2006 proved to be a difficult year for E-creation, with several clients going bust owing significant sums of money. In order to protect against this in the future, E-creation has changed its charging approach, with a new staged payment structure and further refinement to our contracts in order to protect our IP rights on projects.
The move to Bournemouth in 2005 was a success, with our new office in the Enterprise Pavillion. Several key strategic partnerships were established and business turnover grew by 50% in 2005, although profit levels remained static.
Our design resources were consolidated and our creative capability significantly improved, with a deeper involvement in branding and other more traditional design areas.
Technical resources were similarly bolstered, with the addition of 2 key technical staff specialising in .Net and SQL, one of our key revenue streams.
Previous statements:
For those who are not aware, in June of 2004, Jan-Erik Paul when in for an operation on his shoulder (more details available on www.janerikpaul.com) which I have now recovered from. However, 3 months of not being able to drive has made life interesting in terms of doing meetings, although working from home has been an eye-opening and positve experience.
Our sales team is now outsourced and delivering significantly improved results (and cost savings). Our marketing collateral includes a corporate video completed in the spring of 2004, which is generating good interest and opening new doors.
Our split of work is now around 50% website oriented (with around half of those being database-driven websites), 20% CD-ROM multimedia, 20% animated presentations and 10% print design. In line with this, we have changed our multimedia design resourcing, focusing more on higher-end 'conceptual' design work with higher budgets. The multimedia development tends to sit within websites rather than being the website.
Thanks to great deal of word of mouth and industry coverage, E-creation has continued to grow in 2002 - about 30% in turnover and 25% in headcount.
The largest proportion of our work is now CD-ROM based as a result of increased perceived value in interactive presentations. Consequently, we have been able to create some excellent interactive brochures and catalogues for a wide variety of clients ranging from independent financial managers Equus to top international DJ Kelly Marie.
We are also privileged to continue our education work with Harcourt Education International (formerly Reed Primary) for whom we have created new and exciting digital media educational tools aimed at helping young children learn essential reading skills.
Our plans for 2002/2003 are to continue growing both our knowledge and the business to ensure we remain new media industry experts in interactive sales and marketing tools and education - not just creating products that are nice to look at and fun to play with - but that solidly deliver the goals of the clients we work for."
Jan-Erik Paul
CEO, E-creation
E-creation is a 100% self-funded venture. E-creation's performance has won it awards and at the core of it's performance is a true love of what can be achieved by combining creativity with technology.
2006
A challenging year for E-creation, with a several clients going bust owing E-creation money. Theoretical turnover levels were higher for the year, but due to client issues, real term cashflow was poor. Several new marketing tools were brough into play and we are looking forward to the results of this marketing in 2007.
2005
E-creation moved its production office to Bournemouth whilst retaining its finance office in Gerrards Cross. Turnover increased by over 50%, with several large scale client wins including City & Guilds, BritishJobs & London Underground.
2004
2004 has been interesting year for E-creation. To maximise profit and offer even better value for money to our client, E-creation moved out of its Gerrards Cross High Street offices to out of town premises. Additional resources to the team enabled E-creation to extend its design offering to include high-end print concept and design work, plus an investment in a local print company, VisionPrintUK, has enabled E-creation to offer preferential rates on printing.
2003
Turnover increased moderately but profitability fell 10% this year. In a very positive case for word of mouth, E-creation was recommend by Macromedia themselves, when asked for the name of an agency who could take on a very challenging technical project in Flash.
2002
Another successful year with the development of some highly successful projects such as the Project Eyes Extranet - now used by over 80 companies.
2001
2001 was a successfull year for E-creation, winning the Thames Valley Business of the Year award, entering into Design Week's list of the UK's top 100 digital design agencies and moving into new premises.
2000
In 2000 E-creation grew by 400% in the first half of the year. Other year highlights include winning the Thames Valley Business of the Month award, and being nominated for the Business of the Year award. Design Week ranked E-creation as number four in its list of the UK fastest growing design companies.
1999
Lighthouse Multimedia is re-branded 'E-creation' and becomes a full-time venture for Jan-Erik Paul. E-creation re-focuses it skills on Internet and Intranet development and takes on is first employee.
1998
E-creation is founded by Jan-Erik Paul as a part-time venture under the name 'Lighthouse Multimedia Limited' with focus primarily on CD-ROM and touchscreen development.
The number of perminant employees has been reduced by 25% to 3 full-time employees but a doubling of numbers of ‘perma-lance’ employees from 2 to 4. The skill base has shifted towards higher-end website design and multimedia design, with around 33% developers, 33% designs and 33% management. Existing in-house skills now cover SQL, ASP, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, C++ and Director. For the past 4 years, Director work has accounted for over 50% of our turnover, but in 2004, Director is likely to account for 25% of turnover.
E-creation will be continuing to expand using ‘perma-lance’ resources, due to the tax efficiency, reduced running costs and level of performance currently achieved through this kind resourcing.
