Horizontal Integration's CEO Named as 2010 Minority Business Award Honoree

POSTED ON Jun 24, 2010

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal announced its 2010 Minority Business Awards honorees Thursday June 24th and among them was Horizontal Integration’s CEO Sabin Ephrem. They named him as a mover and shaker in the Twin Cities’ ethnic-minority business community.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal’s annual Minority Business Awards features lawyers, entrepreneurs, engineers, IT professionals and more. This year's honorees come from Somalia, Laos, Nigeria, India, Hong Kong, Mexico — as well as Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The awards were given to ethnic-minorities that are passionate about their work, but also about giving back to the community. They serve on civic and corporate boards, volunteer for nonprofits, host fundraising events for charities and mentor other entrepreneurs and future business leaders.

Mr.Ephrem was among an impressive group of people who are profiled in a special section of the Minneapolis-St.Paul Business Journal in the June 25th, 2010 edition.

Congratulations to all of the honorees, especially to our client-first driven leader and to the other award honorees (10 business owners, 10 corporate executives and one business advocate) for their contributions to our community.

To learn more about the the Minneapolis-St.Paul Business Journal's Minority Business Awards click here.

To learn more about Sabin Ephrem's recognition as a Minority Business Honoree in the Minneapolis-St.Paul Business Journal click here.

Integrating a new identity at Horizontal Integration

POSTED ON May 17, 2010

Integration means a combination of parts or objects that work well together. Horizontal Integration, the interactive marketing and staffing agency headquartered in Minnetonka Minnesota, knows it better than anyone. To mark the 7th anniversary of their firm, Horizontal Integration recently completed a roll-out of their new identity redesign – completed by their in-house team of information architects, creative designers, copywriters, developers and project managers.

“It was time we defined what’s in our name” said CEO Sabin Ephrem. “Many agencies do great work for their clients but forget the importance of clearly communicating what it is they do for potential new clients. To stay fresh and to pay tribute to the philosophy of our agency services, our identity needed to change.”

Following a review of Horizontal Integration’s own end user needs, a new identity was formed. Both the identity and the new website is a visual representation of how the firm works and what they mean by integration. It’s more than a marketing strategy, a website design or a single technology solution. Integration means stepping back and look at a client’s business in totality to connect all the dots. This connection allows Horizontal Integration to discover intelligent, intuitive, and need we say, integrated business results.

Hats off to everyone at Horizontal Integration who made the identity redesign such a meaningful milestone in this firm’s history.

Sun Country Airlines Flies into Charter Travel

POSTED ON May 11, 2010

Every year, charter travel generates more and more revenue for Sun Country Airlines. This includes sports teams, corporations, political campaigns and large groups who want the flexibility of a chartered flight. For three years running, Sun Country has repeatedly ranked the #1 airline for customer satisfaction. No small task in a highly competitive travel market.

Sun Country Airlines is well-known by business and vacation travelers. Perhaps too well known. Their charter business had become lost on the site, with just one page of information and little functionality. They asked Horizontal Integration for a micro site that would brand Sun Country Charters and give their customers more contact with their representatives.

Horizontal Integration information architects created a site experience unique to Sun Country Charter Travel. We developed a design that gave the charter business a voice, tone and design they could call their own--from planning to fasten your seatbelts in just under four weeks.

Horizontal Integration Supports the Walk for Animals

POSTED ON May 03, 2010

Horizontal Integration created a team to help support the animals that the Humane Society cares for every day. Animals suffer the effects of tough times and this is exactly the time when our commitment must be at its strongest.

The Walk for Animals is about gathering and celebrating, but mostly, it’s about helping animals less fortunate than our own. This is the Animal Humane Society’s major, stand-up-on-your-hind-legs-and-bark fundraising event.

More than 10,000 animal lovers and nearly 5,000 pets participated in this special event, raising over a million dollars to help care for animals in need.

Thank you to all of you who donated to the Horizontal Integration team and for your support of the 2010 Walk for Animals!

Horizontal Integration Sponsors Habitat for Humanity’s Annual Black Tie Event

POSTED ON May 02, 2010

Horizontal Integration joined in the mission to make the dream of homeownership for hard-working, low-income families a reality by supporting the Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity as a Carpenter Sponsor of their annual Hard Hat and Black Tie event.

This year's gala event featured live and silent auctions, casino games, a jazz lounge and dancing to the music of local band Belfast Cowboys. With over 700 guests in attendance, this event raised much needed resources to help hard-working families realize their dream of homeownership

To learn more about the event itself or to encourage your company to become a sponsor next year – click here to see more details..

Uponor Launches their Loyalty Program for their Professional Trade Market

POSTED ON Apr 14, 2010

Uponor is a leading manufacturer and supplier of plumbing and heating systems for the residential and commercial building markets across North America and Europe.

The Uponor PROadvantage Loyalty Program is a free reward-based program for Uponor radiant, HVAC, plumbing and fire safety installation professions. It's designed to better enhance marketing, business and system installation skills as well as provide rewards to those installers who actively participate in training opportunities.

Horizontal Integration developed an extranet that supported the Loyalty Program through an online registration as well providing registered members with Technical tips from Uponor professionals, upcoming training times and locations, the newest Uponor products and tools, information and tips to help grow the installer’s businesses, and the latest news in plumbing, heating, fire safety. This extranet also provides installer professionals with the ability to order sales support materials to be used in show rooms or to be provided to the end customer. See it live..

UnitedHealth Group Improves The Job Search Experience Online

POSTED ON Mar 10, 2010

While most companies leverage the “out of the box” third party Applicant Tracking Tool interfaces to manage the search process of open positions on their career sites, UnitedHealth Group took it one step further.

Horizontal Integration worked with UnitedHealth Group to research the needs of actual job candidates as it relates to searching, filtering, sorting and storing potential open positions and searches of position types that are relevant to their job hunt.

Based on end user research Horizontal Integration and UnitedHealth Group developed a completely customized user experience for the UnitedHealth Group careers site that better met the needs of the candidates’ expectations for searching and identifying potential positions available at the company. Ultimately this customized experience has greatly improved potential candidates ability to more quickly and accurately find the right opportunities that matches their skill set. The enhanced custom user experience has further reinforced the UnitedHealth Group employment brand that continues to differentiate them from their competitor’s in the recruitment space.

UnitedHealth Group Launches a Recruiting Social Media Program

POSTED ON Feb 17, 2010

UnitedHealth Group is a diversified health and well-being company dedicated to helping people live healthier lives. UnitedHealth Group serves approximately 70 million individuals worldwide, and operates in all 50 states and internationally. They have over 80,000 employees in 33 countries.

UnitedHealth Group has spent the last two years investing in and launching their employer brand based on the voice of their employees and their work experience at the company. In order to improve their recruitment effort of talented employees they embarked on developing a social media strategy that would extend their employment brand and recruiting initiatives into social spaces online where these potential candidates are congregating.

Horizontal Integration worked with UnitedHealth Group to develop a comprehensive social media strategy and executed it online through the development of customized destinations on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube that further reinforced what it is like to work at UHG. Horizontal Integration’s execution of this social media strategy in partnership with UnitedHealth Group has allowed them to greatly expand their network and have real two way conversations with candidates that pay off vs simply pushing out jobs. Their social media presence has ultimately allowed them to further manage the perception of UnitedHealth Group in the minds of the candidates as they look to make their next career move, as well as improving the employment search experience in the social media space.

UnitedHealth Group is one of two finalist for “Best Employer Brand” in the ERE awards for 2010.

You can watch Heather Polivka, the Director of Employment Branding at UnitedHealth Group talk about their employment brand and the launch of their social media program here on YouTube.

Promega Selects Horizontal Integration as its eCommerce Development Partner

POSTED ON Jan 18, 2010

Through an extensive RFP process Promega Corporation has selected Horizontal Integration as their integration partner to implement a Sitecore CMS solution that will support their next generation ecommerce web destination.

Promega is a manufacturer of enzymes and other products for biotechnology and molecular biology. Promega is a leader in providing innovative solutions and technical support to the life sciences industry. Promega Corporation’s 2,000 life science products enable scientists worldwide to advance their knowledge in life science research, particularly in genomics, proteomics, cellular analysis, and genetic identity and forensics.

Chamilia Launches its Global Resource for its Retailers

POSTED ON Nov 10, 2009

Horizontal Integration is proud to announce the launch of Chamilia’s global retailer extranet. Chamilia is a company that sells high end jewelry throughout the globe that can be customized for any occasion.

Chamilia knew that success in their jewelry category meant partnering closely with retailers and boutique owners and they addressed this need with an extranet site that made selling this personalized jewelry easier than ever for their independent retailers worldwide by providing invaluable sales tools on a Retailer Resources Center.

Horizontal Integration in partnership with Chamilia developed a technology strategy that addressed the most immediate retailer needs through the implementation of a Sitecore CMS solution. This allows for integrated disparate localized multilingual retailer resource sites and provides each retailer a single, unique log-in solution for purchasing and re-ordering of product as well. The CMS implementation allows for multi-lingual management of content so Chamilia can create, update and upload retailer support materials easily, quickly and without the cost of on-site developers. Most importantly they are now able to keep the retailers selling the products supported with up to date and brand consistent merchandising support materials

Business Journal Names Fast 50 Winners

POSTED ON Oct 23, 2009

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal on Thursday night unveiled its 2009 ranking of the 50 fastest-growing private companies in Minnesota.

Horizontal Integration was leading the list as the 4th fastest growing company with a growth rate of 299 percent since 2006 and 2008.

The average growth rate of all 50 companies is 116 percent, down from 122.7 percent in 2008. The average growth rate of the top 10 companies is 266 percent, up from 227.6 percent last year.

To read the full story in the Minneapolis St.Paul Business Journal click here

Horizontal Integration is Named to the INC. 5000 List

POSTED ON Sep 02, 2009

Minnetonka, MN – Horizontal Integration, a technology solutions company specializing in interactive marketing, business management applications, and IT staff augmentation, today announced it has been named to the Inc. 5000, Inc. magazine’s annual listing of the nation’s fastest growing private companies. Horizontal Integration’s rapid, yet controlled revenue growth over the last three years places Horizontal Integration in the top 2 fastest growing IT Services companies in Minnesota, and in the top 150 fastest growing IT Services organizations nationwide.

“It’s a tremendous honor for Horizontal Integration to be recognized for our continued financial performance,” said Sabin Ephrem, CEO of Horizontal Integration. “The fact that Horizontal Integration has been named to the Inc. 5000 list reflects our mission to provide our clients with exceptional technology solutions services and staff that are second to none. Horizontal Integration is well positioned for continued growth and success.”

To see our spot on the list click here

Molly Maid and Mr.Handyman Re-launch Websites to Better Support Franchisee Needs on a New Platform

POSTED ON Sep 01, 2009

Service Brands International is a privately held, multi-concept franchise system with worldwide headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Their portfolio of home-services brands includes category leaders Mr. Handyman, Molly Maids, 1-800-DryClean and ProTect Painters. With more than 800 franchisee content contributors to their portfolio of sites, Service Brands International had outgrown their current web platform. They were looking for a renovation.

Horizontal Integration partnered with Service Brands to launch a new platform that could be rolled out for all web properties that could handle massive content management needs from multiple points of entry. The project included an updated site design, improved site usability, as well as better search engine optimization.

The Service Brands International web destinations for Molly Maid and Mr.Handyman launched to rave reviews. The franchise sites have become the central location for customers to request service online, as a result online requests are up more than 500% since launch. As a result of search engine optimization efforts Mr. Handyman is now in the top 5 listings and Molly Maid is #1 within targeted organic search results.

Horizontal Integration is named as a "2009 Best Places to Work" by the Minneapolis/St.Paul Business Journal.

POSTED ON Aug 17, 2009

Horizontal Integration was honored as a “2009 Best Places to Work” by the Minneapolis St.Paul Business Journal a second year in a row. This award Honors 45 companies in the Twin Cities that go above and beyond the everyday when it comes to offering benefits and building a positive culture for workers.

To qualify, participants had to have an office in the Twin Cities 11-county metro area with 10 employees or more. Minnesota-based companies with offices outside the metro, but with more than 1,000 employees in the state, also were eligible.

Horizontal Integration was ranked the second best place to work in the Twin Cities in the small business category (10-100 full-time employees).

The complete list, along with profiles, employee quotes and interviews with executives, is available in the Aug. 28 issue of the Business Journal, or you can find them online by clicking here

To see the article in the Minneapolis St.Paul Business Journal in the 2009 Best Places to Work section featuring Horizontal Integration click here.

Horizontal Integration authors article for American Marketing Association

POSTED ON Aug 13, 2009

Check out the success story shared by Jeremy Langevin and Ted Johnson at Horizontal Integration on "How to Navigate Career Success in a Hostile Economy".

Read the story here.

Service Brands International selects Horizontal Integration to implement an Enterprise Content Management System

POSTED ON Jun 15, 2009

Service Brands International has chosen Horizontal Integration to deliver an end-to-end Content Management System that will allow Service Brands International employees and franchisees with a single tool to mange all web content.

Horizontal Integration was also selected to assist Service Brands International with the technical development of their redesigned Molly Maid and Mr.Handyman brand websites.

"Horizontal Integration’s premium partnership with Sitecore, a best-of-breed WCM solution, coupled with their history of successful web redesign projects, led Service Brand International’s choice of a strategic Web solutions partner” says Eric N., Director of Information Technology at Service Brands International.

About Horizontal Integration: Horizontal Integration is a web solutions firm focused on delivering exceptional online experiences for their clients. With a portfolio of services that address the entire web development lifecycle from usability review and recommendations, user experience & creative design, web development to content management and ecommerce system implementation they offer enduring strategic solutions that anticipate rather than merely react.

About Service Brands International: Service Brands International is a privately held, multi-concept franchise system with worldwide headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Their portfolio of home-services brands includes category leaders Molly Maid, Mr. Handyman,1-800-DryClean, and ProTect Painters.

General Mills Selects Horizontal Integration as a Preferred IT Staffing Vendor

POSTED ON May 29, 2009

Horizontal Integration has been selected as a preferred vendor for General Mills IS Staff Augmentation for the period beginning June 1, 2009 and ending May 31, 2012.

UnitedHealth Group launches new careers & recruiting web site

POSTED ON Apr 01, 2009

Horizontal Integration announces the launch of UnitedHealth Group’s next generation careers and recruiting web site. Based on extensive research into best practices on recruiting online and current technology trends the new revamped recruiting site delivers a compelling web experience powered by best in class technologies. The new site is created to help UnitedHealth Group attract and retain the best talent in the market place and continue to position UnitedHealth Group as a preferred employer. Horizontal Integration successfully managed the experience design, development, CMS selection and launch of the new careers and recruiting web site and a diversity web site on time and budget.

The new web sites can be viewed at http://careers.unitedhealthgroup.com

Horizontal Integration Announces its Move to a New Office

POSTED ON Feb 02, 2009

Horizontal Integration has moved into its new headquarters to the Gateway Financial Center in Minnetonka, MN located at 9800 Bren Road East.

The company is moving from its offices in Edina Minnesota.

The build out at the new offices were completed by RAK Construction and the building is owned and managed by the JLT Group.

United Health Group launches internal customer care application with Horizontal Integration

POSTED ON Nov 21, 2008

Horizontal Integration successfully designed and launched a next generation web based call center application to support the United Health Group customer care team. The application is hosted with Horizontal Integration and supports over 1500 call center agents worldwide for managing and tracking customer calls.

R.H. Donnelly Launches New Recycling Web Site in Support of their Recycle Dex Program

POSTED ON Sep 18, 2008

Horizontal Integration announces the launch of R.H. Donnelly’s next generation recycling web site. The recycling web site is a resource for finding recycling options in your area for outdated directories and facts about the positive impact of recycling. As part of their commitment to promoting environmentally-conscious practices, Recycle Dex provides, in one location, the resources environmentally conscious consumers need. ycle Dex provides, in one location, the resources environmentally conscious consumers need. Visit the website at www.dexknows.com/recycle.

Horizontal Integration is named "Best Places to Work" by the Minneapolis St.Paul Business Journal

POSTED ON Aug 15, 2008

Horizontal Integration is named as a "2008 Best Places to Work" by the Minneapolis St.Paul Business Journal.To read the full article click here.

RH Donnelly launches first of a series of web sites with Horizontal Integration to Promote the Recycling of Dex Phone Directories

POSTED ON Jul 17, 2008

Horizontal Integration announces the launch of RH Donnelly’s new recycling online resource. The site serves as a central resource for promoting recycling and limiting wasteage of paper by allowing consumers nationally to select the number of directories and the different types of phone directories they would like to receive. Not only does the web site help consumers get what they want but also protects the environment by reducing waste of paper and helps R.H. Donnelly cut costs by not overprinting directories that ultimately go unused. The new web site can be viewed at www.selectyourdex.com.

Horizontal Integration re-launches company website on Sitecore's Crestone platform

POSTED ON Jun 27, 2008

Horizontal Integration is excited to announce the re-launching of it's company website on the next version of Sitecore's Content Management System (CMS) software version 6.0 (Crestone). Sitecore finished the Crestone beta program at the end of June 2008 and announced plans that it would begin shipping its new CMS platform at the beginning of July 2008. Horizontal Integration along with a select group of customers were choosen to participate in the rollout of the beta versions of Crestone.

The Horizontal Integration development has gained considerable knowledge on Sitecore's next generation CMS software and decided to be the first to deploy an actual working website on top of Crestone. Our content writer has given favorable feedback on the new inline editing capabilities and timesaving features of Crestone.

Minnesota Business Magazine names Horizontal Integration an Emerging Company

POSTED ON Mar 05, 2008

As featured in the Minnesota Business magazine-March 2008 Edition

By Elizabeth Millard

Horizontal Integration creates a diverse yet fused trio of services to help clients make the most of the IT and business blend.

Investors know that to achieve long-term growth, stability, and success, they should diversify their portfolios. For Edina-based Horizontal Integration, they believe the same principle applies to their service offerings and operations.

Combining interactive marketing with enterprise business application development and staffing services, the firm is a consulting shop with increasing clout. Not only can clients understand how technology is affecting their business, they can also benefit from software application development, and a pool of IT-savvy and business-sharp candidates that can continue honing strategies after Horizontal Integration’s engagement. The fusion is a crucial one in the current corporate environment, where mission-critical applications don’t just hold data in a static form, but also act as dynamic drivers of customer retention, marketing strategy, sales efforts, and business goal creation. Executives may still be the drivers of overall operation, but applications that can bring data together and supply a holistic..........
To see the full article click here.

Federal Reserve Bank launches its new web presence

POSTED ON Jan 09, 2008

Horizontal Integration announces the launch of www.frbservices.org. The Federal Reserve Bank, the central bank of the United States of America was founded in 1913 to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system. In addition to its role in monetary policy and banking supervision in the US, each Federal Reserve Bank acts as a bank for the banks and as a fiscal agent or bank for the federal government.

Horizontal Integration successfully managed the re-design, development and delivered another on-time and on budget launch of the new website for the Federal Reserve Bank.

Uponor Launches its new Web presence

POSTED ON Oct 11, 2007

Horizontal Integration announces the launch of www.uponor-usa.com. Uponor, formerly know as Wirsbo, is a billion dollar manufacturer and supplier of plumbing, heating and fire safety systems for residential and commercial applications with operations in more than 20 countries throughout the world.

Horizontal Integration successfully managed the design, development and delivered another on-time and on budget launch of the new look and feel for www.uponor-usa.com. The site was developed from scratch on the Microsoft .Net platform running in a VMware virtual environment utilizing an Oracle database backed and managed by an enterprise content management solution from Sitecore.

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