So much hard work has gone into NML and so much has been achieved. This is a reflection on some of the highlights, I needed to do this for myself and the NML team.
Recently NML’s shareholding changed and I am now the only shareholder, this has freed me up to make other exciting decisions which I will be announcing in due course.
Surviving two and a half years of tech start-up during these very difficult times defies the odds, building up an amazing team, powerful Intellectual Property and having a healthy pipeline is an amazing achievement and something I am proud of.
2008
NML was started in January of 2008 with an abundance of ideas and energy. The sub-prime credit crisis was something that we thought would only affect the USA and we certainly didn’t conceive the pending global recession.
Usually it is intelligent dynamic people who are keen to take a risk. So it wasn’t surprising that Richard Schroder and Debbie Derman were the first employees to join NML in April 2008 – both truly brilliant, they are hired knowing that in two months time they will be leaving on a three-month trip through Africa. Their skills and the hope of them being long-term NML employees can’t be ignored. The risk paid off.
NML commences work on Windows CE/Mobile GPS triggered tourist information software for Smartguide.co.za.
NML develops a custom niche social network in ASP.Net for Brandhouse. Similar in complexity to Facebook (no jokes), the system allows for media uploads (video/photo), community, notifications, tagging, events, rating, commenting, FAQs and polls. The system is fully integrated into the metrics and segmentation engine Eureka. Eureka is Global Vision’s marketing automation engine used by Diageo.
Rogan Flitton, Gareth Saul, Yves Bamani and Gugulethu Ntombela join NML as permanent employees. Cara Knight Dawson joins as my PA.
Mark Derman (founder of Safarinow.com) and Ernst Kuscke (Microsoft MVP) join NML as long-term contractors.
NML develops a financial services platform for a leading bank. We develop the service layer, database and front end in Silverlight together with Global Vision. Stonewall+ provides the front end designs. The application is integrated into the banking backend and adds social software elements to their traditional business.
NML developers work on the Silverlight front end, middle tier and database for Global Vision’s next generation marketing automation engine, Adora. Read about the development process here – Adora Development Process
NML starts a junior developers program. We give part-time work to students who are mentored and paid to develop applications for NML.
The NML juniors develop a Facebook competition portal that we re-skin and re-utilise as a framework for digital art, photographic or copywriting competitions – we reskin this for our clients and rent the framework. A Facebook application called “My African Bucketlist” and a number of other web and mobile applications are also developed.
NML develops a giving portal TheTrust.org.za at cost as part of our corporate social responsibility initiative. We aggregate charities into charity sectors and allow for payments using credit card, MiMoney, Ukash and EFT. We also generate certificates of giving and a recurring monthly payment system. TheTrust is sponsored by Pick n Pay, IBurst and Vodacom.
NML also develops a variety of micro-sites and applications during the course of 2008.
NML did not lose a single client in 2008.
2009
Christian Bamani and Ashraf Vanker are hired out of the juniors program – the juniors programme pays payback.
Finance Honours graduate Elsie Verheye joined New Media Labs as Operations Manager. In addition to managing the finance, accounts and assisting with audits, Elsie’s expertise also extends to being NML’s qualified SCRUM Master. Her exceptional organizational skill puts her in the forefront of what’s going on at New Media Labs.
NML releases the first iteration of the Google Earth, Flickr, YouTube and Smartguide content portal. Read about the development process here – Smartguide Development Process and view the application here – African Tourism Portal.
NML develop a Silverlight CMS for Smartguide. Smartguide is integrated into our first client’s tourism portal – Southern Destinations. NML invests in Smartguide and becomes a 20% shareholder.
Andrei Dimitriu joins NML as an intermediate developer.
NML develops the CMS to illustrate Nedgroup Investments’ business model of fund management. Read about the development process here – Nedgroup Investments Development.
NML modularises and productises the CMS developed for Nedgroup Investements.
NML, together with Aurecon, develops the web-based incident management software. All CCTV footage is monitored and the Silverlight web application is used to log incidents. This product is nominated for an innovation award by Microsoft (Redmond). Read about the development process here – Aurecon Dev Process.
Videos of the applicaiton can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/newmedialabs.
NML develops a mapping application for the Peace Parks Foundation using ESRI mapping and Silverlight.
Andrei Dimitriu develops the backend for GloMobile utilising NML’s base CMS. Stonewall+ provides the front end designs, Global Vision provide PM, development and testing skills.
NML and Ilan Copelyn develop a bursary management system for the HCI Foundation. The system engine ensures the accurate apportionment of funds across institutions (universities, technikons and FETs) and courses (medicine, law, engineering etc.) to the people who are deemed most needy and most deserving of a bursary. This is calculated according to parents’ salaries, grades at school or in the previous year and number of applications per course per institution. More than two thousand applications are managed through the system.
NML releases the WordPress site for the Vrede Foundation – a foundation in tribute to a friend of mine from way back when. A charismatic legend.
NML starts developing in partnership with Heath Wallace, a leading user experience agency based in the UK. Their services include research, information architecture, design and development. Together with Heath Wallace, NML develops aspects of the websites for one of the top 5 banks in the world. A second and third project in partnership with Heath Wallace starts shortly thereafter. A good sign for our proposed long-term partnership.
At the end of 2009 each client has returned for at least a second or third phase of development.
2010
Most of our projects are still in development for this year and thus can’t be discussed yet.
Watch out for the launch of NML’s background project WeLove.co.za . We have utilise our service-oriented architecture framework to develop a front end that is re-usable across a number of niche social networks. Multiple applications run off a single database, thus each service call is made with a unique application ID. WeLove.co.za will be used to launch a number of our own social network applications all based on groups that share a common interest or passion. Expect to see niche sites hosting WeLove communities such as WeLove coffee, WeLove our children, WeLove Healthy Bodies, WeLove Running etc. You name it, where there is passion there could be a WeLove community! The amazing thing about this project is the collective energy shared for it by all of the NML team. We believe in this product and how it can facilitate relevant and engaging communal conversations around each of our own interests.
We have delivered a virtual itinerary for Smartguide. The software is integrated into the traditional itinerary building software used by a number of tourism operators. The virtual itinerary gives the client a map based view of their holiday and a day by day breakdown with routing drawn on the map. Over 100 tour operator commence integration of the virtual itinerary into their traditional systems.
NML assists Heath Wallace with the development of software for two of the top five global banks.
NML continues development with Aurecon on a number of projects that can’t be discussed.
NML continues to develop software in partnership with a number of the top digital agencies in South Africa.
Raoul De Jongh, the urban-ninja has joined us as a sales person. Read more about his joining NML here – Collaboration between NML and Urban Ninja, Raoul De Jongh
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Thank you for taking the time to read this post. These are exciting times, we would love you to be with us for the journey.
