Project Managers

Jon P. is a project manager for a national wireless services firm. As their in-house expert on land use matters, Jon is constantly on the phone with local engineering crews, government planners and inspectors, and his company's local and regional managers.

Jon serves as a "hub" of sorts – his day is consumed with gathering and disseminating vital information. And with dozens of regional projects, he's got a lot to keep track of. Half of Jon's day is spent on the phone, and the other half is spent sharing and communicating all the details and nuances of his calls with others.

Before Cogi, Jon spent big chunks of time after each call pouring over his notes to convert what was said into an email. Yet between co-workers stopping in his office, meetings, and other interruptions, Jon found it challenging to accurately and quickly recount what was said on the previous call – even with the notes on his yellow pad.

With Cogi on his calls, Jon now simply "highlights" important points of any conversation – giving him peace of mind knowing he can read a transcription of those points, listen to those points again, or replay the entire conversation.

Jon's post call follow-up is now quicker and more accurate than email because Cogi lets his team read and hear what was said. Rather than rely only on his memory of what was said, Jon simply clicks a button to share the call with appropriate members of his team. When they click to review the call, they can read the transcribed points…and more importantly hear what was said to pick-up on nuances missed in emails.

Sales Managers

Brent D. is the sales manager for a credit card services company. And while most of his day is spent working with clients, he also manages a team of eight sales representatives. Most of his time is spent coaching and managing his sales force, yet he also maintains multiple long-term customers. Cogi is equally helpful on both fronts.

With his sales team, Brent uses Cogi to capture the conversation, highlight action items and key points (like sales forecasts and weekly prospect updates), and instantly share the conversation with his team – helping him (and his sales team) recall and execute on what they talked about.

Cogi has also helped Brent better serve his existing customers when he makes sales calls. Because Cogi is "taking notes" on his calls, Brent can stay 100% focused on the customer – letting him actively listen without the distraction of taking notes while the customer is talking.

Creative Collaborators

Liz T. is a creative director for an advertising firm, and she's constantly interacting with her company's account managers, graphic designers and the rest of her creative team.

As with any creative process, Liz regularly gathers her team for brainstorming sessions. And like most brainstorming sessions, the ideas can fly fast and furious, invariably leading someone to say, "…wait, how'd you say that?" Suddenly, the creative "brain freeze" sets in as everyone, including the person with the idea struggles to recall exactly what was said…another creative idea evaporates into thin air.

Cogi gives Liz and her team the freedom to focus on creativity…not note taking. When a good idea comes up, she just clicks a button and Cogi highlights that part of the brainstorming session. When she's done, Liz shares the conversation with her team, so everyone can quickly and easily recall (and rehear) the ideas that were generated.

Small Business Owners

David B. worked for a large architectural firm for nearly 15 years before going out on his own. Although he has a part-time office assistant, David is the go-to guy for everything – his success depends on his ability to dot the "i's" and cross the "t's". To stay on top of all the details, he uses multiple productivity tools including Cogi and he works hard to keep things flowing smoothly.

He knows his best design work comes when he can stay heads down for several hours at a time without interruption. Whenever possible, he sets aside an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon to make calls – and he works equally hard to get the most out of his time on the phone.

Whether he's on the phone with clients, engineers, contractors, inspectors, or project managers, David puts Cogi through its paces. He's constantly flagging the myriad details that fly back-and-forth on his calls. Calculations, material specifications, field changes – things are constantly changing and Cogi keeps all that detail in one place, letting him quickly and easily update his plans.

Independent Consultants

Kathy M. heads-up a small group of corporate trainers and she is constantly balancing her time between managing existing clients with prospecting for new business.

Like most independent consultants, she knows her greatest marketing tool is word of mouth – and that depends on her success at accurately meeting the needs of existing clients. After each initial engagement, Kathy spends a great deal of time on the phone trying to glean the clients' exact training needs, determining the content and trainer to assign to a project, and then relaying the project scope to the trainer. Before Cogi, Kathy spent too much time talking to her trainers trying to accurately summarize exactly what the client wants to accomplish.

Now that Kathy uses Cogi to capture her client conversations, she simply highlights the important moments in those conversations, and then shares the conversation with the trainer she assigns to the project. The trainer can hear (and read) the highlights in advance of talking with Kathy, making those conversations faster and more accurate – leaving Kathy with more time for client follow-up and new business prospecting.

Executives

Jarred F. is a senior vice president for a regional insurance company, and he is directly responsible for territory profitability. Each Monday, his team dials in from around the region to discuss transaction status and details. After each call, Jarred used to spend an hour or more summarizing the action items from the call prior to sending out the post-call email to his team.

Jarred now uses Cogi to capture the conference call. As specific action items arise, he clicks a button on Cogi to highlight those points. After the call, he takes a few moments to quickly review all the highlighted points, then types in the name of the team member responsible for each point, and then shares the conversation with his team. Team members can quickly review their assigned highlighted points. And unlike email, they can hear exactly what was said (in addition to reading the transcript) – all but eliminating the chance for something to get "lost in translation" when relying on email alone.

What used to take Jarred an hour or more now takes less than five minutes. And because Cogi captures exactly what was said, there's no second guessing exactly what needs to get done – improving his team's efficiency and accuracy.

Human Resource Professionals

Rhonda C. is the recruitment director for a mid-sized university, and she's responsible for bringing in the best and the brightest. As with most organizations, hiring is a collaborative process involving multiple candidate interviews with department heads and administration. Each time she brings a candidate on campus for an interview, she dips into her department's travel budget and blocks out significant amounts of her colleague's time to attend the interviews.

Cogi has proven invaluable to Rhonda because now she can have at-length calls with job candidates, highlight important parts of each conversation, and then share the call with others involved in the hiring decision. Her colleagues can read the transcript of her interview call highlights, and more importantly, listen to the candidate in their own voice – making it easier, faster, and cheaper (no candidate travel required) for them to evaluate prospective candidates.

Cell Phone Users

Kendra M. is a pharmaceutical sales representative, and she's typically on the road almost all day. And like most sales representatives, she relies on her mobile phone to contact physician's offices, her company's distribution center, as well as her support staff.

Most mobile professionals find it next to impossible to safely document action items that come out of their cell phone conversations – especially when they're behind the wheel. In Kendra's case, the distraction and anxiety of taking notes while driving became so acute that she started to avoid making calls while driving.

By using Cogi to record and capture her mobile phone conversations, Kendra has reclaimed her drive time (and her productivity) because she's no longer worried about taking notes while driving. She can review her conversations when she logs in to her computer. For urgent items she shares the call with her assistant who then reviews the highlights of each conversation.