A new EUR 8.5 Billion company sales ready for day 1!

The situation?

In 2011, Atos Origin integrated with Siemens IT Solutions and Services to become Atos, one of the largest technology companies in the world, with revenues of EUR 8.5 billion and 74,000 employees in 42 countries.

It meant a new brand and a new voice. It also meant rapidly aligning the key offerings and solutions portfolio, creating compelling propositions and content, training the new Atos sales teams and equipping them with the appropriate sales tools on a global scale.

And that’s where we came in.

As a result of our in depth experience and following a bid response that scored consistently higher than any of the other competing agencies, Marketing Team Direct was commissioned to articulate the new market and solution specific value propositions, create and tell the new verticalized stories, activate the new brand and rearm a newly combined global sales community.

We then had 6 weeks until day one, July 4th 2011, to deliver.

So – how did we do it?

Our planning was meticulous

Problem prevention. We pre-empted exactly how the project needed managing and operating. It was essential that existing MTD clients and business as usual was ring fenced from this rapid and complex project. So we:

• Built a new team with the right skills for each of the component parts and stages of the project. Creative people – planners, copywriters, project managers and designers collaborating flexibly and fast
• Immediately invested in our technology infrastructure to provide the extra tools and capacity for rapid up scaling.
• Implemented creative processes – streamlined from the start with clear objectives, milestones and workflow
• Went to the cloud – advanced, cloud-based project technology let us communicate effectively with everyone – anywhere, assign and manage tasks and ensure effective communication by significantly reducing email.

We understood Atos and the market

We got inside the integration process articulating the new brand, the new positioning and the new tone of voice. We quickly understood the business complexities, messaging requirements, key stakeholders, solution owners needs, their markets and their customers state.

We embraced and signed up to the Atos challenge and the imperatives:

• Time: we had 6 weeks to rearm the sales force
• Cost: we had to work within the strictest pre-agreed budgets
• Brand: this was a newly conceived brand yet to be activated
• Risk: we had to deliver; the whole of Atos depended on it
• Command and control: Atos needed transparency, involvement and confidence. We needed the speed and agility required to deliver quality, in the available time.

We added value and removed risk

The agility we provided Atos meant that we could add value throughout the project.

• Scaled and flexed according to needs and progress
• Actively collaborated with other agencies and stakeholders
• Retained and shared core knowledge to deploy when it was needed
• Solved problems outside of the scope of the project for the good of the project
• Created commercially relevant and sound content briefs first for every market that underpinned every value proposition.

We delivered results – putting Atos in a winning position

Thanks to our well-planned, creative and strategic way of working, at every stage Atos could see we were achieving results. In the end, they didn’t feel any drag or problems. All they saw was success:

• Atos strategy – made real
• Atos brand – activated
• Atos global sales community – rearmed
• Atos audiences – informed and influenced

And even they don’t think anyone else could have done it:

“We wouldn’t have made it with any other agency than MTD”

We’re proud of having helped Atos achieve its launch goal. Our work to further Atos’ global rollout of strategic propositions and support of their sales development continues.