- Using research to create headlines

One of the defining characteristics of news is newness. And what better way to equip oneself with something new to say than research?

Talkies client and NYSE-listed enterprise software company BMC strove to dominate the conversation about improving business performance with better managed IT. At the time, their objective was cementing the link between BMC’s BSM software platform and agile IT. BMC had customers supporting their position, but required a bigger hook to elevate the conversation to news media. Getting there required a fresh conversation and a body of supporting evidence. Research was the answer

Partnering with a credible researcher was a good first step. The Economist Intelligence Unit is hard to beat. But industry news is frequently peppered with analyst reports and assorted research, so architecting a new angle was paramount. Digging over old ground would fail.

The idea was to explore IT’s contribution to business by gauging the incidence of IT measurement and beliefs about its actual and potential contribution. The research created a body of evidence headlined ‘BMC: Unfit measurement keeps IT off the pace’. The findings showed that nearly one in four organisations (24%) did not even formally measure the performance of IT operations. Supporting findings pinpointed a widely held belief that IT was capable of contributing much more to the business - 84 percent of those surveyed said IT could add much more value to the company than it did.

The research spearheaded a regional news media outreach, equipping BMC spokespeople with robust views and the basis of a conversation that tied back to BMC’s central offerings.

The results led to a smattering of stories. Importantly, the research had a reasonable shelf life, and has been subsequently referenced in other stories.