Challenge: According to a recent report by Gartner, an estimated 20 percent of businesses will own no IT assets come 2012.  Several trends are driving the movement toward decreased IT hardware assets, such as virtualization, cloud-enabled services, and employees running personal desktops and notebook systems on corporate networks.

CA Technologies, an IT management software and solutions company, servicing customers in virtually every country in the world, wanted to better position itself for growth, specifically, through a particular focus on markets like virtualization and cloud management.  As such, CA Technologies selected Access Communications as a partner to enable the company to announce a clear and concise vision, corporate strategy and product portfolio that spoke directly to customers as they begin or continue the journey toward the Cloud-Connected Enterprise.

Strategy: Leveraging CA Technologies tradeshow, CA World, as a launch platform, Access was tapped to use media relations as the primary vehicle to clearly communicate the new CA Technologies vision of a Cloud-Connected Enterprise to drive transformation and enable business optimization.  Access was also tasked with introducing the leaders and evangelists that would be the key communicators of the Cloud-Connected Enterprise narrative, as well as indoctrinating and introducing the new face of CA Technologies, CEO William McCracken.

Access worked with CA Technologies to create and flesh out a Cloud-Connected Enterprise narrative that would resonate with top-tier business press, trade media, industry influencers and customers.  Using competitive differentiators, ROI proof points and industry expertise to build out this narrative, Access was able to position and create messaging that clearly defined and defended the CA Technologies Cloud-Connected Enterprise storyline. Once the narrative was finalized, Access tapped into its deep relationships with business-to-business and technology media and bloggers for on-site conference participation, as well as for offsite discussions with CA Technologies executives.  In addition, Access also planned and managed the extensive news and press release pipeline for CA World, ultimately ensuring the proper packaging of company and product news to best articulate the new narrative.

Success Metrics: As a result of Access’ work surrounding CA World, CA Technologies clearly conveyed its new message and mission, as it shared its new Cloud-Connected Enterprise story and key spokespeople with target media, influencers and customers. In fact, CA Technologies received more than 550 pieces of editorial coverage with a total reach of almost 108 million unique visitors. More than 80 percent of coverage consisted of standalone articles, with the majority appearing in core IT trades and top-tier business press, including Network World, InformationWeek, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek and Reuters.