This month we’re talking with Boaz Ashkenazy, a founder and principal with Studio/216 located in Seattle, WA.

Hi Boaz. Why don’t you start out by telling me about Studio216?

We’re a visual communications company that specializes in “storytelling” -  creating 3D animations, video and renderings to help design and market capital construction projects. The kinds of clients we typically work with are architects, developers, municipalities that are in the process of starting capital or construction projects.

How did you get started using Cozimo?

Our work requires a lot of coordination with our clients.  In past years, we got by using email and using some web conferencing products but it was all very inefficient. We really needed a way to combine the asynchronous and synchronous feedback and organize the whole process. We also wanted our clients to have a convenient tool that could support drawing and note annotations. Sometime the notes can be more important that the scribbles and in the past it was sometimes difficult to make sense of a lot of the feedback we were getting. Having everyone use the drawing and note tools in Cozimo keeps it consistent and clear.

You mention asynchronous and synchronous collaboration. How do you find yourselves using Cozimo most often?

Well my goal would really be to work as asynchronously as possible. It’s a lot more time efficient to let the client review the content internally and add notes on their own time. But there are also times when we have to talk through something together and it’s important to be able to get online and point things out. I used to spend a lot of time marking things up and making notes after having conversations with clients. Cozimo is much more efficient because now we can just make and share the notes as we talk. And whether the clients leave notes on their own or we work together it’s all recorded in one central location that I can share with the staff.

Are you using Cozimo often?

Absolutely – every day. It’s an indispensable tool for us now.

How do your clients like it?

They’re very pleased. There’s a bit of a learning curve but not a steep one. Once they get going they love it.

From a business perspective, has Cozimo proven to be cost-effective for you?

I would say that Cozimo is saving me 2 to 3 hours a day that I use to spend just collecting, interpreting and organizing client feedback for the production staff. It’s a huge time savings for us.

You’ve been using Cozimo now for over a year now. How have you found the reliability and support?

It’s great. What’s nice is that when I have a question or a problem I can pick up the phone or Skype and speak directly with someone on the product team. That was especially helpful when we were getting started. But, it’s been a while now since I’ve had to have any support.