News
TechDays Belgium 2012, the Double Digit Edit10n – learnings from Sofie (17 February 2012)
Although they celebrated their 10th edition already , it was only my first visit at the TechDays. Three days of new Microsoft technologies with many national and international speakers, some Microsoft employees and other Microsoft Partners.
There was a lot to talk about this year with the upcoming releases of Visual Studio 11, ASP.NET 4.5, C# 5, VB 11, SQL Server 12, etc. Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president in Microsoft's Server and Tools Business, started the development track on Tuesday, giving a very interactive session about ASP.NET MVC 4.
Other speakers like Bart De Smet, Jeff Prosise and Maarten Balliau handed over some new ideas to implement in future releases of solutions-2-web and in upcoming apps for iPhone, iPad and the Windows Phone.
Thanks to the very amusing session by Rob Milles we now know how quick you can create a basic app for the Windows Phone.
The third day we took a deep dive into various new techniques. U2U sent two of their trainers to show us around new tooling and code standards.
As you see, a lot of new information which we can evaluate and try out in our own products in the upcoming months. Can't wait to start!
More info about the new Microsoft tools on www.microsoft.com.
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Sofie at Microsoft TechDays Belgium 2012 (10 February 2012)
On February 14, 15 and 16, Sofie will join the 10 anniversary of the Microsoft TechDays in Belgium. Year after year, thousands of technology experts join this event to share knowledge and experience with other professionals.
The TechDays are the biggest technical event in Belgium and Luxembourgh, where industry experts are brought together to deliver high quality technical sessions. This year, the pool of speakers consists of a nice mix of international and local experts, including members of the Microsoft Product teams.
As the event is sold out by now, we’ll give you an update afterwards about the highlights and key learnings of this seminar.
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Masterclass ´The Pricing Toolbox Advanced´ (8 February 2012)
In-Depth training in pricing from expert in-the-field Nicole Huyghe
Due to the success of this training session in 2011, Nicole will give another session of trainings in pricing research this year.
In this toolbox, we will show you which pricing research methods are available to determine the right price level.
I.e. the price level resulting in long term growth, both in terms of volume and profit.
During the two days, you will get an extensive overview of all tools which are available within pricing research,
ranging from simple methods such as monadic price testing to more advanced conjoint techniques.
Each method will be discussed in detail using plenty of case studies covering a variety of industry sectors.
At the end of the two days the attendees will be able to select those tools that are most
applicable for them based on a good understanding of what these tools will bring to their business.
Learn more about this training on
www.pricingplatform.eu.
To sign up for this training click here.
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Learnings from the CBS data visualisation seminar (6 February 2012)
Data visualisation is everywhere. If you ask us, it might even become one of the hottest topics in 2012 in market research. Reason enough to let us inspire at the CBS visualization congress.
Growth of data visualisation
- There is more data available around us.
- More sectors have discovered the benefits of strong infographics. Not only news media, but also public information campaigns, advertising and culture show marks of visualization.
- Tools become more intuitive and require less programming skills.
Function versus art versus interactivity
- It’s all about the purpose: do we want our infographics to be functional or just to draw attention.
- Interactivity is nice, but we are no super humans. It is a balancing exercise between fun, usefulness and comprehensibility.
Data journalism
- Journalism is desperately looking for possibilities to deal with the growing universe of data. The sector needs a cross-fertilization of journalists telling the story, designers making the numbers visual and statisticians verifying the conclusions.
- As Thomas Clever said: “Data visualisation gives insights in complexity. Strong visualisations are insightful, engaging, usable, desirable and effective.
Concluding with Bas Broekhuizen: “Data visualisation is about showing information in ways people both enjoy and understand”.
The CBS data visualization congress took place on Friday February 3rd in Den Haag.
The speakers and their background can be found here.
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First day for our colleague Yorick (1 February 2012)
Today, Yorick joined solutions-2. Together with Sofie, he is now part of the solutions-2-web team. And as if Yorick joining us isn’t enough of a reason to celebrate, it is also his 27th birthday today.
Congratulations!
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The third of February, Nicole and Jolien will be attending a data visualisation seminar in Den Haag (NL). (26 January 2012)
The amount of data available in every sector has increased substantially in the past year and will continue its growth in the years to come. Finding a way to show the key insights of data in a both clear and attractive way, is one of the challenges the future holds for market research.
Solutions-2 will soon launch a new product, data visualization. With our knowledge of statistics & data and our stylish eye, we want to prove that data can be reported in an aesthetically-pleasing way and still highlight the most important results. To get even more inspiration, we are going to the data visualisation seminar in Den Haag on the third of February.
More information about the seminar can be found on www.datavisualisatiesinbeweging.nl.
As the website is in Dutch only, we’ll keep you posted about the interesting speakers and topics discussed. Follow solutions-2 on twitter with hashtag #cbsdatavis2012.
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Nicole and Anita at Sawtooth Conference (20 January 2012)
From the 21st to the 23rd of March, Nicole and Anita will be presenting at the Sawtooth Conference in Orlando (Florida).
They will be talking about the business value of Soft cluster ensembles versus Hard cluster ensembles. Cluster ensembles have emerged as a prominent method for getting better segmentations, but little is known about the pro’s and con’s of Hard vs. Soft cluster ensembles. Most cluster ensembles are Hard cluster ensembles, because they combine segment labels form multiple cluster solutions. Our experience has taught us that combining segment membership probabilities in Soft cluster ensembles, is just as simple but surprisingly far less common.
Solutions-2 applied both techniques on real industry data and simulated data. Their experiments revealed that in some cases the Soft cluster ensemble is preferable to a Hard cluster ensemble.
During the presentation, Anita and Nicole will further talk about the benefits of both techniques in different settings.
For more information about the possibilities of hard en soft clustering, please contact Anita@solutions2.be.
For more details about the program and registration of the Sawtooth conference, check out
www.sawtoothsoftware.com.
Remember to follow solutions-2 via our twitterfeed during the entire conference!
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Countdown to our new office (16 December 2011)
The move to our new office is coming closer every day. We are planning to move in by the end of Februari.
 Yes, there is even a roof now! And our view-to-the-world window is forming. While the work men are making some nice progress, solutions-2 is already busy planning the opening event. We will keep you posted about the dates and activities for this inspiring day!
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Training opportunities keep a company innovative (15 December 2011)
Three of our colleagues are attending a two-day javascript training course. JavaScript is the scripting language of the Web.
Hopefully they will come back with new and fresh ideas for improving the layout of and the programming behind our surveys and tools.
Innovation-minded as we want to be, we work at knowledge and skills at solutions-2!
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The growing solutions-2-web team (12 December 2011)
The start of 2012 brings good news to solutions-2 and especially to our solutions-2-web team, as we warmly welcome Yorick Phlypo.
As of February, Yorick will be part of our team, working together with Sofie T’Kindt on our solutions-2-web products. Yorick graduated as a graphic designer (Sint-Lucas) in 2007, and continued his studies with a year PHP-development. After his studies, he worked for two years as a web designer, first at Duo (Bruges) and later at ?Jep! (Ghent).
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‘New people, new products & new offices’, our strategy day in conclusion (1 December 2011)
On November 22, we had a team-strategy day, where we discussed our strategy for the coming years. It was an inspiring day, where the new people joining our team, the new products to be offered to our clients and the new offices were at the core of this day.
With Moira and Karen, our team recently welcomed two new statistical analysts. To further enhance the team skills, we also hired Karin Bruyr, as Business Development Manager. With her extensive client –side experience (telecom and automotive industry), she will assist us in reaching out to new clients. We also warmly welcome Cedric Aubrion (yes indeed, he’s a man!). Cedric is a graphic designer and founder of Lessmore, an independent design practice in Brussels. He will assist us with the development of our visualisation service.
The future will also bring new challenges when it comes to new products and services. Besides our existing statistical analyses services and solutions-2-web reporting, we’ll launch a data visualisation service and will also be offering an advanced tabulation service to our clients.
A growing team requires new places to work. We already announced the progress of our new office where we’ll be moving to at the end of Feb 2012. But besides our new Belgian office, we are happy to announce that in spring 2012, we’ll also open an office in London.
Exciting plans for the future! To be continued....
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Wouter Lagauw will join our solutions-2-web team in March 2012 (30 November 2011)
In March, we will welcome Wouter Lagauw who will do an internship at solutions-2.
During a period of 11 weeks, he will work together with our BI developer Sofie on solutions-2-web, our online reporting tool, and on several web-applications.
Wouter is currently doing his masters in Commercial Sciences, Management and IT. Being a driven IT’er, he combines his studies with freelance work as a webdesigner and IT consultant.
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Masterclass ´The Pricing Toolbox Advanced´ (25 November 2011)
In-Depth training from Expert in-the-field Nicole Huyghe
12/12/2011 & 13/12/2011 - Husa Presidentpark, Brussels, BELGIUM.
In this toolbox, we will show you which pricing research methods are available to determine the right price level. I.e. the price level resulting in long term growth, both in terms of volume and profit.
During the two days, you will get an extensive overview of all tools which are available within pricing research, ranging from simple methods such as monadic price testing to more advanced conjoint techniques.
Each method will be discussed in detail using plenty of case studies covering a variety of industry sectors.
At the end of the two days the attendees will be able to select those tools that are most applicable for them based on a good understanding of what these tools will bring to their business.
Learn more about this training at www.pricingplatform.eu
Sign up for this training
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Solutions-2 is proud to now have two fully trained Menu Based Conjoint users (4 November 2011)
Menu Based conjoint is a new and innovative trade-off methodology. The technique has already found its applications in numerous sectors (pharma, automotive, telecoms, finance, FMCG, ...).
At solutions-2 we recently applied this technique for optimising a digital TV offering for TalkTalk. Using the insights and experience we draw from this project, Nicole gave a presentation about MBC at the SKIM congress in Vienna (Oct 2011).
So after a week of practical workshops and inspiring presentations from other MBC-users at the SKIM congress, and armed with our in house expertise, we are totally ready to use this new methodology.
For more details on this new and promising methodology and its benefits please contact Lieve Audoorn (lieve@solutions2.be) or Nicole Huyghe (nicole@solutions2.be).
Interested in Nicole’s MBC presentation? You can check and download it here:
www.slideshare.net/solutions-2/skim-congress-vienna-2011-mbc-by-solutions2-and-talktalk
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Welcome at solutions-2, Karen and Moira! (31 October 2011)
On November 7th, Moira and Karen will join the solutions-2 team.
Karen was born in Canada, but currently lives in Leuven. She previously worked for IPSOS, where she learned the tricks of the market research trade. She graduated in 2007 as a bachelor of science in applied mathematics (Calgary University), followed by a master degree in Marketing Analysis (Ghent University).
Moira graduated as a Master in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2009, after which she successfully completed a Master in Biostatistics. During her studies, she worked for 5 months as an intern at the University of Paris.
Moira and Karen will both have a function as statistical analysts at solutions-2.
We are looking forward to have the international influence of both girls in our solutions-2 team!
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Nicole and Lieve @SKIM congress Vienna from 25th to 29th of October (25 October 2011)
Nicole and Lieve are attending the SKIM congress in Vienna from October 25 to October 28.
Nicole will give a presentation about the Optimisation of Digital TV offering through Menu Based Conjoint, together with John Irwing from TalkTalk.
Follow solutions-2 during training sessions and presentations on twitter (#SKIMEvent2011 #conjoint #MRX)!
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Sawtooth Conference 2012: Anita and Nicole about Soft vs. Hard Cluster Ensembles (20 October 2011)
Anita and Nicole represent solutions-2 at the Sawtooth Conference 2012 in Orlando (FL). During the presentation, they will inspire their audience with recently gained insights and experience in “soft” vs. “hard” cluster ensembles.
Clustering and segmentation techniques are intensively used market research techniques. The paper Anita and Nicole will present will focus on the Cluster Ensemble approach. Most cluster ensembles are so called “hard” cluster ensembles, because they combine segment labels form multiple cluster solutions. Our experience has taught us that combining segment membership probabilities in “soft” cluster ensembles, is just as simple but surprisingly far less common.
In the run-up to the Sawtooth Conference, we applied both techniques on several real life datasets. This practice did provide us insights in the advantages and disadvantages of both cluster ensembles variants. During the presentation, Anita and Nicole will discuss the decision making process to conclude in which situations “soft” cluster ensembles are superior to the standard practice of “hard” cluster ensembles.
“What’s in a Label? Business Value of ‘Soft’ vs ‘Hard’ Cluster Ensembles” by Nicole Huyghe and Anita Prinzie
more information about the Sawtooth conference and other presentations on http://www.sawtoothsoftware.com/education/conf12.shtml#confsched
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Ruby tabulation software at solutions-2 (29 September 2011)
Solutions-2 works with Ruby, a new and powerful tabulation software package.
Standing still is to backslide. At solutions-2, we constantly aim to improve our research and analysis methods. That’s why we introduce Ruby, a powerful tabulation software package. Ruby has the ability to import, tabulate and export an almost limitless number of variables and respondents and present its results in clear tables. Complementary to its power of running large sized tables, Ruby offers numerous statistical advantages. The software delivers excellent results at applying rim weighting and different significance indicators and has promising references for market tracking. Besides these tabulation functions, it can handle standard statistical analyses (e.g. correspondence analysis and CHAID) as well as more advanced techniques, using the free R statistics package.
For more information about Ruby software, click here (www.redcentresoftware.com).
If you have any questions about the possibilities to run advanced tables for your project using Ruby software, contact Nicole@solutions2.be.
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Solutions-2 at #esoCONG (20 September 2011)
Nicole is attending the Esomar congress in Amsterdam (18-21 september 2011). You can follow her and find out which presentations she liked on Twitter and #esoCONG.
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Solutions-2 is looking for a quantitative researcher (18 September 2011)
Discover, Grow and share our passion for numbers
We are looking for enthousiastic people who want to join our solutions-2 team. You get the opportunity to learn and develop new skills and work for international clients in an enjoyable and small team of people who share your passion for numbers.
Check out the function description and job offer here
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Interview with Professor economics Schoors (University of Ghent) (7 September 2011)
We asked Professor of Economics Koen Schoors how he sees the impact of the credit crisis on market research agencies. There are some difficult years to come for most sectors, he says. However, he believes that there still will be projects for research agencies. That is because companies cannot neglect this stategic needs. Read the whole interview here.
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Solutions-2 gives aCRM workshop (16 August 2011)
The 17th of August, Nicole and Anita will give a workshop about aCRM (analytic consumer relationship management)/Business Intelligence, organized by Prof. Dr. Dirk Van den Poel, professor marketing at the University of Ghent.
Solutions-2 will discuss a number of price setting and profit optimization techniques, but expectations are particularly high for the exposition about consumer-journey identification. Consumer-journey identification is a recent technique that by asking a couple of simple questions, allows a company to identify where a consumer is located in the buying process. This technique would for most brands result in an enormous step towards individual marketing, which is believed to be the ultimate future in marketing techniques. A fascinating subject that definitely will be continued…
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We proudly welcome Koen, our junior business intelligence developer. (19 July 2011)
After his master degree in History (2009), Koen graduated at the University of Ghent as a master in Sociology (2011). Koen will assist Sofie (BI developer) with the further development of solutions-2-web. Solutions-2-web is our online and fully interactive reporting tool, bringing the presentation of statistical results to a next level.
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Solutions-2 will present at the next SKIM conference in Vienna on October 28th (13 July 2011)
Nicole Huyghe, an expert in conjoint methodologies, will give a joint presentation with John Irwin from TalkTalk. They will talk about the Optimisation of Digital TV offering through Menu Based Conjoint.
MBC (Menu Based Conjoint) is a very new conjoint methodology. The presentation will outline the objectives of the research, the reasoning behind having chosen MBC over the other approaches (such as CBC or ACBC) and how the results helped to shape TalkTalk’s offer.
More details on the conference can be found on http://www.skimgroup.com/skim-event-2011.
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Launch of social media @ solutions-2#mrc (16 June 2011)
“If content is king, then conversation is queen”. This quote by John Munsell convinced solutions-2 of the power of social media. Dozens of ideas to share, hundreds of success stories, millions of things to discover!
  
Have a look at our linkedIn page or follow us on twitter. Subscribe to our RSS-feed so you stay up to date when new content appears on our website. Furthermore, you now can make a suggestion for our new book of the month or even add your own review.
Let us know if you like it!
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solutions-2 moves into new offices in 2012 (1 June 2011)
At the beginning of next year, solutions-2 will move into a brand new office.
The new office will be the new working place for our eight-member team. It is just a couple of steps away from the current office and it is very close to the Ooidonk Castle.
 Although it is still a construction site at this moment, it is rapidly progressing.
 More pictures to follow in the next few months.
As of January 2012, you can find us at the Leernsesteenweg 225, 9800 Bachte-Maria-Leerne.
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“How (not) to wow an audience” by Anita and Nicole on the 3th Inspiration Run (20 May 2011)
solutions-2 presents at the 3rd Research Inspiration Run – May 17th
 Title of the edition 2011 was “WOW in market research”. Instead of giving the word to one or two speakers, the evening consisted of a pecha kucha. This is a young and fancy concept of presenting. Every speaker can only bring along 20 slides and each slide is shown for 20 seconds. Key is to force the speaker to be short, innovative and original, but still bringing across the key elements of their presentation.
Although all speakers shed an inspiring light on innovative ways of marketing research, those of the superpromotor and the working of our brain gathered most of our attention. The first stressed the benefits of turning brand-consumers into brand-promoters. By constantly spreading positive news, the superpromotor becomes the most powerful resource of a brand. The second showed in 10 steps how the human brain is working and which highly advanced techniques allow scientists to understand this amazing process.
 Anita and Nicole from solutions-2 brought along their vision of ‘how to WOW’ the audience with do’s and don’ts when giving powerpoint presentations. With some before-and-after slides, they clearly showed how sticking to the key can strengthen an exposition. Anita gave a subtle but yet amusing interpretation of this recommendation. She started the presentation, overloaded with an extra jacket, jewelry and accessories, and gradually removed the irrelevant parts of her outfit, revealing the “key” of her clothing style. Some men in the audience let us know that for once, they would have accepted if the presentation had 40 slides.
Febelmar (the Belgian federation of market research institutions) is the most important organization for market researchers in Belgium. www.febelmar.be
BAQMaR is the Belgian Association for Quantitative & Qualitative Marketing Research. This young and dynamic organization has set ‘Making research cool again’ as its main goal. www.baqmar.be
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Two new recruits at solutions-2 (27 April 2011)
Solutions-2 hired Jolien Verheust as statistical analyst. She will graduate as communication scientist by the end of June (Ghent University). Yet, being as busy as a bee, she joins our team already on May 9th!
Solutions-2’s team will even grow to eight people! Koen Van der Bracht starts as junior business intelligence developer on July 19th. He will assist Sofie T’Kindt, BI developer, with our successful online reporting-tool solutions-2-web.
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solutions-2 presents at the 3rd Research Inspiration Run – May 17th (27 April 2011)
Solutions-2 will present at the 3rd Research Inspiration Run on May 17th (7 p.m. @B19, organized by BAQMaR and Febelmar).
We will share how solutions-2 gives clients a WOW feeling. As statistics are a dry subject, solutions-2 pays a lot of attention to how to presenting results as ready to bite appetising meals. Clients easily get the message and are surprised by how graphs can tell the story for them. Thus our clients are eager to share statistical insights with their clients even if they are not statistical experts!
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Masterclass ´The Pricing Toolbox Advanced´ (16 March 2011)
In-Depth training from Expert in-the-field Nicole Huyghe
25/05/2011 & 26/05/2011 - Domein Martinus, Antwerp (Belgium)
In this toolbox, we will show you which pricing research methods are available to determine the right price level. I.e. the price level resulting in long term growth, both in terms of volume and profit.
During the two days, you will get an extensive overview of all tools which are available within pricing research, ranging from simple methods such as monadic price testing to more advanced conjoint techniques.
Each method will be discussed in detail using plenty of case studies covering a variety of industry sectors.
At the end of the two days the attendees will be able to select those tools that are most applicable for them based on a good understanding of what these tools will bring to their business.
Learn more about this training | Sign up for this training
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Lessons learnt from the “New Product Development Research” conference (14 March 2011)
On March 9th, Nicole Huyghe attended the “New Product Development Research” conference organized by the MRS in London.
The conference focused on how companies, such as Nokia, Kerry Foods, TalkTalk and Innocence incorporate consumer insights into their innovation development processes.
Nicole took away three learnings:
- Successful idea generation is more likely to happen when co-creating. During the conference, co-creation projects mainly tailored for qualitative research involving consumers, researchers and clients were discussed in detail. The same principle can also be applied for quant projects as well as for generating new research approaches. At solutions-2, we are very much in favour of involving our clients when taking statistical analysis techniques a level further.
- David Penn, Managing Director of Conquest Research reminded us that customers think and act both emotional and rational. Quant research very often only captures the latter especially when measuring take-up of a new product. David also showed how using avatars can help to register emotional feelings avoiding traditional scale questions.
- Joe Goyder, Head of Insight for Innovation at Innocent, stressed the importance of the environment in which innovation needs to be stimulated. Spontaneous as well as more structured innovations will be more easily generated when the atmosphere in which employees work stimulates free thinking. This can vary from organizing small but cool events, working in a fun office environment, allowing time for innovative thinking, …
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Solutions-2 enjoyed the Febelmar Happening (4 March 2011)
On Monday February 28th the solutions-2 team attended the Febelmar Happening.
At the reception our new banner had its premiere. Thanks to all for visiting our stand! We really enjoyed the chat!
We very much liked the presentations from Nicolas Lambert (Alken-Maes) and Johan van Dijk (Duvel Moortgat). We took away three key messages (there might have been more though):
- Companies need to collect data providing a 360° view rather than a partial view in order to prevent drawing terribly wrong conclusions.
- Market research insights should inspire marketing managers to find the final solution.
- Marketing managers should complement insights from market research mainly relying on panels with other insights potentially gained in the market place (e.g. meet beer drinkers in the pub).
During the exquisite dinner our team discovered beers like Watneys Scotch Ale and La Chouffe.
Congratulations to the organizing committee of Febelmar for yet another wonderful event!
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Launch of new corporate identity (2 March 2011)
Solutions-2 exists since 2002 as an international statistical consulting company.
The time was right to reflect on our business and who we are.
Solutions-2 is therefore very pleased to announce the launch of our new corporate identity.
Our new corporate identity reflects our professionalism, passion for numbers, problem-solving skills and experience in delivering custom-made solutions for our clients.
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Launch of solutions-2-web (1 March 2011)
Solutions-2 has launched an Online Reporting Tool solutions-2-web.
This enables you to easily view and interact with the results of our analysis. And with a single click, you can turn your reports in PowerPoint slides that utilise your corporate colours and PowerPoint template.
Find out more on solutions-2-web.
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Launch of new company web site (1 March 2011)
Along with the launch of solutions-2’s new corporate identity we launch this new website!
Our new website has interesting facts about statistics, book reviews and a wealth of information to help you solve your business problems.
Have a look at Solutions to discover what kind of problems we solve. Each Solution comes with a case study illustrating how we solved similar problems in the past. Are you not sure whether we can help you? Feel free to contact us.
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Contact
Burg. Van Crombrugghelaan 4
B-9800 Sint-Martens-Leerne
T +32 (0)9 242 50 40
F +32 (0)9 242 50 49
office@solutions2.be
vat BE 0478 610 371
as of March 2012:
Leernsesteenweg 225
B-9800 Bachte-Maria-Leerne
You can contact us via our Contact form
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