Future Medium are proud to announce their engagement by the University of Tasmania to provide outsourced web application support and maintenance.
Initially covering two internally-developed applications for a 12 month period, we have high hopes of extending this to further applications as well as providing development assistance for new applications.
Contracted tasks include:
- Setup of a secure development environment and source code repository
- Completion of systems documentation
- Setup of a workflow process for handling client support requests
- Setup of a tracking system to record incoming requests and produce usage reports
- Ongoing bug-fixes and enhancement requests
To best service ongoing requirements we have made a significant infrastructure investment, with flow-on positive effects for all clients.
We believe the winning of this contract is further recognition of Future Medium's expertise in the web application space, and is indicative of the trust clients place in us as a long-term business partner.
Due to continued growth, Future Medium have openings for skilled development and design staff. Full-time positions are available, but University students completing their degree are most welcome to apply and we will negotiate hours with the right candidates.
This is a unique opportunity to work on a range of exciting developments in a dynamic team environment.
Please visit our Careers page, and browse our website to learn more about Tasmania's leading Internet development company and the work we do in the finance, education and tourism sectors amongst many others.
Future Medium is proud to announce that Managing Director Glen Johnson was selected as a finalist for the Zinifex Tasmanian Business Leaders Awards for 2006. Glen was selected for two categories: NAB Owner Manager of the Year, and WHK Denison Young Manager of the Year.
The selection involved a detailed application process and panel style interview system where Glen was personally challenged over his management style, academic ability, theoretical frameworks, and his leadership standing.
Future Medium congratulates all 2006 finalists and category winners.
Future Medium's directors have become incredibly sought after of late and due to the pressures of large and high-intensity projects it has become necessary to replace much of the director's traditional function in every day company duties. As such, a highly experienced web projects manager and a product development manager have been secured. The appointment of specialists in this area provides three key benefits:
- The directors are able to focus closely on their highly valuable relationships with key organisations;
- A number of efficiencies will be realised internally in regards to project roll-out and project communications; and
- The commercialisation of IP is anticipated to lead to entire new revenue streams which in themselves will create new jobs.
Rebecca Bulmer has stepped up from an internal position with Future Medium to take the position of Web Projects Manager. Rebecca is well suited to this role as she was previously a Web Projects Manager for MLC in Sydney.
David Vitale has accepted a contracted position as Product Development Manager and will be responsible for the commercialisation of Future Medium's IP in the financial services sector. David is well placed to develop new business in the ICT sector. David is the former CEO and founder of Flexicomm (a successful IT firm in the e-learning space). David has worked closely with FM since mid-2005 as a consultant under ROCG Portfolio People and he has been a key driver behind plans to commercialise our IP.
After almost four years overlooking the bustle of Salamanca Place, Future Medium has made a bold move to the relative quiet of Battery Point. Now occupying the entire 5 split levels of the architecturally prominent 2 Kelly Street premises, we have more than doubled our floor space and created a wonderful environment for creativity and technical development.
Situated at the top of Salamanca's historic Kelly's Steps, the new location features an outdoor area, open-plan work spaces and client parking to make your visit a relaxed and pleasant one.
With two new staff members about to commence, the move marks a milestone in our short but eventful history and gives us the necessary room to expand our business and our service offerings.
If you are currently considering any internet development projects or web-based applications, there is no better time than now to pay us a visit. Call Amanda now on 62 24 3535 to make an appointment to receive expert advice from Tasmania's fastest growing and most respected internet development company.
Please note: Future Medium no longer house Squiz.net in Tasmania. The Squiz-FM alliance still exists and the two firms are working together on projects. In the interest of market-place clarity and in planning for imminent growth Squiz.net and Future Medium decided to occupy separate premises.
Future Medium have participated in the roll out of a number of Tourism Tasmania's online initiatives. Future Medium were engaged late in 2005 to project manage the new TasTravel release and to also perform all services up until CMS implementation which was performed by Squiz.net.
The project is still undergoing enhancements to the booking system integration but is considered an excellent showcase of Tasmania's tourism product offerings.
You may visit the new site here : TasTravel There is also a case study in our publications section.
