Blackstone & Cullen, Inc.

How Data Will Impact the Way We Do Business

2010-01-07T09:07:00.005-05:00

How Data Will Impact the Way We Do Business

Posted using ShareThis

How Data Will Impact the Way We Do Business

2010-01-07T09:07:00.003-05:00

How Data Will Impact the Way We Do Business

Posted using ShareThis

How Data Will Impact the Way We Do Business

2010-01-07T09:07:00.001-05:00

How Data Will Impact the Way We Do Business

Posted using ShareThis

Integrating SharePoint and Websphere

2009-07-20T09:02:00.003-04:00

BAC is currently looking for someone that has a history of integrating WebSphere and SharePoint. The position will last for 2-4 weeks and is located in the Metro Atlanta area. The candidate must be at architect level and have previous integration experience. Please contact us with your resume and cover sheet.

A Great New Opportunity from Blackstone & Cullen and Microsoft!

2009-05-21T09:22:00.005-04:00

Introducing Business Value Planning Services (BVPS): Save Money with Software You Already Own!
Microsoft has launched an exciting FREE* initiative to help customers identify, unlock, and capture the business value of Office System solutions called Business Value Planning Services (BVPS). Blackstone & Cullen is proud to announce we a partnering with Microsoft to deliver BVPS engagements.

Check out this new video by Blackstone & Cullen detailing BVPS and Deployment Services.

What are Business Value Planning Services (BVPS)?
The Business Value Planning Services program is a structured, 3 or 5 day engagement led by Blackstone & Cullen to identify and design improvements to an existing business process leveraging Microsoft technology that you already own. Upon completing a Business Value Planning Services engagement, customers receive a current state process analysis, future state process design, an adoption/implementation plan and, in a 5-day engagement, a business case for the proposed solution. And best of all, you can use your Microsoft Software Assurance benefits to have Microsoft pay for the business process improvement engagement!

Why Should I Be Interested in BVPS?
Business Value Planning Services provides customers with a number of significant benefits:

Save money in a difficult economic environment
Realize a greater return on your technology investments
Solve business problems with a familiar technology platform
Build a convincing business case for business process improvement
Identify and manage roadblocks to change

For example, Revlon, a world leader in cosmetics, found in a 3-day BVPS engagement that they could implement a new Integrated Business Management Process with a live documentation tool to govern their "brand books" and internal portal. The business plan developed during this engagement proposed many solutions to their array of issues ranging from document security and control to managing calendars and tasks during their production process.

How Can I Learn More?
Attend an upcoming BVPS Strategy Briefing Event! Blackstone & Cullen would like to invite you to a 90-minute small-group presentation on the ways in which you can use technology you already own to solve business problems you face every day. The event is targeted towards IT Decision makers, Business Department Managers, and CxOs, and is a great opportunity to learn how other companies have benefited from BVPS engagements. As an added bonus, hear from Larry White and George Miller from Mactec, as they discuss their successful business value planning session conducted with Blackstone & Cullen.

Please RSVP to lindsay.blackstone@bac-atl.com by June 10th to confirm your attendance.

Location: Microsoft Atlanta Office
1125 Sanctuary Pkwy
Suite 300
Alpharetta, GA 30009
June 18th, 2009
12:30pm for Lunch
1:00pm - 2:30pm for Presentation

We look forward to seeing you there!
*Microsoft customers can use their existing Software Assurance vouchers to pay for the service!

Take a Tour of Our New BAC Website!

2009-04-08T08:46:00.004-04:00

Please take a few minutes to review our new website. Our brand new content and in-depth white paper library make BAC's new website a perfect source for all of your BI, Application Development, EPM, or Collaborative needs. Our goal was to make an intuitively simple website that promotes knowledge and understanding of every aspect of BAC's capabilities. So Enjoy!

Lindsay Blackstone
Marketing Manager
Blackstone & Cullen, Inc.
www.bac-atl.com

Microsoft Business Intelligence Solutions Commercial with Coca Cola

2009-01-27T10:46:00.002-05:00

People Ready Business: Coca-Cola

Marketers missing revenue opportunities

2009-01-22T13:50:00.002-05:00

Marketers missing revenue opportunities
CMO Council survey finds lack of customer insight an obstacle to maximizing potential

By Kate Maddox

During these recessionary times, marketers are missing out on a big revenue opportunity when it comes to leveraging their existing customers, according to a study by the Chief Marketing Officer Council. The study, “Routes to Revenue,” found that 75.9% of senior marketers believe they are not realizing the full revenue potential of their current customers. “It begs the question, "If marketers don't believe they are realizing the full revenue potential of their customers, then why aren't they doing something about it?' ” said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council. “It underscores the tendency of marketers to look outbound rather than inward. In many cases, these folks are spending money on acquiring customers when they could be losing their existing customers.” The study—based on an online and in-person survey of more than 650 senior marketers conducted in the fourth quarter—also found that only 46.5% of marketers believe they have good insights into retention rates, customer profitability and lifetime value. Some of the top obstacles to realizing the full revenue potential of customers include lack of real-time data and analytics that capture insights from across all customer touch points (22.3% cited this as the top obstacle); information that is selectively gathered and is often inaccurate or incomplete (21.0%); and data being siloed and restricted in its availability and use across the organization (15.5%). “Many marketers, and in most cases the larger organizations, don't have the insight into their customer data to be able to determine what the opportunities are,” Neale-May said. “The constrained environment we have today will force marketers to do more analysis, get more data, get more insight and intelligence into their customers, and map strategies to upsell, cross-sell, partner and be more inventive in the ways they engage with existing customers.” The survey asked marketers what strategies they are using to realize greater revenue and profitability from existing customers. The top responses were: becoming more personalized, relevant and precise in customer communication (60.1%); finding new ways to cross-sell or upsell current accounts (44.5%); addressing under-penetrated markets or new customer segments (41.0%); and using more efficient channels or alternative media to engage customers (32.2%). The survey also asked what companies were doing to improve top- and bottom-line performance. Marketers said they were: reducing head count, overhead and/or budgets (40.0%); automating complex and costly processes (38.7%); outsourcing more services and functions (31.2%); and divesting unprofitable business units or lines (20.7%). (Multiple responses were allowed.) Neale-May said there are three core areas marketers should be focusing on to improve their overall performance: customer insight, customer experience and customer advocacy. “That is all about retention marketing and more individual retention management,” he said. “Most creative groups tend to see value in external programs, rather than looking at the customers they already have, the cost of acquiring customers, the value of the deal and whether they are targeting customers that are most predisposed toward the company or brand. “These do not all require outside media or marketing dollars. They require much more drilling and integrating with the customer database and sales organizations.” For example, he pointed to an effort by Best Western International to include promotional offers on its loyalty reward statements. The program was conducted by InfoPrint Solutions, a joint venture of IBM Corp. and Ricoh Co. It achieved a 278% return on investment. The survey found that only 23.2% of marketers are leveraging customer insight and print technology to deliver individualized marketing messages to customers on transactional documents such as monthly statements, bills and invoices.

Dilbert's Guide to Project Management

2009-01-12T09:13:00.002-05:00

All the above cartoons and many more can be found here and
remain copyright© United Feature Syndicate, Inc

Happy Holidays From BAC

2008-12-22T09:42:00.003-05:00

Microsoft Business Value Planning Services Workshop

2008-12-02T14:06:00.006-05:00

Are you ready to leverage your Microsoft Office investment?
Get the most out of your SA Vouchers

One of the most frequent questions we hear from our customers is

How do I optimize the Microsoft Office System to gain a strategic advantage?

Microsoft is teaming up with Blackstone & Cullen, Inc., one of three BVPS partners, to deliver a business planning session for customers that have unused SA vouchers from their Office System implementation.

Let’s take a minute to explain how you can use this program to get a free business planning session from Blackstone & Cullen, one of three partners in the Southeast that is capable of delivering this program to you.

Microsoft BVPS is a software assurance benefit for customers looking to gain a strategic edge from their previous implementation of the Office System. It is a pre-defined paid service offering delivered by partners to help customers identify ways to leverage their investment in the Office System to improve business processes.

Blackstone & Cullen will work with the customer to document, analyze, optimize, justify, sequence, and propose a plan to improve their business using the Office System.

This service offers customers a 3, 5, 10, or 15 day engagement based on their individual software assurance benefit level.

Customers will work with a pre-qualified Microsoft partner, Blackstone & Cullen, to document, analyze, and propose a plan to improve a customer’s business process by leveraging the Office System.

To participate in the Business Value Planning Services program, BAC needed to meet the following partner requirements:

Partner company in the Microsoft Partner Program

Partner company registered in the Office System Solutions Directory

Partner company registered for the program and accepted the contract terms

All consultants delivering these engagements must have passed exam 74-674 and be associated with a partner company meeting above criteria

Blackstone & Cullen is one of 3 US partners certified by Microsoft to deliver the Business Value Planning Service.

To request a copy of the BVPS Starter Kit, click here.

Revlon’s BVPS Experience
Revlon needed a new documentation portal for their “Brand Books,” marketing materials which drive new product information. Their current documents are scattered among multiple drives and SharePoint sites.

They had no security within the folders and tracking document updates was poorly managed by a “Corrections & Changes” document. This led to multiple errors across documents and departments.

Blackstone & Cullen proposed a solution to improve the business processes for Revlon’s “Brand Books.”

The “Brand Books” are marketing materials which drive new product information to Revlon’s sales and customers. The information within each Brand Book needs to be timely, accurate, and communicated effectively throughout Revlon’s management, marketing operations, customer business development, and sales teams.

As Revlon continues the implementation of their Integrated Business Management Process, the “Brand Books” will become a key communication tool from which the business lives by.

The business plan proposed many solutions to their array of issues. The sites would become a single store of information for each brand. The SharePoint sites would store all marketing documents and supporting materials. SharePoint will also control security and rights for all documents and the SharePoint calendars, task lists, and issue lists can support the stage gate business process.

Welcome!

2008-12-01T10:51:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the NEW Blackstone & Cullen, Inc. blog! We are excited to bring you current information on everything going on in the BAC universe. You will see important posts on upcoming events, customer cases, and new technology and business strategies that we think will help you learn, grow, and understand the constantly evolving world of Blackstone & Cullen, Inc.

Enjoy!