Pete Kane is the Senior Project Coordinator for Neoscape – a leading innovator in “Experiential Design Visualization”. Neoscape’s team of over 60 digital artists, designers, filmmakers, architects, and photographers in Boston and New York studios combine artistry with technology to produce unsurpassed results across a range of visual and experiential media. From 3D illustrations and signature films to marketing environment design, websites and print work, they offer a complete and integrated palette of creative services.

Hi Pete. Why don’t you start out by telling us about how Neoscape is using Cozimo?

Our primary use of Cozimo is to manage the review process of our deliverables. These include such items as 3d renderings, website designs, movies and videos we put together that incorporate 3D environments. We have two offices in Boston and New York so we use it between our two offices as well as outside of the office. If any of the creative directors are traveling they still have the ability to review the images and comments with the rest of the team.

Do a lot of people in your office use it?

Yes, quite a few. It’s really become a core tool for us. We use it now on nearly all of our projects.

How have the clients reacted to using it?

Very positive. Before we were mostly using email back and forth. The client would receive attachments from us, print them out, mark them up, scan them, and send them back. So using Cozimo is much easier for them.

Did you experience any problems getting started with Cozimo?

Actually, it turned out to be a very smooth process. It’s very intuitive. The tools are similar to a lot of the applications people use. Even for our clients who don’t work with those types of programs, it was pretty self-evident how to use it.

Do you use the messaging system?

That’s a primary feature for us. Once we upload the files, we use the message board to notify the clients that the files are there along with any notes about those files that they need to be aware of. It’s great because while they’re looking through the images they can always just click on the message tab to see any specific instructions.

What do you feel is the greatest value that Cozimo brings to your business?

Its greatest value is its ability to keep the whole team up to date and on the same page. You have one repository where both the client and the production team can see all the feedback in one place. You don’t have 10 different emails with comments that are sent to different people and possibly lost or deleted. This is important because changes and development can easily be tracked within this one system. The client knows all his instructions are there, and I know they are going to be followed up on and that what we’re doing is correct. It really helps to avoid the type of errors that come from miscommunication. Since we’re always on a tight schedule, we just can’t afford to make those types of mistakes.

Have you been happy with the support you receive from us?

Oh yes, definitely. Whenever things have come up, you guys have responded very quickly and when we’ve made suggestions they’ve actually been implemented pretty quickly as well.

Thanks for the interview, Pete.

My pleasure.

Alexandre Renaud is the manager for professional and corporate services at National Animation and Design (NAD) Centre in Montreal, Canada. He’s now incorporated Cozimo as an integral tool to support the training programs he manages.

Hello Alexandre. Why don’t you start off by telling us about the NAD Centre?

The NAD centre is a major Canadian education centre offering high profile training for new media including 3D tools, compositing tools - everything that is related to digital imaging and video production. The centre has two major programs – one is our regular program with 80 full time students in 3D animation, visual effects & video games. The other - that is my department – offers professional and corporate services including intensive training, seminars and consulting services.

How are you using Cozimo?

Our business is to do training so our customers can learn to use tools for creating marketing presentations or design prototypes. In my department we do a lot of remote on-site training and we use Cozimo to provide support to our customers as they start out with their new projects. So Cozimo is really a teaching tool. It lets us review their work in progress and to make sure they are using the correct techniques. We’ve tried some other solutions but Cozimo is really the best because it lets us interact personally with the customers directly on the images and videos they are working on and everything is recorded right there for them to go back to refer to.

Do you have any good customer experiences to share?

We are using Cozimo now with a major corporate customer – Johnson & Johnson Design and Research Department – and the experience is going really well. I just finished a session with myself in one office, my trainer in another and the customer at theirs. We were all able to go through the video they were working on frame by frame, review it, make suggestions. Before Cozimo, we would never be able to offer this kind of support because they would have to come to our office and that would just take too much time. So, yes, they are very happy with this service. It’s very fast and easy to use.

Do you have any specific examples of how Cozimo has helped your business?

Actually, it’s enabling a new service and revenue stream for us - offering ongoing remote support and training. It’s going to be part of all our new contracts. Cozimo is great for this because we can interact directly with the customer and everything is recorded and tracked. Now our customers are getting service that is much more effective and valuable.

Mark Feldman is a partner at Petroff Partnership Architects. He’s started using Cozimo in his practice and recently shared his experiences with us.

Hi Mark. Why don’t you start of telling us a bit about Petroff Partnership Architects.

Well, we’re a relatively large architectural firm that started back in 1957. We now have 6 partners and 150 employees working in 3 offices – one in downtown Toronto, in Markham, Ontario and one in Shanghai, China. We do primarily larger commercial and institutional projects.

How are you using Cozimo?

We got involved with Cozimo quite early on in its development. Initially, we started using it internally to help us with our coordination and communication between our offices. The partners travel around a lot and because of our multiple office situation we really need to be able to direct traffic from anywhere. Cozimo has been a great help that way.

Was it difficult for you to adapt to using Cozimo?

No, not at all. Everyone here works on a computer so it was very easy to become fluent. Now we don’t think too hard about operating it - we just use it.

Have you used it with your clients?

I’ve been using it with clients a lot in real-time discussions when we’re on the phone and need to visualize the problem we’re talking about - we get on Cozimo and can work out complex problems in a much more direct way. The clients love it because it’s fast - we don’t have to go to meetings all the time. We are able to talk on the phone, get something done and get back to work. Speed of delivery is a big issue for them.

Specifically, how has Cozimo helped you business?

There certainly are time savings – less travel, faster meetings. But really the most important thing to me is that it saves mistakes. There was a specific situation I can think of where what the client said to us, and what he drew to illustrate his comment were two different things. If I hadn’t have seen it immediately, and clarified the intention we would have proceeded with the wrong assumptions. We avoided two days of potentially lost work and in this way Cozimo pays for itself many times over each month.

Have you been happy with Cozimo support?

Cozimo support has been excellent. I’ve made a number of suggestions that they’ve incorporated into the product. It’s been very reliable.

Thanks for you time.

You’re welcome.

Jason Knott is the founder of Framework Animation based in Lethbridge, Alberta. We asked him to share with us his experience using Cozimo in his business.

Hi Jason, why don’t you first tell us a bit about your company, Framework Animation.

I started Framework Animation back in 1992. Today we are working primarily on architectural visualization projects although we have done a fair bit of television and engineering work as well. Now we’ve got 4 of us here and we’re very busy – probably around 10 different projects going on at once.

How did you first hear about Cozimo?

I found out about Cozimo at a Design Visualization Conference last year which was incredibly good timing for me because I was just redoing my web site and I was actually considering getting a developer to build something kinda similar to what you guys decided to do. I was really quite interested as soon as I saw it because it was exactly what I was looking for.

So how are you using Cozimo now?

Right now Cozimo has made it FAR easier to communicate with our clients. We’re located in a relatively small city in southern Alberta and many of our clients are out of town so I am always dealing with remote communication. You know … the number of times I’ve had people send me faxes of printed out renderings with sharpie writing all over it that I can’t read because it’s completely black … that’s happened so many times. It becomes really complicated to try to talk to people when that’s the level of technology you have to work with. It just makes so much sense to be able to have someone online where you can actually be talking with someone, interactively discussing what you’re both seeing, being able to point at things, write notes on things. It’s perfect for what we’re doing.

We’ve got pretty much every project we’re working with set up as workgroup. Anytime we have something new and exciting to show we use the messaging system to let people know that new images are posted and to give them a direct link to that image.

Was it difficult for you to adapt to using Cozimo?

No. I found Cozimo extremely easy to start using. It was exactly what I had in my head, really. It does exactly what I think it should do.

How have your clients adjusted to using Cozimo?

Our clients have quite a wide variety of .. how shall I say it… technological ability. The ones who are not afraid of a computer have no problem at all. The ones who are afraid to press an enter button need me to help them get started. But even these people, once I’ve walk them through the process and show them how it works, they think it’s really cool and a great tool.

Do you tend to use Cozimo more for real-time discussions or to collect independent feedback?

We’ve done it both ways. It really depends on what our client’s schedules are like. If there are things I need to know right away, I post it online, call them up and we work it out right away. Then, I have other projects where I post it up there, I send them a message through the system then they go there on their own time, mark it up, send us a message back that it’s done. Then if I need to I call them back and ask for further clarifications. It is really nice to have the option to let them do it on their own time but also be able to go in there and join with them and clarify things.

Specifically, how has Cozimo improved your business?

I’ve had many clients compliment the system. I’ve had people say to me directly this is a really great tool – that they’ve done work with other companies that don’t have anything as interesting or as slick. So from the point of view of making an impression on clients and for making their workflow and process easier, it has definitely helped. It has definitely impressed our clients.

And of course, anything that helps us with efficiency ultimately helps us do more projects. Cozimo definitely helps us save time. I mean without it there’s a lot more miscommunication, there are errors in interpreting notes. It reduces the margin for error. We’re using it every day now. It’s really become an important part of our project management.

Have you been happy with Cozimo’s support?

I think the support has been fantastic. The speed of reply and dealing with any problems is great. Fantastic.

Thanks for your time and for sharing your experiences with us.

My pleasure.