DWS is a global Oracle specialist software development company offering a range of custom application development services and testing products. As part of a larger Japanese-based software business, DWS has a global workforce and client base.
With a strong 20+ year track record, DWS were keen to refocus on their marketing strategy, amid a period of transition for the business and with an impending new product launch in the US market around the corner.
With the business wishing to make the most of its new product launch, and bolster its marketing strategy for the year ahead, they approached us about carrying out a marketing audit to help identify current performance and future opportunities.
Our audit process started with a series of workshops and stakeholder calls with input from the sales and product teams, senior management team and their external digital marketing agency.
These conversations, combined with our own research on the competitor landscape, enabled us to analyse and score the existing sales and marketing activity in four broad capability categories, which themselves broke down into eleven more specific sales and marketing criteria (what we call ‘performance drivers’):
Interpret – the extent to which DWS were successfully interpreting the needs and motivations of the market and turning that into a value proposition focused and relevant to their target market.
Translate – the ability of DWS to successfully turn their market insights into action, looking at brand building, strategically-led marketing activity and reputation management.
Execute – the proficiency with which DWS were implementing their strategy, analysing customer journey management, sales effectiveness and pipeline management.
Learn and adapt – the degree to which the sales and marketing function was evolving over time, with insights and experience being fed back into the process, considering factors such as performance measurement and data intelligence.
A few weeks after the initial kick off calls the OV and DWS teams were back round the table discussing the findings of the report. The report extended to 30 pages and provided a lot of detail for both the process and the audit’s findings. DWS was also presented with a Red / Amber / Green breakdown of the recommendations, which in turn OV had aligned to DWS’s business goals and were then prioritised accordingly.
There was plenty of discussion about the findings – some were short term tactical changes (e.g. identifying efficiencies within their paid ad campaigns) and some were more strategic in nature (e.g. proposed marketing budget re-distribution).
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