Monthly Archives: October 2010

  • October 29, 2010

    New Signature Receives 2010 National Capital Business Ethics Award

    By New Signature
    Awards

    We are proud to announce that New Signature has received the 2010 National Capital Business Ethics Award in the micro company category (companies with 50 employees or fewer).  The Awards recognize companies that exemplify a strong commitment to business excellence and to the highest standards of civic and social responsibility, integrity and ethical conduct in the Greater Washington region.

    We are thrilled that New Signature’s commitment to an ethical approach to business has been recognized with this prestigious award.  New Signature’s core values shape the way we do business and drive our success.  Since our founding, we have pledged to:

    • Be a great company to do business with—for colleagues, customers, partners and suppliers.
    • Provide only superior services.
    • Foster client communication and provide polite customer service.
    • Educate our clients.
    • Stay creative and be forward thinking, proactive, entrepreneurial and adaptive.
    • Promote trust and credibility through legal and ethical conduct.
    • Promote diversity of experience, culture, ideas and opinions.
    • Contribute proactively to a better community.

    The consistent application of these values has allowed us to operate a successful double bottom line business with a conventional bottom line—financial profit or loss—and a second bottom line in terms of positive social impact.  This commitment and the support of our customers, partners and suppliers has positioned us to do what we love: deliver services and build products that use technology creatively, are beautifully designed, have a positive impact on the community, and are always backed by passionate, friendly support.

    The National Capital Business Ethics Awards are presented annually by the National Capital Chapter of the Society of Financial Service Professionals, in partnership with George Mason University.  The awards honor companies in the Washington area that demonstrate a strong commitment to the highest ethical business practices in daily operations, management philosophies and response to crises and challenges.

  • October 26, 2010

    Book Review: “Being Geek: The Software Developer’s Career Handbook”

    By New Signature
    Book Reviews \ Branding, Website and Database

    “Being Geek” covers the career path of a software developer and the goals therein. Along the path are anecdotes of failures, disasters and the occasional bright spot. The writing style is addictive, and Rands clearly lays out the perils in transitioning from someone in the front lines of operations to a manager. It’s clear that many people have trouble making this transition, and Rands breaks down why.

    Although the book is written from a software perspective, any engineer working today who is a self-confessed “geek” will find value in this book. The organization of the book does lend itself to choosing a particular chapter when one runs into an important life-event, but reading it from cover-to-cover felt just as natural. I’d strongly recommend all technical workers pick up a copy and learn the lessons contained therein.

  • Microsoft Office 365

    By New Signature
    Cloud Computing \ IT Consulting and Support \ Microsoft

    One of the products we’ve been most excited to work with has been Office 365, the latest iteration of Microsoft’s hosted email platform.

    For some time now, New Signature has been helping customers migrate their on-premise mail solutions to hosted versions with greater uptime and reliability. Microsoft entered this market a few years ago, but has only embraced the cloud whole-heartedly in the past year, aggressively improving their hosted product to match solutions from competitors.

    The new Office 365 adds significant new features and capabilities, leveraging the improvements made in Exchange 2010. These include:

    • True co-existence to allow a hybrid on-premise/hosted solution; this also allows customers to move a pilot group of staff into the cloud for themselves for a few weeks to test the environment with no side effects
    • Sharepoint 2010 allows multiple authors to collaborate on documents at the same time
    • Office Lync to provide true audio + video + instant messaging integration for anyone with a web camera and a microphone
    • Greater tools to show the health status of existing services backed by a 99.9% Service Level Agreement for uptime

    New Signature has been working with the technologies behind Office 365 (Exchange 2010, Sharepoint 2010, Lync Server) for over a year now, so our expertise runs deep. We’ve also been migrating many customers to BPOS, Office 365′s predecessor, and our experience has been a hugely positive one.

    If you’re tired of on-premise mail servers being down “for maintenance” or not allowing you the functionality you need, give New Signature a call to let us show you how a hosted email solution like Office 365 can increase your productivity and reduce downtime.

  • October 18, 2010

    New Signature Websites Receive One Gold and Five Silver Awards in the 2010 W3 Awards Competition

    By New Signature
    Awards \ Branding, Website and Database

    The winners of the 2010 W3 Awards have been announced by the International Academy of the Visual Arts and New Signature has earned six awards–one gold and five silvers–for websites that we designed and produced.  Receiving more than 3,000 entries, the W3 Awards honors outstanding websites created by some of the best interactive agencies, designers and creators worldwide.

    The New Signature designed winning websites include:

    “We were once again amazed by the high standard of excellence represented throughout the entries we received this year. W3 winners continue to embody what the Internet is all about and continue to raise the bar in Web development and design. We are honored to have reviewed such a diverse and remarkable pool of work this year” said Linda Day, the executive director of the IAVA. “On behalf of the entire Academy, congratulations to this year’s W3 Award entrants and winners as they continue to push the limits of Web Creativity. “

  • New Signature Launches SNCF America Website

    By New Signature
    Branding, Website and Database \ Site Launches \ WordPress

    New Signature has launched the SNCF America website.  New Signature built the website for the Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français–the French National Railway–to provide the company with an online presence focused on providing a US-based audience with transparent information about the group.  For example, the website describes SNCF’s efforts to create a world-class high-speed rail system that will drive business development and job creation, improve air quality, cut petroleum use and reduce highway and airport congestion.

    SNCF has been operating high-speed rail systems since 1981, with more than 1,100 miles of designated high-speed track and more than 800 high-speed trains running every day. We are a global organization helping companies and nations around the world build and operate better, safer, more efficient and cost effective high-speed rail systems.  SNCF’s mission is to promote a society with greater mobility, mutual respect and solidarity by making ecomobility the driving force behind sustained growth and customer preference for both passengers and shippers.

    The website blends stunning visual design, practical usability, and robust functionality to create compelling website that adheres to SNCF’s brand guidelines.  The SNCF website is built on the WordPress publishing platform to make it easy for SNCF’s staff to update content on the website.

    http://www.sncfhighspeedrail.com/http://www.sncfhighspeedrail.com/

  • October 12, 2010

    New Signature Launches Redesigned Website for the Alliance for American Manufacturing

    By New Signature
    Branding, Website and Database \ Drupal \ Site Launches

    Alliance for American ManufacturingWorking closely with the communications team at the Alliance for American Manufacturing (“AAM”), New Signature developed and launched a state-of-the-art online communications platform to support AAM in its mission to strengthen manufacturing in the United States. The site allows the prolific staff at AAM to publish a broad variety of content including news articles and press releases, issue statements, publications, multiple branded blogs, videos, and podcasts to an audience of concerned citizens, policy makers, activists, and the press. Using map-based navigation and visualization, the site provides local, state-specific data and content to promote regional awareness of issues and to drive attendance to local AAM-sponsored events. In addition, the site is integrated with a full suite of social media tools to further leverage new content and to target audiences via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or RSS.

    New signature developed the site, which is available at www.AmericanManufacturing.org, using the Drupal Content Management System as a base. Drawing on Drupal’s comprehensive and flexible capabilities for content categorization and cross-linking, New Signature designed the site to provide an optimal mix of content for specific, self-identifying audiences. For example, visitors from the media can quickly perform required research and sympathetic supporters are swiftly directed to channel their energy into opportunities to get involved.

    The innovators at AAM are always looking for new ways to make an impact. Their new site’s capability to highlight appropriate content in different branches of the site allows them to showcase their latest efforts. From the visually appealing article rotator on the home page to the issue navigator, and from the multiple “we recommend” blocks to the interactive Town Hall Tour map, AAM has the ability to expose their best, most relevant work to each visitor as he navigates through the site.

    New Signature is looking forward to continue working with AAM’s innovators to expand their reach and achieve their mission. Please contact us to see what we can do for you.