Advance Analysis

Hiring Company
Van Meter Group

Background
Pacific Pulmonary, a leader in home oxygen delivery, has expanded into home treatment of sleep apnea.  After a number of previous engagements with PPSC through two agencies and working with them directly, their most recent issue was relatively minor: needing a fast and inexpensive way to put video recordings of sales people onto autorunning video CDs or DVDs that could be mailed to the sales people.

Description of Work
Advance Analysis explored a number of approaches and met to consult and recommend two: (1) using AutoPlay Menu Studio to create CDs/DVDs that install an mpeg-2 codec and then run the DVD-quality videos; (2) simply burning a high-resolution wmv file to a CD from their existing video editing software and sending along instructions for finding the video on the CD and running it.

In a separate engagement Advance Analysis programmed an infinitely widening flash banner with a movie clip that remains centered and unscaled but a background that stretches to the right and left of it, in Flash Action Script 3, adapting a script based on http://flashadvanced.com/?p=261 to work with multiple banners and in an existing flash fla.

Hiring Company
Shennum Green

Background
Shennum Green received one bid to develop a Web site based on a Shennum Green design.  The site was to have an extensive and highly functional custom CMS that allowed virtually everything on the front end to be edited (including the site map and xml for flash files), admin functions like changing the email addresses of sales people at different properties, and which had CRM functionality to allow employees to sign up buyers or brokers over the phone.   Because of the hosting company and the server configuration, the project also some significant technical challenges.

In order to be responsible to their client Shennum Green wanted a second bid, but only had one day to do so before the final proposal had to be presented to their client – a well-respected residential San Francisco Bay Area developer.

Description of Work
Advance Analysis was able to provide the second bid, and by tactically cutting back on certain requirements and separating out a 1.0 and 2.0 version, was able to meet the budgeting constraints.

Advance Analysis conducted the above work on time.  While the bid was for a bare bones administrative interface, when Shennum decided a design was important Advance Analysis implemented it and adjusted the admin layout to their spec.s, made significant changes to the front end navigation and pages, including additional flash elements, changed the database, added functionality to the administrator, and troubleshot problems arising from the host’s unusual setup…all with only a small cost increase for the few most significant changes.

Hiring Company
Verve Marketing

Background
This physical therapy organization was considering developing a new Web site to go along with the launch of a new online application.  Their original Web site was highly functional but developed by someone just learning to program in ASP.NET and who didn’t use version control or put into place a good backup procedure.  A second programmer was helping out on the site and again didn’t get involved in a formal way or put into place good procedures.

Advance Analysis recommended re-writing the Web plan document and turning it into an RFP that that client could fully understand…in other words with no technical language, with needs clearly spelled out and prioritized.

Verve was just getting engaged with the client in a consulting role when they needed to develop an onsite registration.

Description of Work
Advance Analysis ran ads for ASP.NET programmers and screened a number before settling on one with a marketing and design background, good references, and more than adequate skills and experience.  Advance Analysis assisted in this initial work, including javascript and HTML programming, to help resolve various problem stemming from missing source files for the site, old database backups, and the ingrained organizational approach to programming.

When the cost ran past the initial buget Advance Analysis paid the programmer on time, paying him for the cost overrun out of pocket, and did not take in any income on that stage of the project.

Subsequently Advance Analysis managed the entire consulting project while Verve was closed down briefly for vacation and put into place proper project management procedures, plans for version control and bug tracking, and worked with the client to implement a more efficient Web work culture.

Because Verve was only compensated the amount paid to the programmer Advance Analysis also did this second stage of work as good will for an agency that has sent over a lot of work in the past 5 years.

Hiring Company
Van Meter Group

Background
This client, a division of a major national health insurer, has the Van Meter Group on a retainer to develop designs for their primary product – a printed piece – and to develop, lay out, write, and design, and in some cases develop the flash for, full or partial Web site pages.  In addition the Van Meter Group provides strategic consulting to this client.

Description of Work
Advance Analysis programmed a registration page that triggered confirmation emails to registrants and the client with automatic Outlook calendar entries, into an existing custom CMS which wasn’t configured to allow direct programming.  This involved understanding not just the page and directory in question but the database and structure of the CMS.

Advance Analysis also developed some action script (as3) programming for a new flash animation on the home page.

Advance Analysis conducted secondary research to help develop guidelines for color combinations that look good printed and are legible through faxing.  This involved gaining a detailed understanding of how the G3 fax protocol works and how fax machines differ in their approach to halftoning (and dithering).

Hiring Company
Goodman & Company

Background
Some businesses that are head and shoulders above anyone else in their industry have not had to develop either a strategic approach to loyalty or a customized approach to acquisition because they have little or no competition.

But an economic downturn almost simulates a strong competitor and in this case is prompting this market leader to segment their customers into a handful of groups where members of each group have the same buying and selling interests.  Each group can be offered a customized loyalty approach, and potential memebers of the group can be given the tools they need to become members.

Description of Work
Advance Analysis was hired by Goodman & Company primarily to conduct summary analyses (not inferential ones that are Advance Analysis’ core competency), organize data, and develop presentation decks, including custom graphics and advanced layout of 9-10 charts and graphs on one slide.

As "value added" work Advance Analysis provided an explanation of the unconventional segmentation approach Goodman’s client took and a comparison between it and cluster analysis, presenting the pros and cons of each so that Goodman had the appropriate context  to make invaluable strategic recommendations.

Hiring Company
Adams Consulting

Background
Advance Analysis has worked on a number of qualitative research projects to explore Bank of America’s online banking.  Two projects were focused on high balance personal accounts and business accounts.  The purpose of these projects was to idenfity needs of customers in each group, evaluate existing online banking features, and explore potential features.  Because Bank of America is a national company with customers whose needs may vary by geography they felt that it was important to talk to customers around the country, and therefore using focus groups was not practical.

Description of Work
Advance Analysis developed the moderators guide, recruited customers through email and phone, and interviewed customers, analyzed results, and wrote the report.

Hiring Company
Van Meter Group

Background
Age Wave’s core business is conducting research studies for large financial services companies and then melding the findings with Ken Dychtwald’s analysis of the company’s business and the marketplace.  During these engagements Age Wave has developed training packets as well as Web sites and online applications based on the research findings.

Description of Work
Advance Analysis functioned as a video editing studio, audio editor, and often an graphical editor, as well as a Web site programmer, analyst, and technical consultant.

For Age Wave the Web site work was often peripheral or a "value add" to the training documents, videos, and Ken’s presentations, so they had to be good, but developed inexpensively and quickly.

In addition Aaron Vance at Advance Analysis was available with little or no notice to fix Web site and hosting problems, make quick programming changes, program the smaller sites, consult on the largest one, and find excellent programmers to manage for the medium-sized ones.

Hiring Company
Verve Marketing

Background
ACMC, as far as we can tell, is unique among county medical centers.  It is a for-profit county medical center, with only temporary sales tax funding, that also must accept all patients regardless of ability to pay.  This obviously has some tough implications, but on the other hand it also sounds like one of the debated models of universal healthcare.

With its new for-profit status it needs to do something unfamiliar: put a huge amount of energy and resources into generating as much revenue as possible given its unique constraints which include having to treat patients for whom there is no reimbursement, and typically not being able to negotiate realistic contracts with private insurers to accept patients with private health plans.

One way to increase revenue is to increase their conscious and deliberate communication with stakeholders and patients and to develop a strategy guiding all marketing.

Description of Work
Verve and Advance Analysis worked together to develop a cost-effective and informative online survey of 600 county residents, then a more focused telephone survey of 30 residents, and finally an audit of the Medical Center’s facilities and communications, discussions with managers, and brainstorming with the director of communications.

The result was a comprehensive marketing plan and five specific recommendations for increasing revenue, overcoming misleading negative views of the Medical Center, and improving partnering, all on a $50K budget.