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Two years of recession followed by flat growth meant large organisations were taking an axe to their IT budgets. But as a major vendor of enterprise IT systems and services, HP saw this not as a disaster but an opportunity – for organisations to optimise costs, rather than slash them indiscriminately, to not just survive but thrive, and to drive cultural change in the IT department.
HP identified four pillars of cost optimisation of IT: automation, consolidation, asset utilisation, financial management. The company’s objective then, was to bring this complex message to an audience of CIOs in the UK and Germany, ultimately to increase revenue in the HP Software BTO management suite, not by preaching HP as the solution, but by sparking discussion.
To achieve this aim IDG Global Solutions (IGS) developed a $150,000 integrated programme running from September to November 2009, comprising:
- Benchmarking survey enabling respondents to rate their cost optimisation efforts against those of their peers
- Live interactive audio webcast discussing cost optimisation among industry experts
- CIO boardroom report based on telephone research among senior IT decision-makers in UK, Germany and France
- Face-to-face debate mixing CIOs, IDC analysts and HP executives to promote exchange of ideas
- Embedded zone on the homepages and relevant sections of computerworlduk.com and computerwoche.de
The embedded zone kicked off the campaign in September, displaying four content tabs - Cost Optimisation, Survey, Webcast and Whitepaper – providing lead generation from downloads and registrations. To draw the eye, a custom ticker of high-impact customer comments linked to various assets such as HP case studies. Embedded zone tabs were rotated frequently to keep the content fresh.
Ninety-six respondents completed the survey from the UK and 141 from Germany.
The live audio webcast, IT Financial Management – Cost Optimisation for Efficiency and Agility, was an hour’s discussion between four industry experts fuelled by audience questions and chaired by the editor of Computerworld UK. It was broadcast 1 October 2009 and subsequently made available as a download from the embedded zone.
The 12-page boardroom report, IT Cost Optimisation – a Catalyst for Operational Advance, was based on in-depth phone interviews with eight senior IT executives from large enterprises in the UK, France and Germany. A four-page summary document was also produced and both made available for download from the zone.
Combined, the webcast and boardroom report generated 173 high-level registrations.
The executive debate, Controlling Costs and Complexity – The Key to Thriving or Just Surviving?, was held over dinner on 11 November 2009 and attended by 33 c-level executives. After presentations by an IDC analyst and HP executives, discussion was opened up to the attendees.
“A great opportunity to hear a wide range of views and ideas,” commented one attendee in the post-event feedback survey. “Excellent, and very relevant to the CIO’s current challenges,” wrote another.
“This is a great example of an integrated campaign using one-on-one interviews to develop content, engagement through benchmarking research, face-to-face and online events and a custom-built zone to link all aspects of the programme,” said Lisa Glover, director of strategic marketing services at IGS.