Our clients - on our PR services

"The main PR challenge for Cambridge Technology Partners is that we're involved in some extremely exciting deals with top companies, but the deals are so sensitive, we can't talk about them! This type of material would obviously be very influential in the press and in reaching Fortune 2000 companies in the region, who we consider to be our primary target audience.

"Over the past three years, Insight has been innovative in helping us develop other ways of reaching the media, using more corporate PR, and positioning us as opinion and technology leaders in the industry, for example. Indeed, we are opinion leaders in the industry because we are both management consultants and systems integrators. In the past, this has clouded our positioning in the market, but Insight has minimised any confusion and established us as one of the key providers to the Fortune 2000 list.

"Our profile in the UK and Ireland is now very high in relation to our size - we employ 220 people here - and we are known for our 100% commitment to our unique 'Fixed time, fixed price' model, which typically delivers high-end business solutions in unprecedented timeframes.

Another major differentiator is our people who are business as well as technology oriented, young and highly motivated. One of our criteria in working with clients is that we should be able to have fun, and I think Insight has the same attitude. Like ourselves, they are a professional company, expert in their field - and they place great emphasis on their working relationships with clients. We enjoy working with them - we have fun."

Steve Cutting
Marketing Director, Western Europe Region, Cambridge Technology Partners.

"As Chief Executive of a dynamic start-up company (Casmir Ltd), I recognised the need to generate an awareness of the company and its product portfolio in an established Knowledge Management market place.

"A decision was made to generate that awareness using PR rather than direct advertising. We looked at a number of PR companies before selecting Insight. Their professionalism and knowledge of the industry really impressed us. We committed ourselves to an eight month project and within the first four months, the return on our investment was substantial.

"With limited news, (commercial restrictions, i.e. contractual non-disclosure agreements between Casmir and it's customers, prevented widespread coverage of our successes within our customer base), our account manager secured a number of excellent pieces of coverage for us, including a half page spread in the Financial Times. We hope to get a significant number of sales leads from this article.

"Insight has exceeded our expectations and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to my colleagues."

Sean Keenan
CEO, Casmir

"Insight has an excellent ability to understand your business, identify your key messages and achieve rapid media coverage in a short space of time. I have worked with Insight over the last three years, as I have moved around the industry, and have been so impressed with its professional and measured approach to PR that I would unreservedly recommend its services to other organisations."

Tim Easton
Sales Director, Telecoms, KSS

"I understood many people's hesitance in realising the value of web based news services, but things are changing! We actually received a call from the Law Society news desk requesting information on the research announcement covered by Silicon.com. It's true then; silicon.com has readers, and outside the IT industry!

"Our thanks go to Insight. The team there convinced us to do this interview as part of the programme; we are looking forward to even more success as we continue, with our sights on national and business media next."

Louise Hill
Marketing Manager, Nabarro Nathanson

Preparation, preparation, preparation - PeopleSoft sees no substitute

As one of the largest ebusiness software vendors in the market, PeopleSoft needs to interface with the media on a regular basis. This takes more than one or two people to manage and all media facing personnel need to be equipped with the skills and messages to do the right job for the organisation's PR machine.

"The requirement is not to make people into robots who just spout the company line," said Alastair McGill, UK marketing director of PeopleSoft, "but to hone their skills so that they can confidently approach the media and get our message across in the most effective way. They also need to make themselves good sources for comment so that journalists come back to them in the future.

"Preparation is everything whatever audience you are approaching, there is no substitute for knowing your subject and being clear about what you want to communicate. Structured media training with working journalists run by a PR professional is the best way to prepare all levels of spokespeople.

"The feedback we got after the last two sessions demonstrated how useful it was. Not only for those who had not tackled the media world before, but also as a refresher for those with more experience. It also highlighted areas of improvement and where other issues needed managing that may not have been raised in any other forum, " continued McGill.

"Using Insight, our PR consultancy, to source these services means that they have a better all round understanding of what we need and a holistic view of our market. They can better recommend the right training at the right level to fit in with our broader PR and marketing requirements," concluded McGill.

Alastair McGill
UK Marketing Director, PeopleSoft

"Insight provides an uncommon blend of genuine strategic consultancy and real tenacity to get the job done. While column inches are always a key yardstick on overall performance, especially for senior executives who see none of the day to day effort, we worked together to achieve this and the much more important objective of effecting real behavioural change with our key media.

"Often working under challenging conditions, we saw ample evidence of a consultancy that understood our industry and backed this with gritty determination, plain speaking and front-line effort to sell the SSA business concept."

Rachel Arnold
EMEA Marketing and PR Manager, SSA Global Technologies

"Insight has been working with SSI for some time now, and we have seen a definite improvement in the awareness of both our company name, and that of our TROPOS ERP system. We have seen stories about TROPOS implementations in The Times, Computer Weekly, Computing and several other key IT titles.

"Insight is now working with us to develop that awareness in the vertical press key to our target markets, and to deliver a revised and improved range of marketing materials.

"So far, Insight is proving to be an excellent business partner with a good understanding of our business, and of how we relate to our customers."

Trevor Lewis
Managing Director, Strategic Systems International

"We used Insight to coordinate the press relations activity at the annual HP OpenView Universe Symposium. Thanks to the consultancy's work, the event attracted a record number of 75 journalists from across Europe and we held more than 100 one-to-one interviews between HP executives and leading IT publications. This great achievement wouldn't have been possible without Insight's proactive work."

Gerhard Haberstroh
PR Manager, HP OpenView