Application for the Centers of Excellence Technology Award

Application for the Centers of Excellence “Technology” Award SLA Business & Finance Division Verizon Information Research Network Verizon Communications 2/28/2008 COE Technology Award 1

Verizon Information Research Network Verizon Communications Management Technology COE Technology Award Service 2

Leadership n How managers in the applicant special libraries, information centers or knowledge centers guide the organization and how the applicant addresses its responsibilities to its identified user group. Leadership in the applicant special library, information center or knowledge center 80 Leadership within the parent organization 40 COE Technology Award 3

Leadership n VIRN (Verizon Information Research Network) is a virtual research shop with staff located in MA, VA, NJ and TX The 6 -member team provides on-demand research, supports enterprise contract management, and maintains a company-wide research portal. The VIRN website delivers online access to market research reports from 8 major vendors and other market research suppliers. n n The VIRN team is part of Verizon’s Market Research, Modeling & Analysis group in Telecom Marketing VIRN is a member of the Market Research Forum (MRF) a centralized Verizon buying group The MRF’s 10 -12 member board consolidates Verizon-wide market research needs to facilitate enterprise purchase agreements. Since its formation in 2004, the MRF has successfully partnered on funding enterprise-wide agreements to expand Verizon’s content access while driving down contract costs. COE Technology Award 4

Leadership VIRN supports all departments across Verizon’s business lines VIRN Client Base (% incoming requests) Market Research Forum Members Telecom Marketing – 32% Telecom Marketing – VIRN Verizon Business – 18% Telecom Marketing – Competitive Intelligence Information Technology – 7% Verizon Business Strategy, Development & Planning – 2% Information Technology Verizon Partner Solutions – 2% Strategy, Development & Planning Corporate Marketing – 6% Verizon Partner Solutions Public Affairs – 12% Verizon Wireless Regional Operations – 7% Other – 14% COE Technology Award 5

Strategic Planning n How the applicant sets strategic directions and how it determines key action plans. Strategy Development 40 Strategy Deployment 40 COE Technology Award 6

Strategic Planning n n Since 2002 VIRN made multiple attempts to upgrade an online catalog of over 10, 000 market research reports The urgency in automating processes for the online catalog was critical Purchased content had increased by 175% since 2003 All records required manual uploading Lagging upload time (4 -8 weeks) Incoming Market Research elevated number of requests for Content 2003 -2006 newly-released content Lack of usage tracking by vendor or client hampered VIRN’s ability to make fact-based enterprise acquisitions Limited internal server space for storing content required additional server maintenance COE Technology Award 7

Strategic Planning n n During the May 2006 Market Research Forum meeting, VIRN presented the plan for implementing a centralized market research portal utilizing Northern. Light’s integrated search engine – Single. Point’s implementation offered many benefits to Verizon Time-savings for employee research Improved access to newly-released market research content Reduced maintenance across multiple departmental market research websites Eliminated manual data uploads by 90% through automated content delivery Opened visibility into content usage by vendor and clients n n The VIRN Team requested funding from MRF for Single. Point’s development and maintenance fees The Forum members agreed: Authorized VIRN to further investigate Single. Point and other comparable products Upon final selection VIRN would assume ownership of the centralized portal MRF members would work with their management on securing funding COE Technology Award 8

Strategic Planning June 2006 July-Aug. 2006 VIRN team visited the 2006 SLA Expo Hall investigating potential suppliers Oct. -Nov. 2006 Site visits to major Single. Point clients were conducted by VIRN’s staff and MRF members Nov. 2006 Single. Point web demos scheduled for departmental leaders Dec. 2006 Single. Point was selected based on gathered research March 2007 Single. Point funding secured & contract signed Single. Point Launched!!! COE Technology Award 9

Customer/User Focus n How the applicant special library, information center or knowledge center determines requirements and expectations of customers and markets. Customer/User Knowledge 40 Customer Relationship and Satisfaction 45 COE Technology Award 10

Customer/User Focus n n n Investigated three federated/integrated search tools prior to the May 2006 MRF meeting Interviewed existing Single. Point customers for best practices and lessons learned Conducted Single. Point demos from HP and Nokia for MRF Forum members, key employees, and management Evaluated existing VIRN awareness and satisfaction surveys for applicable client comments Initiated pre-launch web-conferences for VIRN clients to gather user feedback Integrated client feedback into system development planning documentation COE Technology Award Single. Point Clients 11

Information & Analysis n Examines the management, effective use and analysis of data and information to support key organization processes, and the success of the performance management system used in the applicant special library, information center or knowledge center. Measurement and analysis of performance within the special library, information center or knowledge center 50 Information management 40 COE Technology Award 12

Information & Analysis n Single. Point’s unique integrated search engine maximizes Verizon access to content while minimizing internal support Content resides on the research vendors’ websites thereby eliminating 90% of manual content uploads New content is indexed daily allowing immediate client access Available Content Taxonomy and metadata is Expanded by 350% administered by Single. Point Usage reports by client and vendor are generated weekly, monthly, and annually Single Sign-On (SSO) secures site from unauthorized users COE Technology Award 13

Single. Point Delivery Model COE Technology Award 14

Human Resource Focus n How the applicant enables its employees to develop their full potential and how the workforce is aligned with the objectives of the applicant and its parent organization. Work systems 35 Employee education, training and development 25 Employee well–being and satisfaction 25 COE Technology Award 15

Human Resource Focus n n n Decreased VIRN’s overall system maintenance up to 75% by switching to Single. Point Weekly staff discussions on Single. Point’s features and functionality streamlined roll-out and simplified product usability VIRN’s collective knowledge of market research databases was integrated into Single. Point to minimize training needs for end-users and staff Improved overall content access relieved VIRN’s incoming request load by 20% Single. Point aligned with Verizon’s employee work challenge COE Technology Award 16

Process Management n Examines aspects of how key management, delivery and support processes are designed, managed and improved in the management and delivery of information for the applicant special library, information center or knowledge center. Service processes 45 Management/professional processes 25 Support processes 15 COE Technology Award 17

Process Management n Leveraging Single. Point’s system flexibility enabled the following features for VIRN clients ‘ASK VIRN’ tab allows clients to easily email VIRN from within the portal for additional research assistance Pop-up window appears after a 10 -minute search session suggesting searcher contact VIRN For locked report access, an email with the embedded URL is sent to VIRN notifying staff to take action Alerting feature facilitates client email notification of new content based on their saved search Single Sign-On automates login Ability for clients to email reports from Single. Point to colleagues COE Technology Award 18

Process Management ‘Ask VIRN’ tab used to request locked report 10 -minute pop-up window COE Technology Award 19

Service Results n Examines the performance and improvement of the applicant in its key service areas: customer satisfaction, financial management, human resources, supplier and partner performance, and operational performance. The category also examines how the applicant performs relative to other service organizations which might (or could) provide the same services. Customer–focused results Human resource results Effectiveness results 250 80 120 COE Technology Award 20

Service Results n Distributed a customer satisfaction survey to Verizon‘s Single. Point users 96% of survey respondents said they were Satisfied or Extremely Satisfied with Single. Point 80% was Single. Point’s Net Promoter Score within Verizon n Conducted 5 web conference training sessions Hosted on-site group training at Verizon headquarters Delivered regular Single. Point email blasts Product search tips Content additions Registration reminders n Maintained high customer satisfaction levels despite two headcount reductions COE Technology Award Sample Net Promoter Scores USAA Credit Card 94% Costco 81% Single. Point 80% Fed. Ex 66% Dell 62% Southwest Airlines 60% Target 59% NPS is a loyalty rating. Customers are asked how likely they are to recommend a product or brand to a colleague or friend. Responses are based on 0 -10 with 10 being Extremely Likely and 0 being Not At all Likely. A promoter is a 10 -9 and a detractor is 6 -0. The NPS =% promoters - % detractors. Ratings of 8 -7 are passives. Verizon began monitoring NPS scores in 2007. 21

Service Results n n n 350% increase in available content by centralizing contracts Content usage increased up to 40% 100% of clients surveyed found Single. Point to be Extremely Valuable or Valuable in helping them do their job 44% of respondents said searching Single. Point saved them between 1 -2 hours vs. previous search methods Single. Point’s reports track usage by user, department, and vendor COE Technology Award On average, how much time do you think Single. Point saves you compared to your previous method of searching for research reports and information? RESPONSE 30 minutes or more but less than 1 hour 12. 50% 1 hour or more but less than 2 hours 43. 75% 2 hours or more but less 14. 58% than 5 hours or more but less 10. 42% than 8 hours or more 18. 75% 22

Service Results n n n Interviewed by Forrester Research for “How To Select A Market Research Portal Approach, ” published Feb. 2008 Based on 2007 usage results, Verizon Business, IT, and Verizon Primary Research are in negotiations with VIRN to upload their synthesis studies to Single. Point Influenced vendors to include telebriefing (audio and PPT) files in Single. Point feed Hold bi-weekly conference calls with Single. Point to discuss product improvements and system support Secured all data transfers to and from the portal by using SSL encryption to comply with Verizon’s security policies COE Technology Award 23

Service Results Single. Point usage reports provide VIRN staff with vital statistics needed for operational reviews and vendor negotiations. COE Technology Award 24

Appendix Site Visit Questionnaire n Single. Point Screen Shots n Single. Point Link from VIRN Website Search Page Search Results COE Technology Award 25

Site Visit Questionnaire Overall how would you rate your satisfaction with Single. Point - 1 -5 scale with 5 being Extremely satisfied and 1 very unsatisfied Overall how would you rate your satisfaction with Single. Point's account team - 1 -5 scale with 5 being Extremely Satisfied and 1 Very Unsatisfied Overall how would be rate your user's satisfaction with Single. Point - 1 -5 scale with 5 being Extremely Satisfied and 1 Very Unsatisfied How long has the service been available? How many employees access the service? What would you have done-differently or lessons learned? Did you explore any other products? How did you previously access market research reports? How many external services/sources do you have configured for SP? Does SP search internally created content like white papers, PPTs, newsletters, etc. Is your internal content stored on a dedicated server? Do you host the market research reports internally or is it on the vendor's site How do you handle changes in annual subscriptions? For instance, dropped or modified services. Do you archive market research reports? Have you noticed an increase in product usage? If yes - have the vendors increased pricing as a result? Do you have staff that maintains the service? If yes, how many FTEs. What are their responsibilities? Do you have staff that maintains the IDs and passwords for clients? If yes, how many hours does that involve? Did you reduce headcount once Singlepoint was installed? Did you re-align staff? Do you use you corporate single-sign-on to access Single. Point How detailed are the usage reports? Can you see item-level usage and employee usage by product and online time? Has there been any problems with downtime? Was your IT dept involved in this roll-out, if yes, what was their roll? If you store market research reports internally, have you automated content delivery from the vendors? How long does it take SP to handle change-orders for service additions or deletions? COE Technology Award How long does it take SP to handle change-orders for user additions or deletions? 26

Link from VIRN Website COE Technology Award 27

Single. Point Search Page COE Technology Award 28

Search Results COE Technology Award 29

VIRN Team Thank you for reviewing our application. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance. The Verizon Information Research Network: Daniel Gonzales – Arlington, VA Kimberly Morgan – Richmond, VA Valerie Platz – Arlington, VA Marcia Schemper-Carlock – Dallas, TX Carol Sendecki – Newark, NJ Donna Skrzyniarz – Boston, MA COE Technology Award 30