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Latitude Insights might be located down under, but when it comes to consumer research they’re located at the top of their field. As an early embracer of technology, Latitude has been able to leverage new tools to collect richer consumer insights and engage their study participants in fresh ways. Oomph has been working with the Australian company for four years, supporting them in their ongoing mission to offer clients the latest in qualitative and quantitative research technology.
In 2009, the Latitude team asked Oomph to create a multi-site framework that would give them more than just the capacity to host a large number of unique micro-sites, but also the power to independently add customized community sites on a regular basis and in a timely manner.
“This was an exciting time for Latitude, as we were preparing to launch a large-scale technical project of huge importance to the business,” says Marcail Arbuthnot, Research Manager at Latitude. “We were seeking a trusted partner that would work closely with us on our immediate project needs, as well as into the future.”
She says Oomph was the right decision.
“The Drupal-based community platform has enjoyed widespread take-up throughout our business, has provided Latitude with a competitive edge within the Market Research Industry and is delivering a healthy return on investment,” says Arbuthnot.
Since then, Latitude has continued their relationship with Oomph, choosing us as their go-to agency when it comes to maintaining and improving their community of sites. Most recently, we added private sharing tools to the framework that are designed to act like familiar social media sharing tools, but that are housed completely within Latitude’s framework. Using these tools, research participants, who are the end users, can comment or upload images or video to a community site. These tools are also easily managed by a site moderator so that he or she can, for example, hide comments from a participant until the participant has commented on the topic. We also built a broadcast tool allowing a moderator to “publish” a specific thread or invite users to “subscribe” to a specific thread.
Features like these help Latitude stay ahead of a changing industry. We continue to feel honored to have been selected as a partner in their mission. For more details about the Latitude Insights project, visit our Portfolio.
Hard work and determination are the Batman and Robin of success. Vernon Rauch—our new resident (not-so-caped) client crusader—knows this dynamic duo very well, and as Director of Client Services he’ll be applying it to serving what he calls Oomph’s “marquee” clientele.
In this important role, Vernon will act as the liaison between our clients and our development team. His primary responsibilities will be relationship management and the overall satisfaction of each and every Oomph client. He’ll also oversee our delivery approach and structure as we grow as a company. In other words, while we continue to expand, Vernon will provide the stability, leadership and organization needed to help us maintain our high-quality products and unmatched reputation for great service.
Most recently, Vernon served as president of MarketHound, where he was responsible for leading corporate operation, sales and marketing, and product development. Prior to that, he was the regional Managing Director of Consulting Services for All Covered and was responsible for the management and growth of a professional services organization delivering technology services to over 100 clients throughout New England. His background is a serendipitous match for Oomph, and Vernon agrees.
“The combination of leadership and talent Oomph brings to the table is very special. I have known Chris Murray for a number of years and have always been impressed with his approach and thinking. Plus, the team he has assembled is top-notch and they all have the do-whatever-it-takes attitude.”
It’s good to be in the company of like-minded people, he says. You can find Vernon, our newest hero, working out of our Providence office. No bat signal required, just send him an email.
Maybe your site is already built on Drupal and you’re considering an upgrade. Maybe you are considering Drupal for the first time. You’ve done some research and hit your first wall – What version of Drupal should you consider?
You’re not alone. Visiting Drupal.org, the choice looks simple. Drupal 7. There are banners and buttons and headlines that all direct you to choose version 7 for your site. But wait – you were on a message board, or Google, or somewhere and saw someone mention version 8.
Last Friday, Oomph celebrated the launch of Drupal 7, the latest release of one of our favorite content management platforms.
You’re invited
All over the world, release parties like this one will be celebrating a milestone in Drupal’s history – the release of version 7. Oomph and the Providence Drupal Meetup would like to invite you to our office for a little party on the occasion. Snacks and libations will be provided, so come down, hang out, and check out our cool office space in recycled shipping containers.
Friday January 7th, 6pm
Oomph, Inc.
the Box Office, Units 301 and 302
460 Harris Avenue
Providence, RI
Visit the website to RSVP and see who else is planning to attend!
About a month ago we started to see some announcements from Ning that made us wonder whether trouble was brewing. Today Ning announced the end of their long time free online community service and a cut of nearly half of their staff. Although this bodes well for other online community platforms, there are a lot of nervous Ning customers out there today – some of our clients included.
Given today’s events, I thought I would take a moment to discuss one of the core values of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS): Free. As in Libre.
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CMS Wire and Water & Stone released their 2009 Open Source CMS Market Share Report late last week, and we can’t say we’re surprised by the results.
The report incorporated a variety of criteria, including adoption, mindshare, and third party support to reach their overall conclusion: WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla are dominating the open source market. The 70+ page report, which discusses a variety of open source CMS topics, compared 20 top market leaders.
Joomla came away the leader in overall market share by a little over 6% (although WordPress dominated by a large margin in sites identifying as “blogs”) – a result that doesn’t surprise us; more on that below the fold. But digging into some of the key metrics we use to measure project success as a service firm – like user satisfaction – suggests a different conclusion: WordPress is leading the pack, and Drupal is just behind.
Source: 2009 Open Source CMS Market Share Report, water&stone and CMSWire (2009)