| |
| Ideas and profiles of success at the intersection of design, technology and global business |
| |
|
 |
| A Focus on Innovation |
"You never save your way through a downturn. You innovate your way through it". In these tough economic times, this quote from Craig Barrett, former head of Intel, rings particularly true.
In this issue we share innovative solutions that we have had the good fortune to work with our clients on last year. It is one of the things that has our team excited about what we do. This issue also sees the introduction of a new section where we share tools and tips focused on the incredible resources available on the web, much of it at a fraction of what it would cost a short while back…or better still, free. |
|
|
|
 |
| |
|
 |
Customer Engagement Marketing with
Innovative Web Applications |
We’ve had the privilege of working with our clients to develop innovative applications with our customers. These have helped them engage in new and unique ways with their clients and often have simplified processes for their customers.
One of the most exciting projects we worked on in 2008 was with Mannington Commercial to launch among the first social media driven networking platforms in this industry. A unique approach to product design, it harnessed the power of the web's social network and the collective talent of hundreds of designers. It has been very successful in the market – a designer called this the American Idol competition for the design community!
Check it out at www.txstyle-mannington.com |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Another area of innovation that we had the good fortune to work with clients on is in using technology to help communicate environmental initiatives. We worked with the Green Standard to develop a series of interactive tools including a compelling web portal
(thegreenstandard.org).
We also built an environmental specification builder for the commercial interior products industry and worked with Mohawk to create an application called "Drag and Fly"
(www.themohawkgroup.com) for which they won the ED+C readers choice award for best software announced at Green Build. |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Visualworks by Azul Arc –
Market Leadership in 3D Renderings |
| Over the last couple of years, we have worked to bring 3D tools and technologies to our clients. In doing this, we have developed several innovative environments as well as assumed a market leadership position in this industry. Our clients have used these 3D renderings in many innovative ways and one of the advantages this offers is that being 100% digital, there is close to 0% waste. |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| Business Model Innovation and a World of Open Source Technologies |
| One of the cornerstones of our firm’s strategy has been the idea of bringing more value for less to small to medium size businesses and professional service firms. This business model innovation taps into a collective global talent pool with the effective use of technology which brings large company capabilities at a small firm budget to our clients. This includes open source solutions like content management systems and ecommerce as well as innovative tools like the growth gap assessment that we developed as part of the Growth Answers membership. Feel free to call us to
learn more. |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| Tools and Tips at the Intersection of Design, Technology and Business |
We have recently discovered Ning, a do it yourself social networking site that allows you to create your own network in a matter of minutes. Ning offers several social networking features like forums, blogs, a members section, picture and video uploads to name a few. We have used this as part of our internal or intranet communications to link our globally diverse team and it's proving to be effective and easy to use. Check it out at www.ning.com. |
|
|
|
|
| |
