Model Service Agency

Modeling Agency Increases Speed, Enhances Image with Productivity Tools

Encumbered by a paper-based model-booking process, Model Service Agency (MSA) found it difficult to respond quickly to customer requests and create polished business documents. To enhance its responsiveness and professional image, the company implemented Microsoft® Office Professional 2007 and the Windows Vista™ Business operating system. With these new tools, MSA is able to respond to requests for models as much as 90 percent faster than before.

 

Business Needs

New York City–based Model Service Agency (MSA) is a full service modeling agency representing a wide range of talent for many venues including fit modeling [a process in which garment manufactures design fashions using a live body], commercial and fashion print, showroom, tradeshows, and more. With 13 employees, 4 of whom are booking agents, MSA works to maintain the company’s reputation for excellent customer service by finding the perfect match of model to customer needs in the shortest possible time.

“Quick response time is the toughest and the most important thing,” says Susan Levine,

The 2007 Microsoft Office programs allow us to reach a customer in 10 minutes instead of a couple of hours. Susan Levine President and Owner, Model Service Agency

President and Owner of Model Service Agency. When a customer calls MSA, a talent agent finds out what type of model is needed and from which division—for example, commercial print, fit modeling, or the plus-size women’s division. Agents then pull composite cards that include images from the model’s portfolio. Until recently, MSA used courier services to deliver the cards to customers. The process was time-consuming and costly, taking up to two hours to deliver a model’s information. Even after the company transitioned to online communications with customers, using JPEG images attached to e-mail messages, there were problems.

Sometimes a customer couldn’t open the files, other times they bounced back due to mail server message size limitations.

Presenting a distinctive image is also crucial to MSA. “If we can’t present a professional, efficient image, then we will lose bookings to our competitors,” says Karen Apicella, Head of the Commercial Print Division at MSA. The company wanted to enhance the look of its communications while keeping operating costs low and also safeguarding the personal information associated with each model’s profile. MSA needed an efficient, professional way to respond to customer requests for models, while keeping model information secure.

Solution

Microsoft® Certified Partner Silicon East helped MSA upgrade to Microsoft Office Professional 2007 and the Windows Vista™ Business operating system. “Modeling Services is an information-based business, and our goal has been to make IT a strategic asset for MSA, enabling them to have information at their fingertips,” says Marc Harrison, President of Silicon East.

MSA has migrated all of its paper-based contact information into Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 with Business Contact Manager, which now serves as the storehouse for all the company’s customer and model data, including contact information and communication histories. Microsoft Office Excel® 2007 is used to store images and model specifications that used to exist on paper-based comp cards. “Talent agents can now export information from Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager to Office Publisher 2007 and create a virtual card on the model and then send it in e-mail to the customer in a matter of minutes,” says Harrison. “The responses to the e-mails are also tracked in Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager.”

Benefits

In the competitive industry of modeling, MSA has gained an advantage with its ability to respond to customers faster, maintain a distinctive image, and control operating costs. It has also been able to enhance security of personal information.

• Faster response time. MSA is now able to consolidate all information on models and customers, including booking dates, rates, and contact information, and search it easily, in Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager. Windows Vista enhanced desktop search also enables MSA agents to find the information they need immediately, even if it’s located within e-mail messages. “The enhanced search features of Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 are an incredible solution for our business. I can have all the records I need at the touch of a button,” says Apicella.
  
  
• MSA is often able to respond to customers 90 percent faster. “The 2007 Microsoft Office programs allow us to reach a customer in 10 minutes instead of a couple of hours,” says Levine. With same-day results the industry standard, the faster MSA is able to reach its customer, the more likely it is to successfully place a model. “Model Service Agency is doing probably twice the business, with the same number of people on staff, that they were before we put in the Microsoft infrastructure,” adds Harrison.
  
  
• Differentiated, professional look. With Office Publisher 2007 catalogue merge, MSA has a more efficient way to send model pictures and specifications to customers while also promoting the MSA brand. “They’re now included in the body of the e-mail. It looks better, and the file sizes are smaller,” says Apicella. “The customer is immediately greeted with our models’ faces because they don’t have to open any attachments.” Office Publisher 2007 helps MSA easily create a consistent image among its customer communications, displaying the MSA brand logo and clearly representing each division of the company.
  
  Using Microsoft Office Professional 2007, MSA has been able to significantly reduce delivery costs. “We use delivery services much less. I imagine our bills have dropped from hundreds of dollars a month to less than 20 dollars,” says Levine.
  
  
• Enhanced security. “Everything we’ve done for MSA, we’ve done with security in mind,” says Harrison. “By using Microsoft products, we feel that we’ve been able to provide the most secure solution we could have.” New and improved security features of Windows Vista, including the built-in firewall and the Windows® Defender spyware scanning and removal tool, help keep MSA computers secure and up and running. Harrison also cites the security provided by Microsoft Office Professional 2007, “down to the e-mail level,” including enhanced spam filtering. “We’ve seen a steady decrease in spam since the release of Outlook 2007,” says Harrison.