Sumac Review 2009
We have really tried to raise the bar with some of our projects this year and have not let reduced budgets affect the quality of our service or indeed the end product. All new releases can be seen on the Sumac website but a few of my favourites include the agency website for The Bank, the very successful Social Enterprise London website (acheiving very optimistic targets set for membership sign-up), The Russell Group (successfully pulling in assets from the twenty top universities in the country to compliment their own fantastic content) and of course our ongoing development of the PredictorPro predictions platform.
I’m really looking forward to two new projects in particular for the new year; a community music website for the baby boom generation and a pan-London film license application processing system.
I’ve attended a couple of really inspiring events in 2009; the Guardian Activate Summit and the Media140 London event. Both had enough to really stimulate the mind and encourage positive thinking about a social future. I also really find these kind of events the perfect way to meet new people as there is so much to material to fuel conversation without the usual “what do you do” introductions.
Through these events I’ve been introduced to the Tuttle Club and Media Camp London, again great meet-up events, both very much fueled by Twitter and other social media channels. I’ll be looking to really develop some of the relationships made in 2010 and of course make new ones.
We’ve had no new recruits at Sumac this year but have rather concentrated on developing the business to best take advantage of the skills we already have whilst refining our collaborative approach with other partners. I’m really delighted with the way everyone is working together to ensure the business goes from strength to strength without compromising their own personal development. Hats off to Alex, Sean and Ollie.
MD David Evans is now working full time within Sumac after succesfully completing some major contracts with Network Rail. We’re all looking forward to having the benefit of his great experience to draw on in 2010. My wife Victoria Peel will also increase her involvement with the business in 2010, initially taking care of invoicing and generally maintaining the family feel of the business.
Throughout 2009 we continued to offer technical services to our agency partners, some of whom you can see on our website. This allowed us to work with some household names such as Bauer, Vodafone, Rolls Royce and Strongbow on some really interesting projects. On the downside though, we are still often kept hidden in the background which is frustrating in a number of ways. Firstly we are so restricted in the service we can offer. So much of what we do is about collaboration, working with businesses and their creative partners to explore possibilities and deliver the best we can. As back-room developers, communication becomes difficult and those important challenging questions are simply not asked. The result can be that the value Sumac adds to a project is diluted and our reputation suffers.
Whilst we will of course continue to work with our existing partners in whatever way they need, we must convince new partners to be open with their clients about Sumac’s role and where possible attract clients directly to Sumac so that we can then introduce them to our collaborative, open, creative approach.
This year saw Sumac maintain last year’s performance in testing economic times. Generally there have been a few sticky moments and the first consequence of recession related stress seems to be lack of communication – emails ignored, phone calls not returned – which can really damage relationships.
Unfortunately some of our clients seem to have used the recession as an excuse for some very bad behaviour. One client went under owing us money having stalled and stalled on settling invoices for many months only to resurface doing business under the same name, with the same clients as if nothing had happened. I rather naively agreed to carry on working with them in the belief it was the best way to recoup our losses. However, at the first opportunity they delayed payment on an invoice and it was game-over.
Another claimed the recession in the property sector was the cause of their non-payment. It later materialised that they had made a business decision not to pay us because the website wasn’t bringing them the revenue they had hoped. This was after they had completely neglected their site, adding no content and refusing to allow us to review the site after launch. We offered a 25% discount and said farewell.
Despite these lessons we are determined to keep doing business the way we feel it should be done.
This year has been a good one for Sumac and PredictorPro. We’ve delivered new games for the reality TV shows – Big Brother, Strictly Come Dancing and I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here – which have been well received. The 2009 Grand Prix season went really well and there are hopes of new partnerships next year. Several new football leagues have been added and this remains a really strong part of the core offering.
Big news for early 2009 is the preparation for the World Cup. Our hope is that the restricted time-frame and huge popular interest will bring lots of new friends to the PredictorPro user base and we will be doing lots to foster the community aspects of the site in the coming year.
After working with LIFT (The London International Festival of Theatre) on their website for a couple of years now, we were very disappointed not to be involved in their new rebranded website. They were emphatic in their appreciation of our expertise and service and made it clear in their rebrand brief that they would happily continue to work with us should the new design agency be open to collaboration. Of the 10+ agencies invited to pitch, three (Hyperkit, thomas.matthews and Crescent Lodge) have worked with Sumac in the past and had no hesitation putting in a joint proposal. Unfortunately the selected agency chose to deliver their designs on their own framework and not to talk to Sumac. The Bureau for Visual Affairs has a strong portfolio in the arts sector and from that perspective seem a good choice for LIFT. However, from what I’ve seen of the new site (due to launch imminently) I can see nothing that couldn’t have been delivered on the Sumac CMS that LIFT already know and love.
We really need to work harder to convince our clients of the benefits of maintaining existing, good relationships whilst keeping them fresh with new collaborations.