O'Donnell & Associates
Encyclopedia
O’Donnell & Associates is a comprehensive publishing services firm with clients in the education and information industries, with a focus on higher education
. The firm is located in Stamford
, CT and was founded in 1990 by Carrie O’Donnell. OD&A develops educational products. The company specializes in market development
, product development, and production.
O’Donnell & Associates is one of the few firms that offers a full array of publishing services, including project management, editorial development, market development
, and market research
, end-to-end product development, and consulting
.
OD&A is structured as a virtual company, including project managers, experts in editorial and product development, market research and marketing, and technology. This team works alongside onshore and offshore providers for production. OD&A brings subject matter experts into projects as needed, and uses recruiters to locate and recruit experts.
s, surveys, conjoint analysis
, in-depth interviews, usability lab
s, developmental workshops, and virtual focus groups on behalf of their clients. The company has experience conducting market development activities with both faculty and students, as well as other key industry stakeholders. OD&A also provides competitive analysis, SWOT analysis
, needs assessments, and market intelligence
for its clients.
OD&A also helps clients launch products into the market, conducting research to develop and test messages, orchestrating pilot tests, monitoring customer satisfaction, and initiating market seeding activities.
Some of O’Donnell’s product development services include:
, website development, supplement
development, media and video supplements, text permissions, photo research and art permissions.
conference
that covers topics in publishing and higher education
. Higher Ed Café features an interview with Carrie O'Donnell, herself, in which she discussed why she started ODA:
:
College Student Opinion Panel, a student database operated via Facebook. The group is composed of students who are interested in participating in market research activities and eager to assist O'Donnell in future development endeavors. Membership grew to over 900 students in 2 months time and the facebook grew has nearly 400 members.
. Some of their clients include:
Association of American Publishers
Blackboard Inc.
Cengage Learning
ESI International
Expanded Learning Voyage
Flat World Knowledge
Harcourt Brace Publishers
HarperCollins
Harvard Business School Publishing
Hewlett Packard Company
Impact Planning Group
MathSoft Engineering & Education
McDougal Littell
McGraw-Hill, Inc
Microsoft Press
Oxford University Press
Pearson Education
PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLC
Primedia, Inc.
The Princeton Review
ProQuest
Simba Information, Inc.
Stockton Press
Thinkwell
UOL Publishing/VCampus
Von Holtzprinck
Vista Higher Learning
WiZeUp.com
Wolters Kluwer
XanEdu.com
Yale University Press
OD&A has also worked for clients outside the education industry, including research for the Stamford public schools, and for players in the Stamford
political arena.
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
. The firm is located in Stamford
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
, CT and was founded in 1990 by Carrie O’Donnell. OD&A develops educational products. The company specializes in market development
Market development
A market development strategy targets non-buying customers in currently targeted segments. It also targets new customers in new segments. A marketing manager has to think about the following questions before implementing a market development strategy: Is it profitable? Will it require the...
, product development, and production.
O’Donnell & Associates is one of the few firms that offers a full array of publishing services, including project management, editorial development, market development
Market development
A market development strategy targets non-buying customers in currently targeted segments. It also targets new customers in new segments. A marketing manager has to think about the following questions before implementing a market development strategy: Is it profitable? Will it require the...
, and market research
Market research
Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy...
, end-to-end product development, and consulting
Consultant
A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...
.
OD&A is structured as a virtual company, including project managers, experts in editorial and product development, market research and marketing, and technology. This team works alongside onshore and offshore providers for production. OD&A brings subject matter experts into projects as needed, and uses recruiters to locate and recruit experts.
Market Development & Project Management
O'Donnell & Associates' market development technique revolves around cultivating a relationship with a target panel of potential customers. OD&A works with this panel to simultaneously shape the product (or strategy) and cultivate loyal adopters. OD&A conducts focus groupFocus group
A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging...
s, surveys, conjoint analysis
Conjoint analysis
Conjoint analysis, also called multi-attribute compositional models or stated preference analysis, is a statistical technique that originated in mathematical psychology. Today it is used in many of the social sciences and applied sciences including marketing, product management, and operations...
, in-depth interviews, usability lab
Usability lab
A Usability lab is a place where Usability testing is done. It is an environment where users are studied interacting with a system for the sake of evaluating the system's usability....
s, developmental workshops, and virtual focus groups on behalf of their clients. The company has experience conducting market development activities with both faculty and students, as well as other key industry stakeholders. OD&A also provides competitive analysis, SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses/Limitations, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture...
, needs assessments, and market intelligence
Market intelligence
Market intelligence can refer to*Marketing Intelligence - commercial information for marketing purposes*Market Intelligence - a form of market research and analysis...
for its clients.
OD&A also helps clients launch products into the market, conducting research to develop and test messages, orchestrating pilot tests, monitoring customer satisfaction, and initiating market seeding activities.
Content & Product Development
OD&A specializes in helping to create products that are responsive to dynamic market conditions. These products incorporate a real world environment into the learning process, while providing immediate feedback and quality assessment.Some of O’Donnell’s product development services include:
- Packaging/Educational Product Development: Called the “End-to-End Publishing Solution, OD&A will shepherd a product or group of products throughout its lifecycle. From concept development to market–ready delivery. OD&A manages the process from author acquisition, to prototyping and product design, to content development and production, and into the product launch and revision.
- Instructional Design: Design that aids in the learning process.
- Content Acquisition: The process of locating and securing content for publication.
- Content Reviewing and Peer Reviews: OD&A will recruit reviews and then manage the review process.
- Author or SME (subject matter expert) acquisition and management: OD&A recruits and manages authors, writers, and content experts.
Production
Production is the third phase in the End-to-End publishing process. It is where the ideas from market and product development materialize into a final, polished product. OD&A oversees all phases of production, including manuscript preparation, pre-press print production, copyediting and proofreadingProofreading
Proofreading is the reading of a galley proof or computer monitor to detect and correct production-errors of text or art. Proofreaders are expected to be consistently accurate by default because they occupy the last stage of typographic production before publication.-Traditional method:A proof is...
, website development, supplement
Supplement (publishing)
A supplement is a publication that has a role secondary to that of another preceding or concurrent publication.A follow-on publication complements its predecessor, either by bringing it up-to-date , or by otherwise enhancing the predecessor's coverage of a particular topic or subject matter, as in...
development, media and video supplements, text permissions, photo research and art permissions.
Consulting
O'Donnell & Associates offers consulting services for strategic management and process development. Some consulting services include creating a market development process, business planning, market planning, building a customer pipeline, and list management.Publicity
O’Donnell & Associates was one of the Friend sponsors of the 2009 Association of American University PressesAssociation of American University Presses
The Association of American University Presses is an association of mostly, but not exclusively, North American university presses...
conference
O'Donnell in the News
An article by Carrie O’Donnell, Preparing Your Computer for E-Learning was reprinted in Inc Magazine. In it, she discusses the need for growing companies to dedicate time to training new employees. This, she says, often takes a backseat to product delivery and an “e-learning system can help you over come this problem by providing reusable and easily updated training modules.”Higher Ed Café
O'Donnell & Associates is the founder of Higher Ed Café, a blogBlog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
that covers topics in publishing and higher education
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
. Higher Ed Café features an interview with Carrie O'Donnell, herself, in which she discussed why she started ODA:
She also discussed future trends in higher education
When I started OD&A 19 years ago, I thought that technology was going to change the business, and that we, as an industry, were not set up to be customer-oriented during this change. I wanted to create a business that could help publishers focus on customers to shape product and strategy, and to build loyalty. As the industry started outsourcing to companies like ours, we moved into full service development and comprehensive publishing services.
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
:
I see a groundswell of process change across the industry with people and companies trying to be more streamlined. And the processes are going to continue to change because technology requires that you go back to the drawing board all the time. The other thing I see is an increase in customer-centric behavior in Higher Ed—a trend that is just beginning to creep into other segments of our industry such as university presses and professional publishers.
Student Opinion Panel
OD&A created the FacebookFacebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
College Student Opinion Panel, a student database operated via Facebook. The group is composed of students who are interested in participating in market research activities and eager to assist O'Donnell in future development endeavors. Membership grew to over 900 students in 2 months time and the facebook grew has nearly 400 members.
Clients
O’Donnell & Associates clients are education information content providers, mostly in higher educationHigher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
. Some of their clients include:
Association of American Publishers
Association of American Publishers
The Association of American Publishers is the national trade association of the American book publishing industry. AAP has more than 300 members, including most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly...
Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard Inc.
Blackboard Inc. is an enterprise software company with its corporate headquarters in Washington, D.C. and is primarily known as a developer of education software, in particular learning management systems. Blackboard was founded by CEO Michael Chasen and chairman Matthew Pittinsky in 1997 and...
Cengage Learning
Cengage Learning
Cengage Learning is a publisher of print and digital information services for the academic, professional and library markets, and delivers customized learning solutions for colleges, universities, professors, students, libraries, government agencies, corporations and professionals around the...
ESI International
ESI International
ESI International, Inc. is a provider of learning-based solutions focused on skills training and consulting in project management, program management, business analysis, business skills and contract management....
Expanded Learning Voyage
Flat World Knowledge
Flat World Knowledge
Flat World Knowledge is a publisher of college-level open textbooks and educational supplements founded in 2007 by Eric Frank and Jeff Shelstad. Company headquarters are in Irvington, New York. As of December 2010, the publisher has over 74 textbooks in development or published. Flat World...
Harcourt Brace Publishers
Harcourt (publisher)
Harcourt was a United States publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for children and adults. The company was based in San Diego, California, with an Editorial / Sales / Marketing / Rights offices in New York City and Orlando, Florida.In 2007, the U.S...
HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
Harvard Business School Publishing
Harvard Business School Publishing
Harvard Business Publishing was founded in 1994 as a not-for-profit, wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University. Its mission is to improve the practice of management and its impact in a changing world. The company consists of three market groups: Higher Education, Corporate Learning, and Harvard...
Hewlett Packard Company
Impact Planning Group
MathSoft Engineering & Education
Mathsoft
MathSoft was founded in 1984 by Allen Razdow and David Blohm to provide mathematical programs to students, teachers, and professionals. The company became most famous for its Mathcad software, a powerful application for solving and visualizing mathematical problems...
McDougal Littell
McGraw-Hill, Inc
McGraw-Hill
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., is a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Rockefeller Center in New York City. Its primary areas of business are financial, education, publishing, broadcasting, and business services...
Microsoft Press
Microsoft Press
Microsoft Press is the publishing arm of Microsoft, usually releasing books dealing with various current Microsoft technologies. Microsoft Press' first introduced books were The Apple Macintosh Book by Cary Lu and Exploring the IBM PC by Peter Norton in 1984 at the West Coast Computer Faire...
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
Pearson Education
Pearson Education
Pearson Education is an international educational publishing and technology company providing textbooks and other educational material, such as multimedia learning tools...
PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLC
PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest professional services firm measured by revenues and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms....
Primedia, Inc.
Primedia
PRIMEDIA Inc. is privately held American media company fully owned by TPG Capital.Consumer Source Inc. is the sole operating division of PRIMEDIA and helps millions of consumers find apartments, houses for rent, and new homes for sale through its Internet, mobile, and print products...
The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review is an American-based standardized test preparation and admissions consulting company. The Princeton Review operates in 41 states and 22 countries across the globe. It offers test preparation for standardized aptitude tests such as the SAT and advice regarding college...
ProQuest
ProQuest
ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based electronic publisher and microfilm publisher.It provides archives of sources such as newspapers, periodicals, dissertations, and aggregated databases of many types. Its content is estimated at 125 billion digital pages...
Simba Information, Inc.
Stockton Press
Thinkwell
UOL Publishing/VCampus
VCampus
VCampus Corporation, once known as University Online , specializes in providing certification offerings for non-profit, government and profit-based certifications. As University Online, the company was involved in the historically significant PLATO project.-External links:...
Von Holtzprinck
Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group
Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck is a Stuttgart-based publishing holding company which owns publishing companies worldwide. Holtzbrinck has published everything from Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses to classics by Agatha Christie, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway and John Updike...
Vista Higher Learning
WiZeUp.com
Wolters Kluwer
Wolters Kluwer
Wolters Kluwer N.V. is a global information services and publishing company. The company provides products and services for professionals in the health, tax, accounting, corporate, financial services, legal and regulatory sectors...
XanEdu.com
Yale University Press
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remains financially and operationally autonomous....
OD&A has also worked for clients outside the education industry, including research for the Stamford public schools, and for players in the Stamford
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
political arena.