While almost anyone can now take good photographs with a digital camera at a graduation, the question of most concern to event organizers becomes which photo company can most easily and effectively make those images available to my graduates and their families? GradImages has the resources of a national company to provide, by far, the best post-graduation experience for graduates and their families, as well as, promoting an on-going relationship with the school, starting with the delivery of graduation images.
One of GradImages’ greatest assets was the investment and development of proprietary systems, which are specifically designed for the acquisition and delivery of images and photo related products to graduates and their families. Just after the ceremony ends, emotions are fully charged and families want to share the joy of this occasion with all those who are important to them. The investment GradImages has made in its technology enables this to happen in a time-frame that is expected by contemporary families. Meeting graduates’ and their families expectations is a key element to the value of a partnership with GradImages. Whereas most other photography companies are content to use older technology and slower delivery mechanisms, GradImages has designed its systems to take advantage of current technology in order to meet expectations of immediacy. Our superior performance reflects well upon your institution and is essential in fostering an on-going relationship with your graduates and their families.
Security of the ceremony images is essential in the service a photographer provides. Immediately after each ceremony, images are taken from the GradImages cameras and loaded onto a laptop hard drive. They are also backed up to a flash drive for additional redundancy. Finally images are uploaded to network servers at our headquarters, where three copies of all digital images are made. These three copies are stored in different places; this process helps ensure the safety of images.
Unlike GradImages, most other photography companies utilize third party sites for posting their images for viewing and marketing and in many cases even for the image identification process itself. GradImages’ internal network server system of identification and marketing not only provides exceptional speed for proof delivery, it also maintains superior security of the information shared in the process of marketing. For the sake of preserving memories for the life of the graduate, all of our systems are redundant. Additionally, all of our servers are fully mirrored ensuring that the systems are never down in case of weather or electrical emergency.
Once loaded onto a laptop, images are then transmitted, along with the documentation of the sequence order of the graduates, to the main GradImages servers. This allows the identification process of images to begin promptly after the end of the ceremony. GradImages’ proprietary software allows multiple people to work on a ceremony at the same time, resulting in the proofs from many ceremonies being available to view within hours of the event’s end. Graduates are then notified of the availability of their images for viewing by mobile texting (if mobile phone numbers are available), email, and later by Postal Service. The texts and emails have links to graduates’ personal photos, not to a generic site. If graduates want to share their photos from a text, our site is mobile device compatible so that in seconds the photos can be downloaded to the device and shared with family and friends. To our knowledge, no other company has this capability.
GradImages has retained every graduate’s photograph taken since 2007. This is an important benefit to the relationship with the school. Graduates are relieved to know their images are stored indefinitely with GradImages. Alumni Associations are also pleased to have images of their graduates available for use when one is featured in publicity by the university.
One of the main benefits that GradImages brings to an institution is the ability to partner in a meaningful way an ongoing relationship with its new graduates and their families. We provide programs to co-market our services using pre-registration, landing pages, email, and US Postal Service mail. Our web site can also be co-branded with the institution. By appearances and actions, we become a partner, bringing on-going good will to your institution by our providing a valued and cherished service.
Over the past several years, GradImages has experienced the importance of enhancing its technology in order to provide a highly beneficial service to its partner institutions. We have invested substantial financial and human resources in achieving the systems we employ. There is an old saying that, “you get what you pay for,” and this is certainly true with GradImages. As the only national graduation photography company, we have superior resources to develop and refine systems that provide your graduates with the level of expertise they expect. Others with limited resources can provide limited fulfillment of expectations of this most important occasion. We at GradImages look forward to partnering with you to help provide a service that will make your graduates happy and will advance an on-going relationship with their alma mater.