MarkIT.eu blog

Meet Mark - The IT Superhero

The recent launch of the new version of MarkIT (M3) also saw the sudden appearance of Mark - a new IT Superhero.

Mark is very closely affiliated with MarkIT. We share similar attitudes and goals and he has readily agreed to represent MarkIT in a series of fun clips.

Mark is for fair play. He is a straight-shooting guy, friendly and always willing to help. He hates ineffiency, outdated solutions and unneccesary complications. Over time he has also developed some very special powers.

He keeps his cool to elegantly solve difficult situations. He stands firmly by his friends and his principles.

There is no greater joy for Mark than helping out his friends Bill, Herbert and Gloria.

The series of clips are called: Waisting Time, Fair Play, To The Heart, Stranded and Technology Changes. They take Mark from the comforts of his house to Bill’s apartment and also to desert islands and high-stake pokergames. We hope you like him!

Have look at the adventures of Mark on the MarkIT Youtube Channel.

Tags: IT, Mark, markit, Superhero

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New version of MarkIT launched

MarkIT has released a new version of its online IT purchasing platform codenamed M3. It is the fourth major software update in the past 8 years. M3 has a top of the line user interface and some powerful new functionality. The design emphasises MarkIT as a professional tool for corporate IT buyers.

M3 is a culmination of 8 years of continuous development. As the new version goes live, MarkIT is operating in 23 countries, has real time links to 150 major IT distribution companies and the largest product selection in Europe. MarkIT handles 50 000 orders a year and the company has grown 18 times since founding in 2003 to 32,5 million EUR of revenue in 2011.

M3 has a new navigation that gives quick access to the most frequently used parts of the purchasing process. All features related to account set-up and purchasing management are combined into a single menu.

The color scheme is neutral in the frame, color is used to emphasise choices, activities and content.  A new set of iconography aims to convey the features in a simple and a generally understandable way. All secondary information has been removed to create a clean workspace for users.

New features include a central “Dashboard” that gives a quick overview of all open issues and activities across companies, groups and countries. Similarly “Consolidated view” feature under Orders and Invoices makes multi-company and multi-country purchasing incredibly simple.

Product search capabilities have also been vastly improved. Customers can personalise their searches, add filters by choice and save them for repeat use. Product catalogue can be filtered by the required delivery date. Starting from a specific product it is now possible to run a search for similar products.

For purchasing management side the new version features a new set of buying limits and restrictions and also makes them easily manageable across company groups. M3 has an SAP integration (OCI) possibility and can be linked to other internal ERP and purchasing systems.

Check the MarkIT online IT purchasing system demo movie

Tags: M3, new MarkIT

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Q3 results and main news

In Q3 our revenue growth slowed slightly to 22% year-on-year, compared to 30% in Q2 and 42% in Q1. Total revenue was 8.4 million EUR up from 6.9 in Q3 2010. Our 9 month results are well in line with our annual targets, as we are aiming for 32,5 million EUR of revenue.

In this quarter we hit some all-time highs for the company. We had the highest ever weekly revenue (week 35 revenue was 1,2 million EUR) and highest weekly order count (1335 orders in week 37) and Q3 is our highest quarterly revenue to date.

The most significant event in Q3 and for the year was the launch of a new version of MarkIT codenamed M3. It is the fourth major software update in the past 8 years. M3 has a top of the line user interface and some powerful new functionality. The design emphasises MarkIT as a professional tool for corporate IT buyers.

M3 is major step forward for us and offers a totally new level of customer experience. It is a culmination of 8 years of continuous development. As the new version goes live, MarkIT is operating in 23 countries, has real time links to 150 major IT distribution companies and the largest product selection in Europe.

We ended the quarter with 600 loyal customers compared to 450 at the end of Q3 in 2010. This means that 150 new customers have started to use MarkIT with high regularity over an extended period.

Our NPS score has continued to grow and is now at 59. This is a very high score of customer satisfaction and compares well to be best companies in the world like Google (53) and E-bay (65). A net promoter score above 30 is considered excellent.

We hired additional sales force into our Czech, Polish and Lithuania sales teams. We are also opening offices in Sweden and Germany a process started in Q3 that will be concluded in Q4.

This quarter we also added another 10 new distributors to our ever-growing database of IT goods.

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Main news and results in Q2

After a good start of the year the second quarter of 2011 continued strongly. Compared to the same period last year quarter our revenues grew by 30%. Total revenue was 7.9 million EUR up from 6.1 in Q1 2010.

Half year results are in line with our 2011 targets. Our total revenue for the first 6 months was 15.8 million and represents 49% of the annual revenue target of 32.5 million.

Significant work was done on the new major release of our software platform codenamed M3. The progress is good and we aim to be live in September.  In June M3 also became available as internal BETA for initial testing purposes.

We ended the quarter with 554 loyal customers compared to 404 at the end of Q2 in 2010. This means that 150 new customers have started to use MarkIT with high regularity over an extended period.

Our sales team attended to high level conferences – CIO Europa and IT Strategies 2011. During the events we met with more than 50 international companies. Our solution was well received. Around 30% customers either signed up or agreed to next steps.

In our expansion activities we made first step of entry into Greece, Romania and Bulgaria. Currently these are the only 3 countries from a full European Union coverage for our e-purchasing platform.

Quarter by quarter, we remain committed to developing MarkIT to be increasingly useful to IT buyers. We want to be the company that makes the most of their time and money.

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Results and key developments in Q1

MarkIT has made a good start to 2011. In the first quarter our revenues grew by 42% compared to the same period last year. Total revenue was 7.9 million EUR up from 5.6 in Q1 2010.

First quarter results are in line with our 2011 targets. The quarter represents 25% of the annual revenue target of 32.5 million. This looks good in the light of the usual IT market seasonality which leans heavily towards Q4.

We maintained profitability while making significant investments into personnel by expanding our sales teams in Spain, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Poland, Finland and Estonia.

The number of our loyal customers is up from 418 to 575 compared to same time last year. This represents a 37% growth in the number of companies that use MarkIT with a high regularity.

During the quarter we also put another two new countries on our map. Ireland and Portugal went live and we have already delivered our first customer orders for these markets.

A major step was the release of I3 – a new version of our integration platform. This part of our software is the heartbeat of system. It handles real time integrations and live updates with over 150 European distributors.

For the benefit of our customers, this database of 1,6 million unique IT products is now fully updated every 15 minutes.Our customer base gave thumbs up via the Net Promoter Score that increased from 56 to 58.

A good quarter of work was topped by two world renowned companies signing up with MarkIT and starting to order in 20 countries.

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Outlook and plans for 2011

As usual we have big plans for 2011 and some important milestones to reach on the way towards a long term vision.

Our aim is to reach 75 mil euros of revenue by 2015 with offices in all European countries employing around 100 people in total. In 2011 we plan to grow from 27,45 to 32,5 million EUR and make significant investments while maintaining profitability.

The major milestone in 2011 is the launch of a new version of our online IT purchasing system. It will be the third major re-launch in 7 years and we believe it will lift our service to yet another level. The focus is to add modern design and a high quality user interface to a comprehensive functionality.

Our expansion in Europe has taken us to 21 countries within 6 years. This year we aim to complete this process and cover all European Union countries plus Norway and Switzerland. The white spaces on our map are Ireland, Portugal, greece, Bulgaria and Romania.

In 10 of our current markets 21 we have local sales offices and the rest are handled by a central sales and back office unit. This year we aim to expand all the local sales teams and open new offices in two more countries.

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MarkIT management report for 2010 – what a year!

2010 was a great year for MarkIT. We brushed off any lingering effects of the recession and increased our revenue by 42% to a historic high of 27.45 mil EUR. Our order count increased by 30% and the number of loyal customers by 22%. There were 2 724 new customers who placed their first order with us during 2010.

In 2007 we received 2 million euros of equity financing by the founders of Skype and entered a three year investment phase that generated losses due to uncapitalised items. This year we returned to profitability ahead of schedule with a 600 000 EUR improvement of our EBITDA.

Our European expansion continued by launching the service in France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland and Holland. During the year we handled 45 000 orders in 21 European countries from 5 800 companies.

Our biggest market is still Estonia with 42% of revenue, followed by Latvia with 26%, Finland 12%, Lithuania 6% and the new markets make up 14%. The revenue from the new markets, opened in 2008-2009 doubled in 2010 and Czech Republic reached profitability faster than expected.

Another important step for us was the merger of our Latvian operations. We integrated MarkIT.lv with Hermitage Solutions that was acquired in 2008. The process went smoothly, improving sales results and profitability. As a result, MarkIT became a clear market leader in Latvia.

This year we implemented a world class way of measuring customer satisfaction called Net Promoter Score. Over 64% of our customers are enthusiastic and promoting MarkIT. Just 8% gave us negative feedback and we will work to decrease their number even further.

Our NPS score of 56 compares very well with the best in the world. Experts consider scores above 30 to be good and above 50 are excellent. Top scorers are Apple with 77 and Amazon with 74, so there is also plenty of room to improve.

In addition to measuring satisfaction we implementeda new feature to quantify the direct financial benefits achieved by using our service. The results showed 10- 14% savings on annual IT purchases.

We kept up the tempo and our commitment to develop the best online purchasing system for IT buyers. There were 12 significant updates to the software. We improved existing and added new functionality, integrated 30 new distributors, increased speed and fine-tuned usability.

On top of the satisfaction with hitting our targets we also had fun this year. We enjoyed some great relationships and feedback from our customers and a great atmosphere inside the company.

Most importantly, I believe we saved our customers lots of time and money this year. This is our mission and we believe that financial performance is just a by-product of usefulness.

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MarkIT headquarters dubbed “best to work at”

With autumn soon arriving to Estonia it’s nice to reflect back to the exceptionally warm summer we had and also remind us of an event that took place few months ago for completely different accolade. No IT or purchasing or laptops here!

Each year Estonian Interior Designers Association looks back the year that has passed and brings forward a list of nominees for the “Interior of The Year” award. The award is split in different categories:

• Best interior in a public building
• Best office interior
• Best store interior
• Best historical interior

This year MarkIT head-offices in Tallinn was also among the nominees for the “Best Office Interior 2009″.

Rewind to few years ago it has been a long time coming to really pamper ourselves with the environment that we think all our people deserve - we started off in a small 40 sqm office and no luxuries, then moving to the first very own “place” but still keeping it tight and then now the current office that we took time to plan and execute so that we’d be proud of every detail. It is an old and worn cliché to talk about the office being your second home and all that, but in the end we want our people to feel good when they show up in the morning and hang around playing Wii or having a class of wine and reading after work to wind down.

If someone asks about “so what’s your office like” the respons usually is - casual, playful, fun. These were the keywords for the design brief aswell which in the end we achieved with flying colors. What I am personally most proud of is problably the bespoke furniture with its carved feet (no table in our office has even two of a kind legs under it!) and matte white finish.

Here are some snapshots where the people of MarkIT central office and Estonian sales team spends the working hours:

The interior designers who helped us to realize the reality were Loreida Hein and Kard Männil. If you are looking for professional help in Tallinn or even in Paris (where Kard currently resides) drop them a line.

Though in the end we did not “win” the award we are comforted by the most important fact: we love our home away home. And to sum it up few of the jury members leaking information about the judging proccess told sources close to us: ”that’s problably the best office to work at”. Something we allready knew ofcourse :).

For the record we should also mention that the Best Office Interior 2009 winner was Baltika (www.baltikagroup.com).

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New release brings extra product info and user based limits

With the latest releases MarkIT has updated many of it’s features and added some new eyecandy aswell.

Enhanced product info via CNet Digital Content
The more information the better! We have now also implemented additional product information by CNet digital content.

On the product page you can find the following extra information available in the most popular product categories:
- Marketing description overview to give users a quick intro about the product and selling points (about 400 000 overviews added)
- User manual for the product (about 10 000 manuals added)
- Hi-resolution pictures for better look (about 5000 hi-res images added)

Set user based buying limits
Organizations with many users who are daily using MarkIT for IT-purchasing can now also set user based buying limits.

These limits can be set on the “User Details” page under the Manage > Users section.

NB! Limits can be set for users who are in “buyer” status.

- Set any period for which the limit is active (calendar dates)
- Set amount of total purchases allowed in this period (total sum in your local shop currency)
- Set quarterly and/or monthly limits (total sum in your local shop currency)
- Or you can set also a limit on the maximum one time order

View EUR prices in the catalogue
Another nice feature for our international customers who are using MarkIT in many countries - the possibility to view all the prices in the product catalogue and product page in EUR. Just use the “My Settings” pane on the right side to switch between the default shop currency and EUR.

And ofcourse we encourage to take a look at the MarkIT Video Tutorials about which we also posted some weeks ago.

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Strong 6 months results for MarkIT

MarkIT posted strong results for the 6 months of 2010 with 30% of growth with 12 mil EUR in revenue compared to 9 mil in the same period in 2009. In the first half of the year MarkIT handled a total of 20 190 orders from 21 European countries.

During the first six months 1 168 organisations placed their first orders with MarkIT and the total of 3 912 companies made purchases from MarkIT during that period.

Estonian revenue was up 45% compared to last year and is a great result in a market recovering from a recession. Lithuanian sales grew by a significant 60% while Latvian and Finnish sales stayed at 2009 levels.

15% of the group revenue came from newly opened European markets like Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Spain, Slovenia and Poland. The sales in new markets doubled from 1,1 mil EUR in 2009 to 2,2 mil.

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