Company Overview:
This leading global food and beverage company ranks among the largest in North America, operating in over 40 countries with a portfolio of iconic brands. A significant industry player, they consistently achieve multi-billion dollar revenues annually.
The Challenge:
The Corporate Communications team faced operational inefficiencies due to reliance on Excel for managing communications initiatives. This approach created heavy workloads, confusion, and delays across planning and execution. Heading into a critical business period, they recognized the need for an integrated solution to:
- Minimize duplicate efforts in editorial calendar management.
- Simplify the approval process, reducing the back-and-forth required for sign-offs.
- Track project timelines and costs with greater accuracy, decreasing manual data entry and errors.
Without a centralized system, the team struggled with limited visibility, unclear deliverable ownership, and recurring delays, which ultimately distracted from strategic goals.
The Solution:
Park West partnered with the client to develop a comprehensive Marketing Command Center using Airtable. This tailored platform addressed the team’s immediate needs and sparked interest in adopting similar solutions across the organization. Key features of the Command Center included:
- Centralized Project Intake System: Streamlined project requests, reducing delays and enhancing visibility on new initiatives.
- Unified Project Management System: Improved project tracking, clarified task ownership, and provided automated status updates across project stages.
- Real-Time Editorial Calendar: Offered a live, unified view of current and upcoming projects, eliminating duplication and reducing confusion.
Solution Expansion:
Following the success of the Command Center, the client began exploring expanded implementations across other departments. The extended solution is designed to enable improved cross-departmental visibility, smoother collaboration, and greater operational efficiency.
Results:
The Command Center significantly transformed the Corporate Communications team’s operations:
- Reduced project turnaround times by 30%, driven by streamlined approval processes and automation.
- Enhanced clarity around task ownership, promoting accountability and reducing ambiguity.
- Consolidated multiple planning and tracking processes into a single, Airtable-based platform, eliminating redundant Excel sheets.
- Fostered cross-team collaboration by establishing a centralized platform for managing all communications and project workflows.
Business Impact:
With Park West’s solution, the Corporate Communications team shifted focus from administrative tasks to strategic initiatives. The new Command Center serves as a single source of truth, improving decision-making and execution across the organization.
Next Steps:
The Marketing Command Center’s success has laid the groundwork for further scaling across the client’s global operations. The next phase involves refining and customizing the solution for other functions, including facilities and finance, to drive holistic efficiency.
Client Feedback:
A Senior Manager shared the impact of the Command Center on their team:
“Our goal was to create an integrated content calendar that would seamlessly connect our Communications stakeholders from project request to completion. The Park West team transformed our complex requirements into an intuitive, dynamic solution. This system has been a game-changer, and we couldn’t have achieved this level of functionality without their partnership.”
