Engagements

Sample Engagements

Blue Sky typically starts an engagement by creating a plan, and then implements against that plan. The plans have been communications, marketing, or business plans for high-tech, bio-tech, or green companies. The audiences for the plans have spanned both internal and external audiences including customers, executives, partners, sales, and IT. Sample results from these plans are as follows:

Showing what could be

Client Need: Apple’s retail stores are glamorous, with sweeping spans of glass, clean lines, bright colors, and helpful staff. However the network left much to be desired, unsecured (and open to pornography searching) on the store floor, and a skinny 3MB network for (slow) sales processing.
Engagement: Blue Sky helped Apple’s IT department convince the retail department to beef up and secure the network by creating a series of compelling slide decks depicting what the retail experience could be like, given a fatter network.
Results: Funding and the opportunity for voice, video, and data screens replacing the static wall images, faster order processing, a secure network, and reduced operating expenses.

Transforming IT by eating your own dog food

Client Need: One of the best ways to promote your company is to show how you use your own products, services, and processes. Cisco IT needed to show potential customers that it does this—and with great results.
Engagement: Blue Sky worked with Cisco IT execs and teams to show (via Executive Briefing Center slide decks) dramatic power—and therefore cost—savings by using its own Unified Computing System—prior to the product’s release. Blue Sky produced a case study to depict how Cisco utilized its own life cycle approach to reorganize the department for dramatic cost savings and productivity increases.
Results: The slide decks have been used by Cisco execs in numerous executive briefings and the case studies are posted on the web for viewing.

Increasing awareness and driving business through publications

Client Need: Hewlett Packard needed a single (vs. multiple) customer publication to showcase and drive business for all of its products and services—on a bimonthly basis. The publication needed to consume as little HP employee time as possible, yet contain all of the company’s product launches and messaging.
Engagement: Blue Sky partnered with design firms in different regions to produce an Americas edition and an APAC edition of Inview. The bi-monthly print- and web-based publications were distributed to over 100,000 customers in the Americas, with 40,000 to APAC. Blue Sky handled the complete editorial project management, including coordination with representatives from each of HP’s business units and with corporate branding, determination of themes for each issue in line with HP’s product launches. The project included writing/editing/copyediting with approval by HP personnel.
Results: Each issue delivered precisely on time. The publication was directly responsible for millions annually in incremental revenue, per a follow-up J.D. Power & Assoc. survey.

It looks great, but will it sell?

Client Need: Ebrary needed to test the viability of its Beta products to determine if the products should be pushed live, and if so, at what price point, timing, etc.
Engagement: Blue Sky researched potential customers, and worked closely and quickly with Ebrary CEO and execs, recommending that the products be pushed live at an upcoming window of opportunity.
Results: Success within one month!

A plan to add even more marketing value

Client Need: As a value-added distributor of computer products, Bell Microproducts needed a holistic approach to providing value above and beyond the efforts of its suppliers—companies such as AMD, HP, Microsoft.
Engagement: Teaming with Montgomery Professional’s graphic team, Blue Sky developed a sweeping tactical marcom plan, covering advertising, web, print, trade shows, email, and newsletters.
Results: Buy-in, funding, and implementation of the plan by the suppliers.

Help! My Intranet has grown to be a giant!

Client Need: At Intuit, the company Intranet was an easy place for employees to post information. The problem was, everyone was posting, and soon there was so much data that no one could find anything. When they couldn’t find information, they picked up the phone. Consequently, Intuit’s help desk staff couldn’t keep up with the call volume.
Engagement: Blue Sky came in and sifted through, consolidated, repurposed, and organized over 1500 web pages on Intuit’s CIO Intranet to a manageable size.
Results: Web usage increased since the site was easier to navigate, and Help desk calls dramatically decreased.

1 mouse, 2 mouse, red mouse, blue mouse

Client Need: With hundreds of mice, headsets, and other peripherals—many quite similar to each other, and some discontinued-- Logitech needed to do an overhaul of its website so that customers could easily differentiate between the products.
Engagement: Blue Sky systematically edited all of the website content to follow the same format, instituted a language hierarchy to enable customers to easily distinguish be the various mice, keyboards, webcams, gaming implements, etc., and implemented a system to remove older products from the site.
Results: Logitech’s website is now easier to navigate, and products can more easily be compared.

A quick roll-out

Client Need: BEA (now Oracle) needed to speed up the roll-out of some new products to include them in with the annual sales kick-off.
Engagement: Blue Sky produced sales Playbooks, slide decks (with versions for sales teams and customer viewing), and customer collateral to demonstrate the features and benefits, and position them against other competing products.
Results: The products were included in the kick-off, the sales team was quickly and effectively trained, and armed with customer presentations to begin selling the product.

Taking the “Tech” out of IT

Client Need: Sometimes high tech can be so high up that your audience can’t comprehend what you’re trying to say. Borland’s website had become too techy; its audience couldn’t understand it. The company needed to “de-tech” some of its web pages and add new pages on new services.
Engagement: Blue Sky de-teched these pages and produced others in easy-to-understand lay language.
Results: Website hits have increased, as have revenues.

Putting the “Part” back in Partner

Client Need: By treating its Channel Partners more like family, Hewlett Packard could create more value and increase solution sales.
Engagement: Blue Sky’s approach was to create partner packs for each partner, institute a partner newsletter, and a secured partner website, and create a partner manual. The Packs included overview materials to encourage potential partners to join the program (benefits, pricing, data sheets) and then once the partner was on board, joint sales collateral for the partner to use (HP/Partner solution data sheets and case studies, slide decks, and an overall Partner brochure). The newsletter was issued monthly, and the website was updated frequently.
Results: The packs, newsletter, manual, and website were all well-received, resulting in decreased hand-holding, more professional collaboration, and increased channel revenues.

How can customers buy it if they don’t understand the technology?

Client Need: With Broadband and video streaming in their infancy, Espial (formerly Kasenna) needed to educate its potential customers in order to drive business.
Engagement: Blue Sky produced white papers on the topics to help drive business. And, with good results, Blue Sky wrote and edited additional white papers on IT consolidation with Linux, printing, and other topics.
Results: Increased revenues.