Inauguration of www.inflow-outflow.com

It was 10.00 am on Friday morning when the Valves Business Group was gathered at the Learning Centre (an auditorium) on the first floor to witness the launch of a new corporate blog. Mr. A K Banerjee, Vice President Valves Business Group launched the third phase of www.inflow-outflow.com on 20th February 2009.

The event began with a welcome address by Ms. Mayura Kumaran who also narrated the origin, history and transformation of inflow-outflow from a print newsletter to a corporate blog through many stages. Mr. S P Rajanish who heads the overall marketing function, addressed the gathering on the importance of customer communication in the modern business environment and the significance of this blog in enhancing customer relationship and brand visibility.

The Vice President, Mr. A K Banerjee, declared www.inflow-outflow.com open at around 10.40 AM IST. In his address, he appreciated the efforts and initiative taken by Marketing Services in developing this customer communication tool. He also stressed on the need for every department and individual to be innovative in one’s job and give a whole new dimension to the business environment. Mr. Banerjee has also addressed customers and the valves community through a video podcast in the blog and the same was relayed to the gathering.

Ms. Mayura Kumaran and Mr. Hari Prasad showed the navigation, contents and layout of the newly launched site to the gathering.

You rarely succeed unless you have fun in what you are doing. The element of fun comes from ones passion and enthusiasm towards the task. Likewise, this event was made colourful due to the enthusiasm and the subsequent efforts of Ms. Padmaja and Mr. Sundar. They were among the initial contributors for this blog. Mr. Banerjee presented a souvenir to Ms. Padmaja and Mr. Sundar appreciating their spirits.

As the event concluded, Mr. Banerjeee who was very enthusiastic and delighted about the blog, once again conversed on how employee participation is indispensable in sustaining the blog and moving forward with it. The marketing team thanked Mr. Banerjee, Mr. Rajanish and all the HOD’s for their support in launching this project.

Making of inflow-outflow.com

Larsen & Toubro Valves Business Group proudly launched the third phase www.inflow-outflow.com. With this, the blog has been re-configured into an external corporate blog, to serve as a medium to connect with our community (external audience).

Inflow-outflow started in the year 1996 as a print newsletter, independently edited and published by L&T valves. Though this quarterly publication won acclaims for its content and presentation, with booming of the new and interactive media, which broadcasted live content, we felt the need to provide content that is fresh and engaging after a decade.

Hence this prompted us to launch Inflow-Outflow on the Net. Thus, the second phase was launched as an online edition in March 2007. Events and news that were covered once a quarter were published with a few clicks. And for the benefit of the audience, we retained the soft form of the print editions in the new blog. It was decided to structure employee communication into this blog and facilitate two-way communication. The Valves community’s excitement about the new communication channel was evident from site statistics as well as the comments received on and off the blog.

But after one year into the launch, we felt the need to expand this blog beyond an employee communication portal into a platform for our customer communication initiatives.  Though the content was frequently updated and managed in-house, the blog was unable to cater to VBG’s clientele across the globe.

Therefore, with a new vision of further developing this blog, the marketing team started working on phase three of inflow-outflow by adding customer-centric content and re-designing the layout.  To enable us connect with our customers, community members and even students of mechanical engineering and, to be a part of the ‘New Global Business Conversation’, the blog has been revamped completely.

Today, the blog forms an integral part of our communication strategy.  With corporate blogs emerging as a key element in the Internet marketing strategy and a hottest communication tool on the World Wide Web, we believe, this blog will help you know us better – how we think and what we are passionate about and engage you and make a difference.