Well lots and lots to tell this month..! It’s been ages since we showed the G-Spot enthusiasts some love! So hopefully this edition will make up for the lack in communication.
So… Where to start… (I always have this problem), but this time I think we have a clear winner in relation to the ‘hot topic of the month’ and that is that we have now opened a New Zealand office!
To celebrate the opening of the NZ office, we created an online game called Paddock Dash (will upload shortly to play) for the yearly WebDU Conference in Sydney which we sponsored again this year. The aim of the game was to see how many sheep you could deliver from one side of the paddock to the other – whilst dodging and weaving around objects in the field!! Cool little game… It was hotly contested, but the winner was Dean Jezard – so congrats to Dean on his fine form and skill! Hope you enjoy your free return flight to NZ!
The NZ office sees us working very closely with our New Zealand partner Straker, who are currently moving into a purely product focus on their Shado CMS which is a Coldfusion / Flex based framework. As such, they require skills in the services area to support current clients and provide development and integration with the Shado CMS. This is a great opportunity for Gruden to showcase our skills as both ColdFusion, Flex and Shado specialists with high profile clients, as we have done for many years in Australia.
Aside from the excitement of the NZ office, we have also released a fair amount of new websites since the last edition, as well as picked up a number of new clients along the way… A big welcome to all of these people – hope you like the Gruden way!
New stuff that has gone live over the last few months includes Cybersmartkids an Australian Broadcasting Authority website targeted at educating the nippers about safety on the net. We also launched a site for Sunbeam for their Cool Creations product line with some wicked (and very addictive!) flash games on the Cool Creations site. Check out ‘Treasure Hunt’ and ‘House Party’ when you have got a spare 5 mins, purely for research purposes though of course!!
We’re also underway with this year’s Annual ARIA Awards voting development. Although this year we’re not only doing the voting website and platform, but also creating the new Nominations website! The nominations website will allow the record companies to nominate their artisits and upload all of the associated assets for that artist into a centralized management system. This will streamline the nominations process enormously for ARIA and create a easy to use tool for the record companies to use.
A website design refresh was in order for the guys over at ARTOG, and development has now finished on the Passport to Rewards website, including the addition of new members to the loyalty programme and functionality updates & reporting.
Over the last few months we have been working hard with Henry Davis York laywers producing their new Intranet, implemented on Shado which is using a number of the pre-built modules including the new Events Calender with great results.
We always have to mention Disney Channel in the G-Spot and this edition is no different! Heaps of work is going on with these guys – really cool stuff as well, but the big news is that as a result of our success with Disney Channel Australia, we are now doing the same for the Walt Disney Group! So we must be doing something right!
A number of the other projects are also underway at the moment such as developing a survey website for Avon, goat loads going on with the Department of Commerce & the Department of Finance and Administration, a new website for Pharmaxis’s new product – Aridol, Website and CMS upgrade for Fulton Hogan, a new website is underway for Loumbos Recycling, widget design and development for Yahoo! and a number of other projects that I’ve forgotten about…!
So as you might have guessed from the above – its busy days at Gruden at the moment!! As a result we have brought on a number of new staff members of which I would like to welcome into the land of Gruden! So a big welcome to Ronaldo, Emanuel and Cary! Additionally I’d like to Farewell Lucy and thank her for her hard work whilst at Gruden and wish her all the best back home.
While I’m here, I’d like to pimp the fact that we need more people to join the ever growing team at Gruden and have jobs available in the creative department, Project Management and Development areas. So if you’re damn good, have the experience and want to work on some cool stuff – drop us a line at jobs@gruden.com with your CV.
Now – I know that this G-Spot is a little long winded and don’t think that this is due to the fact that we’ve missed a few months! I’ve actually culled it a fair bit, but lots to tell and some big stuff happening within Gruden at the moment, so stay tuned and keep an ear to the ground for ‘The Gruden Movement’ – Crazy fool I hear you say?!! Maybe, but be pre-warned!
Anyway peoples, it’s that time again – Time to bid farewell and part with one of our many words of wisdom (if you can call them that..). So remember – If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail…
Till next time!
P.S. For all of those die hard G-Spotters – You can now get your monthly fix via an atom feed!! We got some time off from beefing up our client sites at last to spend 10 minutes on our own, and now you never have to miss a G-spot again! (Cool – I know!!)
