Smelling of Roses!

County Flowers of Taunton - one of Somerset’s leading traditional florists has marked it’s relocation to new larger premises in the centre of Taunton with the launch of a new website. The website was created with assistance from ‘Connecting Somerset’, an initiative which offers expert advice, support and financial help to businesses investing in IT technology. The Connecting Somerset project provides free expert IT advice and grants of up to 50% towards the cost of services or products that help businesses move forward with broadband and IT. This subsidy can be used for broadband subscription, websites, software, hardware, advice or staff training.

“We are delighted with the website” commented Denise Cross of County Flowers. “The site will allow our customers to place orders for same-day delivery of fresh flowers throughout the UK. The website, in conjunction with a broadband connection will allow us to offer a highly efficient service to customers from anywhere in the world” says Denise.

The website, which features secure online ordering and is simple to maintain, was produced by Web Productions, an Internet company based in Cornwall who have carried out many similar projects for businesses throughout Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. Managing director David Carter commented “We are delighted to have been involved in this exciting project which sees yet another local company benefit by embracing the latest technology in its business”.

County Flowers are also one of the first businesses in the UK to use a powerful new technology which relays orders from the website direct to a mobile phone. The ‘Email to SMS’ service ensures that orders are processed immediately by sending orders as text messages to a designated mobile phone - an important aspect when offering a same-day delivery service.

“We are now looking forward to an increase in business as a direct result of the new website” says Denise, “we now regard the Internet as a fundamental part of our business - it is definitely something that we will continue to use in an ongoing effort to offer our customers an efficient service”.

“It has been a big step for us, and we are grateful for both the expert guidance from Web Productions and the financial assistance from the Connecting Somerset team” says Denise.

Since its launch in January 2005, Connecting Somerset has had contact with more than 12,000 local businesses. To find out what Connecting Somerset can do for your business visit www.connectingsomerset.co.uk

Web Productions offer a full range of Internet services including website design and e-commerce – www.web-pro.co.uk

The County Flowers website can be found at www.countyflowers.co.uk