Andrew Yates UK Managing Director of Aprimo explores the benefits that Marketing Resource Management technology can provide for manufacturers

Tuesday, 31 January 2006

The term Marketing Resource Management (MRM) was coined by IT industry analyst, Gartner, to describe a suite of software which automates and streamlines the key processes within the marketing department.

Connected up marketing

MRM touches every part of a marketers' job. The different stages of planning and budgeting, campaign creation and execution, task management, resource utilisation, online reviews of design and copy, marketing response tracking and reporting etc can all be managed more efficiently using MRM software. And by connecting up the different activities, the technology also provides real time visibility on spending and offers insight into key learnings.

Importantly, MRM systems do not operate in isolation. They add value to, and integrate with, other enterprise tools such as core enterprise financial applications, which run the business but are not designed to fit with marketing process. They also interface with the Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems that manufacturers use to automate and standardise business processes.

Workflow efficiencies

At the heart of an MRM system is a central database that establishes workflow procedures for marketing planning, execution and approvals, enabling processes to be streamlined and made more efficient, and helping the marketing department to meet its deadlines. People are alerted when something requiring their input is on its way and prompted to take necessary action.

Many manufacturing organisations are finding that MRM can positively impact the planning and delivery of their marketing activity. One such example is Cummins, a $6.3 billion global power leader that designs, manufactures, distributes and services engines and other related systems.

Marketing process improvement at Cummins

Cummins' Engine Business Marketing group prioritised collateral development as a process improvement project, seeking to reduce time and expense in creating effective brochures, newsletters, and other marketing materials created for a distributor and dealer network located in more than 5,000 facilities and 197 countries and territories.

With a high volume of work and a relatively small team, efficiency, accuracy and productivity are essential. Miscommunication, mistakes, or re-work causes a ripple effect that negatively influences many other team members and projects. These issues were causing delays, excessive false starts with the agency and duplication of work - all billable time.

A significant slice of the annual marketing spend - 18 per cent - is invested in the creation, production, and fulfilment of collateral. On average, a collateral project was consuming 69 working days from the beginning of the proposal review to the completion of production-ready artwork.

"We estimate that as much as 20 per cent of our collateral development expense was attributable to mis-starts or re-work," said Carol Lavengood, Director of Marketing Operations at Cummins.

Key drivers

Cummins was able to identify the key drivers which were affecting project cost and throughput. First, initiating work through an agency too early in the process - based on incomplete project definition - was wasting money on mis-starts and re-work. Second, inefficient communication and collaboration with agencies and printers created a work imbalance and a dependence on time consuming face-to-face meetings. Third, an undisciplined content review process resulted in numerous revisions per project.

Cummins deployed several of Aprimo's MRM products to enable the company to streamline production management and marketing planning processes. The implementation gave Cummins a primary repository in Aprimo to document and keep track of all marketing activity, from the infancy of a task through completed project.

A single place for approvals, updates and scheduling

With the new system, the Cummins marketing team has one place to initiate all proposals for all marketing projects, utilising an online review and approval process. Once approved, the appropriate designers, editors, print buyers, and project managers are notified and given online access to all project details. As the team members execute projects, they can make updates to the details, such as printing specifications, paper sizes, fulfilment and distribution plans, scheduled dates and even estimated costs and financial commitments to vendors.

"With this deployment of MRM technology from Aprimo, we're able to define projects upfront as creative briefs and then have our agencies put together quotes," said Tracy Kiser, Marketing Manager at Cummins. "This discipline has drastically reduced the number of revisions we used to see, which effectively increases value and reduces cost."

Reducing costs, meeting deadlines

As a result, Cummins has realised a 61 per cent reduction in the number of days it takes to complete the average collateral project. Agency revisions to copy and design layout drafts fell by 78 per cent. Not only is Cummins able to meet project deadlines, creative development costs per project were reduced 23 per cent.