In recent years, a revolution has been taking place in the digitization of business processes. The global pandemic only accelerated it. Overnight, companies were forced to shift their processes into the digital realm in order to continue to operate normally.
In 2018, the multinational company WPP started working on a so-called orchestrational system that would unite the various workflows within it. Through analysis of their processes and their customers' desires, WPP’s innovation department identified the next big thing that would continue to give them a competitive edge in the market.
We were contracted to build their orchestral system which unifies the tools, defines the process and brings the people within big companies into one central place. At first, the system was used for internal use, but soon it turned out that we had built such a heterogeneous product that it can be marketed to and used by the WPP clients as well.
WPP is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It was the world's largest advertising company, as of 2019. WPP owns many companies, which includes advertising, public relations, media, and market research networks such as AKQA, BCW, CMI Media Group, Essence Global, Finsbury, Grey, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Mindshare, Ogilvy, Wavemaker, Wunderman Thompson, and VMLY&R. It is one of the "Big Four" agency companies, alongside Publicis, Interpublic Group of Companies, and Omnicom.
Their innovation department was faced with the problem of how to find an internal team that would be able to show results in the specified timeframe. They saw a huge amount of untapped company potential in their idea, but they needed a partner who would realize the project on short notice.
To achieve that, the company decided to cooperate with an external team that would cope with the task at hand. They chose us over our competitors because of our progressive approach.
In 2017, we started working with them on the prototype of the orchestration system, from which we ran many sprints until we got to the point where employees could start using the product. With this collaboration, the company confirmed its assumptions about how to best digitize and organize its business processes.
Many corporate environments face the problem of their processes becoming slow and unwieldy, resulting in a long time to market for innovations. The gravity of what it means to be the first is well-known to all of us. So how can a large corporation compete with agile startups? One of the options is by outsourcing the build of their ideas to younger, innovative and leaner teams.
This is exactly how WPP addressed the challenge of innovating at a pace that’s always one step ahead of the competition. By working with an external team that has the ability to think outside the box more freely, the company has gained two things:
WPP’s Innovation department wanted to confirm their hypothesis about the use of an orchestrational system in a very short time. They recognized within our team the unique combination of expertise, experience and agility that they needed most in order to achieve their goals.
We impressed the client by tangibly demonstrating to them what working with us would look like. Instead of documentation, we secretly prepared a limited scope but operational module for them, we secretly prepared an operational module with limited scope for them, which they could test and use immediately. In this way, we showed them how agile our cooperation could be. They were very impressed by our efforts and our capability, so they decided that we would make a great partnership.
When we started working with WPP, we made a list of priorities, wishes and limitations. We agreed with the client that we would not waste more time with documentation than was necessary. The main priority was rapid testing of working prototypes. Using the scrum method, we delivered a working module to the client every week or every 14 days, which they could test among their colleagues and customers. Once the module was confirmed as ready for production, we documented it and ran it through our Quality Assurance procedures.
The innovation department at WPP has made tremendous progress in recent years. Thanks to the orchestration system which is now already being used by major companies all over the world, WPP has closed deals worth several millions in the last two years alone. Such efficiency and pace would have previously been unattainable due to the slow corporate environment.
We can always count on the Nudge Labs team to get us a competitive advantage with their agile methods and technical knowledge.
We understand how important it is to be agile in the highly competitive commercial world. Innovation is often the most important advantage with which you can successfully compete in the market.
If your business is facing similar challenges, consider chatting with our team of experts. We will be happy to listen to your wishes and make sure we find the optimal solution to achieve your goals. With us, you will gain the competitive advantage and agility of a startup, combined with the experience of a team crafting bespoke solutions for large and established corporations.
