Business to Business News

ID Cards are more commonly used in offices to allow workers to enter the building securely. However, a company in Bangkok has introduced a new system whereby office workers can use their ID cards to buy snacks and drinks from vending machines.

The company are called Sun108, and they specialise in making and supplying vending machines for offices in Bangkok. There new invention will allow employees to purchase their products using their own identity cards, which will then sync to the company’s server to show how much they’ve spent.

The MD of Sun108, Vathit Chokwatana, said:

The vending machine will dispense the desired product when an employee flashes an ID card instead of putting in coins. Our first customer has implemented six vending machines that enable the staff to buy products electronically.

The vending machines will be integrated and linked to the company’s server, restricting access only to its employees.

T-Mobile is going on the offensive in Britain’s mobile phone market. The firm lags in fourth place, and is trying hard to repeat its success of a couple of years ago with Flext tariffs that won customers from Orange, Vodafone and O2.

The new offer covers their £30-a-month deals for the solo service that has a 30-day rolling contract as well as Combi. Solo is a ‘sim-only’ deal. Vodafone and O2 have managed significant success with such sim-only offers that do not comprise a new handset. The T-Mobile guarantee is bound to increase competition in this segment of the mobile market.

T-Mobile’s Solo customers for £30 a month receive 1,400 minutes plus unlimited texts. Combi users receive 700 minutes plus unlimited texts. UK chief executive Jim Hyde stated, “For many of our customers, minutes do matter. The biggest application of mobile still remains voice, and for those customers a big pain point is ‘I signed up for a tariff last week and now there is a better offer with more minutes for same money’. What we state is, for the lifetime of your relationship with us, on either our Combi tariff or our Solo tariff, you will not find more minutes for £30. If you do, tell us and we will meet or beat it.”

Online auction leader eBay is to lobby the European Parliament regarding what it terms ‘last century’ trading rules. It states that traditional manufacturers are clearly exploiting outdated regulatory laws for limiting the impact of online trading. The firm is planning to lead a coalition of online traders that are lobbying for change.

Paloma Castro, eBay’s head of EU liaison, stated: “As they did in the 1950s, entrenched manufacturers want to continue making money. However, the business models have to adapt for the new economy. “Currently online shopping is estimated to put 17 per cent of savings in the average household basket and looking at these rules could make them even better.”

She pointed out to say: “With the weak dollar, loads of buyers are looking to get goods online from the US but, in most cases, you cannott do it.” The firm has identified four regulatory bottlenecks, which it claimed is letting manufacturers maintain a policy of market segmentation that is essentially different pricing models for various regions. It has secured the interest of two EU commissioners, internal market and services commissioner Charlie McCreevy and Meglena Kuneva, heading up consumer protection. Its Call for Action paper is to be launched on June 24.

Many businesses and companies who work in the finance sector, for example, mortgage advisors, financial advisors, investment companies and others, constantly have a need to train their staff in the appropriate qualifications.

For the financial advice industry, it is a legal requirement that all staff must have an appropriate qualification, for example, with mortgage advice the main qualification is the CeMAP qualification (Certificate of Mortgage Advice Practice) and for financial advisors it is the CeFA qualification (Certificate of Financial Advice).

Companies have to pay the exam registration fees to the ifs (Institute of Financial Services) and as part of those fees, the delegate receives study manuals. However, the study manuals are notoriously difficult to learn from if you don’t already know the subject inside out and so this is where companies need to make a decision on their training.

One company that is happy to help is Beacon Financial Training, who specialise in financial training. They started a couple of years ago just teaching CeMAP training, however, they later expanded into Equity Release training and Will Writing courses and are now adding CeFA training to their services.

Managing Director, Brendan O’Neill, said:

“We work for several national mortgage companies who find it convenient to outsource their financial training needs to a specialist company. The benefits to the company are that it is more cost-effective than hiring trainers and we have a very high and consistent pass rate.”

Beacon offer CeMAP training in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and London and are also the only company to offer CeMAP training in Scotland that is tailored to Scottish Law. Mr O’Neill also commented that more locations are being added all the time and that tailored courses can be added upon request.

Barclays has stated it is planning to raise up to £4.5bn in a share issue for bolstering its balance sheet. The company has sold its shares to new investors like the Qatar Investment Authority as well as existing shareholders (China Development Bank). Barclays stated the fundraising move is aimed at strengthening its capital base.

Following HBOS and the Royal Bank of Scotland, it is the latest British bank, seeking to raise funds to ease the adverse impact of the credit crunch. Barclays shares rose in reaction to the move. The state owned investment arm of the Gulf state, Qatar Investment Authority, will invest close to £1.7bn in Barclays, making it a key new shareholder. A separate Qatari firm Challenger, controlled by Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr al-Thani, is set to invest £533m in the business. Sumitomo Mitsui Corporation, a Japanese bank, has also agreed to buy £500m in new shares.

“We will strengthen our capital base through our capital raising and also give ourselves additional resources for pursuing our strategy of growth through earnings diversification,” Barclays chief executive John Varley stated.

BG Group has declared a £6.7bn ($13.15bn; 13.8 Australian dollar) hostile bid for Origin Energy. BG, demerged in 1997 from British Gas, has made the all-cash offer for one of Australia’s largest coal seam gas producers after the latter rejected a similar bid offer in May. If Origin shareholders approve the offer, it would lead to the second largest takeover of an Australian firm by a foreign company. Origin shares jumped on the news.

Last month, Origin had spurned BG’s offer after it stated its coal seam gas reserves were worth far more. Origin has estimated a 121 per cent increase in its reserves of coal seam methane.

Frank Chapman, the BG Group chief executive, stated the latest offer was a 48 per cent premium on Origin’s share price just before the bid was made and represented full and fair value for its proposed takeover target. Some analysts believe that BG has some room to manoeuvre. An analyst at Fat Prophets Fund management, Gavin Wendt, said: “Some Origin shareholders may well think long and hard about this, since this may not be the last offer on the table.”

Ford Research centre in Germany has got the new Managing Director, Dr. Charles Wu who will assume office on July 1. He will continue to function as Director, Manufacturing, Vehicle Design and Safety, Research & Advanced Engineering based in Dearborn, Michigan, USA.

Outgoing MD Professor Dr. Rudolf Menne will be entrusted with the responsibility for government and university alliances for environmental science and traffic policy within Ford Europe. He will continue to represent Ford at EUCAR (European Council for Automotive R&D), and FVV (Research Association for Combustion Engines).

Charles Wu joined Research and Innovation Centre of Ford, in 1974, at Michigan and held various management positions, including Manager of Manufacturing Systems Department (1992-1994) and Manager of Engine Research Department (1994-1996). He also functioned as Director of Materials Research Laboratory and Director of Manufacturing and Vehicle Design Research and Advanced Engineering.

He is Bachelor Science in Mechanical Engineering and did his Ph.D. from the University of London, England.
The Ford Research Centre Aachen, dedicated to basic and applied research, is the only Ford Motor Company research centre in the world outside of Detroit. It interacts and exchanges ideas with suppliers, institutions and universities worldwide.

Ford of Europe registered impressive growth in is sales in last 5 months despite adverse economic conditions worldwide. Its year to date sales in 51 markets rose by 18,400 to 828,300 vehicles, amounting to 2.3 per cent jump compared to the same period last year.

Ingvar Sviggum, vice president, Marketing (Sales and Service), Ford of Europe, attributed the rise in sales to meeting growing appeal of consumers for exciting range of vehicle. He expressed confidence that Ford of Europe would continue to do well.

Five months sale of this year is 683,100 vehicles in the Euro 19 markets (a market share of 8.7 per cent). With 145,200 units sold in Russia, Turkey and Ford’s European Direct Markets, total sales amount to 828,300 units. Ford has recorded a phenomenal growth of 36.6 per cent in Russia with May sales alone touching 18,600 units.

The major contributor in Ford of Europe’s rising sales was its model ‘Focus’, selling 35,100 units, followed by Fiesta (25,300 units), which remained the best-selling imported car in Italy and France.

According to Verdict research, the UK online shoppers purchased more frequently (an average of 16.9 times, a rise of nearly 2.7 times on 2006). Each spent an average of 7.8 per cent more last year than in 2006. Convenience was the main factor cited by over half of online shoppers.

According to the senior retail analyst at Verdict, Malcolm Pinkerton, there is still clearly a need for physical locations. However, the number of stores needed would vary depending on sector. For example, with the increase in number of music downloads, there will be a lesser need for music / video stores. Having a presence on the web is now important. The combination of an online and in-store presence, with strong linkages between the two, is crucial. As today’s young-generation shoppers get older and their purchasing power goes up, they are more likely to shop online than offline.

Electrical goods as well as food and grocery accounted for just under half of total online retail spending last year. On the other hand, music and video had the highest online penetration at 30.8 per cent of all sales.

The deal between Ministry of Defence and Farm Energy companies is ultimately through. The impasse had threatened Government’s ambitious plan of renewable energy and the execution of major offshore wind projects in the UK. The radar equipment upgrade will now be jointly funded by Wind farm and MoD. Defence Minister Des Browne, Business Secretary John Hutton, and chairman of the British Wind Energy Association Adam Bruce, will be the signatories to the agreement.

The energy executives had taken their case directly to the Prime Minister to remove hurdles in the deal caused by MoD’s several objections. The MoD had raised objections on four major projects citing risks to the national security. It had argued that the wind farms create holes in radar coverage since they fell in the direct line of radar station’s sight. Energy companies had accused that MoD’s objections imperilled millions of pounds of investment and said that Government’s delay was sending wrong message to the industry.
Two sides reached the agreement with intervention from Gordon Brown whose administration has accorded top priority to green energy issue.