The History of Diagnostics Plus

In 1986, at a bar in an old Central Pennsylvania stage-coach inn, Denis Maraillet and Paul Weener developed the concept and the name for Diagnostics Plus. Dr. Weener had left a tenured faculty position at Pennsylvania State University and both he and Denis had worked together in Europe with international consulting companies.

The name Diagnostics Plus was chosen because it represented the core diagnostic purpose of the company’s products and because the name had essentially the same meaning in English (Weener’s native language) as in French (Maraillet’s native language).

The founding concept for Diagnostics Plus was to provide a technical service to consulting companies by providing organizational assessments that would help consultants better facilitate change within their clients’ organizations.

Since that beginning, Diagnostics Plus has developed into a full service market research company offering a wide variety of research techniques. The evolution has been from organizational assessments to customer satisfaction surveys to market research.

Key projects along the way included working with U.S. Steel in 1993 to develop its first comprehensive customer feedback system and company wide employee survey. A 1994 customer survey for Veeder-Root in nearby Altoona led to work with more than 15 companies within Danaher Corporation and the designation as its preferred supplier of market research. Early research measuring customer satisfaction for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation grew into expanded work in transportation research. Transportation and manufacturing became a combined focus through work with Mack Truck, Caterpillar Corporation and dozens of smaller manufacturing companies that supply components to vehicle manufacturers.

With the acquisition of a telephone survey facility in 1992, Diagnostics Plus developed the capability to deliver high quality telephone research. In addition to providing information for its own full service clients, these telephone research facilities also serve the needs of consultants and research departments in large companies.  

Although the primary focus of Diagnostics Plus has expanded, the business has continued to emphasize its core strengths of survey development and data analysis.  By applying these skills to new opportunities, Diagnostics Plus has expanded into a full service market research company as well as a provider of high quality data collection services and an array of organizational assessments.