The Mercian Labels Group Blog – Security Labels International, Mercian Labels and AC Labels

At this time is it customary (albeit slightly frivolous) to make some predictions for the year to come.  So , here are my predictions (mostly economic) or 2009, some good, some not so… :

1. UK retail businesses will be hit very hard, especially those who have not adapted their business model to adopt or defend against the relentless growth of low costs base internet based businesses.
2. The UK housing market will bottom out in Q3/Q4 2009 and will stagnate for 6 months before seeing very small gains in 2010.
3. Many UK retail/domestic bank accounts will no longer be free to own and run, as the high street banks, under significant pressure to rebuild balance sheets and make a profit, will have to slash services that they cannt make any money at, and with interest rates so low, personal accounts that are currently “free” due to historically high fees and lack of credit interest will have to change.
4. The UK will experience a significant reduction in EU residents coming here for work , as the value of the pound against the euro makes the UK a much less attractive place to come and work, leading to a net reduction in the working population and increased pay for those working in businesses in the hospitality and service sectors.
5. There will be public service strikes not seen for many years, as the public sector contracts in size and there are pay rise freezes across both public and private sectors.  No general election though until 2010…
6. After a record cold year in 2008, the 2009 UK summer will be long and hot with more bbq opportunities than for many years.
7. There will be some fantastic new .com business startups supplying subscription based geolocation services using GPS in mobile phones
8. The “must have” electronic gadget for 2009 will run on open source
9. Getting wild now…there will be a “once in a century” scientific breakthrough in physics, probably in connection with energy supply or storage, that will energise the stock markets.
10. UK Manufacturing may well actually fair better than finance, retail, construction and the service sector in 2009, and finally, as every good entrepreneur believes, Mercian Labels will outperform the competition in 2009 and have another record year!

Feel free to comment away or add your own – the wilder the better.

Adrian

(for the record these views are my own and not those of Mercian Labels Ltd !)

Merry Christmas to the readers of this blog.  I hope that you are having a peaceful and enjoyable time with your friends and family.

Adrian

I listen to absolute radio a lot in the car, and am annoyed by the annoying current Microsoft Office 2007 advert, preying on parents’ insecurity by suggesting that if you buy this software then your kids will do their homework more, or better.

I’m inclined to disagree.  Its software, and its a tool.  The intellectual input is what matters, not the software its written with, and especially at “school” level (ie pre degree level), it dosnt mater what software you use.  Open Office is free (speech and beer), and excellent.  Its the only software I use use now for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations.

Parents.  Dont bother. Download Open Office for free here.

Jono Bacon, a guru of the ubuntu community has posted a request on his blog that users of ubuntu spread the word on ubuntu by describing what hey like about it.  So here goes, here are Mercian Labels’ top 5 reasons for giving ubuntu some “love”.

• its free, as in speech, so once we have “bought” into it, its ours to use as we see fit, and not have constant upgrade license costs.  OK, you dont pay for it as its free as in beer, but I can assure you that for a business it costs money to migrate to ubuntu from Windows.
• its better than windows for most day to day applications. Yes it is IMHO.  There are significant compatibility problems (like SAGE dosnt run on linux as we need it), but you can work around it.
• the idea of having community support instead of OEM manufactured support is a hard one to get used to , but it is in fact better.  Actually we have a hybrid at Mercian Labels, we solve most of our support needs through google searches, and almost invariably the FOSS community, ubuntu or otherwise, has solved the problem before and there is a ready made solution out there.  When there is not, we use a professional FOSS consultancy – Senokian, who solve it for us.
• Security updates are free, and the “universe” give us whole heaps of free software whenever we need it for a new application.  You couldn’t buy a system like that for any price, it can only come from a diverse and disparate community with highly variable needs but a common goal.
• From a CSR perspective, we like to see community driven activities suceed, and supporting a system with market awareness and dollars that dosnt support the continution of a uncompetitive monopoly is just good commercial sense.

So there you go Jono.

The story of the electricity company E.ON being fined €38m for breaking a tamper evident security label seal that companies like us manufacture came to our attention yesterday.  You can read a quick version on the Times website or a full account on the Europa.eu website with pictures.

The very nature of our work at Security Labels International means that we dont often get to see many of our security label products in action, but stories like this demonstrate how important the performance of our products is, and the consequences of false positive readings for end users.

We have a new product range out soon that will give customers the highest levels of security ever seen in the marketplace – if you are involved in such high profile security sealing then we will be pleased to send you samples to trial, or help train your staff in the correct use of such seals. As the Competition Commission have demonstrated, accidental breech or misuse can be very, very expensive.