Amsterdam,
12
August
2022
|
09:25 AM
America/Chicago

Sizeable challenges: ensuring your communications work at scale

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Scale is a strange thing, isn’t it. Those who’ve achieved it have to focus harder on details like procedures and training manuals, as the size of the business separates the founders from employees and formal processes replace face-to-face contact. Whereas those yet to reach enterprise size may be first-name terms with every customer … yet have trouble finding the technologies and practices that’ll get them to the next level. 

We empathize. With the customers whose favorite company isn’t as personal as it used to be – but especially with the people we work with: PR and comms professionals. The team that often has to pick up the pieces after an incident. And in today’s world, incidents don’t have to be very big to cause you major problems. 

It’s a problem because it’s assymmetrical. A single customer’s bad experience can unfold into days of media coverage, with a huge hit to your brand reputation (or your CEO’s career) worldwide. (Imagine your stock price tanking 30% because of one TikTok video.) Or – at the other end of the yardstick – a persistent and vast communications breakdown with costs in the millions gets ignored because it isn’t obvious to your stakeholders.

That’s the subject of this blog: how to ensure the tech you use covers all your needs across your organization, even if that spans thousands of people and millions of consumers. Not only at enterprise scale – but at all scales, from minor bits of negative coverage to company-threatening market upheavals.

Let’s get rolling with what you should look for first: business value.

Enterprise scale, enterprise value …

There’s a huge pick-up-and-put-down problem in the comms business. (We made it the subject of another blog.) Many teams use an ad-hoc sheaf of applications to do different tasks, and switching between them isn’t effortless. Estimates of the time wasted in these “transaction costs” run as high as 30 hours a week per person.

Solving this issue – and returning greater value to your business – is practically the job description of Presspage. It’s designed from the ground up as an integrated suite, where each task only needs doing once and, once done, fits seamlessly into your team’s process and workflows. Create documents in a shared “newsroom”, and distribute to media owners (the right media owners, of course) customized for their preferred format and language. All maximizing publication potential – and impact.

So first of all, understand that Presspage isn’t a grab-bag of apps. It’s purpose-built for the enterprise communications function, integrating the diverse needs of multinationals and the collaboration needs of large teams. Making the most of your effort and energy.

… with security that scales too


Another PR conundrum: this most public-facing of departments has a great need for privacy – to keep embargo’d documents secure, internal conversations secret, and intellectual property where it belongs. And with increasingly dense legislation coming into play worldwide, there are serious consequences for revealing sensitive information. 

That’s why any communications solution you choose must be a secure one – without becoming a PITA (pain in the neck) for its users. 

Presspage makes security core – and not just in the technological sense. It’s an ISO 27001:2013 certified platform, compliant with both Europe’s GDPR legislation and equivalent regimes across the world. While cookies are fading from the browser scene, they’re still around, and Presspage is in sync with cookie rules, too. 

It also makes security easy for its users. An SSO (Single Sign-on) approach makes the whole application suite accessible to everyone who needs it while preventing access to anyone else, and logging in includes Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) similar to that used by banks. When enterprise-grade security is baked in, so are confidentiality and privacy.

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The unusual importance of procurement

People outside our sector may not realize how much energy goes into the procurement process of contracts and customizing. But business in general – and media in particular – is a lot more legally complex than it used to be. Social media has created a near infinite number of channels; the right Influencer in her bedroom can sway more opinions than a Fortune 500 CEO. And business models have evolved, too. Paid, earned, and owned media need handling differently, and many industries have specific rules about what you can say, where you can say it, and how your claims must be supported. 

Needless to say, Presspage is big on this “contract maneuverability”. (We’ve forged strong relationships with customers in complex sectors like pharmaceuticals and financial services.) Again, the importance of a smooth workflow is front and center. 

Once a way of working is defined, it becomes an automatic part of your process enterprise-wide, keeping all your people on the right path as they create, connect, and distribute. Which means your work stays legally compliant and true to contract, by design. 

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Plus a rock-solid working relationship!

All of the above is biased towards technology: the integrated applications, the secure-by-design model, the way it makes procurement part of your workflow. But the fourth pillar of being enterprise-ready is more human: engagement. The connection with you and your industry that drives us to make the technology intuitive and usable. 

Presspage is a technology company, but we like to think our strongest selling point is that intimate connection we have with our enterprise customers. We’ve taken the time to build relationships with key people, understand their needs, and re-imagine our entire technology roadmap to suit them. In fact, our future plans are fluid, because the most important element in them is you – the voice of the customer!

This, perhaps, is what makes Presspage truly enterprise-scale. It’s not a specific solution for a single problem, but an overarching answer to the entire PR and communications process within your organization and beyond. With all the parts connected up, all the people empowered and energized, and all the data safe and secure.

Technology is wonderful. But at Presspage, we never forget you’re in a people business, building a positive profile for your brand amid the hubbub of global conversations and opinion leadership. It all starts with an engaged relationship.

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Conclusion: Presspage enables your Enterprise 

In today’s enterprise, the comms team is often less visible than other departments. After all, if you’re doing your job right, no problems with the media ever seem to arise. But an enterprise-scale solution like Presspage gives you the tools and metrics needed to become a credible and visible part of business success. Not just in communications strategy – but in overall business strategy. Putting PR where it belongs.

With that goal in mind, we’d like to invite you to learn more about Presspage. Start by signing up to our email newsletter – it’s information-rich and totally non-spammy. Or why not go further and reach out to our team? We’d love to hear about your specific communications challenges – and how we could help. Contact us!