You’ll see that this is the April update of G-Spot, which precedes May, which means this section of the site is getting regular updates again! Its hard not to though, as we have a stack of recently completed projects and fantastic new clients that we’ve been working with, as well as the fact we have a shiny new website to put them on, it would be ‘e-crime’ not to keep you up to date with what’s going on at Gruden.
Allow myself to introduce … myself. I’m ‘Guy Incognito’. The other fellow who was entrusted with these updates has failed to deliver and subsequently he has been demoted. I’d say these updates are my ‘job’ but Grudenites are generally a pretty positive bunch and we actually like coming here to put projects together, ‘it isn’t really work you know?’
So, what have we delivered recently? I’m wrapped to report the big news first. The indefatigable commerce team have worked to the bone and delivered the new, feature rich AusTender application for the Department of Finance & Administration! So what is AusTender??
“AusTender is a whole of government solution that provides a centralised procurement management facility for 150 Commonwealth agencies and 60,000 suppliers. It is also the primary compliance mechanism for these agencies to meet their obligations under Australia’s free trade agreements with other nations.”
This has been a simply spectacular effort from the team over the last year with a huge effort put in by everyone to get the system live and running. The project was delivered in partnership with the Department of Commerce where we essentially rebuilt the system from the ground up. There’s a case study (coming shortly) you can have a read over explaining it in depth or alternately visit the website at www.tenders.gov.au.
Some other big news came our way recently where our good client Disney Channel put us forward for an award… Unbeknown to us until it was in the list of the finalists, the Disney Dance Off campaign for the High School Musical was nominated for and subsequently won an Astra Award for “Most Creative use of Technology” (for a consumer application). Well done to all in the Disney team!
More successes include the delivery of a new design and templates for Sparke Helmore Lawyers, which encompassed a full overhaul of the existing design and new templates for their CMS driven website. Check it out at www.sparke.com.au.
We’ve deployed new sites for Lend Lease’s Hyatt Coolum brand and developed three sub-brand sites, which you can see here. Personally, I’m really impressed with the team’s flash work on these pages, the effort that goes into them is spectacular.
Also launched is a new set of templates and a revised design for ASIC(The Australian Securities and Investments Commission). Working with our partner PTG Global, we helped deliver a solution to ASIC that aims to make it easier for visitors to navigate, whilst reflecting a more contemporary look and feel for the site.
Our friends at Macquarie Bank have launched their new product called ‘Prime CFD’s’ where we designed the site & built HTML templates for them handed to their internal dev team to implement on their CMS. For those traders / investors out there, if you haven’t heard about Prime, I strongly recommend that you check this product out. It’s going to be huge. We’re currently working on another site at the moment and really excited to be involved with Macquarie Bank. They’ve got some exciting projects under development utilising cutting edge web technologies such as Adobe Flex.
I got word first hand from HQ Consulting that “They were expecting something good, but not that good!” and plenty of praise for our approach to project management to avoid all the unnecessary stresses of lack of communication on projects like web development.
Other success includes the office getting a PS3 at last – Thanks directors, the team loves it..! While we’re talking ‘team’, I’d also like to take the opportunity to introduce some new members, Joel: ColdFusion developer and challenger to Mark’s self imposed title of ‘Gran Turismo King’. Judy: ColdFusion specialist with a multitude of skills in other technologies. Esmond: Gruden’s best dressed developer with years of CF experience under his belt. Deniss: our newest Flash specialist who’s wrapped that he’s ‘finally getting paid to do what he used to do for fun at home’ and Fiona: project manager extraordinaire! Welcome guys and girls!
It’s a bit worrying actually, we only have a few seats spare but we still want to fill them with talented people here in Australia and abroad in our New Zealand office. So if you’re out there let us know! Check out what we’re currently looking for on our Jobs page.
There’s some big news in the pipeline that I’ll be sharing with you next month… So till then!
