| |||
 GRLab Research and Consulting Programs | |||
|
Strategic Planning, Interactive Development and Media R&D
Finding your way through the maze of interactive media opportunities requires a combination of business sense, graphic communications skills and up-to-the-minute intelligence about new media markets and trends. The Graphics Research Laboratory’s Media Technology Research and Consulting Services assists publishers, advertisers and direct marketers to focus their interactive strategies and provides creative and technical support during product development . Since 1982, the Lab has helped media companies around the world to understand the latest publishing technologies. We’ve pioneered leading edge applications in word processing, computer graphics, desktop publishing and digital prepress. And we’ve reported the results of our research in hundreds of seminars, six books, numerous videos and here in Electric-Pages, our web journal. New Media, New Analytical Tools Now the attention of the industry has turned to interactive publishing, and we provide a range of research and consulting packages to support media firms in technology planning, product development and in research. In the last ten years, we’ve expanded our research methodologies to incorporate new interactive concepts, and we’ve developed some powerful analytical tools for media decision makers. We’ve also adopted the technologies ourselves with Electric-Pages via interactive fax, audiotex and a site on the World Wide Web. Whether you’re casting about for a global new media strategy, trying to work out some development bugs or you just need an informed, independent second opinion, take advantage of our years of high tech publishing experience and our perspectives on the future of graphic communications. PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS
An important strategic tool, the GRLab Publishing Technology Audit is an in-depth analysis of the hardware, software and operating procedures that make up a publishing production operation. Based on 15 years’ experience in hundreds of printing and publishing shops on four continents, GRLab's approach focuses on the effectiveness of technology in fulfilling the corporate mission. Part of that effectiveness is saving time and money, but an equally important part is streamlining the creative process to make better graphic communications. For more information, see the fact sheet. What are the opportunities in interactive media for your publication, advertising program or catalog? In a New Media Opportunity Study, we analyze your current product’s adaptability to interactive formats, ranking the benefits that new technologies can provide and exploring the marketing, creative and production issues in going electronic.In close consultation with your senior staff, we recommend the appropriate combination of paper-, disk- and telecom-based development, and we sketch out a project plan and cost estimate for building the new media. As important, we chart a digital architecture that will work for both conventional and interactive product lines and suggest a migration path and management strategy for implementing your new media plan.
How competitive are your interactive offerings? We review your new media products, analyze your interactive media plan, and compare your efforts both to similar offerings in your industry and to alternative solutions with similar characteristics in other fields.
There are dozens of steps from the inception of an interactive idea to its final completion, and we offer an end-to-end Project Monitoring service to advise on your development efforts. We assist in the selection of and negotiation with the service providers, advise on the product design, review production and technology plans, and monitor the work to completion. If your development is done in-house, we review the design, production and technology assumptions and help craft the project plan. As needed, we develop acceptance tests at appropriate points and feedback design suggestions and bug reports to the appropriate level.
Sometimes the best way to develop a new interactive product is to build a test system, and we can design and develop a feasibility project to try out the key design concepts and estimate the prospective production issues. We run focus groups both with your internal staff in the early stages and with potential customers as the system takes shape, and we analyze the response to the interactive medium in consultation with your product development staff. As the system matures, we interface to the ultimate system developer and advise on the final implementation.
For clients who are in the early stages of exploring new media options, we offer an informed, independent sounding board for new product ideas. We advise on general areas for research and exploration, suggest resources to monitor for more information, and provide examples of interactive products that can be helpful in crystallizing a project plan. In addition, we offer an extensive array of Media Technology Education Programs to support your interactive efforts.
To help sort out the rights and responsibilities in complex high technology implementations, GRLab provides consulting, auditing and expert witness services to both user and vendor firms.
Back to GRLab Company Information
Copyright 1996 by the Graphics Research Laboratory, Inc.
| |