April 27th, 2011

ROAD AMERICA ANNOUNCES SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH OF LOCATEME® UPGRADE TO ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE TECHNOLOGY

MIAMI – APRIL 21, 2011   In an exclusive partnership with researchers at AT&T, Miami, Florida-based Road America has developed, tested and now successfully launched a GPS technology solution for pinpointing breakdown locations in seconds.  This development dramatically improves the speed, accuracy and efficiency of locating the customer’s disabled vehicle through the very same telecommunications device they are using to contact the Road America 24-hour Response Centers.

With this enhancement, Road America is able to pinpoint the customer’s precise coordinates to ensure that their service providers on scene arrive at the vehicle’s exact location –even if the customer doesn’t know where they are.  They are able to respond to emergency assistance calls with much greater reliability and speed – which means ensuring the customer’s safety and increasing their satisfaction with the service.

The IT Department at Road America has been on a mission to solve this problem for many years, because it’s always been the weakest link in the emergency roadside process.  The mapping engines on which the industry relied previously were not server based and depended on data that was only intermittently updated by the software companies. It was an expensive and time-consuming procedure and one that had the potential to be perceived poorly by the customer. The Telematics devices found on some newer model cars were not widely available and didn’t operate smoothly across all platforms. Road America’s strategists knew the technology could be developed; government emergency crews used something like it, based on triangulation, but this development was specifically not available to private companies.

After months of discussions, working with AT&T and with TechnoCom as the aggregator, the team finally came up with an elegant solution. It would be hosted in-house, minimizing the cost of the service, loading geo-codes for all the service provider locations and displaying tie-back destinations in real time for the client to select.  Road America designed its own locking mechanism on top of the other data base locks so that sensitive customer information is never displayed without the customer’s prior permission.

What has this done to the roadside assistance process?  With the new Road America LocateMe® technology, at least two minutes can be trimmed from the average call length for this situation, the time it takes to identify the customer, ascertain the location of their vehicle, and confirm the dispatch service. From the perspective of a stranded driver, this means reduced waiting times and a quicker return to safety.  For Road America and its client companies, it can also mean reduced processing costs and increased customer satisfaction with the program offerings.

Road America’s initial results have been more than encouraging.  LocateMe® has been successfully launched as a cross-carrier platform and, after six  months of testing, the company is consistently achieving a 98% success rate in using the technology to immediately, accurately pinpoint the location of a distress call, whether it’s from a landline or a wireless device.

In the process of developing LocateMe®, the Road America team recognized the possibilities this technology offers for the company’s future development. They will be moving to use it to manage the service provider network’s vehicles – which kind of specialized equipment does each truck carry, and where are they currently located.  And the move after that will be to fully digital dispatch, communicating directly with the trucks in the field.

Click here to view the Article on the Road America website

SIMONE’S STORY:

Simone I. Smith is all of those women by her own admission, she’s also a woman of strength, integrity and style…traits which she relied upon to keep herself grounded as she traveled along her journey. With the launch of her signature jewelry collection – Simone I. Smith – she is poised to transform her life-long affection for accessories into a thriving enterprise, one pair of dangling earrings at a time.

Back in the 80′s, when hip-hop was just finding its footing, Smith was coming into her own as well. Raised under the watchful eyes of her grandparents, the Queens, New York native grew up during an era when asymmetrical bobs and acid-washed denim were all the rage.  It was also a time when every girl on her block was wearing big, chunky earrings. In fact, Smith still has the first pair of gold ‘doorknockers’ she received as a gift when she was a teenager. “I was 17 years old when we met and I’ll always remember the day that he bought me those earrings,” she says of her husband, entertainment icon and fellow entrepreneur, LL Cool J.  These days, the self-proclaimed “accessory queen” confesses that her choice of earrings usually dictates the rest of her outfit.  Blessed with an out-of-the-box fashion sensibility she has mastered the delicate art of blending high-end pieces with classic, everyday looks. “I’m definitely a ‘hoop’ girl,” says Smith, who even admits to donning one of her favorite, wiry pairs to the gym. “I’ve also been known to wear funky hoops on the red carpet, with a to-the-floor gown.” Not surprisingly, she insists that the Simone I. Smith customer embodies the same level of confidence.

“She’s every woman, of every age and race,” Smith notes of her target customer “she’s fashionable, career-minded and comfortable with who she is, she knows how to accessorize and can rock a fly pair of earrings, with ease. She’s also unafraid to defy tradition.”  Simply stated, Smith’s intent on inspiring women to not only tap into their own personal style but also, to be bold and open to switching things up a bit, too.  Along with fine jewelry, she plans to expand the Simone I. Smith collection into a full lifestyle brand.

During the decade since she launched her first, successful venture, Ms. Got Rocks – a custom-made line of beaded Bandanas – Smith, the proud mother of four, focused her attention on caring for her family, full-time. In 2004, she endured a life-altering diagnosis of stage III Chondorosarcoma, which required an invasive surgery, followed by two years of rehab and recovery.  Through it all, she held her head up high and was rarely seen without her sparkly ballet flats or color-coordinated crutches, but the experience surely tested and renewed her faith.  It also sparked her desire to give back.  As such, she will donate a portion of sales from select pieces of the jewelry line to charities committed to the ongoing fight against cancer, in all of its forms. “Cancer affects so many people and so many families,” she says. “I knew I wanted to do something to help.”

So, what keeps Smith inspired? Her faith in God first & her family, “my husband and children definitely keep me feeling inspired and motivated,” she says. “We are a family who believes in working hard and pursuing our dreams, so I’m excited about making my brand a reality along with cultivating my philanthropic efforts; my mission for Simone I. Smith is to create a quality, fashion-forward product and represent for all of my sisters around the world who love accessories as much as I do.”

Click Here to Visit Simone I. Smith’s Website

www.desantisbreindel.com/whitepapers/content-the-new-creative-desantis-breindel.pdf

Give them a visit at www.desantisbreindel.com and follow them on Twitter

Get to Know USA Datanet. You will like their people focused culture

USA Datanet is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Warwick Valley Telephone Company. This publicly traded (NASDAQ: WWVY) carrier, headquartered in Warwick, New York has been the provider of choice for businesses and residences for over 100 years. Warwick Valley Telephone is an Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) in parts of Orange County, New York with Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) status throughout New York and New Jersey.

When Warwick Valley Telephone acquired USA Datanet, it added the full capabilities of an experienced, market-leading communications technology company. Together, the two brands scope of services include voice, data/Internet, video, e-fax, email, conferencing and mobile communication.

Powered by Technology

The Hosted IP Voice system by USA Datanet utilizes high-speed Internet Protocol (IP) connections to carry both voice and data communications on a single, broadband conduit. This allows for:

• Secure, fast, reliable connections
• Dedicated, T1-level Internet access
• Transmission via private connections, not public Internet
• Network privately owned and managed

Supported by People.

And while the technology is advanced, the USA Datanet advantage is the tireless personal service we provide to each and every client.

• Expertly trained technicians and installation specialists
• US-based customer service call center
• User-friendly control panel available 24/7 online
• Simplified vendor management – one contact, one contract

Wellient empowers you to take a proactive role in your daily health routine.  Working for you around the clock with personalized medication reminders, adverse interaction alerts, automatic prescription renewal counts, daily follow-up upon hospital discharge, health test monitoring, portable health records, emergency response in case of accident, medication price comparisons and traditional and non-traditional medical information tailored to what you say is important to you. Stay on track, be healthier, feel better, stress less and save time and money.  Wellient is easy and low-tech for you to use, but high-tech and robust behind the scenes.

By launching a comprehensive new platform of health management and information services, they are transforming your medical history into usable and potentially life-saving information. It is no secret that a bewildering and fast-growing amount of data is available on the Web. A filtering service focused on the most reliable sources of information is needed. A service that is built around your specific needs. We are out to help change attitudes and behavior in a friendly, private and easy way.

Because experience and scale really do matter when it comes to something as important as emergency assistance, here’s one important thing you should know about Road America:  on a 24/7/365 basis, they provide consistently high quality assistance services to more than 21 million valued customers of our 120 major corporate clients.  Since 1978 they have set the standard for providing assistance services in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.  They handle all our communications with you and your clients personally – nothing is outsourced. Our state-of-the-art Call Centers In Miami, Florida, and Columbus, Georgia, route every caller to exactly the right Service Provider for that unique disablement.  From an available network of 50,000, they have carefully selected 15,000 rated, qualified, insured, trained and inspected Providers.

BACKED BY THE STRENGTH OF MAPFRE®

Their horsepower isn’t confined to North America, either.  As the US subsidiary of MAPFRE Asistencia, their network has a direct presence in 43 countries, offering insurance, reinsurance, assistance and specialty risks services.  They custom tailor products and services to meet the needs of thousands of corporate clients and millions of their insureds around the globe.  The group is certified as conforming to the ISO 9001:2000 International Quality Standard, and has earned Moody’s A1 financial rating every year since 2002.

Click here to visit the Road America Website.

Making Design Matter.

The new Michael Wolk Design Associates’ web site has been launched. Kompani Group helped Michael Wolk convert his old site into a more user friendly showcase of his work. Check out the new site at www.WolkDesign.com

Making Design Matter. That’s our philosophy at Michael Wolk Design, and just like our design itself, it works on several levels. Making implies action. Our creative process doesn’t end in thought or discussion – it ends in creation. Every idea is developed to its fullest potential here, rather than passed off to someone else. Design is what we make. Anyone can create something functional, and anyone can create something beautiful – but true design will always accomplish both. PRATT had a motto – “Be true to your work and your work be true to you.” In my experience, being true to your work means allowing design – rather than money, politics, or other outside influences – to control the energy. Design is design; everything else is everything else. And we make design matter, in the sense that it needs to be physical. It transcends fantasy and speculation; it is exciting and inspiring, while remaining firmly grounded in the reality of time constraints and budgets. Most important of all is making design matter. Design matters to me – it’s what i love to do, and it’s what i do better than anybody else. Making Design Matter is what I stand for.

Myth no. 1 – Once you register a trademark you own it forever and for everything

Myth no. 2 – Registering a domain name offers all sorts of legal protection

Myth no. 3 – You can save money if you conduct the search yourselves.

Trademark Tip – Top 5 Reasons to Register Your Brand Name or Logo.

There a myriad reasons to protect your trademark, brand name, logo or slogan through federal trademark registration with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Here are just a few of the top reasons why you should seek federal protection for your mark:

1. Trademarks are a part of your company’s intellectual property portfolio. It could very well be one of your most valuable business assets, albeit an intangible one. Trademarks can be accorded a value separate and distinct from other assets in your company. To illustrate, the Coca-Cola® trademark alone is purportedly valued at $70 billion. This doesn’t include other assets such as trucks, manufacturing and bottling facilities, etc., just the Coke® brand. The value of a registered trademark may be listed as a line item asset for companies seeking to attract potential investors or obtain financing.

2. A federally registered trademark grants you nationwide priority claim of ownership to the mark. A registered trademark provides constructive notice to prospective users and potential infringers of your claim of ownership to the mark. In the event of  a dispute concerning rights to use a particular mark, the registered trademark owner will have the benefit of the doubt vis-à-vis a non-registered user of the same mark for similar or related products.

3. In the event of any unauthorized use or potential infringement of a registered trademark, the trademark owner is entitled to seek redress in federal court. The registered trademark owner can bring suit in federal court for trademark infringement and prohibit the alleged infringing mark from being used in commerce in a manner that causes confusion with the registered trademark. Moreover, trademark owners may seek three times their actual damages suffered as a result of the infringement (triple damages).

4. If you are interested in obtaining international trademark protection for your brand, you will need to first have a registered or pending application filed with the USPTO. A federally registered trademark is the basis for U.S. trademark owners to seek international trademark registration. Upon filing your application, the USPTO assigns your mark a serial number (or a registration number, once registered). This number is used to submit an international trademark application under the Madrid Protocol System for International Trademark Registration.

5. Registered trademarks may be filed with the U.S. Customs Service to prohibit the importation of infringing foreign goods that may bear your mark or something similar (“knock-offs”). Many illegal imports attempt to trade off the established brand value of famous or well-known marks. Trademark registrations may be placed on record with the Customs Service so infringing products entering the country may be flagged, seized and possibly destroyed.

So there you have it, the Top Five reasons to protect your brand name or logo through federal trademark registration. There are other reasons, of course, including protecting your brand value and hard earned marketing dollars. For more information concerning trademark law, the trademark registration process, or for questions concerning your particular mark or brand, please contact one of our FlatFee Trademark attorneys at 1.800.769.7790 or info@flatfeetrademark.com .

Owner: Camacho Cigars, Authors: Dylan Austin, Gianni D’Alerta

Background/Introduction:

Before we started this project we planned and built the following two sites for Camacho cigars – www.camachocigars.com and www.socialcigar.com (at first we did not reveal that Camacho was behind this site). Through the two sites we built a subscriber list of 4,500 people in less than one year. Since then we have also built www.room101cigars.com, and we are currently working on a new revolutionary social networking platform and corporate site for Camacho Cigars/Davidorff.

Kickoff of the BlackBand project:

To start off, here is an excerpt from the press release, post project:

“The campaign objectives for Camacho included the creation of an engaging, opt-in viral marketing campaign, a successful permission-marketing opportunity as an outlet to sample yet to be released products. A four-part web-series was created without mention of Camacho until the final “reveal” episode. The viewers followed the satirical Independent Cigar Review Bureau, a fictional agency, whose sole purpose was to educate the world about cigar selection, as they used humorous, guerilla-style tactics to enlighten three characters that represented the most common cigar misconceptions”

Process:

1. We launched the site with this page: http://www.blackbandproject.com/home-temp/
2. We blasted Camacho’s mailing list of 1000 and the social network we created while I was at Propeller of 3500 people, not as Camacho but as the fictional company. The amazing thing was that the idea was so interesting that we had a very low spam report.  We also ran rich media banner ads that actually played a trailer of the project on the websites the banners resided.
3. Once the person signed up they would get one episode a week that would build upon the myths and misconceptions of cigar smoking. The Buzz just keep mounting… people passing the links to their friends… it was huge… in the online cigar world.
4. After they registered they immediately received their first “mission” http://www.blackbandproject.com/d57s-1/
5. A week after that http://www.blackbandproject.com/6ku6-2/
6. A week later http://www.blackbandproject.com/hr4s-3/
7. And then the conclusion http://www.blackbandproject.com/b7x3-conclusion/

Results:

1. We gained 15,500 new subscribers! With that permission to market to them anything in the future. They are already expecting more from Camacho, and we won’t disappoint them.
2. Every cigar website was buzzing about the project, we even got more hits on our Black Band Project site in one month that Cigar Aficionado.
3. After the last video was sent… a month later people got 3 cigars in the mail. So for a whole month, every week… the conversations where about the black band project. Then when the cigars shipped, another huge buzz.

Another Excerpt:

“From day one, the campaign captivated the cigar industry and generated sweeping buzz across the country, with thousands of cigar enthusiasts discussing who was behind “The Black Band Project” on social media outlets, including Twitter, Facebook, and cigar-industry message boards and blogs.

End results:

1. 15,000 leads
2. 4,000 people got the cigars (people who watched all the videos)
3. 15% overall sales increase after the launch of the new product.