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Focus on the essentials
Northgate Information Solutions is the largest provider of software and services to the UK criminal justice industry. As a specialist organisation Northgate deals with highly specific markets including police forces, courts, Government bodies and public safety providers.
CoffeehouseDigital has collaborated with Northgate on various projects where video presentation is used to demonstrate the advantages of Northgate solutions. When Northgate was bidding to support the nine new UK regional fire control centres, for example, CoffeehouseDigital helped to produce a video that put across Northgate’s viewpoint as to what that new infrastructure needed to look like and the challenges that the fire services would need to consider.
"That video was made to support our bid to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister," explains Ian Sterritt, Northgate Marketing Manager for Criminal Justice and Public Safety. "We had a very clear vision of the issues from an IT perspective. We are particularly expert in that field and we needed to get across some fairly challenging concepts that needed to be presented in a clear manner. CoffeehouseDigital's interview technique with video was a very good method of doing that.
"Significantly, the process of putting together the video helped the team involved in the bid to gain clarity as to what exactly the proposition was and the strength of that proposition. When we started shooting the footage we found some of our statements were not always consistent, or not as strong as they could be. The whole process of producing the video was absolutely critical in ensuring that we were able to reinforce our proposition strongly and develop a consistent message."
Northgate also used CoffeehouseDigital in an initiative to take forward the Police Service in their use of CRM systems. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary was concerned that
across the country police forces weren’t performing well in
their management of calls received at control centres.
"Northgate is the market leader in CRM systems in local authorities," says Ian Sterritt. "We felt some of that experience was very applicable in the criminal justice field. So we again went forward with CoffeehouseDigital to create a video to present some of the views on functionality and some of the issues that were involved with implementing CRM within a standard police force. We used interviews directly with one of our leading customers, Kent Police, to help show the project implementation that we had done within their call centre and how that was impacting on their procedures and some of the services they were giving."
Delivering new business
The CoffeehouseDigital material was first used at an Association of Chief Police Officers’ exhibition, then employed with potential clients that were interested in Northgate’s CRM capability.
"It helped set up a groundswell of opinion that indicated that Northgate actually understood what the challenges were," says Ian Sterritt. "It showed that we understood the technology and how that could be applied in solving the relevant issues. It pretty much helped us create a market presence that helped to deliver new business.
"The CoffeehouseDigital material definitely added value for us," concludes Ian Sterritt. "As a marketing professional, to replicate the voice of the customer is really powerful. If you can actually see a customer endorsing you or saying things that are in line with what you are trying to achieve, that is more powerful than any sort of marketing tool I have yet come across.
"The great advantage of the video format is that delivering the message is really painless. Watching something for a few minutes effectively puts prospective clients in the same room with others that endorse your organisation. In terms of a marketing medium I don't know how much better it could get."
