Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Lincoln Electric is a world leader in the design and manufacture of arc welding, cutting and automation products. The company has over 45 manufacturing sites with operations in 19 countries and a network of sales and distribution in more than 160 countries. Lincoln Electric teams create and apply solutions that help fabricators in every segment increase productivity, enhance quality and reduce costs.
North American Marketing Department Requires a Job Tracking System
The North American Marketing Communications department is divided into two teams designed to work two sides of each campaign or project. The MarCom team, or Marketing Communications Specialists, work closely with internal clients, set campaign plans, specify the projects or tasks and propel each campaign forward. Tasks are divided among a number of personnel on the Creative Services or Media side of the department; writing, scripting, graphic design, photography, video shooting and production, illustration, translation and more.
All new product launch or promotional campaigns undertaken by Lincoln Electric U.S. – from minor iterations to major breakthrough product launches – are run through the MarCom role, divided into development tasks for the resource group, reviewed by multiple roles and levels of the organization and pushed forward for production.
Prior to Phase 1 of the Adatasol project implemented several years ago, Lincoln Electric had no collaborative job tracking system in the North American Marketing Communications Department.
Introducing Compass
With the introduction of a customized Adatasol solution, titled Compass at Lincoln Electric, each task is logged and detailed in the system, allowing delegation, tracking and reporting on each project.
Tracked data includes:
Internal clients, resource teams and key reviewers are identified Tasks can be grouped into ‘campaigns’.
Jobs are tied to Lincoln Electric business units Jobs are specified by task type at multiple levels Target dates for drafts, review and completion are set Project notes and product details are entered for use by resource personnel in downstream systems.
Reviews are tracked and project status moves through a series of stages.
Benefits of the Adatasol Compass System
Without a tracking tool, generating reports and analysis was previously a manual effort. Up and down the organization, significant communication time was spent generating and responding to project status update inquiries. Now, the Marketing team and management group has a variety of at-a-glance or detailed status and reporting capabilities.
A dynamic Dashboard view gives the MarCom team and management fast visibility into the status of projects by MarCom, client, project stage and other parameters. Any Compass user can access the Dashboard for a quick picture of project status without unnecessary contact.
North American marketing management can easily generate reports on quantity of projects at any in-process or completed status for any period.
Developing trends that are not in line with expectations or historical metrics can be analyzed and addressed.
Armed with the Adatasol Compass solution, workload can be more easily balanced by group leaders and management.
The Marketing Communications department job count, or throughput, is up – and trending upward.
The customized Filemaker® database produced by Adatasol is being used by the North American Marketing Communications team at Lincoln Electric to improve efficiency, track progress and reduce unnecessary communication.
