Put your hand up if you don’t know who delivers your mail!

In case there is any doubt I can tell you that it’s most likely Royal Mail.  Surprised?  You shouldn’t be!  Of course the mail may have the usual Royal Mail Postage Paid Impression (PPI) or it may have the PPI used by one of the downstream providers such as TNT or UKMail.  In any case the PPI will tell you who it was that picked up the mail and injected it into the Royal Mail system.  What it won’t tell you is who actually put the letter through your letterbox and just so we’re clear on this; it’s very likely that it was the Royal Mail.

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‘Mr Complete’

You know when you have an idea and then you find out that someone else had a similar idea and perhaps it worked out but not in exactly the way you had imagined?!  OK, well that’s Mr Complete.

About eight years ago I came up with the idea that SOLO should offer Origami services to our clients.  Bear with me here because its not as daft as it sounds.  The idea was that we could print a letter, fold that letter into a shape, an animal or a tree or a penguin (you get the idea) and send it in an envelope for 2D pieces or a box for 3D.  Perhaps the letter would have instructions on how to make the document into a shape or the shape could be unfolded to reveal the letter.

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7ft Schoolboy spotted in Reading!

OK, he’s not 7ft tall, he’s just standing on a raised bed (flower bed) but it illustrates the point that sometimes the person reporting the news just picks the wrong issue to focus on!

7ft schoolboy terrorizes plants

The staff at SOLO recently turned up to a local school along with a small crowd from Thames Water to erect a large poly tunnel.  I know its a plastic bag with plants in it but bear with me here.  The thing that makes this interesting is that Bob, known to his mates as “Mighty Bob’, who looks after the school gardens and anything else at Churchend Primary, called in volunteers from SOLO and Thames Water to put up the poly tunnel which the kids were going to use to grow veg for their own lunches!  See… I told you it was interesting!  Sadly the reporter from the Reading Chronicle turned up before the poly tunnel was built and so  decided it was all about the gardening club and pictures of kids and flower pots!

The Polytunnel was erected by the good people from SOLO and Thames Water and mighty Bob.  The money to buy the poly tunnel was also donated by SOLO and Thames Water.  The most important part of the story here…  The kids at Churchend are being taught to use the resources at hand to grow food which will be used at the school to feed the children.

THIS is the sort of closed loop effort which will teach the children that they have the ability to make a difference.  Donating money and time is important and certainly should be recognized but I think I can speak for everyone who was there with hammers, nails, and other sharp tools when I say that the success of this venture is down to Bob who found the funding, rallied the volunteers and brought it all together for the kids.  Good man Bob.  Our hats off to you.

 

 

Microsoft Tags. You gotta Love ‘em!

SOLO Website Tag

There’s a bit of quiet argy bargy going on in the 2D barcode world.  It’s so quiet that most people are unaware of it.  I mentioned QR codes a few weeks ago when the Marketing Week magazine mentioned a Royal Mail press item that seemed to be about QR Codes.   For the uninitiated QR Codes are little blocks of dots which, read by a QR reader, take you to a specific web site.  The important thing to remember about QR Codes is that they are static.  That bears repeating as its so fundamental to the QR Code design.  QR Codes are static and if you produce one today to take a reader to http:www.solo-uk.com then that’s where they will go any time the code is scanned.  The printed symbol decodes directly to the web address.

Microsoft tags on the other hand are entirely dynamic .  I’m not usually a big Microsoft fan.  I like the stuff that works but I don’t own a Microsoft T shirt and I don’t have a direct line to Bill.  Microsoft tags I like a lot!  When I first encountered them I thought they were just silly and that they were just adding a new standard for the sake of it.  It turns out though that I was very much mistaken. Continue reading

SOLO welcomes 10,000 new employees!

We are delighted to report that the new SOLO beehive is installed in the garden of one of our longest serving employees Ann Spires.  Sue and I collected the bees on Friday the 13th of all days and took them straight round to Ann and Brians house just as it was getting dark.  We went back the following day and moved the ladies into their new hive and reports are that they are settling in nicely (how they know is beyond me, must have been the new curtains at the window!) Continue reading

The difference between a day out and a move!

In February we posted a news article to our blog about Royal Mails decision to raise prices.  Chris Combemale of the DMA said, in the article, that he felt that once a company had ‘migrated’ to other media they don’t come back.  Well, all things considered I’m afraid I have to disagree with Mr. Combemail. Continue reading

Our ISO Audit, another year gone by!

It hardly seems a year since our last audit but we’re delighted to announce that for the 11th year running we have been re-accredited to conform to the ISO9001 quality standard and for the 3rd year  re-accredited to the ISO14001 environmental standard.

Quality is important to us and I think it’s what sets us apart.  Part of the commitment to providing a reliable quality service is our continued support of the decision, eleven years ago, to gain certification for all of our in-house procedures. Continue reading

SOLO sponsors gardens at Churchend Primary School

November tree planting

We’re very proud to announce a joint sponsorship agreement for 2011 with Thames Water to help a local primary school.  Sue is on the left, Bob in the middle and Amanda on the right.

Schools need all the help they can get these days and a little help goes a long way when you also have staff who are willing to get in there and get busy like Bob does. Continue reading