Our clients - on our Publishing services

Evolution of a Newspaper and Website for PeopleSoft

Established in 1987, PeopleSoft develops, markets and supports a complete suite of enterprise software applications to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of business and public sector organisations worldwide. Since 1994, Insight has enjoyed a very successful relationship with PeopleSoft in the UK and Europe providing consulting in PR and Marketing Communications.

Insight was originally approached to develop a high quality, news-stand worthy magazine that would communicate effectively with board-level business executives at their customers, partners and prospects in the UK marketplace. An additional challenge was that, initially, the limited budget would not stretch to cover the production costs of a news-stand worthy glossy magazine.

Insight's solution was a three-year implementation and growth plan to develop a new publication, Evolving Times, from a four page broadsheet style newspaper into a 32 page self-funding glossy magazine, titled Evolution. "Insight were very resourceful in finding a solution based on a limited budget that had the scope and potential to grow over a number of years," remarked Allanic.

To PeopleSoft's delight the launch of the Evolving Times newspaper was a great success. "We received extremely positive feedback from our customers, business partners and internal staff alike. They all praised us for the high quality content and the originality of the design format of Evolving Times which made it stand out from all our competitor's corporate magazines," said Allanic.

As implementation progressed and Evolving Times grew, key strategies were put in place in order to secure more funding for the extra publication costs and to obtain more editorial content for the extra pages. To generate the revenue needed for the extra production costs Insight recommended PeopleSoft approach their key business partners to sell advertising space within the newspaper. Insight produced the media pack and made recommendations regarding costs and mechanical data for the advert space available.

To create the extra editorial copy needed to fill the magazine's extra pages, Insight and PeopleSoft created an Article Tender scheme whereby the industry's top business issues were listed and distributed to the key business partners. The business partners were then invited to contribute an article addressing one particular industry issue on a 'first come, first served' basis.

"Evolving Times is a real Insight and PeopleSoft team effort. Insight delivers the creativity and expertise, Insight's PR team and PeopleSoft provide the content and both organisations contribute to the final editorial and design," comments Allanic. "I would recommend Insight to other companies and my colleagues, the project has been a great success. Insight has delivered a great job that involved a lot of work with large demands from us. The value for money was excellent."

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"Insight produced the PSO Newsletter for four years and never ran out of ideas or enthusiasm. Insight turned concepts into reality whilst maintaining a close and supportive working relationship with us. The Insight staff worked as a real extension to our team at HP."

Pierre Kunzler
European Marketing Manager, Hewlett-Packard Professional Services Organisation

Actional - Creating an Industry Touchpoint

Actional is the only provider of e-business integration software for direct command and control of dynamic, market-facing e-business systems. Insight and Actional have worked together since June 2000, and Actional was new to the European market when it approached Insight to develop an informative and news focused magazine, aimed at its customers, prospects and partners across Europe.

Actional's objective was to effectively communicate with senior decision-makers in global 2000 companies. Through cutting-edge content, it was hoped that the magazine would become essential reading for executives struggling with integrating their business processes. The planned result was for Actional to gain "thought leadership" and to be positioned as a global integration expert.

According to Máire Hanley, European marketing director, Insight was her first choice of consultancy as she formed a European team. "Prior experience of Insight, through my previous company, assured me that Insight would become an extension of my own team. They understand the market and have an infectious enthusiasm for the task in-hand. I was confident that Insight had the original ideas to differentiate us from the competition and that I could trust them to deliver."

The initial plan was for the publication to be distributed in the UK, with a translated version released in Germany.

Insight's Approach
Insight returned with a visual and content outline which fully met the objectives of the brief. The name "Touchpoint" was chosen to reflect Actional's unique product functionality and to emphasise that the magazine was a "touchpoint" for industry issues. The plan was for Touchpoint to be 8 pages long, with a combined circulation across UK and Germany, of 7000. Key industry commentators were invited to contribute, with Actional's content pushed towards the back.

"Insight not only developed a plan that echoed our own beliefs, but also gave the project a whole new dimension. Insight was very strong on the visual brief and the name alone encapsulated what we were trying to achieve. The whole planning stage was an excellent team effort and we felt part of the process from start to finish," said Hanley.

Touch point was planned to be released every 3 months, to coincide with a standard "Internet year", ensuring readers were kept informed of topical integration issues.

Global Success
Hanley describes the launch of Touchpoint as a fantastic success. "The impact of Touchpoint reverberated throughout Actional and our network of customers and partners. It was transformed from a magazine, with a purely European audience, to a rapidly expanding global publication."

Hanley continued, "The look and feel of Touchpoint seemed to catch the imagination of everyone involved. The CEO was receiving notes saying how great it was, raising the profile of our team and carrying our message, as we signed-up customers across Europe."

The feedback from the readership demanded a re-think on the size of Touchpoint and its global reach.

Rapid Expansion
Touchpoint was quickly expanded from 8 to 12 pages and the print run increased by 20%. Plans were made to further increase the third issue of the magazine to 16 pages, with partners contributing articles and purchasing advertising, making Touchpoint a self-funded publication. However, the decision to put Touchpoint on Actional's global website, opened up a whole new channel for the project, explains Hanley.

"Placing Touchpoint online gave it a global audience, but more importantly created the potential to make Touchpoint instantly interactive. There are plans to do a subscription based email-out of Touchpoint, encouraging "opt-in" through special offers and competitions. This has provided Actional with an extremely cost-effective marketing option - available to us because of the originality of Insight's offerings."

Insight Value Add
"Insight has consistently delivered the "wow" factor. We wanted a magazine that would stand out and be part of an executive's regular reading material, as opposed to marketing material that is invariably disposed of. From the initial readership feed back, I think we have achieved that and with Insight we are constantly looking to improve. It is simply not in their nature to rest on their laurels!" said Hanley.

"I knew I could leave a task with Insight and it would be completed on-time and within budget - that kind of trust has been at the centre of our working relationship. Insight's team have an excellent attitude and have proved very enjoyable to work with. I would not hesitate to recommend Insight to other companies," concluded Hanley.

"Solutions" - one of the most successful customer magazines

During the 1980s and early 1990s when customer magazines were in their heyday, Hewlett-Packard's "Solutions" magazine was known as one of the most successful in the business. Behind the scenes was a hive of activity involving an editorial team of HP marketeers, Insight publishing professionals and a well respected high-tech and business freelancer. Insight set schedules, held editorial meetings with the client, managed and delivered Solutions' editorial content, made recommendations for the future of the magazine and handled its distribution to a readership of over 20,000 UK HP customers and partners every 2 months for over six years. During that time Solutions doubled in size, doubled its circulation, matured through two redesigns, opened its doors for advertising and spawned a magazine aimed specifically at HP's burgeoning partner community. And it never missed an issue.

The combination of skills was unique. Right from the start, Hewlett-Packard recognised that by giving Solutions a high degree of journalistic freedom, its readers would come to rely on the news and opinions expressed - and respect them in the same way that they would trust any other magazine on the news-stand. Additional external input from Insight and the freelance writer ensured a newsy, topical style that was never afraid to deal with difficult issues. But Solutions' crowning glory was that half of the magazine was dedicated to success stories from HP customers. That in itself spoke volumes - and Insight was directly responsible for creating them.

Insight also brought an out and out publishing approach to the magazine. With three issues in progress at any one time, superior scheduling and attention to detail were the watchwords, but Insight's main aim was to make the process as painless as possible for its client. From strategic recommendations - on how to move Solutions into the online world, for example, right through to the dates and details of events in the Diary section, Insight brought tenacity, enthusiasm and drive.

When HP was looking for a role model for the future of its customer magazines worldwide, Solutions was one of the top five put forward. Its growth and popularity with the UK HP audience was indisputable. Of course, nowadays customers gather news and information online, but in the crowded world of customer magazines, Solutions still stands out as one of the best of the best."

'EuroTalk' from PeopleSoft

In 1995, US-based PeopleSoft began a rapid expansion into Europe and needed to raise its market awareness in the region significantly. Considerable competition was anticipated from other enterprise applications providers especially SAP, who had the advantage of being European based.

As part of an integrated PR campaign, Insight helped PeopleSoft to create a European version of its successful 'PeopleTalk' magazine. Based on the same designs as 'PeopleTalk', a European editorial mix was established, and three local language versions were produced backed up by country specific response mechanisms for four further languages.

'EuroTalk' helped to establish PeopleSoft as a major enterprise application provider in Europe with a reputation for short implementation lead times and a 'refreshing' attitude compared to the competition. PeopleSoft's corporate stability and worldwide presence have been widely accepted in the region, and its customer base is extremely loyal.

PeopleSoft faced similar challenges in other countries round the world as it established a global presence. In 1998, PeopleSoft decided to create a worldwide magazine based on 'PeopleTalk' and 'EuroTalk' with region-specific content. EuroTalk was incorporated into this new communications piece, which continues to be produced in a printed quarterly version and an electronic version which is refreshed every month.