nirva - white paper trans promo

8/14/2019 Nirva - White Paper Trans Promo

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An industry white paper

From the desk of

Jacques Mirodatos

Transpromo hasn't happened -

will it ever?

Placing marketing messages on transactional documents has been a widely discussed industry

subject for well over 10 years. Yet few transactional documents can truly be classified as

having adopted a true Transpromo approach. This document discusses the subject and offersinsight into why it has been slow to take hold.

Nirva Systems UK October 2008


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TransPromo hasnt happened, will it ever?

Despite all the hype about TransPromo, there are in fact few European success stories

featuring the latest buzzword. Naturally, this is not the first time that new concepts fall short

of their early promise and fail to generate significant benefits, despite widespread attempts at

proving otherwise. But why hasn't TransPromo taken hold?

We have all followed other sharp hype-curved trends before. Take XML for instance: it was

supposed to solve all data related issues and allow data interoperability across the board. But

of course, that never happened quite that way. You may also remember Data Mining, the un-

glamorous task of filtering data to find golden nuggets; it was re-branded as Business

Intelligence, subsequently re-invented as Knowledge Management, then re-heated and served

as Knowledge Discovery. The specialists will argue that these concepts have certain

differences but they are not noticeable to the untrained eye.

A decade ago, when CRM became the next Big Thing, every single piece of technology,

software or services was repositioned as a CRM critical component. Since businesses makemoney through customers, anything that serves the business eventually serves the customer,

and companies are always very quick to jump on the next buzzword bandwagon.

TransPromo or the art of inserting promotional material in transactional documents - has

followed the same flight path. It has been frequently revisited over the last decade as well

although the term is new, the concept isnt. Fifteen years ago, the first generation of document

composition tools received add-ons that allowed, in theory, non technical staff members to

include targeted, personalised messages on transactional documents (bills, invoices,

statements, etc.). Ten years ago, second generation tools included a simplified way of

controlling targeted message content and arranging it in marketing campaigns. What had

earlier been branded The Right Message for the Right Person at the Right Time became

Campaign Management and CRM applications, still promising to insert marketing

content in the invaluable transactional document. But as with the other technologies,

Transpromo hasn't taken hold in the European market.

When the data processing industry started merging with the more traditional non variable

printing world, colour became a realistic option to further support these messaging facilities.

Additional steps were taken to lure the marketing users to adopt those wonderful, all-

promising TransPromo tools, by integrating traditional desktop publishing tools with the

industrial components used by the IT department. Yet again, things still didn't seem to take

off.

We have the tools, we have the technology, we have low cost printers that produce high

quality colour output and yet, TransPromo is not happening. Whether we name it One-to-One

Marketing, Marketing Messages or Campaign Management, the concept has produced

minimal results and it is not the re-branding of these techniques under the TransPromo banner

that will make them successful.

The real issues hampering successful TransPromo have been around for a long time and

unless significant effort is invested in resolving these items, TransPromo will continue to

flounder.

1. First and foremost, the quality and validity of the data stored in the heart of thecorporate repositories is not guaranteed. Thus corporate confidence in delivering the


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right, targeted message, is limited. White space is used to manage simple generic

messages which, if slightly inappropriate will not offend.

2. The second issue resides in the creation of message content (text, images, inclusion of

variable data, etc.). When a new offer is identified by a line of business, it is not an

easy task to come up with the supporting material and guarantee its compliance with

legal, finance and technical departments, let alone shaping the IT tools to support newcustomer product or segments. Adding an interaction step with IT to ensure

compatibility with the transactional document is not a welcome effort.

3. The third issue is speed, or time to market. With a growing array of technologies

available, it is not easy to identify the best tools available and then liaise with the

technical departments to outline the necessary requirements to develop the solution

needed. And despite the powerful technology available, rare is the case where the new

content marries seamlessly with the existing solutions.

4. The fourth issue is strategic. Without business sponsorship and control, which

understands the issues and challenges facing both the message creators and the

document producers, these two parties will continue working in their own silos.

The heart of the challenge is that despite the power of the tools available, the message creators

do live in a different business world from the transactional document producers. TransPromo

is a valuable concept and the technology to support it is available. However, the business

processes must all fall under the control of a common owner for it to deliver on its promise.

Interactive and on-demand documents, placed under total control of the end users can deliver

promotional messages in a far more effective manner than the batch systems. Customer facing

representatives (front office, call centres or agents, for instance) are ideally placed to create,

tailor and include promotional material in their business documents using the detailed

knowledge they have of that particular customer situation.

The TransPromo revolution, which is yet to come, requires a deeper involvement of the end

user, which in turn, involves an organisational rethink within large corporate entities.

If you are interested in debating this subject further please feel free to contact

the author Jacques Mirodatos.

Jacques is presently the Technical Director of Nirva Systems UK Ltd. Jacques has more than

20 years experience in the document space as a technical director and industry evangelist. He

has held senior technical positions at numerous specialist companies in the document space

including Astron (prior to its acquisition by RRD), edotech and Lasercom. He has also sat onadvisory panels with various composition vendors, most notably Metavante and Exstream.

Jacques' numerous roles have included consultancy, analysis, architectural design and project

management. Jacques possesses a rare capacity to bridge the communications gap between

technology and business requirements making him a sought after analyst as well as a speaker

at international seminars and conferences.

In addition to his role as Technical Director of Nirva Systems UK Ltd, Jacques is the Chief

Architect for the Nirva set of products.

Please feel free to contact Jacques on:

[email protected] or +44 7902 923 774
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]

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