The situation
After the acquisition, the Altran group's communications team became Capgemini Engineering's. It still had to reach the whole division, while former Altran employees were not yet on the Group's distribution lists. So it was still using Altran's email campaign platform. In late 2021, the provider ended the contract, effective the end of February 2022. We needed a lasting solution: one that could reach everyone, send properly designed campaigns and track their results.
What I did
I compared several solutions and recommended the one that was chosen. With the communications department, I gathered the documents required by legal, procurement, data protection and cybersecurity, each with its own rules. The first emails went out in early March 2022, just as the old platform shut down. Cybersecurity gave the green light in May, and the contract was signed in June. The platform then had to work within the Group's IT environment. In summer 2022, sends were blocked for several weeks. I followed up repeatedly, documented the issues and worked with the IT teams to track the configuration changes through 2023.
What it produced
The team kept a direct channel to the whole division, with open and deliverability rates for every campaign. The platform also carried newsletters for other functions, which I prepared and sent. In 2023, the France entity's team opened its own accounts, and I trained them to use it on their own.
What I took from itA compliance requirement tells you what you have to prove. It doesn't tell you what you have to give up.