Solutions by Design in the UK!

The Annual British Orthodontic Conference was held in Edinburgh Scotland this past week.  Andrew Price, Ormco UK National Manager extended an invitation for SBD to participate in the conference as their guest.  Our primary focus was on ScreenPlay and Montage. There was a keen interest in both products and I think the market was very impressed overall with the concept of having the ability to preset clinical cases to patients at the initial exam with brilliant 3D graphics.

Special thanks to the ladies of Leamington Spa Orthodontic Centre for their input and participation. Leamington Spa Orthodontic Centre one of very first ScreenPlay users in the UK. They volunteered earlier this year to test drive ScreenPlay and provide feedback on the market fit.  Bill Poss provided a training session for both Isobel and Susan as they gear up for their first ScreenPlay Case Presentation.

With the majority of the market seems to be Ortho Trac users, the ScreenPlay/ OrthoTrac integration will provide a great fit as we develop this market.

We are excited about our future in the UK for not only our ScreenPlay and Montage products, but also in the web development and SEO areas.

We fully plan on attending the 2015 World Federation Meeting in London!

Highlighted Feature: Drawing with ScreenPlay

Highlighted Features is a Solutions by Design blog series where we go into detail about the features of our product in order to allow users to get the full use out of our products.

ScreenPlay displays dual screens, the right for videos and the left for imported images. Through your patient management system you are able import photos, including x-rays. Not only can you upload photos, but we also have a feature that allows you to draw on the imported photos.



The drawing feature in ScreenPlay allows you to use the mouse cursor to draw directly on the image. You can pick from 4 colors blue, red, green, and yellow to draw with. This feature helps dramatically with patient education. With parent and patient looking at the case presentation chair-side, the drawing feature allows doctors to show the parent and patient exactly what is wrong. For example, say there is a midline issue, with the drawing feature you can show exactly where the alignment is off.

        

Another great thing about this feature is you are able to save these images with your drawing and email them to the patient for further review while at home. In addition to sending the photos to patients, you may also use saved images for future case presentations if applicable.

To learn more about this feature, among others, visit http://www.solutionsbydesign.com/screen-play-pro-overview.php or give us a call today!

Montage Enters New Markets

With the overwhelming success of Montage among orthodontic practices Solutions by Design has decided to branch out and let other markets experience what Montage has to offer.

Montage will now be available outside of the world of orthodontics. Montage is an interactive digital bulletin board system designed to create the ultimate customer experience. Montage has been great for orthodontic practices allowing for organization, management and the display educational and informational content in one place, while making it fun at the same time. Now it's time for other businesses to experiencce what Montage has to offer.

Businesses such as home builders, restaurants, wineries, auto dealers, country clubs and fitness clubs, just to name a few, can bring a new experience to their organization. In fact, any business that has a reception area, sales office or place customers and/or clients gather is a perfect fit for Montage. Entering other markets will allow Montage to grow as a product, providing endless possibilities for what Montage will become in the future.

Heading this new project is account manager Nikki Schoettler. Nikki will be out in the field educating local businesses on the benefits of Montage. She currently is out making connections and interacting with potential clients. Being that Montage for markets outside of orthodontics will be custom made to fit each business, Nikki is here to meet with clients and find out how we can best suit their needs. She has gotten off to a fantastic start, closing deals with a local home building company and local golf-course.

This expansion marks a new era for Solutions by Design. This is a huge opportunity for our company to branch out and show why we have been successful for nearly 30 years. With this product we are taking our core strengths; marketing, technology and communication, and providing what we offer locally to businesses in our own backyard.

[caption id="attachment_385" align="aligncenter" width="581"] Here is an example of a custom Montage board interface[/caption]

What's a Tweet ?

In 2006 Twitter started off as a micro-blog where users could send 140-character messages out via text to their “followers”. Today Twitter is a social media staple with well over 200 million active users.

Twitter is a public forum where users are reading, writing and sharing messages in real-time. Messages are sent out instantly creating a great source for conversation. Your messages are called tweets. Tweets are limited to 140 characters, but with you may even send via and pictures. User are also able to share tweets from other by “retweeting”, making connecting world-wide easier than ever. By 2010 Twitter had become a phenomenon garnering national attention as it became a platform for news and pop culture. For businesses Twitter opens up a word of opportunity to sale, network, and connect with customers.

Social media allows you to connect directly with your audience, but Twitter takes it beyond your customers and connects you to your industry. With the use of the hashtag system, (First utilized by Twitter and now used across social media platforms), you can easily interact with build relationship with those who may share interest in what your business offers.

Some may feel as though for their business just having a Facebook is enough, but you must analyze you audience to know what is right for you. Do you clients use Twitter? Does your staff use Twitter? Those are questions that must be asked in order to truly determine whether your business needs a Twitter account. There are many benefits to creating a page if you have the right audience.

Some benefits include:

• Real-time communication with customers


• Boost SEO


• Being able to monitor real-time conversations about your brand


• Being able to extend customer service


• Run deals and promotions


• Network with other businesses


• Keep up to date with social media trends

Feeling like your business can benefit from the joining the “Twitterverse” but aren’t sure how to get started? Give us a call and we assist you with all your Twitter needs.

How the Design of Your Website is Effecting Your SEO

There are many different factors that effect the efficiency of your SEO, but did you know the design of your website is one of those factors.

The best design for your website that is recommended by google and SEO professionals is a responsive website design. This design helps with website optimization. In a competitive market SEO is the only way for your site to gain a high position on search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. When you think about SEO and what matters for SEO the first things that are taught of are keywords and links. However, having an optimally designed website is also a crucial factor.

Responsive web design is a way of making a single website that works effectively on desktop browsers and the variety of mobile devices on the market. Responsive design gives the best quality browsing experience - whether on a smartphone, tablet, netbook or e-reader, and regardless of the operating system. Responsive websites re-organize themselves automatically according to the device viewing them, so that the same website provides a great experience everywhere. Desktops get a full-blown interface with videos, large images and animations. Smartphones get a simplified website that runs fast without the bells and whistles, while tablets and iPads get something in between.

In the past two years the amount of mobile users have increased drastically, changing the metrics of SEO. Due to the fact that responsive websites allow your site to become mobile user-friendly, it allows for your site to be accessible. This is a major factor when it comes to ranking. Without a responsive website design you will have to maintain different sites for desktop and mobile viewing. Having multiple sites confuses not only users but also search engine algorithms, which determine your site's search engine positioning.

The majority of websites developed by us here at Solutions by Design are responsive. By having a responsive website there are benefits for you and those who visit your site.

Benefits include:

• Pages loading quicker


• Site becomes more user-friendly


• Site converts leads for better ROI


• Increased site traffic


• Better SEO report results

If you want to learn more about SEO and our responsive website services contact us for more information.

ScreenPlay News

Welcome to ScreenPlay News…with so many cool new things in the works with ScreenPlay, we feel like our users are missing out on many of the features and functionalities within this powerful application. ScreenPlay News is a monthly document that will help keep you up to date on new features, new content, any bug fixes as well as tips on what other practices are doing with ScreenPlay around the world.

What's New?

Our main goal with ScreenPlay is to always bring you content that looks great and brings useful content to your practice. We have recently added  3D artist Chris Messineo back to our team and already working full speed. Chris is currently working on surgical cases he is making progress.

Here’s the list of surgical cases being converted to 3D:

• Mand Adv w Max Imp w 3/4 Ext


• Max Advance


• Max Impaction


• Max Setback & Mand Adv


• Maxilla Setback


• Mandible Setback


• Chin Reduction


• Mand Setback Max Advance


• Max Setback & Mand Adv


• Mand Asymetry

The surgical cases are set to be completed in the next 3 to 4 weeks. However, our new release is scheduled for this December so be sure to be on the lookout. Go to http://solutionsbydesign.com/blog/category/screenplay For all news regarding updates.

 

Bug Fixes: We are glad to say there are no current bug issues to report.

Note: We have now expanded our support hours. Support will be available from 5:00AM to 5:30PM pacific time.

Note: Jean Noble is now our East Coast Sales Director. She is currently available for in office visit for practices throughout the Eastern region of the US.

Montage News

Montage News is a monthly brief which will include information on feature enhancements and user tips.  A copy of this newsletter will be emailed to you once per month.  You can also find a copy on Facebook if you have “Liked” our page.  A Blog under the Montage product will also archive all of our newsletters.

Montage 2.0 is now available for purchase and upgrades.

Montage has become an overwhelming success. Watching Montage receive rave reviews from orthodontic practices has inspired us to merge into new markets. Solutions by Design will now have Montage available outside of orthodontics, offering our services to country clubs, home builders, local restaurants and other businesses where customers and clients gather and can utilize Montage. This expansion marks a new era for Solutions by Design. This is a huge opportunity for our company to branch out and show why we have been successful for nearly 30 years.

We recently introduced our Montage Kiosk and it is steadily gaining more and more interest. It is perfect for those who have or want Montage, but don’t have a lot of room for hanging a monitor. With its sleek design, this 4-foot kiosk is great for displaying  Montage. To find out more information regarding our kiosk give us a call today.

Bug Fixes: We are glad to say there are no current bug issues to report.

Note: We have now expanded our support hours. Support will be available from 5:00AM to 5:30PM pacific time.

Note: Jean Noble is now our East Coast Sales Director. She is currently available for in office visit for practices throughout the Eastern region of the US.

bLink News

“bLink News”. Our goal is to distribute information on each of our products monthly so you are aware of any new features, bugs and fixes as well as tips on what other practices may be doing to maximize the impact of using our product.

What’s New?

E-Toons making great progress our designers are working hard to get these animations pushed out soon. The complete 10 E-toons series will be located under the Appointments, Patient Education and Events tabs. These animations will bring a more engaging aspect to blink, presenting information to blink users in a new and fun way.

We are working on integrating another SBD- developed application with bLink.  Referralware is designed to link your referring dentists to your practice. ReferralWare is a web-based application that allows your referring dentists to complete a referral form, submit information regarding treatment and print a branded referral form with a directional map to your office. Once the referral is made, the system automatically tracks the patient and submits a reminder to the patient to ensure the call for the initial appointment. So be on the lookout for this integration in the near future.

Along with these additions to bLink we are also in the process of rewriting bLink on a new frame. What this means for our users that we will be able to add on more features and give you more control as an administrator of your bLink program.

Bug Fixes: Although there are no current bug fixes we do want to remind users that in order for your patients to receive text reminders they must first register their email with bLink. Once the patient has bLink linked to their email they may then turn on text reminders. If you have any questions about this feature please contact our support team.

Note: We have now expanded our support hours. Support will be available from 5:00AM to 5:30PM pacific time.

Note: Jean Noble is now our East Coast Sales Director. She is currently available for in office visit for practices throughout the Eastern region of the US.

Other News

• AAO access will launch in a few weeks. AOA will now have the first fully integrated online order entry portal for order acceptance and processing.  bLink will be the exclusive integration piece so doctors can pass patient demographics directly to Access with each order. More on this later, John Dargis is working on this.

• Tangerine is done!  Tangerine is our own video conferencing application.  It is full featured and similar to Go-to-Meeting.

• NESO Connected is up and running. If you don’t know about this it is a cool program. We launched the new site a few months back, which they are very happy with it.  Now we are hosting monthly webinars exclusively for the NESO members. Presenters will mostly be focused on technology. However, there will be a clinical element. Anyone interested in speaking to a captive audience about your products should contact Bill Poss.

Communication with SBD

We want to better communicate with all of our friends and partners more regularly.  We TOTALLY APPRECIATE all of each of your support over the years. We haven’t done a good job in acknowledging your participation, which will change.  We have outlined a new procedure that will keep you posted on what we are working on for each of our mutual clients and the process.

We have a new Newsletter and blog for Montage, ScreenPlay, bLink, SEO Services, and our Social Media Service.  Each product has its own piece so each is relevant to specific clients. Our main Blog has each monthly News Bites and we will post each under each product blog as well.  TJ is working on a redo of our site.

What's New with Us

We have hired a few new people in the past few weeks and brought back some familiar faces:

Sales:

 

Jean Nobel is on board and is working out of Atlanta, GA. Jean is a pro and is already rocking. Jean will manage all NESO and SEO as well as MASO and GLAO area clients. We are thrilled to have such an experienced professional on board heading our sales efforts, she is an excellent fit to our company’s vision.

Nikki is our new local rep.  She will be selling our products into all markets other than orthodontics. Builders, wineries, restaurants, auto dealers are all targets for her specifically for Montage. We closed a big Montage, Social and SEO deal on our very first local presentation.  Any business that a reception area, sales office or a place customers and clients gather is a perfect fit for Montage.

Support:

Thee is an additional Support person. Mark has moved to Oregon and will be working Support from his new home there. Thee is a bright young man coming to us straight out of school. He will be working with Mark and Nick to learn the ropes.

Programming:  

Sam is one of our new coders. She is currently working on her Masters at Fresno State and has a good base of knowledge in a variety of programming languages. She has already completed the new ANDI Splash page and moving on to more projects.

Keng is our other new coder. He is a html5 wiz and also does animations. His first project will be the new bLink E-toons animations. John Rios has just about completed character drawing and Keng will bring them to life.

Social Marketing:

Recently graduated from Fresno State University, Taleesha is our new Social Media Specialist, handling all of our social media in-house and with clients.  She will be working with Sheri to learn as much as she can about orthodontics. She will also working with the rest of our team in developing Social Strategies for our clients.

Design:

Matt is back!  Matt is one of our top 3D guys and will currently be working out of the office working. He will be working on ScreenPlay animations, Ortho Organizers videos and Damon Videos for Ormco.

Chris Messineo, not to be confused with Chris Lewis, is our part-time 3D artists. Chris is a 3D genius and does impeccable work. He now works for a Production House in LA and has worked for us while he was at Art Center in the Bay Area. Chris did all the webs in the Spiderman movies and also worked on films like Alice in Wonderland, Green Hornet and many more current films. He is doing the Surgical Cases for ScreenPlay while between films so it is good to be working with him again!

Product Updates

Montage:

We are excited about the recent release of  Montage 2.0. The new version features a ton of new features and enhancements. The Cable TV feed is my favorite.  Now Montage is the perfect Doctor Reception Room multimedia interface.  Cloud 9 is finishing up on the interface to allow their users to “Check-in” right on the board. This great new feature should becompleted soon. The new Rewards Hub integration also adds to the utility of this product. Patients can check their balances and do anything that they normally do on the Hub interface. Brenda and Cody are great and we love working with those two! We also now sell a Kiosk for those practices that prefer this style.





PS: This format fits great in a Sales Office Environment.

bLink:

blink 2.0 is in the works. We are rewriting this on the Symphony II Frame, it is a challenge but it will give us more utility and flexibility to add features as we desire.  We are scheduled for completion this Fall. We are working on E-toons, our animated appointment reminder and education series, and are scheduled to be wrapped by Sept 1! Also, bLink App is the next project for our new coder Keng. We have presold numerous orders and anticipate it will release by September as well.