Alpharetta, GA, November 17, 2008 – Provaré Technology began today testing the 2010 versions of Herff Jones yearbook design and layout software. This is the third consecutive year that Provaré has been the Herff Jones Yearbook Division’s primary QA resource. Products that have been updated for 2010 include Plug-Ins for Adobe InDesign as well as Clique, and HJ Planner.
“We truly value our long term relationship with Herff Jones,” says Bill Tepper, CEO of Provaré Technology. “It is obvious that Herff Jones places a priority on the quality of their products.”
Herff Jones targets a market where usability key to their products’ success. Their products are used not only by school faculty, but by the students on school yearbook staffs. But usability isn’t the whole story. The typical Herff Jones user is not a computer whiz kid – and school IT staffs are spread pretty thin, so any unexpected behavior in the software usually generates a call to Herff Jones technical support. Given the cost of maintaining a trained and efficient technical support staff, it is better for everyone if the software simply works reliably.
Nan Cayton, Herff Jones Yearbook Software Project Manager explains her quality focus: “Our ongoing challenge is providing desktop software that keeps Herff Jones in the lead in our industry, and serves as a catalyst for sales growth and retention. To achieve this goal, we need software that is reliable and that requires minimal updating during the school year. Reliable products translate into more selling time and less service time for our in-field sales force who often oversee any Herff Jones software installations in their client schools.”
Herff Jones first contacted Provaré Technology in September of 2007. Continues Cayton, “Since we began working with them in the fall of 2007, Provaré has provided an outstanding external source for testing that is helping us meet our quality and usability goals. We continue to be impressed with how thorough the testing has been. We especially value the detailed reports with screen shots and steps to replicate errors that we receive at the conclusion of each testing window. Bill and Sandi Tepper understand our needs – evaluating specific features of our desktop software as well as overall ease of use, while allocating their time and resources to stay within our budget.”
One of Provaré’s selling points for its software testing services is that by spending a little more testing before a product is release, a company can save a lot more on technical support costs after the release.
“As a result of our increased focus on both external and internal testing,” says Cayton, “the number of technical support calls for our desktop software has declined since we started working with Provaré. The dollars we budget are well spent when we are able to provide solid, user-friendly software that exceeds our customers’ needs and expectations. Provaré has been a major part of our desktop software success story.”
“We are fully convinced that our sales story concerning cutting technical support costs is true,” says Tepper, “but it is awfully nice to hear a customer say it too.”
Herff Jones is already planning to have Provaré test additional brand new products later in the spring.
About Provaré Technology
Founded in 2004, Provaré Technology is a provider of a variety of services crucial to the development of technology products. Provaré’s offerings include software test engineering, software configuration management (CM), process improvement, and product qualification services. Provaré staff members have decades of experience spanning all aspects of technology product development. For more information about Provaré Technology, please visit https://www.provare.com/.
About Herff Jones
Founded in Indianapolis in 1920 by Harry J. Herff and Randall H. Jones, Herff Jones has become a leading North American supplier not only of yearbook design and publication tools and services, but of many products for comemorating special school events, such as class rings, caps & gowns, diplomas and certificates, awards, medals, etc. The Yearbook division was established in 1963. The company was sold to its employees under and employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) in 1995, making the company an employee owned company. For more information on Herff Jones Yearbook Products and services, please visit http://www.yearbooks.biz/
Contacts:
Bill Tepper, CEO
Provaré Technology
Phone: +1 (770) 814-4169
Nan Cayton
Herff Jones Yearbooks
Phone: +1 (704) 849-4441