Six-figure sledges

As the year closes and the snow melts across the UK leaving the winter detritus, Callisti can reflect on an interesting 2010 and look forward to 2011. One milestone was the sledges online shop breaking the six-figure record turnover for the December, a far cry from when Callisti first took over management of the website - a lot of snow certainly helps. New possibilities have emerged as a result of the improved online presence heralding some business developments in the years to come.

JBA seed potatoes has grown significantly and is scaling up in terms of hosting and development requirements - Callisti has acted as a nursery for the ecommerce site, bringing it from a catalog website to the number one seed potato ecommerce site in the UK,  but with the new ranges of domestic and merchant services, a new strategy for hosting and development is required - Callisti will likely offer specialist support in 2011 with other support services being provided to ensure the most stable solution.

One difficulty for small operators is the balance between specialisation and broad adaptability for the range of potential clients. Do you concentrate on hosting services and volumes? Or specialise in one particular development platform? 2011 will be a year for new decisions...

Pay as you go e-marketing

A strong 5 out of 5 from Callisti to Contact Multimedia's E-marketing services, yet again. An agricultural client has recently launched a successful subscriber-based campaign to update customers on seasonal offers and pre-ordering for 2011 to a great response.

Contact Multimedia's account based system lets you set up campaigns with great ease, using a pre-designed existing html webpage and an easy to use interface so you know where you are in the process at any given time. You can send test emails to make sure everything appears correctly before committing to scheduling the mailshot. Great stuff.

Out of the blue and into the black

Work is now starting on the Thornhill Blues website for the Dumfries and Galloway blues festival to be held in 2011. The organisation are bringing well-known blues bands to Thornhill over the holiday weekend in spring so fans that follow the blue trail will have a new date in their calendar.

The organisation is keen to promote its presence on facebook and myspace.