Ibid Labs is one of the seven beneficiaries of the tandaa-Local Content Development grant initiative in the firms under the government information portal category to run a project entitled the Kenya Online Museum. The ICT board having received funding from the World Bank sent a call to the public for proposals on innovative ideas on collection and disbursement of local content to which Ibid Labs responded.
The Kenya Online Museum will bring Kenya’s 3million years history captured in the Kenyan museums to your computer, phone and TV. On this platform the vast collections of paintings, photographs and artefacts displayed in all the museums in Kenya will be available to you via online and offline channels.
Kenya has over 27 museums, sites and monuments that hold a depth of history of Kenya and her people. Visiting all of them is out of reach for many given the constraints of time, money and the museums spread out locations. This portal will complement the physical museums, sites and monuments.
The information on this portal will be presented via HD video, audio, still photographs and texts. More young Kenyans are spending a lot of time on the internet and with this project Ibid Labs will inspire various Kenyan audiences to appreciate that knowledge of their heritage and history will enrich their lives and also stimulate a sense of identity and place in the 21st century.
The Kenya Online museum is targeted at students and teachers in primary school, secondary schools, colleges and universities. Kenyans in the diaspora will have a greater sense of understanding of their roots & common ancestry and history-loving tourists will also enjoy the collection.
The Kenya Online Museum will take 12 months to develop and premieres August 2011.
We recently completed work on developing the brand and marketing communications for Sweet. Sweet is an international phone service that lets Kenyans in the diaspora own a Kenyan phone number so they can call and be called as if they were right here in Kenya. Check out their website which was coded by our technology partner Sawa Sawa.
The project included naming, identity design, marketing collateral design, advertising development, website and an online marketing campaign.
Our latest project to go live is the new photo sharing service, Rumbaa, launched last Friday at the GP-Karting grounds, a stone throw from the Carnivore restaurant . The service borrows a leaf from the South African website Thunda.
A bunch of guys called RumbaaDudes drive around in a pimped-up Hummer taking professional photos at parties and clubs. The photographs are later uploaded to the service where users can browse and share the photos on Facebook and Twitter.
Rumbaa gets a few things right where Nation Media Group’s Zuqka gets it all wrong.
Photographs on Rumbaa look great and the party people even better! There are also listings of events, DJs and local music (including videos).
So next time you are out partying and the RumbaaDudes come along, be sure to show your best side and strike a party pose.
When the client came knocking at our doors for help redoing their identity, we smiled at the mentioned of the inspiring company name, Richfields. You can’t go wrong developing a logo for such an optimistic name! The result, a floral burst reminiscent of a water/oil ripple. It starts out black and ends up green. Richfields supplies the East African region with lots of petroleum based products used in the manufacture of every day items such as nail varnish and soap!
Kenya’s lastest discussion community launched a couple of days ago. Wazua is from the same folks who brought you stockskenya.com (no longer active) and the exclusive Nelly Data stock market reporting service. Ibid Labs developed the Wazua identity which depicts a ‘traditional African’ discussion forum, typically held under a prominent tree overlooking a spectacular landscape! For non-swahili speakers, wazua means thinking out loud or to share your thinking.
There are numerous technology companies (popularly called ICT enterprises even if all they do is sell unopened Dell and HP boxes!) in Nairobi. Aside from big name Microsoft, HP, Huawei multinationals, there is a crop of homegrown, ambitious software houses that not only sell branded (or unbranded boxes) but also develop software products and integrate complex network protocols with sophisticated applications that run Kenya’s numerous banks, manufacturing, retail and distribution companies, etc.
One such company is Virtual City and its siblings, Virtual Mobile and Virtual Sat.
After several years of rapid growth, crowned by taking runners up place (including a $50,000 prize) in the innovative and prestigious Pioneers of Prosperity award programme, the 3 companies have evolved to provide a range of products and services from project management software to IP video hardware and software.
In order to better communicate their experience, knowledge, innovative and professional business, they had to simplify and stimulate communication about the organisation and products to the market as well as their large team of techies, sales and customer service people.
Our challenge was to refresh their previously hardworking identity, and develop a visual language that talked tech in a non-tech way. No mean feat in a jargon-laden industry where people take themselves way too seriously!
So after several rounds of writing, drawing, etc, Virtual City, Virtual Mobile and Virtual Sat now have a spanking new identity and a whopping 36 product brochures all explained in a detailed Brand and Visual standards manual developed over the course of 1 year (thats right! It takes a while to pull off something this big).
Next in line is the refreshing of their website and the development of a marketing campaign utilising of offline and online channels.
Hats off to John Waibochi, MD, and his team who continue to collaborate on this exciting project!
After several months of design, development and beta testing, the Ibid Labs marketing team has announced that the much awaited, web-based, business management software suite for SMEs, IBID, has been released.
Feature rich, simple-to-use, an elegant interface and user friendly language set IBID apart from similar systems often costing millions of shillings and out of reach for the thousands of SMEs that need such technology based tools.
IBID (Intelligent Business Internet Dashboard) is an integrated software suite that enables SME owners and managers collect and share all operational data and information. IBID has 12 feature-rich modules that help business managers and their staff manage accounts, employees, customer service, sales, document management, project management, eCommerce and more!
Even with such a huge features list, IBID manages to use simple, every day business language such that a first time user does not require much training. The interface is intuitive and if you can use email then using IBID will come naturally.
IBID runs off any web browser so users can access company data and all the features from a simple computer with an internet connection, or a mobile phone. There is no extra investment in computer hardware, software or personnel required to run IBID.
SMEs will find the recession friendly price of KShs 199,000/- affordable. The operational efficiencies and administrative cost savings of using IBID are huge. SMEs can expect a reduction of between 50% and 80% in adminstrative costs depending on how much use they put IBID to.
A company without the budget to hire specialised personnel for customer service, sales management, accounting and HR management will find IBID useful in managing those functions delivering high quality services to customers and employees
Ibid Labs has also announced that to sweeten the deal for SMEs, they are throwing in free goodies such as, a free website, a free eNewsletter and mailing list management tool, free domain registration and free web hosting.
“This is the deal of the year,” quips Maina Kiarie, CEO. ‘Now all SMEs can take advantage of those higher, cheaper internet access speeds made possible by the fibre optic cables. At the same time SMEs will benefit from using cutting-edge business software, all at a price they can afford. Kenya can now leapfrog into the 21st century!”
IBID can be dubbed an ERP, though use of that acronym will scare off everyone but battle-hardened software and management consultants.
The launch of IBID will be supported by an inhouse developed marketing campaign that will run from September to December 2009. The marketing campaign activities are part of the Stimulate range of products also offered by Ibid Labs.
Nam Consult, a Kenyan PR company came to us when they needed a new website in record time. Oh yes, we do develop smart, well-written websites in no more than 3 days. Thanks to Waguthi and her team for getting us all that content and letting the production team develop a smart website. You can visit the website here.
Horizons Office, a Kenyan startup that manages virtual and serviced offices has just launched their newly created corporate Identity. The project was handled in record time by the creative and web development team over at our studios. The work required the development of a new logo and corporate identity as well as all collateral items for their various products. To crown it all, a spanking new website complete with product specification downloads and online order forms.
Thank you Ian Kabiru, for inspiring the team to come up with such gorgeous work.
On a very good [classifieds] day, say Fridays and Tuesdays, the Daily Nation may display about 1,000 classified ads. No photos or fancy descriptions. Just a crisp 8 or so words to describe what’s on sale. The ad appears once. The paper is tossed away. To put up an ad you have to leave your house, go downtown, wait in line, compose the ad, pay for it, wait until next morning, buy a paper, confirm your ad ran, wait for your phone to ring. The newspaper rakes in a fortune, you spend precious time running around, then maybe you sell, maybe you dont. That model has worked forever for lack of an alternative. Not any more.
Oomati.com promises to change the way Kenyan classifieds work. The portal will feature thousands of classified ads from thousands of user selling thousands of items. As the country waits with bated breath for the intercontinental fibre optic cables, Kenyan internet users are bracing for a plethora of web services and local businesses are trying to figure out how to provide online services and make a Shilling or two.
Oomati.com is a simple, easy to use, listing service that allow users to post and browse items for sale, jobs, tenders, etc in a cleverly categorised system. See something you think your friend would be interested in, a click on the ‘Tell-a-friend’ button and bingo! Another feature allows users to exchange or barter goods and services. The internet is not always about money!
The Oomati.com service has been developed by Ibid Labs, A Kenyan internet services and online marketing company. Oomati.com is currently in private testing and a launch date will be announced soon. Click here to be added on the launch mailing list.
Kenya’s premier restaurant chain, Tamarind Group owns and manages 8 restaurants. Their flagship, Carnivore restaurant has become a mecca for meat lovers and the adjacent Simba Saloon is undoubtedly the hottest night club/disco/concert venue/bar destination in the region!
But how do you get punters shell-shocked from the global recession to dish out $20 for a basic meal and up to $4 for drinks? You remind them of what a great experience the Tamarind Group offers and that life is good when [hard] times are shared with friends over barbeque and dawa cocktails.
The much improved website featuring an extensive photo gallery and simple to use reservations form was developed by Kenyan internet services company, Ibid Labs. Visit the Carnivore page here.
It’s official! Facebook has over 150,000 Kenyan users, quoting an NMG Business Daily report from a few weeks ago! (I dont know who factually checks these figures). For most internet users who had nothing else to do with the internet after checking their email, Facebook quickly became the entertainment platform of choice. The reason: It is like reality TV (video replaced by photos) that you can participate in when you need a little (a lot?) of distraction. Facebook nerds are fascinated by the websites magical ability to find your friends from primary school and casual encounters from work or parties!
So lots of established businesses that spend millions of shillings on traditional advertising still cannot figure out what to do with Facebook. While the big companies twiddle their thumbs, all manner of startups and mom-and-pop shops have embraced Facebook picture ads to drive up awareness for their businesses and websites. Most of these companies have websites that don’t feature accurate or up to date information about the products they are promoting. The result of this is the setting of a bad precedent such that users will soon associate ads on Facebook with mediocre companies.
I think blue chip advertisiers will jump onto the bandwagon once they can figure out how to develop captivating online activities that will hold the users attention span in the same manner that Facebook does!
Kenyan consumers have caught on to the internet in a big way. Thousands of retail and corporate consumers now prefer to Google your organisation and check out your online profile and more information. 90% of such customers do not succeed in finding the information they seek! Oops!
A business that does not have a website sends out several signals:
• We are too small to have a website
• We cannot afford a website
• We don’t think the internet provides any value to our business
• We don’t understand the internet
• We don’t think the internet would provide any value to our customers
I’m sure you can think of a few more. For companies that are not yet comfortable using the internet as a tool to communicate about their business, products and services, a small investment of KShs 25,000/- should put you squarely online and findable (yes there is such a word) on Google. Check out the IBID Starter Website package from Kenyan web development company, Ibid Labs.