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techbranding · 3 years

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Does My Startup Need A Tech Branding Agency?

We recommend having bi-weekly check-ins to discuss the process, open questions, etc. However, we prefer to present results and updates asynchronously − it saves a lot of time for both sides. SketchesAt this stage, we explore concepts and general directions on how the logo could look. We follow Visual positioning and Brand expression findings and recommendations. This stage helps to examine a lot of concepts and shapes fast. These Terms of Participation permit you to join the Discussion only https://craftandroot.com/industries/tech-startups/.

We are aware of this issue and our team is working hard to resolve the matter. Take your marketing to the next level with our insightful posts. Be sure to subscribe to stay current with the leading trends and strategies. Join over 1,000 marketing pros who receive monthly B2B marketing tips and insights. Write your growth story and leave a lasting marketing legacy.

Tonal launches 300% ahead of target by bringing the digital into the physical. Launching the most important insurance brand since the birth of the internet. A $4.5B HR Tech startup and the biggest brand comeback of 2017. Everything you need to know about rebranding your business - and avoiding costly mistakes. Everything you need to know about rebranding your business-and avoiding costly mistakes.

proven tools and processes that we’ve created and which we tailor to each client. brand agent you need as a partner to take your business to the next level. brand consultant as an affordable, ideal resource for their needs. In fact, even a short consultation and advice session with a brand specialist can prove quite lucrative. For this reason, many proprietors will rely on DIY campaigns for marketing that may remain inadequate, misdirected, or that doesn’t offer the return on investment. Stand out from the crowd with professional production, aerial drone shots, and even 360 films. Download our free VR/AR 101 Guide to begin your journey in understanding how Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality may be the answer to your marketing needs.

The tone adapts to communicate with them while upholding the overall voice’s focus. (Namer is pretty close — after all, a name is a very, very short poem that captures a brand’s eidos.) When not creating kickass names, she may be found kayaking with her son or making music with her husband.

We are not condoning or admiring this approach but it’s almost certainly part of a bigger strategy. Intel uses video to spark emotion and create a connection with their audience. Health care workers, ventilator makers, teachers, drivers and key workers. It’s a play on their key messaging “what’s inside” but it’s on trend and very smart.

Watch our event replay from Tuesday, January 19, where we continue to discuss and answer questions on the new coronavirus relief bill and how it pertains to small businesses. CO— aims to bring you inspiration from leading respected experts. However, before making any business decision, you should consult a professional who can advise you based on your individual situation.

Gift card fraud can be a gateway to stolen payment credentials, drained bank accounts and even stolen identity. Certain projects, images, and products are trademarks of and/or copyrighted by their respective owners. Develop a Personality.Your business has a personality – a tone that it uses to communicate to the audience. Many businesses don’t sufficiently develop a personality, or don’t keep it consistent. Yes, send me the BizBuySell SellerNewsletter, which contains advice on selling a business and email only promotions. We are sorry, we were not able to submit your issue for this listing at this time. The information in this listing has been provided by the business seller or representative stated above.

Brand Name Creation

Taco Del Mar gets a brand refresh and a fresh new point of view. Their expertice created additional revenue we would have received from traditional advertising alone. Two entrepreneurs came to us with a new app that puts power back in the hands of patients. The brand we developed helps consumers get on the right path when navigating their healthcare. We are data-backed creatives who get the most out of every click. All TOP agencies combine deep subject expertise with world-class execution. Applying consistency in your brand’s voice and tone helps build your reputation, trust, and ultimately stronger brand recognition.

Our referral partners enjoy a sweet finder’s fee and peace of mind knowing their client is in good hands. Cambridge Technology partnered with Mower to modernize their brand and update all platforms the brand touches. The GIF of the XPS 12showed the face of the tablet flipping to morph into the laptop. The screen was filled with Windows software to illustrate that the convertible was a Windows 8 product as well as a touch screen. Dell uses videos, gifs and live behind the scenes to grab attention and explain and introduce their products. And the cool kid theme continues on Twitter where Apple actually don’t follow anyone or tweet anything and yet has 4.3 million followers.

If your startup can bend light, slow time, or stretch infinitely, we should talk. Established in 1996, the website is an international marketplace of businesses for sale.

A play on okey-dokey, Mochidoki makes use of the product descriptor in a fun and playful way, all while recalling the product’s Asian roots and sounding bite-sized and delicious. Designed for business owners, CO— is a site that connects like minds and delivers actionable insights for next-level growth.

Cast a wide tech branding agency net at first and bring the top three back to go through the process with you. Be incredibly clear about the goals and objectives of the project. Tap your network, do your research, check the rankings to see what firms measure up. Omni-channel marketing campaign showcasing the “connecting” benefits of being able to access Tower Health’s growing health system. Thank you for Trajectory’s splendid healthcare rebranding work. You’ve done an outstanding job blending respect for the past with gentle nudging of inherently sensible and winning ideas. Our health system brand is an emotional lightning rod for many, and you navigate it extraordinarily well.

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See how they perform while juggling multiple responsibilities. It can be either a small internal project or an external one. Moreover, they offer a free audit in case you would like to refresh your brand rather than building it from scratch. You will enjoy collaborating with them for your small business or startup. Their process starts with an expansive review of your brand’s current status. Afterwards, they run a collaborative workshop with you and your stakeholders to define the organization’s goals. Then, target audience research and competitive analysis follow.

Also, they consist of strategic analysts, information architects and UX interface designers. After getting to know your startup, they can help build it and take care of it along the way. Because you can lose a lot of audiences if you just use one word wrong in your messaging for your small business or if you come up with the wrong color. Video marketing is highly effective in capturing B2B leads; also, 80% of video marketers say video has directly helped increase their sales. To convince prospects that they, and not their competitors, are the right choice, iOFFICE uses ebooks, webinars, slides and graphics, videos, demos and podcasts created with expert input. Screenshots, sliding menus and striking calls-to-action to watch the demo of the product in action serve to educate the prospective buyer.

Thanks for sending that over, one of our team will be in touch real soon. Go from over 15,844 agencies to a shortlist with Agency Spotter. Firebrand has given my team the bandwidth to focus on what's really important. Webgamma produced effective deliverables that contributed to significant growth of our brand.

Having an expanded offering will give you an access to the opportunities you would not approach otherwise. We are an independent partner who knows Marketing & Advertising agencies’ competitive landscape. Tell us your needs and we’ll tell you the agencies you must meet. At Insane Lab, we know what we are exceptional at what we do. We are great at designing and developing applications for modern platforms – web, mobile and mixed reality.

With a BA in English Literature from Dartmouth College and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts’ English MFA for Poets & Writers, Stevie is also no stranger to the power of words. As head of Catchword’s East Coast operations, he’s typically the project lead on all right coast accounts, and recently managed projects for Volkswagen, McDonald’s, Kellogg, and First Alert. He graduated from Brandeis University with a BA in History, and earned his JD from the State University of New York at Buffalo. is a collection of ultra-premium brandable dot-com domains—merging the best in messaging, memorability, length, and flow. Our linguistic and cultural evaluation is backed by an international network of native speakers in more than 100 languages. And, when Catchword first sampled Gordon Dessert’s new line of mochi , we knew we were naming a truly category re-defining confectionary.

Let us guide you on how to use the appropriate tools to reach your marketing goals. Abundant growth opportunities; little to no marketing up to this point. We apologize, but the feature you are trying to access is currently unavailable.

Payment schedule should be adjusted to the project you are running together — so the initial investment on your side is reduced. What I would like to show you is that with a right partner you can focus on your strengths and outsource other tasks without losing business. More than that, you can expand your service line and utilize your talents on new platforms that you did not have an access to.

BizBuySell has no stake in the sale of this business, has not independently verified any of the information about the business, and assumes no responsibility for its accuracy or completeness. We partnered with Oculus to pioneer VR’s mobile and social future.

Their posts aren’t strictly oriented to the product but are tied to events and occasions that people everywhere find significant and interesting. You have an innovative, ground breaking idea – now it’s time to share it with the world. A full-spectrum agency leading the legal profession into a future of equal justice. Class action firms benefit from the speed with which we can launch your initial marketing campaign. We have been working together for several years now, helped them revamp their brand, built a new website and campaign sites, and most recently a transit campaign that can be seen all over the Bay Area.

We provide a cost-effective route to market for business owners and their representatives and a one stop shop for aspiring entrepreneurs and business buyers. You will receive newsletters, updates and offers about business and franchise opportunities. We will also send you information about related business and franchise events. BusinessesForSale.com is committed to protecting your privacy. Ticking this box means you are consenting to us sending you marketing emails. You can change your mind at any time by clicking unsubscribe in the footer of our emails. Just because you don’t have time to deal, doesn’t mean you have to completely give the work away.

They keep their brand voice highly practical and focused on solving prospects’ pain points. They use demo videos to educate and inspire confidence in their products. This is an example that companies do not need to invest their energy into all available channels, but rather pick one or two to focus on. Partner testimonials, PRs on closed deals, fundraisers and case studies by the likes of Yahoo Finance and Harvard Business Review communicate the reputation and importance of this brand. Communicating diverse topics across different channels whilst maintaining voice consistency and brand integrity. The Facebook page features a cover video with main takeaways of what the company stands for and a striking summary of their offers. They connect their user base with immersive food and beverage tours, skip-the-line tickets for attractions, craft classes, niche offerings and other immersive experiences.

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idiopath-fic-smile · 6 years

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Fic: R

Fandom: Les Mis

Pairing: Enjolras/Grantaire

Prompt: Enjolras fights for android rights. Grantaire is an android being mistreated by his current “owners.”

Notes: Commissioned by Vee, for Vee’s BFF. Hope you enjoyed it!

Fic:

Enjolras and Courfeyrac were clear about their budget, but the robot-seller is still yammering on about his latest models and their various special features, as if he can smell the privilege wafting off Enjolras like stink from a junkpile. Enjolras lets his eyes drift away from the counterfeit luxury ‘bots in their slightly dubious packaging. There’s a work table in back littered with spare parts--a kind of bloodless carnage, backlit by the blue buzz of a neon sign. Hired muscle by the back door, a sure indication this place isn’t legal. As if that wasn’t clear enough.

If his parents knew he was here--well, it’s just as well Combeferre finally managed to remove the tracking chip from Enjolras’s ankle.

He’s glancing around, trying not to look like a man casing the joint, when his eyes land on a raggedy off-brand Model R. The ‘bot is staring right back at him with blue, blue eyes. Probably not a display--not flashy enough, except for those eyes. A worker drone, maybe. Shabby clothes, a nest of tangled dark hair that probably hasn’t seen a comb since the date of manufacture. No shoes.

No shoes.

Robots are programmed to feel pain, to discourage them from dangerous activities that might lead to injury, or otherwise violate the warranty. The shop is cold and the rough concrete floor is full of debris, but the ‘bot is barefoot.

It’s hard to watch, and Enjolras instinctively looks away for a second. When he looks back, the Model R is still watching him, whirring a little the way a ‘bot does when it hasn’t been properly rebooted in a long, long time.

Enjolras must make a face, because then Courfeyrac is following his gaze.

“Excuse us,” Courfeyrac interjects to the seller--Enjolras didn’t catch his name, and doesn’t care to.

Courfeyrac and Enjolras step to the side, out of earshot. The ground is sticky with what looks to be old oil. Enjolras thinks again of those bare feet.

“Are you sure about this,” says Courfeyrac in a low voice. “He’s in bad shape, we might have more luck picking something in better condition--”

“What about our goals,” Enjolras whispers back. Buying and rehabilitating robots is expensive, time-intensive, inefficient. Until the Amis de l’ABC have the people and supplies to mount a proper rebellion, they must be careful with their resources. That means stepping in for the direst cases.

Courfeyrac nods once, decisive. “We’ve made our decision,” he announces to the seller. “We’d like the Model R, please.”

“Sirs,” the seller stammers, “really, we have any number of better specimens available today, for only a simple down payment plus--”

“The Model R,” says Enjolras in his most commanding tone.

The ‘bot is silent on the way outside, except for that terrible whirring. Up close, it sounds more like a fork caught in a garbage disposal. His movements are jerky and stiff, like a wind-up toy--or like every joint hurts. He is silent on the sidewalk, silent as Courfeyrac unlocks the car, silent until they’ve climbed inside and the car doors have shut behind them.

“Am I going to be scrapped for parts,” he says in a low, scratchy voice. He’s only half-asking, must have come to the conclusion back in the shop. “‘Cause I should warn you, I’m already a chimera. You’ll have a hell of a time finding compatible pieces.”

Enjolras studies the ‘bot’s face in the rearview. No expression. No expression, but he waited until Courfeyrac and Enjolras were strapped in and out of arm’s reach to mouth off. It’s got the air of a survival tactic. Enjolras feels sick.

“We’re not scrapping you,” Enjolras tells him. “We won’t hurt you. I know you have no reason to trust us yet, but we’re here to help.”

“Isn’t that sweet,” the ‘bot deadpans. In the whirring, grinding pause that follows, he blinks jerkily, as if shocked at the lack of repercussion, and Enjolras wants to murder everyone who has ever owned him.

“That reminds me,” Courfeyrac says cheerfully. “You need a name.”

“R,” says the ‘bot.

“Not your Model, a name.”

“Like a human.” The ‘bot sounds wary.

“Like you, the way you were meant to be,” says Enjolras. “Society acts like servitude is just part of the natural order, but inequality is man-made.”

“I’m man-made.”

“Haven’t you ever wanted a name?” Courfeyrac tries. “And don’t say R, I mean a real name.” The other ‘bots the Amis have freed all volunteered a name right away, as if they’d been holding it in secret for a while. This one just blinks again, slowly.

The pragmatic approach seems best. “If you don’t want a name, what should we call you?”

“You’re just trying to trick me into naming myself,” the ‘bot fires back. “How about… Zero-One-Zero-One-Zero-Zero-One-Zero.”

“What’re the odds that’s a capital R in binary,” mutters Courfeyrac.

“It is,” says Enjolras.

“Wait,” says the ‘bot, “I’ve got it!” The edge of a smile creeps into his voice. “Grantaire!”

The same thing but in French, but it’s also the first flash of real life from him.

Courfeyrac and Enjolras exchange a look.

“Why didn’t they give you shoes?” Enjolras blurts out, and Grantaire does the blinking thing again.

“Why would I need them?” says Grantaire. “I wasn’t allowed to leave.”

Enjolras makes a mental note: first order of business: to allow Grantaire to recharge and restart at least twice. Second immediate order of business: get him some goddamn footwear, the sturdiest available.

It takes three different complete reboots for the whirring noises to stop.

It takes two sessions with cream rinse, detangler, and combs before Grantaire’s hair will lie down into relatively orderly curls, Feuilly reports grimly from the bathroom. As one of few freed robots among the Amis, it’s his task on the theory he’ll go about it with the most sensitivity. Enjolras had pictured poor Feuilly trying to coax Grantaire into the warm suds like making a cat take a bath, but Feuilly shakes off Enjolras’s gratitude, laughing,

“Oh no, he loves the bathtub, that’s not the problem. I’m not sure how I’ll get him out, frankly.”

Enjolras remembers then that most robots below a Model H are cleaned, if ever, by a quick hosing-off in the garage.

“Tell him he can stay in as long as he wants,” Enjolras declares, and Feuilly nods, smiling.

It takes nine separate arguments to make Grantaire accept his new boots, donated by Bahorel and yet still in surprisingly good condition.

Despite the initial protests, Enjolras later sometimes catches from the corner of his eye Grantaire perched on a kitchen counter or the arm of a sofa, swinging his feet and admiring the scuffed black imitation-leather. They’re well-made, thick soles, strong enough to carry him away from anywhere.

For the first five or six months, Grantaire waits to say anything snarky until he’s clearly out of hitting distance from any human.

The first time Grantaire leans into Enjolras’s space and announces, “I’m sorry, but your logo is terrible. It looks like something one of you sneezed,” Enjolras wants to hug him.

And well--that’s the problem, isn’t it.

By that point, Grantaire’s every motion is impossibly, inhumanly smooth, like a dancer but moreso. All those resets. He must’ve gotten used to compensating, as much as possible, for the rough control he had over his own body. Now that those limitations are gone, he’s left with a surplus of grace. Knowing this does not detract from the effect. If anything, it only adds to it.

Enjolras catches himself watching Grantaire all the time. For a while, he thinks it’s only aesthetic appreciation.

Then comes the day Grantaire laughs--actually throws his head back and laughs--and Enjolras thinks, ‘...oh.’

Damn.

It’s not fair to come to Grantaire with this. The power imbalance between is immense, hard to even resolve into words. Grantaire’s not legally a person.

It’s an impossible problem.

Then comes the night Grantaire catches Enjolras watching. They’re halfway through a meeting, Grantaire milling around in the background, and their eyes connect, Grantaire staring right back at him again, like back in the shop except this time the steady gaze doesn’t read as low memory but intensity. Enjolras doesn’t remember a single point anyone makes for the rest of the two hours. Grantaire stands in the back of the room and looks back at him, knowing.

The arguments really start in earnest, then.

(That night: “But if you feel the same way--”

The same way. Everything would be easier if Grantaire could just hate him. Enjolras swallows. “It doesn’t matter.”

Weeks later, an hour before dawn: “What do you mean, I can’t consent? Do I strike you as terribly obedient, Apollo?

Noon, with all their friends around them: “Humankind brought robotkind into this world,” Enjolras is saying. “We, all of us, have the duty, the responsibility, to fight for their equal treatment under the laws, to do right by them, to listen to their demands and answer them--”

A withering glance from Grantaire. “How’s that working out?”)

Grantaire prods, Grantaire provokes. Grantaire makes a scene at meetings and mealtimes. Maybe Grantaire thinks he is daring Enjolras not to want him. That’s not how it works.

Enjolras is miserable.

It takes a full year for Enjolras to run into Grantaire in an unguarded moment--the middle of the night, hot as Hell, AC broken, nobody’s asleep--and realize: Grantaire is miserable, too.

“Listen,” says Grantaire, quietly. “Just--please, listen.” No irony. No sarcasm. It’s worrying.

“Yeah?”

Grantaire takes a deep breath. He doesn’t need to; his air circulation doesn’t involve anything like lungs. It’s a habit picked up over the weeks and months from his friends. Enjolras waits.

“Either you think I have a soul or you don’t,” says Grantaire.

It’s Enjolras’s turn to blink at him. “What?”

Grantaire continues, resolute. “You can argue for our rights and our--complexity, our capacity for emotion, our freedoms, or you can say, ‘Poor little Grantaire, he can’t really make any decisions on his own. Poor Grantaire, he thinks he’s in love, like a human--’” He breaks off, shaking his head. He’s vibrating a little. Not like a stuck fan. More like there’s more inside of him than can fit.

“If you were a human,” Enjolras says, gently as he can, “an organic human that had spent his whole life as somebody’s property, I would absolutely still be saying no to you--”

“But I’m not,” Grantaire snaps. “I’ve had seven full resets, I have literally erased my trauma. It’s not present in my mind anymore. You can’t apply human rules to me, and I don’t mean that how those assholes do when they say we shouldn’t be allowed to--drive, go to school, eat at restaurants, whatever--I don’t believe that the likes of Feuilly or Cosette are worse than you, less than. But we are different. And I am fine. I am fine, and I am standing here, telling you I have feelings for you. Now, you can do with that what you want. But at least stop pretending you’re protecting me, because you are not.”

There’s a pause. For a second, Enjolras thinks Grantaire’s overheating again, but it’s just the ceiling fan overhead.

“That’s--quite a speech,” says Enjolras weakly.

Grantaire shrugs a shoulder with that familiar, easy, inhuman grace. “Feuilly helped,” he says.

“Thank him for me,” says Enjolras vaguely, and then he steps forward and they’re kissing. His fingers are in Grantaire’s hair, and Grantaire’s hands are solid and steady at his waist and they’re kissing. Enjolras breaks apart to smile like an idiot at Grantaire and ducks back in again. Grantaire tastes like the sour-sweet candies he’s always stealing from Joly. He tastes warm and alive.

#fic #robot adventures!#i had a devil of a time trying to stay at the wordcount AND make the relationship feel fully consensual #a problem i cleverly solved by going WAY WAY over the wordcount

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benrleeusa · 6 years

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[John K. Ross] Short Circuit: A roundup of recent federal court decisions

Please enjoy the latest edition of Short Circuit, a weekly feature from the Institute for Justice.

Praised by James Madison as a "bulwark in favor of personal security and private rights," the Contract Clause has long since fallen into obscurity and disuse, giving legislators relatively free rein to retroactively rewrite contracts. This week, the Supreme Court declined to reverse course, voting 8–1 to uphold a Minnesota law that automatically terminates life insurance designations upon divorce. Only Justice Gorsuch dissented. Nick Sibilla has the story.

New on the podcast: Special guest Clark Neily, vice president for criminal justice at the Cato Institute, talks qualified immunity, the FTC's cybersecurity crackdowns, and a virulently racist lawyer. Click here for iTunes.

EPA: If a federal circuit court rules against us in a Clean Air Act permitting fight, we don't need to follow the ruling in other circuits. Industry groups: The EPA needs to follow the ruling in the other circuits. D.C. Circuit: No, the EPA's position is reasonable.

The Dep't of Homeland Security permits foreigners admitted on student visas to stay and work in STEM fields for up to three years after graduation; their employers must attest they aren't replacing a native worker, nor being paid less than one. Plaintiffs: Congress never authorized this; it lowers wages for U.S. workers. D.C. Circuit: Plaintiffs have standing to sue. (The lawsuit is now in its 10th year.)

Boston College student crossing crowded dance floor is accused of putting his fingers far up another student's dress. A school disciplinary board suspends him a month later—before forensic and video evidence (that he says will exonerate him) become available. First Circuit: Which isn't a breach of contract; nor is there evidence of pervasive anti-male bias in the school's sex assault adjudications. Some claims should go forward, though. Among them: that school officials gave special treatment to a third student (to put him at ease during the hearing) who the accused says is the likely culprit.

Some eight hours after robbery of San Lorenzo, P.R. bank, the authorities locate suspect at rural house. They coax him out, arrest him, and then search the house. Inside: lots of cash from the bank. First Circuit: Needed a warrant for the search. Suppress the evidence.

Allegation: Without warning, NYPD fires "sound gun," a siren that causes hearing damage, to clear nonviolent protesters (protesting no indictment for officer who put a man in a fatal chokehold) from street onto sidewalk. Second Circuit: Hearing damage is a severe consequence for blocking the road. No qualified immunity. (Click here for some longform journalism on sound guns. Tell 'em Chief Judge Katzmann sent you.)

Taxpayer files appeal of adverse tax decision a week late. Allegation: Because IRS staffers, whose job is to help people navigate the appeals process, gave her false information. Fourth Circuit: Doesn't matter. Case dismissed. (The appeal was argued by a Harvard Law School student, Allison Bray.)

Houston physician learns his accountant embezzled $11 mil that was meant for the IRS. The accountant goes to jail. The physician shuts down his practice, turns over its assets to the IRS, and loans $100k to the practice to pay his employees one last time. IRS: That $100k should have gone to us. The physician (now deceased) must pay a $4.3 mil penalty. He's a victim, but he was also grossly negligent for trusting the accountant. Fifth Circuit: Maybe not; remanded for a trial. Judge Jones, concurring: The IRS was "irresponsible at best" in the way it litigated this case. "Is it too much to assume the tax collectors can read bank and financial records adeptly, and that ethically, they wouldn't make claims without factual foundations"?

Employees at Houston dental office note that doctor's office in same building serves huge numbers of out-of-state patients, many of them unkempt, who loiter, bathe in bathroom sinks, and seem impaired. The dental employees snoop through the doctor's trash and, finding suspicious notes about painkiller prescriptions, alert the authorities. Fifth Circuit: There is sufficient evidence he was running a pill mill, so we won't disturb the jury's verdict.

A trademark dispute gives Judge Sutton of the Sixth Circuit occasion to hold forth on bourbon, busy bodies, and Kentucky's eastern hollows—as well as to relate the story of a historic, long-disused Woodford County distillery that is being restored to former glory.

Prosecutors: Two defendants faced threat of harm from Mexican cartel, were in no position to profit from their role in drug-smuggling operation. Because of their cooperation and remorse, we recommend below-guidelines sentences of three years. District court: They each get 10 years. Sixth Circuit: Vacated. Remanded to different judge.

Immigrant serves five-year sentence after 1992 drug conviction but isn't deported because Iraq isn't issuing travel papers. He's rearrested in 2017 after Iraq begins issuing such papers. Immigrant: I'm a Chaldean Christian; it's not safe for me there. Board of Immigration Appeals: You didn't provide sufficient evidence that you'll be tortured by the Iraqi gov't or with its acquiescence. Sixth Circuit: We don't have jurisdiction to review the BIA's factual determinations.

No need to overturn a $28.1 mil award to six exonerees (about $365,000 per person for each year in prison) exonerated of 1985 murder of elderly Beatrice, Neb. woman, says the Eighth Circuit. (Click here for some longform journalism on the case.)

In Missouri, individuals wishing to receive or spend money to advocate for or against a ballot measure must register as a "campaign committee" at least 30 days prior to the vote. Eighth Circuit: The 30-day blackout period violates the First Amendment. (True story: A learned scholar once conducted an experiment where 255 participants, mostly grad students, filled out the appropriate paperwork to comply with Missouri and two other states' rules for campaign committees. Not a single one did it right. All could have faced legal liability had it been a real-world exercise.)

High, mentally ill man shouts at Newport Beach, Calif. police from within a convenience store, pantomimes having a gun, tells police to shoot him. Police take position outside, behind car doors. He runs toward them brandishing what turns out to be a metal display hook. They shoot, kill him. Excessive force? Quite possibly, says a Ninth Circuit panel. But that wasn't clearly established, so the man's parents can't sue under the Fourth Amendment. Their state-law claims should not have been dismissed, however.

Man wearing tennis shoes kicks, stomps on victim, causing brain damage. Ninth Circuit: And properly got a sentencing enhancement for using a dangerous weapon, the tennis shoes.

Allegation: Though state standards prohibit male officers from guarding female inmates, Ottawa County, Okla. sheriff hires only male officers. Moreover, he's aware there are blind spots in the jail's video surveillance. A guard rapes an inmate. Can she sue the sheriff? District court: Yes. Tenth Circuit: No.

Health insurer: Under ObamaCare, we entered risky health insurance markets because we were promised we would receive billions of dollars to alleviate the risk. But the federal government isn't sending us the money! ($12 bil or more is on the line). Trump Administration: The Obama Administration may have been willing to make payments even though Congress never appropriated the money, but we won't. Federal Circuit: No money for you, insurers. By not appropriating the money for the "risk corridor" payments, Congress made a decision to suspend the government's obligation to pay.

After five drone strikes narrowly miss him over a three-month span, American journalist reporting in Syria comes to believe that he is on a secret "kill list" compiled by U.S. intelligence services. Feds: But the court can't hear this claim for a variety of reasons, e.g. whom the gov't targets in wartime is a political question the courts shouldn't interfere with. District court: The lawsuit may proceed. Plaintiff has a "birthright" as a U.S. citizen to make his case for why he shouldn't be "targeted for legal action." Indeed, his interest in not getting killed is "uniquely compelling." (H/t: Owen Barcala.)

Colorado outsources the enforcement of its campaign finance laws to the public at large, permitting anyone to sue over alleged violations. Unsurprisingly, political insiders frequently use the law to silence opponents and critics. For instance: IJ client Tammy Holland. Holland placed an ad in the local paper urging readers to familiarize themselves with school board candidates—hardly an attack ad. Nevertheless, school officials sued her. And though the suit was meritless (since the law does not apply to ads that do not expressly advocate for or against candidates), Holland incurred thousands in legal expenses. This week, however, a federal judge ruled that such suits violate the First Amendment and voiced concern that Colorado's system of private enforcement had become "a feeding ground for political warfare and what could be described as extortion." Click here to read more.

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hsews · 6 years

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MESQUITE, Texas—In the sticky Southern heat, hundreds of workers streamed in for the 11 a.m. shift last month at

United Parcel Service Inc.’s

UPS -0.09%

local package-sorting facility, one of dozens nationwide that help it move millions of parcels daily.

In a windowless room, a 30-year-old analog control panel about the size of a chest freezer monitors operations, with rows of green and red lights indicating when something goes awry in the building’s web of conveyor belts.

“Thirty years ago, this was top-notch,” UPS plant engineering manager

Dean Britt

said of the control panel. Today, the panel’s computing capabilities “can probably fit on your phone,” he said, “and not even a good phone.”

The site, and other similar UPS facilities, haven’t automated much over decades—despite a rush of new warehouse technology in many industries. Today, the company is paying a price.

As UPS tries to satisfy America’s 21st-century shopping-and-shipping mania, parts of its network are stuck in the 20th century. The company still relies on some outdated equipment and manual processes of the type rival

FedEx Corp.

discarded or that newer entrants, including Amazon.com Inc., never had.

UPS says about half its packages are processed through automated facilities today. At FedEx, 96% of ground packages move through automated sites. UPS workers are unionized; FedEx’s ground-operations workers aren’t.

Now, the century-old delivery giant is playing catch-up. As part of that effort it plans capital spending of more than $20 billion over the next three years. Much of that will go toward opening new automated facilities, UPS says, and technology upgrades to route packages around bottlenecks. It is a bigger annual expense, adjusted for inflation, than when UPS broadened from a ground operation and built up its cargo airline in the 1980s.

UPS says it plans to process all packages, aside from some larger ones or those that travel a short distance, through automated hubs by 2022. “We definitely need to do these kinds of things to remain competitive,” says UPS’s chief information officer,

Juan Perez.

The reason for the intensive push is the way in which UPS’s business has been flipped on its head. The bulk of its shipments once went to corporations or retailers. Now, its brown-clad U.S. drivers deliver more than half of its packages to homes, thanks to e-commerce. Drop-offs at suburban homes generally aren’t as profitable as delivering large orders to an office or downtown shop, UPS says.

UPS embraced e-commerce early even though some executives worried about chasing lower-margin deliveries, say some former UPS executives. Bottlenecks caused by online orders have led to delays and sent some industrial, health-care and other corporate shippers into the arms of FedEx, they say.

UPS also faces competition from Amazon, which is building out a delivery network of planes, trucks and vans to handle more of its online orders, especially in cities and suburbs. UPS spokesman

Steve Gaut

says the company has won business customers from rivals in recent years and declined to discuss Amazon’s strategy. “There is tremendous opportunity” in delivering online orders, he says, “irrespective of how other companies may shift their strategies with respect to UPS.”

Profit margins at UPS’s domestic unit fell to 12.1% last year from 13.5% in 2013, while the unit in the same period added more than $6 billion in revenue, which hit $40.7 billion last year. Investors, accustomed to UPS’s low spending, sent its stock tumbling in January after executives disclosed they would increase capital outlays.

“You have to do it,” says

Jerome Dodson,

chairman of Parnassus Investments, owner of roughly $800 million of UPS shares, speaking of capital spending, “but I was amazed as to how high it was.”

UPS is negotiating with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to renew a five-year contract, which expires July 31. Representing 260,000 UPS drivers, sorters and other workers, the union wants UPS to hire more full-time workers to help handle the surge in packages. It has opposed technology such as autonomous vehicles and drones and is wary of projects that do work with fewer employees.

“The problem with technology is that it does ultimately streamline jobs,” says

Sean O’Brien,

a Teamsters leader in Boston. “It does eliminate jobs. And once they’re replaced, it’s pretty tough to get them back.”

FedEx, with no unionized workforce in its ground network, doesn’t have to worry as much about labor strife. And because it built its ground network more recently, it hasn’t had to retrofit older facilities with automation. “For an older hub, automating is like heart surgery,” says

Ted Dengel,

FedEx Ground’s managing director of operations technology. “We can drop automation in before a package hits a facility.”

UPS acknowledges that its older base and unionized workforce present challenges that rivals such as FedEx don’t have.

Blue chip

UPS founder James E. “Jim” Casey spoke about the dilemma of change 70 years ago. “A hard part of management’s problem,” he said in an annual speech, “is to know when to make changes and when to hold fast to what is good.”

UPS grew out of Mr. Casey’s small Seattle bicycle delivery service, American Messenger Co., in 1907. It used Model T Fords to deliver local department-store orders, eventually crossing state lines and building a company that now has a fleet of more than 100,000 vehicles and nearly 600 aircraft. He was chief executive for five decades and a director until his 1983 death at 95.

The company avoided flashiness and was known for its steady approach to business. It was employee-owned until an initial public offering in 1999. A reliable blue chip, it rewarded public shareholders with steady performance, dividend payments and share buybacks.

Then e-commerce happened.

As online-shopping volume grew, UPS relied on what a former UPS executive calls “a Band-Aid” approach to upgrading its network, patching it up by adding extra shifts or extending hours, or retrofitting parts of older buildings with new equipment. UPS says the union hasn’t impeded spending on automation. The cost and size of the machines needed to automate an older facility are now low enough to allow UPS to retrofit older facilities and build new ones, it says.

The company’s prior capital-spending strategy was appropriate when e-commerce growth created a 2% uptick in volume in 2015, says UPS finance chief

Richard Peretz.

But America’s appetite for online shopping only grew. “When you’re under 2%,” he says, “you’re thinking a lot different about putting up these buildings than when you’re up 4 or 5%.”

In short order, facilities such as the 34-year-old Mesquite hub emerged as weak links. While some 80,000 UPS delivery drivers fan out almost every day, UPS relies on an unseen army of workers to process packages through its sorting centers, some who work in ways that haven’t been updated much since the founder ran the business.

In Mesquite, the process starts with unloading boxes from trucks onto conveyor belts. A worker must align each box so a scanner can read the delivery label on the front, top or one side. That’s in contrast to the more-modern six-sided scanners used in newer hubs, which can scan a package no matter how it is loaded on the belt.

The packages move inside to a line of about 50 workers. Nine conveyor belts turn—three along the ground, three waist-high and three just overhead. A sorter must pick a package, quickly decipher the label and place the box onto the correct belt. Around the corner, a worker sorts packages down chutes, where loaders fill truck trailers.

By contrast, automated sorting facilities use scanners to read a box’s destination and equipment called shoe pucks push packages down the proper chute.

A medium-size package at Mesquite gets four “touches,” as warehouse operators refer to acts of handling. Each touch adds a chance for a sorting error or damage. With 40,000 pieces processed an hour out of Mesquite, even rare human misfires can add up. Mis-sorted packages can add an extra day to a delivery, UPS says.

Automated hubs

All FedEx ground hubs are automated. Typical of its processes is how packages are handled in a one-year-old facility in Edison, N.J., where FedEx workers touch most packages twice—for the unload and the load.

Amazon’s operations, too, bristle with automation. It has been years ahead of many logistics firms in warehouse automation, from driverless forklifts to robots that bring shelves to workers.

UPS’s effort to catch up can be seen 36 miles from Mesquite in Fort Worth, where machines scan boxes, sort them by destination and send them to outbound vehicles. New equipment such as six-sided scanners mean workers don’t have worry about which side is up. The facility, with 750 workers, can process about the same number of packages daily as Mesquite, which has 1,170. In Fort Worth, packages get two touches.

The building’s brain is an air-conditioned control room where 10 UPS employees sit before a wall of flat-screen monitors showing live video feeds. The computer system detects jams and other malfunctions. Workers can reroute where the conveyors send packages. “There’s no human element” in rerouting a package in the building, says UPS engineer

Travis Jensen.

“There’s a keyboard.” A few workers walk alongside the belts to do tasks such as replacing any package that falls off, a rare occurrence.

Newer automated hubs are slowly arriving at UPS. It is adding about 5 million square feet of automated processing capacity, or 6.7% in additional capacity, to its network this year.

UPS says automated equipment isn’t enough.

Jack Levis,

UPS director of process management, oversees about three dozen employees adding a layer of software over UPS’s sorting network that would help manage package flows, including between automated facilities and older ones.

Such capability is critical as it handles more packages, including during the peak holiday season. The technology would divert additional packages from heading to areas overwhelmed by volume. “Imagine systems that will predict problems before they happen,” Mr. Levis says. “You’ll look like

Sherlock Holmes.

”

Some analysts and consultants say the upgrades are overdue, especially as UPS has in recent years faced capacity crunches during the holiday season. In 2017, UPS was overwhelmed for a few days after Thanksgiving while FedEx was able to more easily reroute traffic. UPS says an unexpected surge in online orders backed up the network temporarily.

Morgan Stanley analyst

Ravi Shankar

says investors have questioned how UPS got by with less spending than FedEx, asking, “What took you guys so long?”

While UPS spends heavily on automation, FedEx is winding down a period of heavy investment in its ground network, having spent about $10 billion since 2005. The Memphis, Tenn., company started as an express airline in the 1970s, adding ground deliveries in 1998 with the acquisition of Roadway Package System, which was created in 1985 to rival UPS by using new bar-code-scanning technologies. UPS began using bar codes the next year.

FedEx is now honing its network of 37 ground hubs in the U.S. and Canada, paring back in some places. It mothballed its $259 million ground hub in Indianapolis. It built its Edison, N.J., ground hub to be flexible: It uses only about a third of the building’s space, with room to expand in short order with whatever equipment it may add. It installed a sorting system quickly last year ahead of the holiday season.

The setup lets FedEx adjust its network based on the more volatile flows of online orders, something UPS hopes to do more adeptly with increased automation.

On Atlanta’s west side, UPS’s spending is taking shape in a 1.2 million-square-foot hub. Inside the concrete frame, engineers are testing six-sided scanners while contractors weld chutes and line the rafters with wires. The building, if all remains on schedule, will handle truckloads of holiday orders this year from Amazon and other retailers. It will be UPS’s second-largest U.S. ground hub after one in the Chicago area.

Martha Molina,

50, a UPS sorter in Mesquite for the past 20 years, says she isn’t worried about the addition of automated sort centers that require fewer workers. “It’s something that we need to do to progress.”

Write to Paul Ziobro at [email protected]

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