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The Shadow: Week Three

Published
by
Jenny Walsh
on July 19, 2010
in Inside 3Ci
. 1 Comment

3Cinteractive: The ShadowThis is the third in a series of weekly blog posts written by Jenny Walsh, intern and office mate of 3Cinteractive’s Founder and CEO John Duffy. This series takes a look at the inner workings of 3Ci and mobile marketing from a fresh perspective.

Yesterday, I saw Duff looking at a huge chart on his desktop filled with numbers that peaked my curiosity. At first I was afraid to ask, but Duff always stresses the importance of asking him questions, so I did. His response became “Duff’s Lesson of the Week” – the importance of being accountable to a budget.

Duff had me pull my chair up to his desk, and then gave me an overview of the entire 2010 3Ci budget. It’s funny how I learned so much more from one real life situation than in an entire semester of economics. Duff spent an hour explaining the budget sheet, expenses, revenue, and EBITDA - that’s Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (Don’t worry; I never knew what all of those words meant either until Duff explained them to me).

That might sound boring, but surprisingly, it was incredibly interesting. I have a newfound appreciation for how hard it is to make and manage a budget. Duff also explained the importance of having good customers. All the hard work that went into getting customers like Tracfone, JM Family, and Walgreens, and how those respected brands play a role landing new clients. Might sound cliché, but I’m seeing the lessons that are always preached put into work at 3Ci. If you have a good product, work hard, work together, and believe in your team you have a better chance of being successful. I know success is never a sure thing, but it’s all about putting your company in the best position to succeed. That was lesson #2 for the week. The best thing about this internship is that everyday I’m exposed to something new and interesting that I want to learn more about – and even better, that I have Duff, the guy running this place, who’s way too busy for an intern like myself, explaining it all to me.

As I close in on less than a month before heading off to college, I’m getting more excited to start that new adventure of life; but I’m also sad to leave all my new friends and mentors at 3Ci. I have grown to love this place, and am starting to think it is normal. I no longer find it weird when Duff talks to himself or constantly plays with his poker chips. I now feel like the day hasn’t really started until I hear Vinnie’s, “What’s up, Duff?” every morning, or have Jeff walk in my (I mean Duff’s) office to talk trash about how Michigan will beat Notre Dame, which is clearly delusional. GO IRISH!

Boca Raton Company Helps Health Care Industry Go Mobile (South Florida Business Journal)

Published
by
3Cinteractive
on July 9, 2010
in mHealth
. 0 Comments

South Florida Business Journal
Brian Bandell
Friday, July 9, 2010

Mike FitzGibbon

After creating mobile communication platforms for major corporations, Boca Raton-based 3Cinteractive has targeted the health care industry as a promising market for expansion.

The company has a pilot program with Walgreens to alert customers via text message that their prescriptions are ready. It’s working on similar patient notification applications for physician offices and pharmaceutical companies.

3Ci has done mobile applications work for national companies including AutoNation, AT&T and ESPN, mostly with cell phone mass messaging, billing and reservations. Mike FitzGibbon, 3Ci’s co-founder and president, said it spent much of the fourth quarter of 2009 and the first few months of 2010 planning its strategy for the health care market, where inefficiencies abound.

Health care is one of the few employment sectors that’s shown growth over the past year. The combination of aging baby boomers and increased access to medical services through the health care reform law should continue to make technology services for this industry a big market.

When it comes to being interactive with patients, health care is among the least technology savvy fields, FitzGibbon said, but 3Ci aims to change that.

One of the main targets for improvement is cutting down on medical appointment abandonment, he said. “Each appointment is worth a specific dollar amount and staff time,” FitzGibbon noted. “That’s lost revenue.”

Instead of having nurses and office staff call patients, 3Ci has designed an automatic text messaging application that alerts patients about their upcoming appointments. FitzGibbon said it’s more efficient than making calls, especially since some people don’t answer calls when they don’t recognize the incoming number.

For pharmaceutical companies, 3Ci is working on a text messaging application that would remind consumers when to take medications or order a refill. The pharmaceutical companies could also use the application to text coupons to consumers.

Sunrise-based Interim Healthcare is using a text-messaging system designed by 3Ci to contact its home health care providers in the field through mass messaging. The company often uses it to offer assignments and call multiple employees to the office, said Linda Shaub, Interim’s VP of marketing. While it’s not in all 312 of Interim’s offices yet, those that are using it have found it useful for communicating, she said.

John Styers, VP of corporate strategy at 3Ci, said the employee text messaging application has also been used by hospitals, including Truman Medical Centers in Kansas City, Missouri, because it makes sure that requests for assistance reach employees quickly. 3Ci’s other mobile applications for hospitals are for patients: to give them health and wellness news, notify them of available test results and give billing information.

While 3Ci has many predesigned programs for health care companies, it also has the flexibility to customize programs to meet the needs of particular clients, Styers said. Most of the programs it is rolling out were developed by working with a few health care providers, and engineering solutions for them.

“We want to make mobile solutions easier to deploy,” he said “It’s getting the health care facility to crawl by implementing mobile solutions where they can see immediate results.”

The Shadow: Week Two

Published
by
Jenny Walsh
on July 9, 2010
in Inside 3Ci
. 0 Comments

3Cinteractive: The ShadowThis is the second in a series of weekly blog posts written by Jenny Walsh, intern and office mate of 3Cinteractive’s Founder and CEO John Duffy. This series takes a look at the inner workings of 3Ci and mobile marketing from a fresh perspective.

As I finish up my second week as Duff’s shadow, he is teaching me the importance of having people who want to learn from each other (or being “coachable” as Duff says), and how it is a big part of gaining success. The people at 3Ci always want to learn from each other. They know everyone’s strengths and experiences, and use them to further their own knowledge. The people here really do want each other to succeed, and I think that has transferred over to me. When I walk in every morning I just feel like everyone want to share his or her experiences with me and really does care about my growth throughout this internship. It is contagious because it makes me want to learn more with every meeting I sit in and every conversation I am able to be a part of.

One of the big concepts Duff is teaching me is what makes up a good sales pitch. I know from the two weeks that I have been here that Duff sits through many sales pitches and gives many sales pitches, and from what I have seen he is pretty good at it. So Duff decided to give me a few key points on what he thinks makes up a good sales pitch.

  • First and foremost, be on time. DO NOT be the person everyone is waiting for.
  • Set an agenda for the call or meeting to keep you on track and your perspective customer engaged.
  • Always be prepared for the call or meeting. Test out all of your demos and PowerPoints before hand because it is really embarrassing if a technology company’s technology doesn’t work.
  • If you make a PowerPoint, just put key topics on the slides and explain it yourself. Do not put as many words as you can on a slide and just read them.
  • Research the customer you are pitching and make every aspect of the pitch relevant to them.
  • Role play with your team before the pitch. It makes you look much more professional and prepared.
  • Don’t talk too much or oversell your product at the end of the pitch.

I feel like the skills I am learning here are tools that I will use through my entire career, whatever field it may be in. I now understand why my dad raves about this place, and why everyone involved think it is to good to be true at first. Chris Howard, a close family friend, told me that this internship will ruin me for every other job I will ever have because I will never find another office with the kind of culture and people 3Ci has, and I will never find another CEO as totally awesome as Duff. I know the amazing opportunity that I have been given this summer and cannot wait to see what is to come in week three.

Employee Announcement: Jesse England, Vice President of Sales

Published
by
3Cinteractive
on July 1, 2010
in Inside 3Ci
. 0 Comments

Jesse England3Cinteractive is pleased to announce that Jesse England, our Director of Global and Investment Accounts, has been promoted to Vice President of Sales and will report directly to Mike FitzGibbon, 3Ci’s Co-Founder and President. Jesse will take over for Charlie Wiggs and lead our enterprise sales team. Since joining 3Cinteractive two years ago, Jesse has had a tremendous impact on our business and growth. Jesse has helped 3Cinteractive to become a true enterprise solutions oriented organization and successfully sold and managed two of our marque and business impacting accounts (Disney and Tracfone).

The background and pedigree that Jesse brings to the executive leadership team makes him the best possible candidate for this job. We are sure Jesse and his team will continue to build on all the positive things within our sales organization. Please join us in congratulating Jesse England in his new role at 3Cinteractive.

Insights from the MMA’s 2010 Mobile Marketing Forum

Published
by
Michelle Stone
on June 25, 2010
in Events
. 0 Comments

The MMA’s Mobile Marketing Forum series, held earlier this month in New York and of which 3Cinteractive was a corporate sponsor, is being roundly hailed as a success, generating unparalleled excitement, and engagement from the global mobile marketing ecosystem. The Forum was an official event of the 2010 Internet Week in New York, a week-long festival of events celebrating the city’s thriving Internet industry and community.

Internet Week NY 2010

The Forum was held from June 7th through the 9th at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel. During the three-day event, Forum attendees heard from top industry experts on a wide variety of relevant topics, including notable keynote presentations from executives such as:

  • Elizabeth Harz, the Senior Vice President for Global Media Sales at Electronic Arts (EA), who spoke about how mobile gaming accounts for more than 50 percent of all revenue generated from mobile applications;
  • John Zehr, Senior Vice President and General Manager of ESPN Mobile, who detailed their structured user-generated content, a platform that allows fans or supporters of junior, amateur, and youth league teams to post the official records of these games;
  • AJ Rhodes, Director of Mobile Strategy and Marketing for Disney Online, focused on how companies can reach consumers with premium branded content;
  • Mike Steib, Director of Emerging Platforms at Google spoke on the future of mobile and Google’s predictions on the mobile trends that they believe will matter most;
  • Jeffrey Hayzlett, CMO/VP of Kodak, who gave a dynamic and energetic final keynote, based loosely around his book, The Mirror Test; and
  • David Aylward, Executive Director of the mHealth Alliance, United Nations Foundation, on how the power of mobile is being used to help combat maternal mortality in the developing world.

In addition to the speakers featured above, 3Cinteractive’s John Styers, Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Industry Relations was chair of the Reaching Consumers track, where he also presented the track overview. 3Cinteractive also sponsored the carrier panel, Enabling New Channels: Mobile Beyond Messaging. The mobile operators who were part of the panel spoke about how Fortune® 1000 companies are using mobile as a marketing and business solution, are enabling new services in the United States and what the operators are learning from their global counterparts.

This year’s Forum in New York brought together the industry’s best to discuss, learn, network, and engage. Aside from the great content and discussion came an outstanding networking opportunity. 3Cinteractive had a excellent chance to interact with clients such as Disney Online and ESPN. This year’s Forum emphasized the point that, while marketing and advertising clients often request iPhone® or other apps in first meetings, the reality is that most mobile marketing is run on SMS, MMS, or WAP as these provide the best reach to all consumers. It was clear from the presentations and discussions at the Forum that mobile applications are, in actuality, still a minor element for the premium smartphone segment.

We look forward to seeing you at the upcoming 2010 MMA Forums in Los Angeles on the 17th of November.

Enhanced Walgreens iPhone App and Prescription Text Alerts Give Customers Real-Time Convenience

Published
by
3Cinteractive
on June 25, 2010
in mHealth
. 0 Comments

More and more people are using text messaging and smart phones as primary forms of communications in their everyday lives. Walgreens is advancing the use of this technology with the launch of several new features including Prescription Text Alerts (powered by 3Cinteractive), a real-time service which notifies customers via text message when their prescriptions are ready. Walgreens has also re-launched its ground-breaking iPhone® application and mobile site, m.walgreens.com (information on all Walgreens mobile features and applications can be found at www.walgreens.com/gomobile).

Mark Wagner, Walgreens executive vice president of operations and community management, said, “Text alerts are a valuable time-saving tool, and [are] the latest example of how our mobile applications are further connecting the Web to Walgreens stores and pharmacies, giving customers on-the-go convenience wherever they are.”

New Walgreens mobile features include:

    Prescription Text Alerts: Receive a text message from a Walgreens pharmacy when prescriptions are ready or if there are any status changes. Customers can sign up for text alerts at any Walgreens pharmacy or online at www.walgreens.com/gomobile. Text alerts are also available in Spanish
  • Special Offer Texts: Customers can get information about exclusive Walgreens deals and coupons via text message. Messages also provide important information and the latest services available both in-store and online. Customers can sign up through the Walgreens mobile site or by texting Walgreens to 21525 (message and data rates may apply)
  • iPhone Application: iPhone users can take advantage of new features and functionality in the iPhone application available through iTunes® in the iPhone App Store
  • Android™ / BlackBerry® Mobile Website Application: BlackBerry and Android users can download the Walgreens mobile site application from their respective marketplaces (Android App Market™) and BlackBerry App World™, providing quick and easy access to the Walgreens mobile site features

The Shadow: Week One

Published
by
Jenny Walsh
on June 25, 2010
in Inside 3Ci
. 0 Comments

3Cinteractive: The ShadowThis is the first in a series of weekly blog posts written by Jenny Walsh, intern and office mate of 3Cinteractive’s Founder and CEO John Duffy. This series takes a look at the inner workings of 3Ci and mobile marketing from a fresh perspective.

I am the new summer intern here at 3Cinteractive. I just graduated from Westminster Academy and can’t wait to start my freshman year and football season at Notre Dame this fall. I was able to get involved with 3Ci through my dad, “the Dude” Dave Walsh, who is a partner and advisor to the company. I have the great opportunity to observe, learn from, and laugh at 3Ci’s CEO, Mr. Duffy, or Duff as people around the office call him. Duff decided that he was going to put my desk in his office so I could learn from the best. I am hoping he doesn’t regret that decision by the end of the summer. His goal is to teach me how a business is run and grown, and convince me to become a business major instead of my planned major, chemical engineering. I am so excited for all the new experiences and people I will get to know this summer.

As I finish off my first week as an intern, or as I like to call it Duff’s shadow, I have begun to understand what exactly 3Ci does, and why they are so different from other technology companies. On my second day Duff gave me a presentation on what 3Ci does for their customers. For someone who does not know a whole lot about the mobile world yet, besides how to use the cell phone in my pocket, it was exciting to be able to understand the basic process of how companies like ESPN are able to send a message to my phone and millions of others.

Duff does a great job answering all of my questions in a way that I understand and never makes me feel like all ten thousand of them are a burden. I was so intimidated starting here because I am right out of high school; while everyone here is so experienced at what they do. But the people at 3Ci have made me feel so welcome. They invite me to sit in on meetings, always answer my questions, and even feel comfortable enough to make fun of me for being a nerd.

The incredible teamwork here shocked me. For some reason I had this perception everyone would hate their boss and nobody would like his or her co-workers. I guess I have watched to many TV shows about working in an office, but I was definitely wrong about that. The way everyone enjoys being around each other is awesome. I have learned in just one week how finding a great group of people that love working together really does effect the way a business grows. 3Ci is a fun place and a great new experience for me. I learn something new and meet someone new everyday. Just yesterday I met John Sculley and got to listen to his words of wisdom to Duff. He is the former CEO of Pepsi® and Apple®. Did you know he had the idea for the Pepsi Challenge? All in all the first week has been a blast. Stay tuned as I will be posting a weekly update and see how the rest of my summer goes…