Innovation Service Center assisted 225 businesses in 2003
Released: April 12, 2004
In its 23rd year of service to businesses and entrepreneurs, the Wisconsin Innovation Service Center (WISC) provided a variety of research and services to 225 businesses in 2003, according to its newly released annual report.
WISC, located at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, provides such services as new product assessments, marketing assessments, competitor intelligence and customer satisfaction analyses. Since its creation in 1981, WISC has assisted more than 7,000 entrepreneurs, inventors, small manufacturers and technology companies.
One 2003 client, Store-N-Save of Sun Prairie, turned to WISC to conduct research on its new STAR storage system, which allows customers to rent storage facilities without having to meet with storage managers. The STAR system also uses a series of video cameras and phone lines that allows the user to be “on site” while a storage manager is at a remote site, monitoring other storage sites at the same time.
Store-N-Save owners said they felt the STAR system offered a unique convenience to customers, but needed the researchers at WISC to determine the comfort level customers had with the new system. The WISC research found that consumers thought the system was time-saving and easy to use. Given those results, Store-N-Save redirected its market development plans.
“Based on WISC’s research results, Store-N-Save has been on track to double the size of its business in a little over two years,” said Larry Jenkins, Store-N-Save CEO. The research, Jenkins said, “was an indispensable aid to Store-N-Save’s success.”
Ray Harter, Founder of Marvel Medtech, a company based in Cross Plains, was introduced to a new device that would make MRI breast scans more accurate while simplifying the positioning procedure for radiologists. Harter said he’d heard about WISC from a colleague at UW-Madison.
The research done by WISC helped Harter to decide whether or not to proceed with his start-up project.
“The market assessment I received from WISC was invaluable in focusing me in the right direction,” Harter said.
Jenkins’ and Harter’s satisfaction with WISC’s work is the norm, according to Debra Malewicki, director of WISC. “We continually have client satisfaction ratings in the high 90 percent range,” she said. More than 80 percent of WISC’s clients come from professional and personal recommendations, Malewicki added.
WISC has a wide array of expert consultants from experts in industry, universities, technical colleges, federal labs and private companies across the country, Malewicki pointed out. Last year, WISC linked more than 60 clients to these specialists.
“Each year we’re able to recruit more experts to our list of consultants,” Malewicki said. “We’ve got hundreds of specialists across the nation who are able to connect with our clients. Our clients tell us time and time again what a huge help that is when they’re making business decisions.”
Since its creation in 1981, WISC has helped more than 6,500 entrepreneurs, inventors and manufacturers make successful new product and marketing decisions. The office relies on a network of expert consultants from diverse backgrounds, including industry, universities and federal labs, to provide advice on new product markets.
WISC also employs UW-Whitewater business students who gain “hands-on” experience in a wide range of business tasks. Students, with guidance from WISC’s professional staff, do much of the legwork to help clients with product and market development decisions.
- Karen Kachel,lkkach@hotmail.com
