OperationsOffering & client value

Clearer value through effective communication

Effective communication is an increasingly important competitive factor for companies and organizations: to make better informed business decisions, to protect their good name and reputation, and to build brand value. Cision develops and sells integrated services, products and software solutions that meet the needs of most clients to effectively control their growing communication flows.

CisionPoint - new service platform

CisionPoint, a new platform that integrates all of Cision's services based on new software solutions and newly developed technology, was launched during the year. With CisionPoint, clients have the best full-service solution to effectively manage and coordinate their entire communication process with support and advice from CisionPoint.

CisionPoint is a so-called Software as a Service (SaaS) platform, where clients access services through personal logins, their own intranet or external websites. This gives them total access, regardless of where they happen to be. Clients are offered technical support, training, advice and qualitative support for maximum value.

CisionPoint is a strategic, client-driven response to the globalization of communication needs, the growing importance of brand management and rapid technological developments. It is also an important step in the development of Cision's business model, to increase revenue through more fixed fees and subscriptions. And it gives clients a more predictable cost.

Integrated services create value

Cision creates value for clients through services designed for media planning, distribution of information, media monitoring and analysis. Cision's competence and solutions make it easy to effectively control communication flows, analyze and gain new insight, and make better informed business decisions that strengthen brands.

Trends point to growing demand for integrated services at the expense of individual product and service offerings. Clients want higher efficiency, which is supported by the greatly expanded functionality in the new CisionPoint platform. Cision's integrated offering is structured in four service areas: Plan, Connect, Monitor and Analyze.

Plan - reach the right target audience

Media planning through Plan helps clients identify and precisely target the right audiences for campaigns, PR, press releases and other information material. With offices in Europe, North America and Asia, Cision offers the market's most comprehensive database of editors and journalists, containing over 900,000 contacts from nearly 150 countries. The database provides the flexibility to design tools in CisionPoint to manage contact information on target audiences. Clients can also create and monitor their own distribution lists by saving them in CisionPoint. In this way, all the information on each target audience is stored in one location.

Connect - contact through the right channel

Connect is a service to distribute information, usually press releases or other information, by e-mail, fax or SMS to the right target audience. Through CisionPoint, clients can contact various media outlets, journalists, opinion leaders and other target audiences in the channels of their choice. The information is distributed promptly, simultaneously and consistently to specific target audiences with a high degree of accuracy. Clients can decide to distribute information themselves or receive support from CisionPoint's client service representatives.

Cision also supplies PR and IR applications for clients' websites. These services are designed to manage information for shareholders and other financial audiences. Examples include automatic publication of press releases, interim reports, annual reports, market information and images integrated with releases, subscription functions and share performance graphs.

Monitor - searchable media information

Monitor helps clients monitor practically any media, from newspapers, magazines and broadcast outlets to websites and blogs. It provides clients with a clear overview of their coverage and that of their competitors. Its 50,000 sources and partners in almost 125 countries give Cision unrivaled global reach.

Media monitoring is based on specific, intelligent search profiles customized to each client's needs. The profiles determine how information is filtered and coded. A typical assignment would be to monitor the impact of a campaign, compare a competitor's media image and reputation, or issue a news alert when something important is reported by the media. Complete coverage is immediately accessible and searchable online in CisionPoint. Clients also have the alternative of receiving analog press clippings, summaries or broadcast content on DVD.

Analyze - correctly evaluating communication and media coverage

Analysis services help clients evaluate and understand if they are communicating effectively and how it is impacting their reputation and brand, which provides important guidance for decision-making. Cision's offering is a combination of analysis and advice. Analyze produces qualitative and quantitative analyses, which are presented online in CisionPoint as client-specific reports or in meetings in the form of strategic advice. CisionPoint makes it easy to immediately analyze specific details. For example, clients have online access to the complete articles on which graphs are based as well as information on the publications the articles came from. Cision's methods and tools help clients understand the value of their communication work. Cision provides concrete advice on measures to strengthen the company's reputation and brand.