We've noticed this term banded about for some time, initially it seemed to be a status symbol reserved for the uber good developer wizards with flair. More recently the term Creative Technologist has had some bad press, chiefly because everyone is calling themselves it.

Are they people that can translate client objectives into technical requirements in the digital arena? Surely any technologist need to be able to do this? Applied creativity could be said to be the ability to find ideas to solve problems and it should be something that everyone strives for surely? Or are there boundaries? Creative Accountant sounds dodgy, Creative Creative Director sounds wrong, Creative Strategist well, it's pointless having a Strategist that isn't creative so why is Creative Technologist OK? All good technologist are creative by their very nature. If we were talking about 'Artistic' instead of 'Creative' then that could be argued as a sensible adjective to add. Maybe 'Autistic' is more apt in some cases[joke].

Chit Ratnayake

Digital High Street

The evidence is everywhere especially in towns & cities outside of London where shop windows are boarded up. Once thriving towns have now transformed into ghost towns. Double dip recession? Frankly we're still in the first dip, regardless of what the stats say & there's still more unwinding debt to present itself, at least to the first quarter 2014.

Technology forces change & companies that don't adapt will get left behind. The widespread access to information has narrowed the perceived knowledge gap between the professional & the ordinary person. This reduces the bargaining power the professionals once had & specialism's become less special. The web has found more accessible & cost effective ways to sell physical products. There is less need to have 100's of outlets when a few warehouses will do. Also there are great courier solutions like Shutl that connects retailers with local same day courier companies. The products' price no longer needs to carry the surcharge of the shop floor overheads. Also with stronger brands, most online shoppers know what to expect how to seek the best price. Romancing the shop windows with a bit of touch amp; feel seems to be temporarily displaced for good deals only?

However, there many companies still out there that need help with a digital business strategy but don't realise it & are plodding on doing much the same thing. In the last 12 months over 30 medium to large retail businesses went into administration, affecting nearly 2500 stores. What would they have given to avoid that? Probably enough budget for a decent digital campaign or business strategy...

Chit Ratnayake

Winning Bigger Projects

How does one climb up the value ladder & win bigger & better contracts? Assuming that you have enough working capital to continue, growth must be on the agenda for everyone in 2012? Fortunately most of us that are receiving this newsletter are involved in the expanding web industry. A critical factor is to consider how will you deliver those bigger projects & if your business can expand elastically to deal with the volatility in work requirements in a risk free but profitable manner. In the web arena, contractors are often seen as an answer but the down sides are costs & the difficulty of knowledge retention after they leave. If only freelancers left reliable SLA's! It's worth considering a reliable partner that can build scalable solutions for you & provide a good SLA for the long tail of support for those bigger projects. Having confidence in your partner is everything. Also choosing the right partner for the specific job is crucial. We make it quite clear that we are only interested in complex builds with integrations, intranets API's & global rollout CMSs'

Chit Ratnayake