Sneaky peek at new layout

The new design is in development now - and all the changes are aimed at making the website easier to use by allowing grouping of reports and documents in 'My Reports', a single 'My Account' page for you to manage payments, orders, invoices and account details, and an 'instant monitoring' button to add companies with the click of the mouse and without the need to navigate three pages.


















In addition, more of our website will be interactive with 'on page' actions to reduce the time you spend navigating and to help new users get the most from the website.

Less time on our website to get the same work completed = more time free for you to do something else!

What do you want from ukdata.com?

We want to make ukdata.com better and easier for you to use. To do this we are using a vote based suggestion system.

Look on the left hand side of this page for the red 'Feedback' tab. Clicking the tab brings up a window where you can make suggestions to help us improve what we do for you.

Suggestions are voted on by other visitors and we will implement the most popular ideas over the summer.

Have a look and leave a suggestion - let us build what you want not what we think you want.

This system can really work for everyone, Dell implemented this at http://www.ideastorm.com/ and it changed the way they do business. Now, they build machines that buyers want and now have happier customers.

In the process, by listening to their customers, have rescued themselves from Dell Hell.

Website Features - Update 2

In addition to the layout and basic function/design changes mentioned in Update 1 there are going to be some changes within the 'My Reports' and 'My Monitors' sections.

These two sections are going to be merged into one 'My Companies' area where you will be able to view the documents and reports purchased on companies and edit the monitoring alerts you wish to receive in the same place.

All purchased documents will be pre-sorted into company order with all documents relating to an individual company listed by company. So, if you have purchased multiple reports on company, it will be easier to find, sort, view, print or share these documents.



(this image may not be how the final version appears but it is a good indicator)



A new simple Monitoring On/Off button will appear beside each company name and clicking the 'edit settings' will cause a drop down box to appear where you can edit your monitoring preferences for that company.

The 'share' functionality will be improved but more on that in a later update.

Any feedback gratefully received to alastair[at]ukdata.com

New analysis from Google Ad Planner

Google have launched Ad Planner (beta) which lets you look deeper into a website metrics to see more about the visitors.

More useful for companies that buy online ad space but still some interesting user statistics on ukdata.com:






























And very impressive if you are Wikipedia.

Insolvencies Q1 2009

UK DATA: INSOLVENCIES IN THE FIRST QUARTER 2009

Statistics showing insolvencies in the first quarter of 2009 are published today (1 May) by the Insolvency Service.

There were 4,941 compulsory liquidations and creditors’ voluntary liquidations in total in England and Wales in the first quarter of 2009 (on a seasonally adjusted basis).

This was an increase of 7.1% on the previous quarter and an increase of 56.0% on the same period a year ago.

This was made up of 1,579 compulsory liquidations (which are up 1.2% on the previous quarter and 43.6% on the corresponding quarter of the previous year), and 3,362 creditors voluntary liquidations (which are up 10.0% on the previous quarter and 62.5% on the corresponding quarter of the previous year).

In the twelve months ending Q1 2009, approximately 1 in 130 active companies (or 0.8%) went into liquidation, compared to the previous quarter when approximately 1 in every 150 (or 0.7%) of active companies went into liquidation.

Website Features - Update 1

We will be spending the summer working hard to improve the website for you and to add new features, to make checking companies credit and monitoring their activity even quicker and simpler.

Our new release - which is due in July - is going to include a raft of new features to make using the website that bit easier and over the next few weeks I will blog about these so you can see what is coming up. Please email me alastair[at]ukdata.com if you have suggestions or feedback on any of the new features.

The main noticeable change will be layout. We are not changing the design but instead taking the current layout and making it wider to 980px and increasing the default text size to making reading the website easier. Don't worry though if you like your text small, there will be a -TEXT+ button to override the text size.

We are also adding 'print this page' and 'email this page' buttons to every page throughout the website. This will include all the 'Company Details' pages so you can share company information with others by email without leaving the page.

The same 'email this page' code will be used for the 'share this report' button in your My Reports area so that instead of being taken to a new page and filling in a form, a pop-up layer will simply ask for their email address and whisk the report off to your colleague.

more to come...

More fraud prevention

More emails and phone calls over the last few days from victims of fraudsters using UK companies details as a false front. Thanks to Chris over at scamchecker.net for allowing me to post his check list.


Main points to watch for:

The website is poorly designed.
Incorrectly spelt words, bad English grammar.
Uses cell phones or a redirection service - verify telephone numbers at International Numbers
They sell quality branded goods such as Nike, Rolex, Tiffany etc, that they claim are genuine.
They sell quality branded goods, Nike, Rolex, Tiffany etc..that they claim are replicas.
Prices seem too good to be true, such as half price iPods or Xbox Units.
They initiated contact with you via EBay messaging system or spam email.
They only have a web presence on B2B or Auction websites.

Website Registration

The website name address has no relevance to the 'company' name.
The website was registered in the last 3 months.
The website registration was only purchased for a period of one year.
The physical address provided in the website registration is too vague to be an actual address.
The phone number provided in the website registration appears fake. e.g. 12345678.
The email address provided in the website registration is using a free email service such as Yahoo or Hotmail

Seller Behaviour

Instead of referring to the goods as counterfeit or replicas, they use terms such as 'high quality' or 'A+'.
They are reluctant to accept PayPal, or make excuses why they cannot accept PayPal.
Once you have paid for the items they seem to ignore your emails and instant messages.
If a third party suggest they are a scam, they say this is because they are the competition
The seller uses heavy pressure for you to increase your order quantity.

Payment

Does not accept any form of Credit Card.
Only accepts Credit Card for local purchases.
Requires money to be sent by Bank Transfer, Western Union or Moneygram.
Only accepts Credit Card to fund Bank Transfer, Western Union or Moneygram.
After purchasing goods has asked you to send more money for goods to clear customs.
Offers no method of payment using a proper secure means.

Documentation

Once paid you are provided with a shipping number that is 'not found' or 'invalid' on the shipping companies website.
Provides 'documents' which have been produced by Photoshop.
A Google search finds their name associated with a scam.
The Local Administration for Industry and Commerce cannot confirm this company is legally registered, and has certificates for foreign trade.

Quite Interesting

Found this interesting graphic on Google Analytics today of the concentration of website visitors to ukdata.com for the 1st Quarter of 2009.

Within UK visitors - who represent 65% of all visits - there is a predominance of visitors from London and the South East accounting for 28% of all UK users.

The second and third highest concentrations are along the corridors of the M40 and M4 motorways with a small cluster in the North East.

Quite interesting but perhaps not surprising?