Tennis, tenacity, and collaboration: AT&T transforms digital content delivery
“One of the core principles we live by is to look out for opportunities to improve our efficiency and productivity.” – Claudia Gill, director, Digital Content Strategy & Production, AT&T
This is a story about agility. It’s also a story about cutting service level agreements by more than half.
But more importantly, it’s a story about the tenacity and empathy required to collaborate and move quickly, despite the challenges of the pandemic.
I sat down with Claudia Gill, director of Digital Content Strategy and Production at AT&T. This high-performing organization oversees all content strategy and production for AT&T’s wireless and wireline businesses, from device launches to international programs, using Adobe Workfront day-in and day-out to:
- Manage capacity and know who is working on what at any given point
- Drive efficient workflows and deliver content at scale through standardization and automation
- Ensure visibility for leadership
Adobe recently announced AT&T the winner of the 2021 Adobe Workfront Lion Award for Organizational Agility celebrated with the 2021 Adobe Experience Maker Awards. In our conversation, we discussed what it took to bring home this coveted trophy.
Moving fast, moving together
A key aspect of AT&T’s success in wireless is their ability to move fast and out-innovate the competition. For Gill, speed is an essential component of AT&T’s digital strategy to deliver personalized customer experiences, powered by a centralized use of Workfront.
“We can react faster to what the market is showing us,” she explained. “If one of our competitors has an offer out, we can get out the door immediately after.”
For example, a seven-day SLA (service level agreement) was reduced by over 50 percent, now AT&T is able to launch an offer in just three days
All marketing teams need speed to compete in today’s market, but outdated tools can impede the ability to execute high quality creative. According to the 2020 In-House Creative Management Report, 77 percent of creatives said the speed at which their teams are required to work was the top challenge they faced.
Gill highlights the importance of working quickly — and smart — while still maintaining quality:
“We’re not only working extremely fast, we’re also working with all internal and external stakeholders, delivering hundreds of assets. Having everything in one platform with templates truly benefits us. Our speed to market is a testament of how fast we can work, and how efficient we can be with a tool that supports what we need.”
Capabilities like Workfront’s proofing tools ensure this cadence, centralizing feedback and approvals in one place and allowing for real-time communication between stakeholders.
As Gill describes, “it’s just very consistent. It makes everything cohesive. It makes us so efficient.”
Empathy and expectations
The pandemic brought new levels of disruption to every working professional around the globe. That made it more important than ever to properly manage bandwidth, workloads, and expectations.
“One feature I’m passionate about is capacity planning, because it allows us to be transparent and up front with our partners about what projects we can and cannot take. When there are hard deadlines on these projects, it allows us to negotiate upfront.”
Gill revealed just how important work-life balance is as she considered the impact on everyone involved. “We are nimble, we move fast,” she said, “and we need to be productive and efficient. At the same time, we need to be very empathetic. We ask a lot from them, and we should be respectful of their time and lives.”
Think outside the box
Gill first learned about Workfront at an Adobe Summit event and knew there was no going back to their old system. She made the business case to leadership and oversaw the implementation of Adobe Workfront.
I asked her about the tenacity required to take on a transformation like this and learned that she recently started playing tennis a couple of years ago.
Not satisfied with “good enough,” Gill has already reached level three in US Tennis Association (USTA) rankings.
Her advice for experience makers reflects this ambition:
“Be bold and take chances. You might face resistance at the beginning. People are always used to the way things are but keep pushing for new solutions and new workflows. Don’t get stuck, think outside the box, and take a chance.”
She points out that the beauty of Adobe Workfront is that it pivots and can change as the needs of her organization changes. Agility, in this world, is a strength — and exactly what this award celebrates.
What’s ahead?
Gill is looking forward to discovering faster ways to create content. “Especially,” she said, “now that we’re moving to a more personalized model. The amount of content that we’re going to have to produce will be endless. We need to discover ways to support that.”
I’m grateful to Gill for sharing what it took behind the scenes for AT&T to win the Adobe Workfront Lion Award for Organizational Agility. Her story shows the incredible opportunity for all businesses when we connect work and experience management, empower this type of collaboration between creatives and marketing, and manage expectations across the organization.
Honoring the Movers and Shakers. Learn more about the Adobe Experience Maker Awards.