The Branding Spot is an Arizona based company that handles branded products and marketing for companies nationwide. Recently, Brett Kaufman, CEO of The Branding Spot, signed a contract with WorkXpress to completely reengineer the back-end process for one of the leading Experiential Marketing firms in the country. With a new method of talent tracking and event allocation management they will be able to utilize a potential 70+% increase in productivity through software automation over previous hand processes.
Follow along over the 5-week build cycle to learn more about how WorkXpress builds and deploys mission critical business applications.
Week 5 - The Final Build
The final week of the 5-week build cycle actually ended with a complete usable software product. The total number of hours for the build also remained below the allotted time leaving opportunity for additional features to be added that were not even in the original software plan.
Brett Kaufman of The Branding Spot, the client, said, “Here we are at the end of the build cycle and it’s actually finished. We’re beginning in-house training next week and a week after that we’ll go completely live across all of user bases. Now, if we had chosen the normal custom software route, we would have waited 6-9 months for the initial product, made changes that would have taken another few months at least, and then a year or more later hopefully have something we could use. With WorkXpress, it has literally been 5-weeks from beginning to end and we made changes, added things and tweaked over the entire span. I couldn’t be happier with the quality and functionality we’re getting.”
The final week of the build cycle saw the complete review and tweaking of user screens, inputs, outputs and a few additional features. The features created or fine-tuned over the week included talent e-mail confirmation and a first phase accounting package. Previously, the nightmare of numerous open spreadsheets, e-mails back and forth and general disorganization due to “clutter” meant mistakes. With the streamlining of talent confirmation and reduction in e-mail waste, the company will save time and reduce task complexity for both talent and management. In addition, the basic accounting package will alleviate the issues of post event payroll.
“The way we handled event payment previously was a nightmare and many times resulted in errors and wasting of time. Now, we’ll be able to automate the process, add proper confirmations, and generally streamline things to provide our payroll company the information they need to properly handle checks in a timely manner,” said Kaufman.
In completing the software build on time and under budget, Brett and his company were very excited.
He continued, “I have to say that this process has actually been fun. I really cannot believe that we’re under the time allotment and have completed everything and more than we originally planned. This platform as a service style of software is so much easier and less expensive than the historic way of handling custom software. Plus, we’ll be able to provide access to our talent, clients, and staff anywhere anytime with a proper cell phone. Amazing!”
Week 4
The fourth of the five-week build cycle continued previous successes in building functionality and staying ahead of time and budget. The core accomplishment over the past week was the finish of the time sheeting functionality. This unique ability further ties the entire platform together by allowing workers in the field to upload their time sheets and also provide all reimbursement details easily over the internet.
Brett Kaufman of The Branding Spot said, “I was pleasantly surprised that a few of the items were already completed, since they were only added to the project late last week. In fact, we’re still ahead of schedule meaning I’ll get more functionality than I expected at the start, all under the original budget. Normally, we would have had to wait 9 months for our software to be built, then a few months of testing and changes. With WorkXpress, we’re getting our software finalized and in use within 5-weeks. This is certainly the wave of the future and we’re looking at moving forward with a 2nd tier of functionality after these first 5 weeks.”
He continued, “The great thing about our new time sheeting and now reimbursement software will be the time and clutter savings not to mention the added accountability.”
Previously, The Branding Spot requested all timesheets with reimbursement be submitted within 48 hours of an event. Most workers would then fax forgetting to address it appropriately adding confusion and wasting time. With their new fully integrated cloud computing software solution, workers can scan parking expense slips and more, get approved and speed the entire process. The added timestamp also assures management that if workers submit their information late it’s noted and handled appropriately.
Noah Coburn, the WorkXpress PaaS account manager and builder, said, “We’ve done a number of projects that have included complex functionality and it’s always gratifying to see a client so excited that their software investment will pay off with added accountability, less paper, and smoother operations. We were trained to fulfill on our customer’s needs and I’m happy to see Brett and The Branding Spot so pleased with our progress.”
In addition to time sheeting and reimbursement, WorkXpress also completed the client portal. Now, clients will have greater control over the process with their ability to log in and see photos of proposed event workers. They can then approve or deny by individual based on event needs and goals. This is in stark contrast to other event staffing companies who may assure proper staffing, but then deliver off base compared to client desires.
Kaufman said, “We’re proud that we’re going to offer our clients complete control and satisfaction in talent staffing. If a client asks for a particular demographic, we can provide and have approved by them without any issues. This will save a great deal of time and reduce the number of incoming calls.”
Stay tuned to weekly updates on the progress and final implementation of the The Branding Spot’s customized software platform in the WorkXpress PaaS.
Week 3
With the end of Week 3, The Branding Spot’s customized software is now really beginning to take solid form. The project is still slightly ahead of schedule, which has allowed Brett Kaufman of The Branding Spot to add a few additional aspects of functionality while maintaining their tight spending budget.
“On budget and on time, that’s something not usually heard around the implementation of an entirely new and customized software build,” said Kaufman. “I’ve been very happy with the progress so far and am already thinking of 100 additional things we could add in the coming months after this initial sequence is complete. The level of software capability we’re getting is pretty amazing considering our budget.”
The number of items completed during the week by the assigned WorkXpress account manager and builder, Noah Coburn, was substantial. The biggest accomplishment was the finalized talent invitation functionality, which allows talent to easily respond to event work requests.
Noah said, “I didn’t write a single line of code to create this application. Everything I’ve done in the 5GLWorkXpress platform as a service has been a series of using the five tools and building blocks to create complex functionality like this talent invitation functionality. With it, The Branding Spot will be able to easily send a request to desired event worker candidates, allow candidates to easily respond, and then, on the home side, sort the “yes’s” based on client requests. When we spoke about this with The Branding Spot, Brett mentioned that until now they’ve had to literally e-mail 1000 people, then manually attempt to go through the 700 responses. As you can imagine, this was not only time consuming, but, also, unlikely to net the best possible talent.”
Kaufman said, “It was a nightmare to arrange talent. Beyond the hundreds of spreadsheet tabs opened to manage events, we would then also have 700 e-mail responses to read. There was no good way to sort them until now. Now, we’ll be able to see a photo of the person and sort responses by the characteristics that matter to our clients. Then, when we select the right talent for the job, response and reminders are automated. This is a very BIG win for our company.”
Noah also built functionality for The Branding Spot to add group leaders to specific events. The event leader would then have access to their “team” of employees to manage them appropriately.
“By allowing for group leaders to be used and have access, we’ll cut down on organizational mess and paperwork. With this and the coming ability to handle all timesheet input via the web, we’re going to bring our company into the 21st century. In fact, we’ll now be asking talent to have a data accessible phone, like an iPhone, so that they can be in touch with event needs and reporting from anywhere,’ continued Kaufman.
Week 4 will continue the extension of functionality within timesheets to give group leaders and individual talent direct access to their post event reporting via the web.
Week 2
At the end of week one, The Branding Spot already had a functioning talent registration portal and the beginnings of the program and event creation screens. On time and even slightly ahead of schedule, the WorkXpress Platform as a Service (PaaS) account manager and product builder, Noah Coburn, was happy with the results.
He said, “It’s nice to be so early in a project and have the client be pleased with both the progress and direction ”. Taking things into Week 2, we really dug into the background of the application to build out a number of the complex functionality items needed by using WorkXpress’s five tools and five building blocks. I’m not a programmer, but with WorkXpress 5GL capability, I can out produce any programmer in building business applications by a large margin.”
The accomplishments of Week 2 included finishing of the program creation screen, ability to add multiple events to a program and specify number of staff needed, and the ability to search and invite workers. When this new functionality was shown to Brett Kaufman of the Branding Spot, he could not have been more excited.
Brett said, “It’s been great – we originally came to the table with thoughts and ideas not sure if were going to be able to make them work. The problem we’ve always had was the literally thousands of spreadsheets that contained all of our documentation for events. If someone made even a small mistake it was disastrous, creating problems ranging from having too many workers to having too few workers to having the staff show up at the wrong location. I’m sure other business owners can understand, we needed better organization, cleaner processes and a faster way to ensure our clients were successful without any issues.”
He continued, “As far as we know, and we’ve done the research, our company will be far ahead of the curve in ability to provide companies exactly the staffing they need to pull off successful sampling and other promotional events. We will now be able to secure the proper staffing for every job.”
Noah commented, “With every job we do there are new elements, but the great thing about our platform is that we can build anything with our five building blocks and five tools. Take for instance The Branding Spot’s need to have a page and system for entering events with multiple days or other situations like staffing for each individual day or set of circumstances and then add on staffing roles. They weren’t even sure it was possible to have this type of functionality, but they knew they needed it. After only one live session, we were able to nail down what this type of complex application would look like and, now, it’s built.”
WorkXpress PaaS was designed to provide non-programmers vast capability to create complex functionality without programming. In fact, the code-writing programmers of WorkXpress use it to handle their day to day duties saving 70% in time expenditure.
Brett said, “One of the coolest features so far is the ability to search our very large talent database for the exact demographic needs of our clients. They say we need 20-somethings without tattoos; we can do the search and automatically send requests to provide that client the perfect matches. Not only will this save us time, but we’ll be able to provide our clients top-level service and for us, that’s what it’s all about.”
He continued, “We cannot wait to start using this new system full-time. I cannot even imagine how much time it will save over our previous manual data entry. It will be a whole new way of doing business.”
Week 1
After a few initial meetings, Kaufman and his company went back to the drawing board to revise their original document. With WorkXpress, they were able to increase the scope of automation while staying within budget. In the revisions, they added complex functionality unachievable without programming in other platforms.
Kaufman said, “Two months after our initial meeting, here we are in our first week of development. I’m amazed at the progress. In only three days, we already have a functioning talent registration section available for login via the web and are a good portion into our event allocation software. Actually being able to see our software being built and having the opportunity to make necessary changes along the way is exciting. We could not have been able to build or have built a software package even close to what we’re getting with WorkXpress from any of the other companies or options we researched.”
Week 0
Six months ago, Brett Kaufman of The Branding Spot (www.thebrandingspot.com) and affiliates began the process that he believed was the only way to create the customized software he needed to run his business. Along the way, he learned there were far more hurdles and roadblocks littered with extra expense than he had originally anticipated. That was, of course, before he came across WorkXpress.
Brett Kaufman said, “Every process we desired to be automated or moved to an online portal was placed into the initial document. At that point, the only way we thought we could achieve our goal for an ideal software solution was to hire a coder and web developer to first build the software, then make the necessary web adjustments. After 2-3 months of back and forth negotiations, we realized it would be impossible using this route due to the huge financial cost. It would have taken 9-months to a year to build!”
Over the following few months, Brett researched other options including a few platform as a service (PaaS) offerings, namely Netsuite and Caspio. Unfortunately, with these solutions, they would have again needed additional developer time and expense to get everything they desired out of their software.
Kaufman continued, “The day before I signed with Caspio, I received an introductory tweet from Anna at WorkXpress. Intrigued, I held off my contract signing a few days to see a demo of the new platform as a service solution. After one meeting, I was sold. Here was a service that saved me money, provided ALL of the functionality I wanted and needed and it could all be finished within 5 weeks of contract signing.”
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Filling the Need – The Branding Spot
The Branding Spot is an Arizona based company that handles branded products and marketing for companies nationwide. Recently, Brett Kaufman, CEO of The Branding Spot, signed a contract with WorkXpress to completely reengineer the back-end process for one of the leading Experiential Marketing firms in the country. With a new method of talent tracking and event allocation management they will be able to utilize a potential 70+% increase in productivity through software automation over previous hand processes.
Follow along over the 5-week build cycle to learn more about how WorkXpress builds and deploys mission critical business applications.
Week 0
Six months ago, Brett Kaufman of The Branding Spot (www.thebrandingspot.com) and affiliates began the process that he believed was the only way to create the customized software he needed to run his business. Along the way, he learned there were far more hurdles and roadblocks littered with extra expense than he had originally anticipated. That was, of course, before he came across WorkXpress.
Brett Kaufman said, “Every process we desired to be automated or moved to an online portal was placed into the initial document. At that point, the only way we thought we could achieve our goal for an ideal software solution was to hire a coder and web developer to first build the software, then make the necessary web adjustments. After 2-3 months of back and forth negotiations, we realized it would be impossible using this route due to the huge financial cost. It would have taken 9-months to a year to build!”
Over the following few months, Brett researched other options including a few platform as a service (PaaS) offerings, namely Netsuite and Caspio. Unfortunately, with these solutions, they would have again needed additional developer time and expense to get everything they desired out of their software.
Kaufman continued, “The day before I signed with Caspio, I received an introductory tweet from Anna at WorkXpress. Intrigued, I held off my contract signing a few days to see a demo of the new platform as a service solution. After one meeting, I was sold. Here was a service that saved me money, provided ALL of the functionality I wanted and needed and it could all be finished within 5 weeks of contract signing.”
Week 1
After a few initial meetings, Kaufman and his company went back to the drawing board to revise their original document. With WorkXpress, they were able to increase the scope of automation while staying within budget. In the revisions, they added complex functionality unachievable without programming in other platforms.
Kaufman said, “Two months after our initial meeting, here we are in our first week of development. I’m amazed at the progress. In only three days, we already have a functioning talent registration section available for login via the web and are a good portion into our event allocation software. Actually being able to see our software being built and having the opportunity to make necessary changes along the way is exciting. We could not have been able to build or have built a software package even close to what we’re getting with WorkXpress from any of the other companies or options we researched.”
Stay tuned to weekly updates on the progress and final implementation of the The Branding Spot’s customized software platform.
Follow along over the 5-week build cycle to learn more about how WorkXpress builds and deploys mission critical business applications.
Week 0
Six months ago, Brett Kaufman of The Branding Spot (www.thebrandingspot.com) and affiliates began the process that he believed was the only way to create the customized software he needed to run his business. Along the way, he learned there were far more hurdles and roadblocks littered with extra expense than he had originally anticipated. That was, of course, before he came across WorkXpress.
Brett Kaufman said, “Every process we desired to be automated or moved to an online portal was placed into the initial document. At that point, the only way we thought we could achieve our goal for an ideal software solution was to hire a coder and web developer to first build the software, then make the necessary web adjustments. After 2-3 months of back and forth negotiations, we realized it would be impossible using this route due to the huge financial cost. It would have taken 9-months to a year to build!”
Over the following few months, Brett researched other options including a few platform as a service (PaaS) offerings, namely Netsuite and Caspio. Unfortunately, with these solutions, they would have again needed additional developer time and expense to get everything they desired out of their software.
Kaufman continued, “The day before I signed with Caspio, I received an introductory tweet from Anna at WorkXpress. Intrigued, I held off my contract signing a few days to see a demo of the new platform as a service solution. After one meeting, I was sold. Here was a service that saved me money, provided ALL of the functionality I wanted and needed and it could all be finished within 5 weeks of contract signing.”
Week 1
After a few initial meetings, Kaufman and his company went back to the drawing board to revise their original document. With WorkXpress, they were able to increase the scope of automation while staying within budget. In the revisions, they added complex functionality unachievable without programming in other platforms.
Kaufman said, “Two months after our initial meeting, here we are in our first week of development. I’m amazed at the progress. In only three days, we already have a functioning talent registration section available for login via the web and are a good portion into our event allocation software. Actually being able to see our software being built and having the opportunity to make necessary changes along the way is exciting. We could not have been able to build or have built a software package even close to what we’re getting with WorkXpress from any of the other companies or options we researched.”
Stay tuned to weekly updates on the progress and final implementation of the The Branding Spot’s customized software platform.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Customer and Partner Continuity in the Cloud
Historically, when you purchased a piece of software, you were only dependant on the provider for updates and bug fixes. The software itself was assured to run, because it operated on your own machines, and under your own control. Still, you never had access to the source code, and if the maker went bust, or if you didn't like their terms of maintenance, cost of upgrades, or cost of support, you were left running unsupported software.
With custom-built applications, you always had the comfort of direct access to the source code if you needed support, however you didn't have anyone else to rely on. Also, one then had to shoulder the burden of many support needs typically provided by a software vendor. To some extent, an emerging class of open-source applications represents the best of both worlds, however outside of a few notable applications most are largely unsupported in the way required by a mission critical business application, and therefore not viable in the enterprise.
Today's software as a service model represents a particularly challenging business decision, as customers rarely have control over the platform, the code, the hosting environment or the data, and as such are completely dependent upon an evaluation of the business stability and commitment to the customers needs.
Cloud computing, and in particular Platform as a Service has opened up new questions about maintenance of business continuity for both customers and channel partners as they make important decisions about the longevity of their software applications and in fact their business.
In general, when evaluating cloud providers it is important to note that Cloud Computing and Platform as a Service are growing. You can expect that the industry will only take root over the coming years and that those vendors who can deliver value while enjoying a solid, stable business model and unique positioning will thrive and grow.
MODEL FOR EVALUATING CONTINUITY:
In general, one should consider (1) access to data, (2) control over hosting, (3) access to source code of the application, and finally (4) the business health and market potential of the software vendor as the main variables responsible for assuring continuity of your business should you adopt a particular piece of software.
1. WorkXpress is proud of its business continuity offering to both customers and channel partners, as it spans data ownership, access to code, control over the host environment and finally corporate stability and commitment;
2. Full access to all data via api's, reports and other methods. Data can be exported in any tabular format required by the exporter. Key fields can easily be defined in the exports
Export templates can be maintained and reused at later times
3. All WorkXpress applications can be hosted on the cloud of your choice, including a virtual appliance behind the firewall. In this way you are not dependent on any particular provider to maintain your application functionality. This choice can be changed over time as needed.
4. The five building blocks "code" behind any particular WorkXpress application remains the intellectual property of the creator. Therefore, a customer can elect to have full access to the 5 building blocks "source code".
5. In addition to this already substantial business continuity offering, for large customers, WorkXpress contemplates entering of platform source code into escrow, to ensure complete business continuity.
6. WorkXpress is committed to its customers and the quality of its product. To this end it is a privately held, revenue generating company that to date has not received venture capital funding, and therefore is not under pressure to behave in ways that run counter to its mission of customers and product.
With custom-built applications, you always had the comfort of direct access to the source code if you needed support, however you didn't have anyone else to rely on. Also, one then had to shoulder the burden of many support needs typically provided by a software vendor. To some extent, an emerging class of open-source applications represents the best of both worlds, however outside of a few notable applications most are largely unsupported in the way required by a mission critical business application, and therefore not viable in the enterprise.
Today's software as a service model represents a particularly challenging business decision, as customers rarely have control over the platform, the code, the hosting environment or the data, and as such are completely dependent upon an evaluation of the business stability and commitment to the customers needs.
Cloud computing, and in particular Platform as a Service has opened up new questions about maintenance of business continuity for both customers and channel partners as they make important decisions about the longevity of their software applications and in fact their business.
In general, when evaluating cloud providers it is important to note that Cloud Computing and Platform as a Service are growing. You can expect that the industry will only take root over the coming years and that those vendors who can deliver value while enjoying a solid, stable business model and unique positioning will thrive and grow.
MODEL FOR EVALUATING CONTINUITY:
In general, one should consider (1) access to data, (2) control over hosting, (3) access to source code of the application, and finally (4) the business health and market potential of the software vendor as the main variables responsible for assuring continuity of your business should you adopt a particular piece of software.
1. WorkXpress is proud of its business continuity offering to both customers and channel partners, as it spans data ownership, access to code, control over the host environment and finally corporate stability and commitment;
2. Full access to all data via api's, reports and other methods. Data can be exported in any tabular format required by the exporter. Key fields can easily be defined in the exports
Export templates can be maintained and reused at later times
3. All WorkXpress applications can be hosted on the cloud of your choice, including a virtual appliance behind the firewall. In this way you are not dependent on any particular provider to maintain your application functionality. This choice can be changed over time as needed.
4. The five building blocks "code" behind any particular WorkXpress application remains the intellectual property of the creator. Therefore, a customer can elect to have full access to the 5 building blocks "source code".
5. In addition to this already substantial business continuity offering, for large customers, WorkXpress contemplates entering of platform source code into escrow, to ensure complete business continuity.
6. WorkXpress is committed to its customers and the quality of its product. To this end it is a privately held, revenue generating company that to date has not received venture capital funding, and therefore is not under pressure to behave in ways that run counter to its mission of customers and product.
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