Alliance & Leicester, one of the UK’s major financial services groups, has implemented Alterian’s operational marketing software, Organizer, to help streamline its campaign management processes.
With more than 5.5 million customers , London-based Alliance & Leicester offers a broad range of financial services to personal and commercial customers.
Chicago-based Alterian, a provider of integrated marketing software, said the new Web-based system supports existing work flows and gives Alliance & Leicester a framework to help make the marketing processes even more efficient, enhance new recruit training, reduce time spent on mundane tasks and improve information sharing.
Alliance & Leicester wanted a software tool to help manage and support the entire marketing process, to improve project management, promote best practice, and reduce any duplication of work. Organizer provides planning, budgeting, automated work flow and approvals, electronic job bags, and print and design management to 125 users across the group’s branding, marketing communications, design, print, legal, compliance and operations.
The new platform allows external suppliers to engage with the bank, such as design agencies submitting designs for approvals or printers being able to submit quotes. An integrated soft-proofing module speeds-up the creative review and approval process across teams of internal users and Alliance & Leicester’s external marketing partners and agencies.
Mike Lord, senior marketing communications manager at Alliance & Leicester, said that the company runs more than 1,000 individual marketing projects every year, and improving the efficiency of the campaign process was a key driver behind selecting Organizer.
By having one central repository of all activity, he said, the company is provided with a clear overview enabling management to make faster, more informed decisions and also help meet the government’s Financial Services Authority regulations for reporting on marketing communications.
Delivering automated and collaborative techniques for key parts of the marketing process, Organizer makes campaign approval quicker, gives updates on project timelines and outstanding tasks and reduces time spent in meetings. Alliance & Leicester also has gained computerized data storage rather than physical job bags, allowing easy search and retrieval of previous campaign data which meets with FSA regulations and audit requirements.
Alterian also announced recently the availability of the Alterian Operational Marketing Benchmark, a free self-evaluation tool to help marketers improve the processes used to manage all parts of their marketing operation. Available at www.alterian.com/benchmark, it provides marketers with a tailor-made report and recommendations on their marketing strategy and processes.
