27 September 2000

Aquazoo Short Listed for E-Commerce Award

The aquatic website Aquazoo has reached the final 3 in Computer Weekly Magazine's E-Business Excellence Awards. The awards are aimed at companies that have used Information Technology to transform their business and are held in conjunction with Reed Exhibitions who runs the UK's biggest e-commerce show E-Business Expo. The awards involve every sector of business from finance, manufacturing and retail through to local Government. The Aquazoo site has reached the finals in the Design Section and a representative from the company's IT department is now due to meet the judges for the next stage of the assessment process. Aquazoo will then have to wait for the award presentation on November 7th at the Intercontinental Hotel in London's Park Lane to here the final results. Tony Verrinder who heads both Aquazoo and sister company Sera Partners said: "I know our website had broken new ground and that the look and contents are second to none. But to reach the finals in such a prestigious competition is an achievement beyond my wildest dreams." The Aquazoo site provides an on line community for fish keepers. The six main areas: Fish, Plants, Aquariums, Aquatest, Retailers and Feeds & Needs supply both new and experienced aquarists with all they ever need to know about their hobby. The Aquazoo hosts a revolutionary system known as 'Aquatest'. This system is the first interactive aquarium water test carried out on the Internet. To use Aquatest, water test results are fed into a computer screen. The system then analyses and grades the results and recommendations are made to improve water quality or solve a specific aquarium problem. A colour-coded theme runs through the Aquazoo site using red, green, amber and blue. The graphics are particularly distinctive and the navigation simple to follow. In the Fish area species are grouped into red (aggressive), yellow (can be aggressive), green (beginners fish community) and blue (special needs). A directory of over 300 species of fish are listed with pictures and details of their habitat, feeding, sexing and breeding. The Retailers section provides a searchable listing of 650 specialist aquatic retailers across the UK. The sister site to Aquazoo is for the aquatic trade and can be found at www.serapartners.com. Here retailers can find out more about Aquazoo and the Aquatest system. For further information call Tony Verrinder on 020 8665 0026, email aquazoo@aol.com.