Increasing sales and developing programs and plans to ensure this on a constant, reliable and predictable basis is inherently risky. You might be surprised to learn that, on an industry-wide basis, less than 50% of marketing projects are considered successful. We've spent the last 21 years learning how to make projects succeed. Hiring the best talent on contract in North America certainly helps, but it takes more than genius to consistently produce successful outcomes. When you hire Superior Image and Project Management, you'll benefit from two decades of experience on over 500 projects.
Here is how we do things at Superior Image and Project Management
When you fill out the contact form on our website, the information is sent to our sales team. We receive inquiries throughout the day and respond as quickly as possible. During the initial conversation, we'll usually cover general information and coordinate the signing of an NDA (non-disclosure agreement). After the NDA is in place, we'll work closely with you to gain a deep understanding of your project. A salesperson will coordinate the effort and usually involve a business developer with the requisite skills and experience to prepare a detailed estimate.
We use an estimation process called "Pessimistic PERT" (Program Evaluation and Review Technique). The estimator reviews project requirements and breaks the work down into tasks. He then estimates the Best Case, Worst Case, and Most Likely Case for each task. The Pessimistic PERT formula calculates an Expected Case value that is weighted more toward the worst case than the best case. This takes into consideration the tendency that most business developershave to be overly optimistic in their estimates. Hence, the name "Pessimistic PERT." We sum the expected cases of all tasks to calculate an Implementation Sub-total. We then burden that value with 3 adjustable factors:
We then turn the estimate into a range by adding a "Safety Margin" to account for project risk factors that may not be reflected in the value calculated by the PERT formula.
We charge hourly for our services. All of the work product that we produce is owned completely, royalty-free, with no strings attached, by the client once all invoices have been paid in full. This includes source code, graphics, documentation, and any other project-specific files created during the course of the project. Our standard business development services agreement is available for you to review at any time during the sales process. Clients and their attorneys often request specific changes which we are usually able to accommodate.
Our clients come to us with various levels of technology commitment. If you have corporate mandates that require that certain technologies be used, or if you have existing software that needs to be extended, we will be happy to work with those. If you are not committed to a particular technology, we will make a recommendation depending on the requirements of your project.
We have a broad and diverse set of skills and experience, so it is highly likely that we have business developers who are qualified to work on your project. However, our goal during the sales process is to select clients with whom we can work effectively and projects on which we can excel. If we do not think we are a good fit for your needs, we'll tell you that directly and honestly.
Once you decide to work with us, we'll assemble the project team. Teams generally consist of a project manager, one or more business developers (which may include the project manager), a tester, and a graphic artist. We're normally able to start projects within two weeks of finalizing the business arrangements, sometimes sooner.
The project manager will be your main technical contact during the life of the project. Each client also is assigned an account manager who is your business contact during the life of all projects we do for you. This is normally the salesperson you worked with during the sales process. We find that having separate technical and business contacts provides valuable checks-and-balances.
As a client of Superior Image and Project Management, you'll be connected into the same workgroup collaboration system that all our business developers use. This system provides real-time messaging, chatting, document-sharing, and many other features. In effect, you'll be "on site" everyday at our "office." That said, we are very aware of the value of face-to-face communication, and projects often begin with an onsite kickoff meeting.
We don't follow a specific off-the-shelf development methodology. The needs of the different clients and industries we serve, along with the way that we integrate with our clients' organizations preclude us from dictating exactly how the development of every project should proceed. Instead, we adapt the broad principles of agile business development and apply them in a flexible, practical manner. This means using as lightweight design and management procedures as possible, emphasizing short, frequent release cycles, and remaining responsive to changing requirements.
We believe that frequent and high-quality communication is crucial for the success of your project. As a result, project status is not merely "reported" to you. You will be an integral part of the project team, constantly aware of what's going on. Here's how we do this:
We have developed a set of conventions and practices that we apply to all marketing plans and tactics written for client projects. The primary advantages are that a Superior Image and Project Management business specialist can start work on a project without needing to come up to speed on how things are done on that project -- the procedure on any Superior Image and Project Management looks like every other project which we manage. If we need to add business developers to a project, or when we come back to a project in a year to add new features, there's no time wasted figuring out the protocol. There are stories in the industry about new marketers starting on a project and burning valuable time reformatting the marketing approach into something more pleasing to them; there's none of that for us.
We believe marketing plans should be released frequently during develoment and that testing is a collaborative process. Our developers and QA staff rigorously test releases with your best clients well before we send them to you. However, we aren't experts in all areas of your business. It is imperative that you arrange for real users to sample the creative and provide us with detailed effectiveness reports. During the later stages of a project, when testing and bug fixing are the primary activities, we'll work closely with you to prioritize the bugs so that you can make an informed decision regarding when to release your campaigns to the public.
After the marketing collaterals ships or the campaigns are launched, you can take over maintenance of the buying and implementing if you wish. Alternatively, we are happy to remain available indefinitely to make changes, perform buying and manage your accounts - all at your request. We will also happily scale up the team again to tackle new projects. Our business is based on long-term relationships. We are proud that we have worked with a number of clients for 10 years or more.
