Demonstrates how I leveraged technology to improve ROI and agency profit in this continuity campaign for Wells Fargo Bank.

1. Campaign Case Study2424 7th Avenue, Oakland, CA 94606Office: 510-868-5019 Cell: 510-289-8553keithlindbeck@gmail.com12/21/2009Keith Allen LindbeckThis case study examines the unique way in which Lindbeck leveraged technology to deliver unprecedented ROI to his client, and increased profits to his agency. Optical Mark Recognition (OMR or Scantron) forms capture the results of 300 OTM calls across 2700 branches each quarter. 3000 one page performance reports are distributed via fax server every other week via the agency’s in house Microsoft BackOffice Small Business Server and a DIGI fax server. The ongoing effort, architected and executed by Lindbeck and his agency B2e Inc. for client Wells Fargo Bank touts 2,700 participating branches and 36 million pieces of mail annually. Over the course of a year, 2,700 branch managers will make over 3 million OTM calls and B2e will generate more than 24,000 faxable performance reports.Commissioned by Microsoft, as a testimonial for their website, this case study is written from a technology perspective. Data processing and report distribution were kept in house at the agency, using MS SQL Server, MS Fax Server, and Seagate Crystal Reports/Crystal Info, all running on B2e’s in-house Microsoft BackOffice Small Business Server. Mailing was done in the Midwest on continuous form laser, and OTM calls were done by the branch managers. To maximize its customers’ return on investment, the San Francisco–based direct response advertising agency Beginning 2 End, Inc. (B2e) manages production and media in-house. B2e efficiently produces large-scale direct marketing campaigns by driving database marketing and reporting with Microsoft® BackOffice® Small Business Server. On a typical day, B2e uses Small Business Server not only to support a real and virtual office, but also to host a database that generates 47 million pieces of direct mail annually, to fax 4,000 pages of reports, and to send and receive time sensitive print mechanicals through FTP. Beginning 2 End, Inc. “I’d always dreamed of having a high-tech ad agency,” confides Keith Lindbeck, President of the San Francisco, California–based Beginning to End, Inc. (B2e) advertising agency. Lindbeck envisioned using technology to enable his new agency to compete with established agencies. With a background in both advertising and information systems, Lindbeck understood how computing tools could be applied to direct response marketing to reduce costs and improve response time. He also knew that technology could reduce both the up-front investment and the ongoing operational costs of a small business. With these goals in mind, Lindbeck selected Microsoft BackOffice Small Business Server as the affordable, capable, and reliable network server on which to base his business. “Small Business Server is great for us because it fits our business model perfectly—we couldn’t have found anything more complete,” Lindbeck explains. “We use it to make money. It is the foundation of our firm.” Less than 18 months since incorporating, B2e has an impressive client list and is realizing revenues in the millions. By using BackOffice Small Business Server to automate and perform much of the production work in-house, Lindbeck maintains a competitive advantage in controlling costs. He notes, “Outsourcing data processing functions can be very expensive and time-consuming. Keeping them in-house allows us to charge a very reasonable rate and provide our clients with a lot of added value and innovation.” Database-driven Direct Marketing One of the most sophisticated and profitable examples of computer technology at B2e is a major bank’s direct response campaign. B2e uses the Microsoft SQL ServerTM database and other BackOffice Small Business Server technologies to automate tasks throughout the process. As Lindbeck points out, “The campaign is particularly database intensive. This program reaches close to 2,000 bank branches bi-weekly and mails over 35 million pieces of mail a year.” Lindbeck describes how the direct mail campaign works, “We run geographic mapping software on our server to identify ZIP Codes local to the bank branch, and then we lease names. The only part of this process that we outsource is printing and mailing the letters to the prospects and the response forms to the bank branch managers. The branch managers call the prospects, note the responses on the computer-readable forms, and mail them to B2e. Our receptionist feeds them through a scanner which in turn generates a file that is uploaded to our SQL Server database. Then the system faxes out about 4,000 pages of response reporting that categorizes leads within a particular marketplace and customer segment for the bank. This reporting process, a custom application we wrote in the Microsoft Visual Basic® development system using Seagate Crystal Reports, is distributed using Microsoft Fax Server.” The scale of this project allows automation to provide tremendous savings. Lindbeck explains, “By employing the automated forms, we’ve shortened the response time considerably. We’ve been able to cut about 45 percent of the production budget on a program that was running about $2.5 million.” Saving money is not the only benefit, for the client or B2e. Lindbeck points out, “The reports used to be completed once a month, printed and mailed to the branches and corporate management. Now we distribute 4,000 reports twice a month. Of course, we’ve enhanced the reporting such that each area manager only sees data from his or her area and against competing areas.” Lindbeck attributes B2e’s ability to successfully execute this program to BackOffice Small Business Server. “Because we were a startup, we would not have been able to deploy the program in-house if we had needed a more expensive solution than Small Business Server.” What’s more, the program has been surprisingly stable and easy to maintain. He notes, “Pretty much everything is off-the-shelf Small Business Server. It’s an unusually robust production application that we have been running now for close to a year, with almost no maintenance.” Running a Virtual Organization In addition to database marketing, B2e depends on BackOffice Small Business Server to support its day-to-day operations. Lindbeck explains, “We consider ourselves an agency of the nineties— a virtual agency. Here at the main offices in San Francisco’s Financial District, we don’t have any creative or media personnel onsite. They all work from their homes or studios in another part of town. Using Small Business Server Remote Access Server [RAS], they dial into our network to drop off files and pick up communications.” B2e has also realized benefits from the combination of Microsoft Exchange Server and the Microsoft Outlook® messaging and collaboration client. “We use Exchange Server very aggressively to facilitate communications and correspondence inside and outside of the company.” Lindbeck continues, “Our marketing materials and invoices are the only pieces of paper that we send out—everything else goes out through e-mail. We use e-mail a ton—with both our employees and our customers. Today’s production schedules are so aggressive and today’s business community is so on-the-go that e-mail often works best for everyone.” Outlook also addresses the challenge of setting up meetings. “We use Outlook scheduling because having people outside the office makes it particularly important to know when they are available.” Like many advertising agencies, B2e uses Macintosh computer systems in its creative department. Thanks to the Services for the Macintosh in Small Business Server, Mac users communicate as effectively as PC users do. Lindbeck appreciates that he can now share documents, e-mail messages, and printers. “I can let my Mac studio use our PC-compatible, high-quality, black-and-white laser printer. On the Macintosh side, Small Business Server makes available to our PC users the four-color process printers previously reserved for the creative department .” DSL Lets the Internet Live Up to Its Potential In addition to browsing the World Wide Web, B2e utilizes the Internet to communicate and share data. B2e takes advantage of its access to a DSL (digital subscriber line) connection—a new technology that enables Internet access through standard phone lines at speeds upward of 100 times faster than standard modems or even ISDN lines. B2e sends and receives large amounts of data using the FTP server in the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) component of BackOffice Small Business Server. Lindbeck explains, “We have terrific success with our FTP site. As a direct mail shop, we do a lot of commercial printing. Frequently, we need to get revised images to a printer in the Midwest or on the East Coast very quickly.” The IIS support for FTP has made a huge difference in B2e’s ability to efficiently transfer data. Lindbeck elaborates, “I wanted us to host our own FTP site because it’s really, really active—it can be 500 megabytes a day—and not hosting it here would mean that we’d have to go to an Internet service provider and pick up the data. The DSL connection helps a lot with the FTP site. We hit the limits almost immediately with ISDN.” It has also dramatically cut costs. “DSL is remarkably fast and we love it. Going from ISDN to DSL has cut our phone bill from $3500 to $600 a month.” BackOffice Small Business Server has also facilitated using the Internet to conduct virtual meetings with clients. For an advertising agency, presenting creative concepts can be difficult over the phone or through e-mail. “In advertising, a lot of time and energy gets devoted to developing a particular color scheme, typography, and layout. In the past, presenting creatives meant getting a lot of people together. Today, tight schedules and limited travel budgets have forced us to route creatives, but much gets lost without face-to-face communication. We’ve found NetMeeting® conferencing software to be a really cool way to conduct the presentations. Video streaming applications such as NetMeeting benefit from the higher bandwidth that DSL offers. Lindbeck observes, “We tried this with our ISDN connection, but the video and audio were so broken up no one could follow it. With the DSL, it hasn’t been breaking up at all.” Lindbeck continues, “When you can do an online presentation—and make it easy for customers to use—they see the practical benefit of technology. That leaves a lasting impression with clients and betters our product overall.” Leveraging In-house Expertise Lindbeck believes that the more he and his employees can accomplish on their own, the more productive and efficient his operation will be. “We are a get-it-done, no-nonsense shop that provides creative value with a unique scientific and surgical precision. We are reasonably priced and will continue to be because we are able to do so much more than other shops can do inhouse.” To this end he encourages his people to utilize all the tools at their disposal. He elaborates, “Business management is more than a database and an operating system, it’s also desktop reporting. We have a common dictionary for each of our client programs that contains every variable in the SQL Server database. The reporting and data tools we’ve deployed allow us to do flexible on-the-fly reporting anytime we want.” Besides BackOffice Small Business Server, other Microsoft products are helpful at B2e, particularly Microsoft Office. Lindbeck notes, “Everybody here uses Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint® aggressively and frequently. We do lots of production bidding, so we are constantly doing Excel spreadsheets on the fly. If we need to know how many responses we get within a test market, we can run a quick report from our SQL Server data using Excel and Pivot Table® dynamic views.” Making It Happen Establishing a business as quickly as Lindbeck started B2e is a challenge. He concedes, “To hit the ground running doing that much direct marketing is a lot of work.” Lindbeck also underestimated his hardware requirements. “We hadn’t realized how quickly we would need to upgrade hardware. In a little over a year we are on our third set of server hardware.” However, it is no accident that B2e hasn’t outgrown its server software. “I had asked my systems consultant to recommend a solution that could take us through the next five years. As soon as he installed BackOffice Small Business Server, we recognized that we had made the right decision. Even with our high record counts, we haven’t hit the database or usage limits.” Lindbeck is also comforted that even should he eventually need more software capacity, his team won’t have to rewrite any existing systems or learn new server administration. He observes, “The seamless upgrade path to the full BackOffice family is critically important. The tools in Microsoft SQL Server and the Windows NT® Server network operating system are so accessible. This was a large contributing factor in deploying Small Business Server.” Lindbeck has achieved his vision. “We differentiate ourselves from our competition through technology and automation. I think our innovation is uniquely cool because it is profitable not only for B2e, but for our clients as well.” He views BackOffice Small Business Server as one of the keys to B2e’s success. “We’re pleased to be a company that pushes the envelope. I am very satisfied with Small Business Server—it’s amazing what is all running off of this one box!” Solution Overview IndustryDirect Response Advertising Number of Employees 21 U.S. Region West Products Used Microsoft® BackOffice® Small Business Server | Microsoft Windows® XP Professional | Windows® 2000 Workstation | Microsoft NT Workstation | Microsoft Visual FoxPro® | Microsoft Visual Basic® | Microsoft Office 97 Professional Server SpecificationsHewlett-Packard NetServer Model LH3 Dual Intel Pentium III, 1 Ghz Processors 2 gigabytes of RAM 3-36 gigabyte hot swappable SCSI hard disks DIGI fax server (16 port) [legalese] © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, BackOffice, NetMeeting, Outlook, PowerPoint, Visual Basic, Visual FoxPro, Windows, and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.