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FAQ - Frequently Asked questions |
Q: What is a project management firm? How does it
work?
Q: What
is the single most important advantage to using a project management firm?
Q: What are the specific cost benefits to outsourcing our project management work to HM&A?
Q: How does Hilty Moore & Associates charge for services?
Q: Does HM&A ever work on a retainer
basis?
Q: How does Hilty Moore & Associates invoice for services?
Q: How is a
client kept abreast of progress during the course of a project?
Q: I
notice that my industry is not mentioned in your list of industries served? Could we still
work together?
Q: Can
Hilty Moore & Associates provide references to prospective clients?
Q: How
should I evaluate my needs for the services provided by Hilty Moore & Associates?
Q: Our
firm currently has an in-house product marketing department, a marketing communications
department and an advertising/public relations firm. Why would our firm consider using the
services of Hilty Moore & Associates?
Q: Does
Hilty Moore & Associates ever do work on site for their clients?
Q: What is the
bandwidth (Capacity) of Hilty Moore & Associates?
Q: If
you're a marketing service centered firm, why do you work with HR and financial services
professionals?
Why would my firm ever need these services since we already have people
like this on our company's staff?
Q: What
assurances does Hilty Moore & Associates provide that the results of your work for our
firm are held in confidence?
Q: How does
Hilty Moore & Associates charge for out-of-pocket expenses?
Q: What
format does Hilty Moore & Associates use in the delivery of client projects?
Q: How does HM&A measure the success of the
project, i.e., the return on the client’s investment?
Q: Our - company is
results driven, where can I find examples of HM&A’s work?
Q: What is a project management firm? How does it work?
A: As a project management firm, Hilty Moore & Associates, LLC (HM&A) provides start-to-finish services for clients.
- That is, we assist clients with the mapping of a project specification and budget, spelling out the objectives, the timing and deliverables.
- We assume the project management task of actually providing all the elements of the project - conducting primary or secondary market research, competitive intelligence, customer satisfaction surveying; designing a commercial web site, writing programming specifications, and then supervising the writing of the software code and the launch of the web site.
- As part of our services we devise the budgets for each component of every client program, create a timetable for the course of the project and define each deliverable.
- We are held responsible for delivering all projects on time, and within the approved client budget.
- We also report our progress on a prescribed timetable throughout the period of the project, providing clients with the opportunity to adjust the project along the way and ensuring that there are no surprises when the project is completed..
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Q: What is the single most important advantage to using a project management firm?
A: As project managers, we provide single source support to assure on-time delivery of projects within approved budgets. We have had many, many years experience working with a wide assortment of solution providers and can easily assemble a team of proven professionals to realize your project objectives within a desirable time frame, thereby freeing your Company's management to do what they do best, while we complete important, fact-based commercial projects on your behalf.
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Q:
What
are the specific cost benefits to outsourcing our project management work to
HM&A?
A:
The principal cost benefits derive from your firm not having to dedicate
members of your full-time staff to the considerable time and labor requirements of having
to:
- Map a
complex project that may involve a sizable number of discrete elements, including the development of a
project timetable, budget, and task assignments.
- Shop
projects with a variety of service providers, some or many that might be relatively
unknown to your firm, or that don’t have the necessary blend of skills to match your
project specifications and deliver your anticipated results on time and within your approved project budget.
Our firm has
close working relationships with a wide spectrum of service providers including technical surveying professionals, market research analusts, advertising and public relations agencies, trade show exhibit builders, professional
technical writers including foreign language specialists/translators, software developers,
graphic artists and designers, business-to-business video broadcast providers, training
program developers, product design technologists, financial and human relations
specialists, and others.
Finally, there are considerable time benefits realized when your firm uses a single-source project management firm. Our teams will map the project, coordinate all resources required, provide deliverables over the project timeline, and wrap the project into a format consistent with your presentation requirements to effectively address your Company’s senior management. We will provide project closing financials and other deliverables as required. All during this time, your Company’s senior managers are doing what they do best: manage your day-to-day operations.
Q: How does Hilty Moore & Associates charge for services?
A: Our services are billed as part of overall project costs which are provided to clients after their approval of a preliminary project specification. Based on client requirements, HM&A creates a detailed project specification, including the expected project deliverables and timing of each program element. The deliverables are then mapped against a project timeline complete with preliminary read outs, in-progress review meetings and the date of the final project delivery.
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Q: Does HM&A ever work on a retainer basis?
A: Yes. While we prefer to work a specific project basis, some clients of long standing prefer to retain the firm for specific periods of time, renewable on an annual basis. A retainer arrangement guarantees a minimum level of constant coverage for clients who have retained HM&A to supply a broad range of coverage; e.g., web site design, marketing communications programming, market research projects, customer satisfaction surveying, etc.
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Q: How does Hilty Moore & Associates invoice for services?
A: Again, on a project basis. Generally speaking, 1/3 of the costs are invoiced at project inception; 1/3 midway through the project, and 1/3 invoiced at project delivery.
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Q: How is a client kept abreast of progress during the course of a project?
A: Generally, the HM&A team will meet with the client primary contact and the client team periodically throughout the project to ensure that our efforts match the client expectations, and the project specification. This process permits periodic tweaking of project specifications to allow for mid-course adjustments based on the latest information available to both the client and HM&A.
A: We have also built project development web sites, accessible only by the client and their designees. In this fashion, the HM&A research, communications, and web development teams are able to post day-to-day progress to the client extranet site, so the client can monitor progress from one week to another, raise questions, make suggestions, etc. HM&A has found this to be an excellent project management device, especially when the client and HM&A teams are widely dispersed geographically.
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A: Absolutely! We are basically a team of industrially-oriented professionals who are equally comfortable in any target market assignment. Our associates' broad range of experience lends itself to almost any industry environment and we have access to a broad array of thought leaders and industry specialists to match clients' needs.
We have found over the years that regardless of the industry assignment, the process of information delivery and discovery is very much the same, whether it involved market segmentation, market sizing, sales channel analysis, potential sales analysis, market entry strategies, etc.
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Q: Can Hilty Moore & Associates provide references to prospective clients?
A: Yes. We would be pleased to share a list of client contacts for whom we have worked on confidential projects.
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Q: How should I evaluate my needs for the services provided by Hilty Moore & Associates?
A: There is no simple formula for evaluating the need for an outside services. However, some of the signs that your firm may require assistance would include:
- The fact that sales to your historically targeted market segments is slowing, and you're having trouble locating new sales targets.
- You may also feel that your company's staff is not likely to have the time or resources to tackle a particularly tough issue such as a comprehensive market research or competitive intelligence project or complete commercial web site design.
- Or you may wonder how your company can reach an interesting all-new market segment about which you know little but feel may be an appropriate target for your products and services.
- Your firm may also want to sponsor a confidential examination of competition to determine their next likely strategic moves.
- Your firm may want a discrete review of firms that could be likely targets to realize your company's strategic merger and acquisition plans.
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A: It sounds like your company is well prepared to conduct its day-to-day operations. However, there may be times when the qualified professionals that serve your firm might welcome an outside insight into strategic issues, especially those with significant commercial impact. For example, it might be difficult for your marketing personnel to conduct objective market research or competitive intelligence regarding market pricing levels, competitive strategic intent, heads-up analysis of products/services to targeted market segments, etc. For those special needs, our firm can augment your own company with a third-party, 'fresh eyes' perspective to assist in your strategic planning and programming.
In any event, our firm would be pleased to meet with your company representatives, on a no charge basis, to listen to an outline of your market-specific challenges and advise you whether we would be able to add value to your solution process.
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Q: Does Hilty Moore & Associates ever do work on site for their clients?
A: Yes. Individuals or teams from our firm can locate to your premises for indefinite periods of time in order to compress the time required to design and complete a project. We have had experience in this area, and frankly, there are times when an all-out campaign is warranted, results over the years have proven the effectiveness of this intense project management tact.
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Q: What is the bandwidth (Capacity) of Hilty Moore & Associates?
A: Frankly, we don't know. For over eight years since our founding, we have been able to assemble teams of experienced professionals to address all client issues and challenges to date, and many of these projects run in parallel. We have broad access to top professionals for our team work and would anticipate that bandwidth would not impact even the demands of our largest clients.
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A: We have frequently found that solving marketing challenges involve the services of these experienced professionals. For example, a financial analysis of a wide spectrum of competitive performance data is frequently clarified with an experienced financial analysis of profit and loss statements, balance sheets, R&D investment schedules, etc. An experienced analyst can reduce seemingly incomprehensible data to easily-understood comparative charts, graphs and narrative summaries. The same can be said of a technologists' view of competitive data. Meanwhile, an HR specialist with decades of experience in high-level recruitment, sales training, mentoring and coaching can add desirable depth in the creation of programming to improve individual or team performance.
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A: Hilty Moore & Associates abides by the same general principles covering other professional services firms. That is, we sign Confidentiality Agreements with all of our clients that assure that our work on their behalf is held in the strictest confidence, and that our work papers, and all other work-related products are protected from unauthorized use. All of our partners and associates have executed Confidentiality Agreements with the company that extends to all clients of the firm. Our firm is deeply committed to preserving anonymity and confidence. In addition, all of the outputs of our work are marked CONFIDENTIAL and are copyrighted to the client.
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Q: How does Hilty Moore & Associates charge for out-of-pocket expenses?
A: It is our practice to invoice any pre-approved out-of-pocket expenses, such as travel, food, lodging, print costs, etc., on an actual cost basis, without markup of any kind.
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Q: What format does Hilty Moore & Associates use in the delivery of client projects?
A: Generally speaking, our market studies, research reports and competitive intelligence projects are delivered in Microsoft PowerPoint format, along with full-color bound report copies and on client-confidential CDs. Many projects are also delivered with large format market segmentation maps and other appropriate large-scale charts, tables and diagrams. All of these outputs are delivered on the client's templates and are immediately usable for internal or external presentations.
A: The first deliverable of a web site project is the site specification including a site map, overview and content draft with appropriate mapping of links. The subsequent deliverable is the first on-line draft of the site itself. Finally, the site is launched preliminarily, tested and final changes made. If so directed, HM&A also facilitates the hosting issues surrounding the site itself, and can promote the on-line and direct mail promotion of the site.
A: Marketing communications, employee communications and public relations projects are delivered in appropriate hard copy, published text and in specified electronic formats. All HM&A project deliverables may be posted to appropriate web sites including Extranet or internal web sites.
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Q: How does HM&A measure the success of the project, i.e., the return on the client’s investment?
A: Only the client
can measure the true effectiveness of our work. Naturally,
many of our recommendations have been implemented by clients. The results have produced new customers,
distributors and sales representatives for clients. Our
recommendations have resulted in other resource allocation decisions that improve
productivity, reduce costs and, ultimately, increase client competitiveness. On the commercial front, our recommendations have
produced a very large portfolio of product catalogs, brochures, datasheets, press
releases, trade show exhibits, trade press articles, white papers, countless news letters,
and sizable commercial web sites.
All of this
work can be shared with prospective clients as illustrations of the wide range of our firm's capabilities.
Q: Our - company is results driven, where can I find examples of HM&A’s work?
A: We would be
pleased to meet with your management team to review specific examples of work we have
completed for our clients. While there are
proprietary aspects to our final reports that must remain confidential, we can walk
through most of the projects we have completed. A review of this nature is frequently
helpful to prospective clients, since it will illustrate our discovery and data minging processes while providing examples of how HM&A approaches client
marketing challenges. These review sessions frequently shed light on a
prospective client’s own challenges and offer hints as to how solutions can be
devised.
Preliminary
meetings of this nature can be easily arranged and are conducted at the clients’ place of business without charge.
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For more information please call 440.543.1520 or contact us here
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