Areas of experience

With 7 local colleges and a unique downtown shopping and entertainment district, the City of Claremont is a regional hub of community events, including films, lectures, live music, dance, theater and art exhibits.

With encouragement from the City and sponsorship of the Chamber of Commerce, we designed and developed The Claremont Calendar, which aggregates events from the colleges, the City, local entertainment venues and community organizations, providing area residents and visitors with compelling reasons to spend more of their time and money in the local community.

Responding to a request from our local police department, we designed a system whereby messages could be sent to local residents and businesses via email or text message (SMS), including micro-targeting by address based on customizable reporting districts.

The system, which is currently being used by two southern California cities, includes the ability to receive anonymous tips, to create and send messages  to special business and community groups, and to post videos, images or slideshows.

The City of Chino, CA, wanted to make it easier for potential developers to find information about available sites. Working with city personnel, Highpoint designed and developed an attractive printed package of redevelopment site information, along with a website where interested parties could review the same information online.

Using existing city maps and notes from our own site visits, we designed updated maps of each redevelopment site plus a summary of why each site is attractive and how it might be used. Each listing provided a local map, traffic counts, and contact information. 

Highpoint was instrumental in the inception and development of the Best Practice Network, the first collaborative website in healthcare -- a project initiated by 13 nursing associations, which grew to over 30 associations within 2 years.

The website featured online surveys, discussion boards, resource libraries, best practice guidelines and benchmarking opportunities.

"Highpoint's expert team is both imaginative and practical. They helped to expand the concept of our web site beyond what we thought was possible, yet they were always mindful of our wishes. Their probing and thoughtful questions served to clarify our objectives. As a result, we did not waste a cent on anything we didn't fully believe was the right direction."
-Mary M Kingston, RN, MSN, Director, Best Practice Network

A leading healthcare benchmarking firm wanted to create an online community where managers in several hundred subscribing hospitals could network to share information. Where a given hospital was showing outstanding benchmarking results, managers in other hospitals wanted to know exactly how they got those results.

The website, which provided an array of collaborative tools plus informative articles, web resources and performance improvement tips, quickly achieved a high degree of participation and increased satisfaction among hospital subscribers.

The Association for Play Therapy had a lengthy questionnaire that its members filled out each year in order to renew their professional credentials. The process was time-consuming for members, who had to provide redundant information every year. It was especially taxing for association managers, who had to manually update their in-house database every year, communicate with applicants about unclear missing information, and then manually process their payments.

After in-depth discussions with the client, Highpoint designed a user-friendly interface that streamlined the renewal process and ensured that members provided all the required information. By providing renewal information in a standard digital format and automating online payments, we saved the association many hours of administrative time. 

A large national network of local women's service organizations faced two big challenges. Their local chapters lacked a unifying brand identity. Consequently, their collective impact was largely unrecognized. Secondly, their membership consisted mostly of retired women, many of whom were uncomfortable with new technology. Their chapters were slow to develop websites, which in turn made it more difficult for them to attract younger, professional women.

Highpoint developed a network of branded "chapter sites" that could be easily managed by inexperienced administrators. This provided chapters with the opportunity to publicize their own local projects while ensuring a unified identity for all chapters. Local chapters are now enthusiastically employing their chapter websites to advance their charitable objectives.

The Hospital Association of Southern California had pioneered an emergency medical notification system linking all the state's hospital emergency rooms with law enforcement and EMR dispatch centers. Although widely adopted, the system was threatened by an agile competitor and by rapid changes in communication technology.

Highpoint provided a thorough competitive analysis, which explored the threats to the client's line of business as well as the opportunities presented by technology innovation. Our work product concluded with broad specifications for a next generation system and a path to transition to newer technology. Subsequent development was carried out by the client's in-house programming team.

As a longtime jazz fan, our company president was frustrated by the lack of a single web location where he could find out who was playing in the hundred-plus venues scattered across the sprawling southern California landscape. Keenly aware of how difficult it was for jazz musicians to publicize their performances and to reach their fan base, he launched LAjazz.com, a website that collects and organizes jazz events so that fans can find live jazz right in their own neighborhoods.

This advertiser-supported website currently lists thousands of upcoming events, includes a database of local jazz musicians and hosts blogs by local jazz personalities. It publishes 10 weekly email newsletters and a news feed on Twitter.

The Society of Actuaries wanted to make the flow of information and the delivery of services faster, broader, more effective, and more efficient. So they asked Highpoint to assess needs and provide a strategic plan for guiding its web development in the near future.

We performed a thorough review of the existing SoA website and prepared an online user survey to determine which site features were used most frequently, which features were easiest to use, which seemed difficult to use, and which features users would like to see added in the future.

We interviewed key staff and stakeholders, including representatives of all departments plus selected board members to determine how they were using the website and what sort of information they would like to see made available. 

We prepared a thorough report detailing our findings including appropriate software, hardware, and partnership options that SoA should consider.

The City of Claremont had an overnight parking ordinance designed to keep its streets clear of unsightly disabled vehicles and reduce crime. Residents were allowed a limited number of exemptions to the ordinance each month, for which they had to register by phoning the Police Department. These phone calls added to the burden on staff, especially late-night dispatch.

Highpoint designed an automated system whereby residents could easily secure exemptions online. The system provided quick and accurate feedback regarding the user's remaining available exemptions and generated all necessary reports for the Department to carry out its enforcement operations. 

After a trial period of implementation, the online system completely replaced live phone operators during the late evening shift, saving valuable staff time.