"Cu capãtul arcurilor, trecînd,
rãzboinicii
mîngîie roua..."

Yosa Buson (1715-1783)

This article is dedicated to an element that have became essential during the last years in the development of a business: the relationship between the business and the Internet. Why a relationship? Because I can say without making a big mistake that the internet is a being (even if it's a virtual one), contains pieces from the lives of every one that participated to it's creation and development, the organizing (the network), as well as content (blogs, news, presentation pages, forums). It contains the people's opinion, their joys and blights, their moments of life.

The internet is always growing and it is even possible to become conscious. But that's not going to happen before reaching a critical point of gathering information and developing to some point artificial intelligence. It is possible that the critical point is already reached, but the develop of AI-s is very far away to some point of conscience.

It is very hard to feel the pulse of the internet, but it is relatively easy (if you have enough experience on the net) to feel the streams from inside. It is an communication environment, it started as an extension of the real world but now it's a world in the true sens of the word. Many are not conscious of it, others are not ready or adapted to deal with it. And that, from the point of view of a business can be very serious. I've heard some time ago an expression: “if you are not the internet you don't exists”. I consider it not true (at least not yet) but it is based on a truth. There are business dedicated to the activity on the Internet (for example creating web pages, online advertising and much more others), there are business that does not need the world network (for example the stores that are selling products in the Romanian villages), but most companies profits (or at least tries to) and are affected by the both worlds, real and virtual.

To profit successfully from the activity of the Internet you must have an education in the field. From the point of view of a company administrator, the internet is an important resource. The web pages, for example, represent some investment but it's a method of contact and efficient promotion. It is amortized in time and can bring substantial income. There is also the online advertising that is cheaper than the advertising in the real world and it can reach people from the entire world. Any good manager knows that the online advertising is a completion of the real wold advertising and either of them should be ruled out.

But there are managers that does not know to manage well their resources and make a lot of mistakes. About two of them I've already wrote here: Dead born business. It's about Adi and Petru, the owners of the company Bvox Ro SRL. They bought a script for a virtual store and got a web developer to maintain their page. But they omitted to make a contract with him (it's a fundamental mistake because the copyright get to the one that created the product, no matter what kind of product), and from some point neither of them gave any of life for more than a month. The web developer let everything how it was after a few unsuccessful trials to contact them and mind his own business. After that month or so one of absence of them started asking why everything is not all right, he alleged that the web developer to continue developing the web page on his own. He was treated with the same indifference he showed before: it's not productive at all for business to continue working for a product when the client is missing and you don't know if or when he will appear. The activity on the Internet of that company is almost not existent, and that was due to the collaboration with them and the articles written until now (there is also a Romanian version of the first article). I hope you will learn from their mistakes.

This article starts with a beautiful, optimist story but, nevertheless, just a story. Its heroes are two potent young men, Adi and Petru, that thought to start a business together. It's crises, they were told, but they knew that their ideas were excellent and they could beat the crisis. Even more, they had the advantage of the Italian technology and their friends in the booth of Europe where one of this young men was established. They gathered some acquaintances and friends and they did a presentation here, on the places on the banks of Crișul Repede. They found a small room inside an old building, near the fortress, and they started to talk about the protection systems, video cameras, tracking systems through GPS and international calls at a very low cost. Good ideas, valid ones. But, until the end, weeks and months later, everything turned to dust and, in spite of their successive attempts to make themselves noticed, nobody heard about them.

Was this about the bad approach? Or it was the fault of the great and proud crisis everybody is complaining about? Or it was the lack of communication or the absence of any promotion of their own product? Or maybe all of these above.

Apparently, there are some that think that an invitation of the managers or IT specialist from some companies in Oradea, or any other town, can assure at least a big project, or some small projects. Theoretical it can be done, but it is required to have a PERFECT offer to get that. Or some money to spend on tests for the products of a no-name company, and I don't think that is somebody in this area to have something like that. We may be in the middle of a overevaluted crisis, but it's still a crisis. And the Romanians does not jump to grab any offer, it's written in their genetic code.

Apparently, there are some that the words are flying from a person to another about the extraordinary products or the special offer of some company. And they would be right to think so, but it is working for the well know companies. To give you an example, tonight is the Madonna's concert. She is a world known singer and, even so, her national promotion in the last months was even aggressive. Nobody will talk about you if they do not know you, and I do not think that are more than a few that know about Bvox or http://www.bvoxro.com. At the presentation held a few months ago there was no mass-media present, and I did not noticed any mention in mass-media about that company.

On the other hand, thinking about how many spam I've got lately (filtering the porn or increasing the size of some part of the body), a lot of people are the followers of an aggressive promotion, but not offering much instead. The bad name (combined with the penalties they are risking from the authorities) can be worse than no name at all.

Personally, I prefer to let my products and my work to speak in my name. If they do not tell much, that's it. Readjustment is a solution anytime, even if it's not a pleasant one. It's a part of life. A promotion is necessary, an active one, but limited by the common sense (the one that everybody should have, but that is absent in too many people) and limited by the legal frame (with the condition that this legal frame to help than to make everything worse).

What do you say? What efficient solutions do you have to promote your businesses?

BVOX RO SRL is a new created company that wants to pass on the decennial experience in the information field by implementing new technologies with 360° solutions.

Within 27^th and 28^th of may 2009 BVOX RO sustained in Oradea a presentation of the new solutions in the fields of gps monitoring (auto fleet monitoring and the goods they are transporting), video surveillance, alarm systems and voip communications within a debate about the new technologies.

Schedule

9.30 a.m. The presentation of BVOX RO

10.00 a.m. The presentation of the software FleetMonitoring, GPS monitoring

10.30 a.m. The presentation of the alarm systems and video surveillance

11.00 a.m. Communication using VOIP technologies

12.00 a.m. Break

12.30 a.m. Discutions and answers to the participants' questions

More informations on http://www.bvoxro.com/