Oh, Deer Me

5:00 PM - For months now, we've wondered why an otherwise normal SRM software vendor would choose to call itself Northern Parklife Inc. -- and sport a logo with antlers. Was there a misprint in the tradeshow catalog? Was the company a wacky spinoff of an East Coast insurance firm? Was it founded in Nunavut?

Today, thanks to Anders Paulsson, VP of U.S. operations at Northern Parklife, we have some answers.

Apparently, Northern (as it's known to friends), had happily done business in Sweden for four years when, in 1999, management decided to open a U.S. office. "We were called Northern Technologies, but in the U.S., at least two other companies already had that name," Paulsson says.

During a late-night brainstorming session in Sweden, some young turk plucked up a CD from the coffeetable called "Parklife" by Brit band Blur and -- "Bob's yer uncle!"

Now, that's what I call marketing!Mary Jander, Northern Wildlife Editor, Byte and Switch