Overview Country or Region: United States Industry: Media and entertainment Customer Profile Headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, Research Director, Inc. (RDI) analyzes and presents audience research for more than 200 radio stations in the top radio markets in the United States. Business Situation RDI needed to reduce the amount of time required to produce and customize large, complex radio-audience data presentations for its customers. Solution The company engaged MicrosoftR Gold Certified Partner PSC Group, LLC to develop a new system for producing data presentations using Microsoft Office PowerPointR 2007 and Open XML Formats. Benefits - Faster production - Reduced costs - Market differentiation - Efficient development

1. Microsoft Office System
Customer Solution Case Study
Radio-Research Firm Reduces Production
Time and Costs with Presentation Solution
Overview “We’re going to save at least a full-time person. By
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Media and entertainment using Open XML, we’re going to save two-thirds on
labor that we would have needed …, not to mention
Customer Profile
Headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, the extra equipment we would have had to buy.”
Research Director, Inc. (RDI) analyzes and
Marc Greenspan, Partner, Research Director, Inc.
presents audience research for more than
200 radio stations in the top radio
markets in the United States.
Research Director, Inc. (RDI), one of the largest radio-research
Business Situation consulting firms in the United States, produces large, complex
RDI needed to reduce the amount of
time required to produce and customize
presentations that provide radio-audience data for its customers
large, complex radio-audience data once every quarter. Faced with demands to respond to more
presentations for its customers.
data and drastically increase its presentation output to almost
Solution four times as many presentations and more than three times as
The company engaged Microsoft® Gold
Certified Partner PSC Group, LLC to
often, the company needed to update its processes to
develop a new system for producing data significantly reduce the amount of time required to produce
presentations using Microsoft Office
PowerPoint® 2007 and Open XML
each presentation. RDI engaged Microsoft® Gold Certified
Formats. Partner PSC Group, LLC to develop a new system for compiling
Benefits
and producing the data presentations using Microsoft Office
 Faster production PowerPoint® 2007 and Open XML Formats. With its new
 Reduced costs
 Market differentiation
document generation solution, RDI can produce more
 Efficient development presentations in less time, while reducing costs and offering
more services to more customers.

2. “We were able to Situation Arbitron released its data once a quarter
One of the largest radio-research over a three-week period, and RDI needed
improve the application consulting firms in the United States, every minute of that time to produce the
Research Director, Inc. (RDI) provides presentations.
performance so ratings analysis for the radio-broadcast
drastically by not having industry. Founded in 1991 and “I called it plate-spinning,” says Marc
headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, RDI Greenspan, Partner at Research Director,
to automate PowerPoint, analyzes, interprets, and presents audience Inc., referring to the circus trick of keeping
research for more than 200 radio stations, plates spinning atop multiple poles.
because it’s not involved including stations in 21 of the top 25 radio “Somebody had to go from computer to
until the user actually markets in the United States. With 12 full- computer, keeping them going, monitoring
time employees, RDI generates annual all the stopping points and prompts
opens the file. We revenue of almost U.S.$1.5 million. throughout the whole process.”
couldn’t have done that One of the primary services that RDI offers In 2008, Arbitron changed its process for
without Open XML.” its customers is the compilation, analysis, collecting audience data, delivering data for
and presentation of radio-audience data more radio stations, and instead of
John Head, Director of Enterprise collected by the media research firm releasing the data over a three-week period
Collaboration, PSC Group, LLC
Arbitron. To help sell advertising and other once every quarter, it delivers new audience
services, radio stations use these data data over a three-day period 13 times a
presentations to demonstrate ratings, year.
market position, and demographics.
Arbitron’s increased efficiency presented
The Arbitron sampling data, recorded RDI with a challenge. RDI recognized that it
manually in logs called “diaries,” was would have to update its processes to meet
released four times a year for 50 to 75 radio these new demands. With 13 required
stations in 300 U.S. radio markets. For more deliveries a year, RDI did not have enough
than 10 years, RDI used an application built days on the calendar to complete the task
with Microsoft® Office Access® database using its existing system.
software, the Microsoft Visual Basic® 6.0
development system, and Lotus Freelance “Taking three weeks to process the data
Graphics to compile the Arbitron data and was no longer an option,” says Greenspan.
present it in slide decks. “By the time we’d be done, the next set of
data would be coming in, and the
The presentations are extremely complex, presentations would be close to useless to
consisting of more than 400 slides, our customers. We needed a scalable,
including multiple charts and graphs with sustainable production system, and our
30 data points or more. In a process called motivation was literally business survival.”
application automation, RDI would use its
application to import the Arbitron data into The company needed a solution that would
Office Access tables, and then generate the significantly reduce the amount of time
charts and graphs in Lotus Freelance required to produce the data presentations.
Graphics. It wanted to eliminate manual processes
and reduce presentation turnaround from
The company had to dedicate a processor weeks to days. It needed a system that
for each presentation and a full-time staff could process large amounts of data and
person to manually monitor the processors. present it in formats that RDI could easily

3. and extensible applications that
manipulate, integrate, and present data.
PSC developed the document generation
system using Microsoft SQL Server® 2005
data management software with a Web-
based user interface built on the Microsoft
Visual Studio® 2008 Professional Edition
development system and the Microsoft
Visual C#® development tool. The system
uses Open XML Formats to create the
charts and graphs and automatically
produce the Office PowerPoint 2007 slide
decks (Figure 1).
With document generation, users no longer
have to load the data into Office Access
2007 files and build each chart, graph, and
slide individually. Instead, using Open XML,
the system generates the Office PowerPoint
2007 files from the data in SQL Server 2005
Figure 1. RDI uses Microsoft customize for each of its customers. And if without having to launch Office PowerPoint
Office PowerPoint 2007 and it could, RDI wanted to adopt a solution 2007. This conserves application resources
Open XML Formats to create that would reduce costs and provide more and significantly increases system
data presentations that time for staff to develop and deliver new performance.
include complex charts and services for its customers.
graphs with multiple data RDI develops slide templates that can be
points. quickly customized with customer logos,
Solution colors, and themes, and then merged with
In 2008, RDI engaged Microsoft Gold the data in Open XML to create the Office
Certified Partner PSC Group, LLC, based in PowerPoint 2007 presentation on a server.
Schaumburg, Illinois, to develop a new The system then notifies the user that the
system for compiling the Arbitron data and presentation is available for review. Using
producing the data presentations. PSC the new system, RDI can significantly
developed an entirely new solution, reduce the time it takes to produce a data
replacing the previous application presentation. “We were able to improve the
automation process with a system it calls application performance so drastically by
document generation, which uses the not having to automate PowerPoint,
Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2007 because it’s not involved until the user
presentation graphics program and Open actually opens the file,” says John Head,
XML Formats to produce the presentations. Director of Enterprise Collaboration at PSC
Group, LLC. “We couldn’t have done that
Open XML Formats are ISO-standard XML without Open XML. We couldn’t support
files, the standard data storage format for document generation on the server with
applications in the Microsoft Office 2007 binary formats. It was too hard and it didn’t
suites. By using files based on Open XML, always work. Open XML changed that.”
developers can more easily produce flexible

4. “Before, if I doubled the Because Open XML makes it easier for meet our customers’ needs in terms of
users to access and manipulate the turnaround time, and it makes our service
number of reports, I’d underlying XML of a 2007 Microsoft Office more valuable.”
file, PSC developers can find and repair
have to double the issues in less time. If one slide in a Reduced Costs
number of computers presentation is corrupted, it does not affect Because the new system is so much faster
the entire document. and automates many previously manual
and double the amount processes, RDI can develop the data
presentations without having to dedicate a
of time. By building a Benefits full-time staff person to manually monitor
scalable solution with By developing a document generation the process. The company will even be able
solution using Open XML Formats and to move some permanent staff members
Open XML, we can Office PowerPoint 2007, RDI can produce from the project to other priorities, such as
more data presentations in less time, while interactions with customers.
expand our service reducing costs and offering more services
without creating extra to more customers. And by taking “We’re going to save at least a full-time
advantage of development efficiencies, the person,” says Greenspan. “By using Open
costs.” company will save more money and time as XML, we’re going to save two-thirds on
it expands the project into other parts of labor that we would have needed to handle
Marc Greenspan, Partner, Research
Director, Inc. the organization. so many clients in the new three-day
delivery window, not to mention the extra
Faster Production equipment we would have had to buy.”
Having to produce data presentations more
than once a month instead of once every Market Differentiation
three months, RDI could no longer afford RDI anticipates that it will enhance its
several weeks to complete the process. market position using the new system. By
Using its new document generation taking advantage of the flexibility of Open
solution, the company can now produce XML, the company will be able to add new
fully customized Office PowerPoint 2007 customers to the system quickly and easily,
slide decks from Arbitron data in just 10 without having to modify the document
minutes, instead of the hours it took to generation application. All the company will
produce them with the previous application have to do is add the radio station’s logo
automation process. and themes to the slide templates, and it
will be able to provide customized data
In fact, RDI can develop presentations that presentations for the new customer.
incorporate more data for more radio
stations in just 24 hours from the time the “Before, if I doubled the number of reports,
audience data is available. I’d have to double the number of
computers and double the amount of
“We will receive the data at noon on time,” says Greenspan. “By building a
Tuesdays, and we can now have all those scalable solution with Open XML, we can
reports processed, ready to go, and sitting expand our service without creating extra
in our client’s e-mail boxes at noon and costs.”
one second on Wednesday,” says
Greenspan. “That’s a deadline we would Efficient Development
never have been able to meet with our old By using Open XML to develop the
system. With the new system, we can better document generation solution, PSC created

5. For More Information benefits for itself as well as its customer. Microsoft Office System
For more information about Microsoft First, it will be able to market similar The Microsoft Office system is the business
products and services, call the Microsoft solutions to existing and new customers. world’s chosen environment for
Sales Information Center at (800) 426- And because it can develop the system information work, providing the programs,
9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft directly in Open XML without having to servers, and services that help you succeed
Canada Information Centre at (877) 568- automate Office PowerPoint 2007, it will be by transforming information into impact.
2495. Customers in the United States and much easier to maintain the system based
Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing on an open standard. For more information about the Microsoft
can reach Microsoft text telephone Office system, go to:
(TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. “The system won’t be tied to the version of www.microsoft.com/office
Outside the 50 United States and PowerPoint a customer is using,” says Rick
Canada, please contact your local Parham, Manager of Microsoft
Microsoft subsidiary. To access Development at PSC Group, LLC. “I expect
information using the World Wide Web, we’ll reduce maintenance costs by 90
go to: percent because we won’t have to update
www.microsoft.com the application each time Microsoft
releases a new version of PowerPoint.”
For more information about PSC Group,
LLC products and services, visit the Web Because PSC developers can access and
site at: modify specific parts of files in Open XML,
www.psclistens.com RDI will experience development savings as
the project moves forward. “If a future
For more information about Research deliverable needs information that we’ve
Director, Inc. products and services, visit already created for a PowerPoint file, we’ll
the Web site at: be able to get to that data directly and
www.researchdirectorinc.com reuse those components,” says Parham.
Software and Services − Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
 Microsoft Office Professional Edition
− Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007  Technologies
 Microsoft Server Product Portfolio − Open XML Formats
− Microsoft SQL Server 2005
 Microsoft Visual Studio
− Microsoft Visual C#
This case study is for informational purposes only.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published November 2009