The provenance and pedigree of the Affino Social Commerce Solution

Our Affino Social Commerce Solution - soon to be version 7.5, has been around for a lot longer than many realise, and has quite an illustrious history. This article is intended to illuminate some of the highlights from Affino’s past evolution - especially for those who have not yet had the pleasure of experiencing Affino.

The roots of Affino go back to Markus’s (Affino CEO) consultancy years of 1997/8 where Affino evolved out of the somewhat more rigid ’Sunrise’ Platform, which Markus developed to run websites for Audi, Casio and Carrera Technology. The original Carrera Technology implementation has continued to influence the development of Affino, as it really was a state-of-the-art Ecommerce experience of that time, with a series of advanced specifier steps in the checkout process, and real-time inventory integration and delivery management - pretty state-of-the-art for 1998.

The company Emojo (a precursor to Comrz, with several of the same staff) was founded in 1998 with a view to developing ’Sunrise’ into a more modular platform that would be easier to implement, and most importantly - be easy to manage by customers. Right from the offset, the intention was to build the best system for selling online. There was always a long term goal of creating a full-featured modular hub, with essential plug-and-play functionality at its core, and simultaneously empowering site owners to take full control of their entire online business and to maximise their revenues through the Internet.

A key cornerstone to doing business online is the ability to sustain complex, long-term dialogues and interactions with customers. This is why, right from the start, Affino came fully loaded with social-interaction capabilities. In the early years, Ecommerce took a bit of a back seat, while the social engagement core of the system was being finessed.

Flash has largely come and gone, as has Affino IPTV and numerous other innovations of their time, which have since been replaced with ever-evolving contemporary technologies like Responsive Design and the Automated Customer Ladder. The future direction for Affino is always guided by finding the best balance between empowerment, total technical ability, seamlessness, learnability and simplicity. Affino has always been developed with the intention of delivering the very best selling and online business management tool.

Here follow some of Affino’s key moments of the last 15+ years:

Key Affino Milestones

• 1998 Very early Affino takes shape as ’Sunrise’
• 2000 Affino is launched as ’The Interactive CMS’
• 2002 Affino 2 delivers DIY site-design-implementation via ’Design Centre’
• 2003 Key Affino Sites win multiple awards - Gateshead Libraries, Royal Opera House, Nevada County, CCISDA, UKTV Style, Bausch & Lomb
• 2004 Affino LX unleashes instant global updates with its ’Automatic Updater’
• 2006 Affino NX seamlessly channels 9 key technology modules to produce innovative full-featured ’Ebusiness Suite’
• 2008 Affino 5 sees radical UX updates and becomes the first stand-alone, wholly seamless ’Social Commerce Solution’
• 2010 Affino 6 is all about Social Engagement with the introduction of the innovative ’Automated Customer Ladder’ and ’Conversion Events’
• 2012 Affino 7 is all about Mobile / Multi-Channel, seamless customer journeys and super-fast, Smart Editing of everything on the live page
• 2013 Affino helps Procurement Leaders win 3 PPA awards in a single year - including ’Independent Publisher Digital Product of the Year’
• 2014 Affino 7.5 sees the introduction of the new ’Responsive Design Centre’ - built from the ground up to take best advantage of leading edge practices

Notable Customers who have used Affino

• Aido (UAE / Middle East)
• Alternative Airlines (UK / International)
• Art Review (International)
• Ask My Community (UK)
• Audi (UK)
• Bad Oyenhausen Hospitals (Germany)
• Bausch & Lomb (Europe)
• BBC Worldwide / UKTV (UK)
• Brend Hotels (UK)
• Carrera Technology (UK)
• Casio (Europe)
• CCISDA (USA)
• Diesel (Italy / International)
• Filmutea (Spain)
• Footprint Travel Guides (UK)
• Health & Safety Executive (UK)
• Icelandair Cargo (Iceland / International)
• Lanes Health (UK)
• MasterCard (Iceland)
• National Children’s Bureau (UK)
• Nevada County (USA)
• Police Mutual Assurance (UK)
• Royal Opera House (UK / International)
• Securitas (Iceland)
• UBM (UK)
• West Lancashire District Council (UK)
• Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare Trust (UK)
• Women in Democracy (Iceland / International)
• Wrigley’s (UK)
• X-treme Video (France / International)

Customers who have used Affino for 10+ Years

• BIBA Medical (since 2002)
• Gateshead Libraries (since 2003)
• Kirkham Grammar School (since 2002)
• RARIK - Iceland State Electricity (since 2002)
• SecondsOut (since 2003)

5 Interesting early Affino articles from the Internet archives

www.content-wire.com/extreme-content-management-fit-first-ladies (2001)

www.mbl.is/greinasafn/grein/677635/ (2002) (Needs Google Translate - strangely translates Markús to Mark!)
www.arnoldit.com/articles/emojoJan2002.html (2002)
cmsreport.com/articles/emojo-extends-affino-nx-ebusiness-suite-with-social-content-management-2403 (2007)
www.cmswire.com/cms/web-cms/affino-offers-communityenhanced-ecommerce-solution-005066.php (2009)

Current Affino Innovation

We look forward to the ongoing development and evolution of Affino with some great new projects currently in development for Rovio, IMRG, Sigaria, Human Kinetics and Gill & Macmillan - make sure you are subscribed to the Affino Blogs to stay in touch with the latest innovations...