Offshore/Nearshore: news about the web strategy of Pentalog
Pentalog has just launched a major web communication plan, first based on the achievements of the different versions of Pentalog.com. The current version 3.5, derived from the 3.0-one, was designed in 2004 and has generated sales amounting approximately 15M. Moreover, as I was saying when we launched it, Pentalog.com is not a website but a marketing policy.
When we launched it, we used to have 10 years of experience in selling services and then sought to increase interaction between prospect buyers and the CVs of our employees (the key sale document within software engineering companies). Therefore, we had to increase the number of prospect buyers. Our commercial databases now exceed 20,000 email addresses of professionals in our industry. We later proceeded the same way with our recruitment ads and a database with CVs of developers (20,000 today). We were successful and we employed 90 people in 2007 and 130 in 2008. But we believe that our total capacity is of 700 recruitments, only for Romania!
Still, the web has changed and version 2.0 has gone through there. Older approaches were not obsolete, but they were no longer sufficient. It became necessary to find new things to attract and seduce. Thus, blogs have joined Pentalog.com, upgrading it to version 3.5 that we are currently using. The web policy of Pentalog was enriched with a galaxy of new tools: chat rooms, pentablog.fr, blog.biz, joblog.ro, joblog.vn, joblog.fr, jolog.biz, Peoplecentric.ro, tools.people-centric.ro. We should also add a much greater appeal to videos. The number of monthly visits has reached the honorable figure of 50,000, which still represents more than 1,600 visits per day, while we are not exactly talking about services for the general public!
The investment multiplier has worked perfectly, since we’ve gone from an annual sales figure of 2 million to 10 million, without an increase in sales force, or 400% in 5 years. The concept was worthwhile. The total investment for all versions, including People Centric, probably did not exceed 150,000 for a 100-times higher sales figure. To this we must add the operating budget for version 3, which is 150 000 / year, or 750 000 for the entire period. Investment + operation are 16 times lower than sales.
And I am not talking about performance in recruitment which, through a well-oiled process, allowing very precise targeting, allows the recruitment of 70% of the employees identified by our branch managers. Totaling all costs of the Pentalog structures (including myself), we reach a budget per employee that is 33 times lower than the average 60% in our industry, despite the cost of a powerful Datacenter, continuous training, trainees, branch openings and… a growth of 60% per year. Pentalog.com is the key of our global BM.
In August 2008, we announced our expansion plans. We have considered growth models, schedules… but now we need tools! Lets go forward towards the Pentalog 2010 web concept!
This week one of our esteemed colleagues visited us and we have opened our heart to him to work together on this new concept. We want heavy stuff and multipliers again, although we are aware that this is getting more difficult than in 2004. He will help us leading this version change, to ensure consistency of design, to assess and prioritize ideas.
We want the 2010 version to take advantage of the following:
We will also launch two sites in addition to the existing Pentalog portal. The first-one will establish the shortest route to a decision to purchase IT services / consulting. The second will be completely dedicated to the JV creation strategy of our expansion plan “30-2013″.
The investment should be roughly compared to what has been done in 2004. However, the large appeal to videos could significantly increase the operating budget.
Stay tuned. We will tell you more by the end of June.
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Posted on Wed., 20 May. 2009 13:06 by flasnier (265 day(s) old) | |||||||
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