DominoKeys.com

If I were in charge of Ford, I think I’d be a bit mad. The company is doing fairly well (all things considered) and yet the government is actively bailing out GM and Chrysler in various ways. I think I’d be all “umm… would you guys mind NOT helping out my competition?!”

It was that thought (and the fact that its car shopping season for me again) that led me to the Ford website. Not because I’m really interested in anything in their line, just because I hadn’t taken a moment to notice what has changed in various vehicles (and American Idol was on in the background – and at this point, I’m thinking that maybe the Ford Focus is trying to be one of the final contestants based on how much that thing is shown throughout each episode). It was at that time that I noticed an interesting header on their web page:

Tags: beta, websites

One of the challenges of being a centralized IT shop in a global organization is finding business partners in the countries you do business in that are just as strong as the ones you’ve partnered with at your corporate location. Thank goodness, there’s Google and links to business partners on sites like Lenovo’s.

This morning, a couple of us sat down to find a new business partner for our Singapore location. I thought I’d share the journey via my blog. I highly suggest following the links as we go so you can see what we did, first-hand.

First stop, Lenovo’s website where it was easy to zero in on Singapore and get to a listing of their business partners. It struck us as odd to see that most of the places listed were apparently in shopping malls. — I did select “Singapore” and not “Orange County, CA” right?

We opened up a flurry of tabs for companies listed near the bottom of the Lenovo page. First, we went to SiS Technologies, Asia’s Leading Distributor, or so they say. I couldn’t help but notice the … eh… world-class graphics at the top:

Next up, “UIC” at uicacs.com. Notice the use of occassional sound effects on their side menu.

Moving on, we found “JOS” or Jardine OneSolution. They have a nice looking website and a great logo. Only one question though… is this guy wearing a pleather jacket?!

Then we found “SCS” who’s slogan is “living technology.” I don’t know what that is but it both sounds cool and frightens me. I’m having flashbacks of the movie iRobot. Here’s what I love about this company… their charter page shows two interesting items… note #5 and the final thought in green:

We then moved to JK Technology, which I’m not sure if that’s really their name or if they’re trying to set the stage early with the texting shorthand. “JK” as in “just kidding, we really don’t do technology.” Also, talk about setting the bar high… notice how they define what products they have:

Next up was “Whizzwork” which prefers that you think of them as “WE” (Whizzwork Enterprises). I’d really be selling this site short if I didn’t let you see the flash intro first-hand for yourself. Turn up your speakers and enjoy.

I think we should all agree now that flash intros can completely go away and no one would miss them. Finally, we found OPUS who’s very proud of how they came up with their name. The story (“Opportunity” + “Us” — yeah, that’s it) is all over their site. Here’s my favorite part: their “Client testimonails” page has one single testimonial… from someone at IBM, who spun off their PC business to Lenovo; and who still hosts the webpage that got me to OPUS’s site as I triend to find a business partner.

Incase you’re wondering, we sent a request for proposal out to all of these people and I’m anxious to see what kind of response we get from them.

Tags: funny, websites