AboutFace customers are lawyers, market research
experts, educators and management consultants. They make everything from
truck engines to cotton swabs to elevators (and much more). But they share one
thing in common: they have chosen AboutFace to help tie all of their people
together, to make their workplaces more efficient and effective places.
David Friend, is the
CEO and Co-Founder of Sonexis, Inc., a telecommunications
hardware company. David speaks about AboutFace:
Facilitating Communication Within the Company
"Our AboutFace face book is the most
widely used software on our intranet. I personally use it
almost every day to learn the names of new employees, to
look up phone numbers, to find out where someone sits, or to
simply look up a picture. I find it invaluable in
preparation for meetings, phone conferences, company events,
and other times when I should know everyone's names and
faces. It’s also a great way to find people with
specialized skills."
Great for New Employees
"We find that new employees make
heavy use of AboutFace, too, to learn the names of the
people around them and people they deal with. Our HR people
have found that it is a great recruiting tool. Potential
employees are really impressed that our company has done
something about those awkward first weeks when you can’t
remember anyone’s names. And they have found that
administering the AboutFace database is easy enough for a
clerical level person."
In Summary
"In summary, AboutFace is not just a
nice to have, but an essential part of the human fabric of
the company. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best
ideas. Thanks for making such a great product."
Customer Profile: Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels
Mark Newall, Director of Human
Resources at Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels, a
Boston-based law firm with 300 lawyers in four offices,
speaks about AboutFace/Windows:
Good for Servicing Clients
"We have hundreds of
lawyers and staff in Boston, Providence, Rhode Island,
Hartford, Connecticut, and London, but because employees
didn't know colleagues in other offices, we weren't using
our collective skills effectively. AboutFace allows us to
get to know one another better and to find the right
attorney when one of our clients needs additional help -- so
we maximize the services we provide our clients."
Good for Corporate Culture
"AboutFace has
certainly been a morale booster. When we first rolled it
out in our Boston office, people took to it immediately.
The size of a firm like ours inevitably prevents employees
from knowing a lot about employees in other departments.
AboutFace has allowed us to learn more about the people we
see every day, but never talk to. It's definitely added a
level of camaraderie to the workplace."
Efficiency Gains
"Once the novelty and excitement
about the 'fun' parts of the program settled down, we saw
that this product was a convenient, time-saving tool for
employees at all levels of the firm. For example, if an
attorney in our Providence office needs to find an antitrust
law expert in Boston, he simply types a few keywords into
the program, instead of searching outdated directories and
making a series of phone calls. In that respect, AboutFace
definitely allows us to operate more efficiently."
In Summary
"To put it simply, AboutFace is
flat-out a good tool. We've been using it a lot more than
any of us ever expected. And while it seems a perfect fit
for law firms, I can imagine it working for any company
experiencing the same frustrations with interoffice
communication."
Customer
Profile: Steppingstone Foundation
The Steppingstone Foundation is a non-profit
organization that runs educational programs for under-served
students. Benjamin Anderson, a project director at
Steppingstone, writes to thank AboutFace for its donation of
AboutFace software to the group.
In order
to effectively do our job, we need to know students and
their families. This becomes a challenge as we grow,
and this is where AboutFace comes in. When a staff
member goes out to visit at a student's school, he or she
can quickly pull up a student's record and make a stronger
personal connection when they meet in person.
AboutFace's security features are essential, as this
information is confidential. Furthermore, you've done
something magical behind the scenes that makes the security
feature seamless when we use the product from our
headquarters.
Overall,
AboutFace has allowed us to significantly enhance how we
serve our constituents. Any organization can use this
tool to help foster a sense of community among a large group
of people. Thank you for this invaluable resource.
