Mastering CommTech: Unlocking the Potential of Digital Transformation in Corporate Communications (Future of Business and Finance)
This edited collection by over 30 industry experts and scholars explores how communication departments can digitize processes to continue contributing to their companies’ success. It deals with key questions such as the necessity of digitalizing corporate communication, optimal data for success, KPI reporting solutions, and the role of data storytelling and artificial intelligence.
Additionally, it covers future-relevant roles and skills, essential tools and trends, and crucial aspects of upcoming technologies that promise to change the world of corporate communications. A must-read for practitioners at all levels, this book serves as a reference for keen MBA graduates and journalists who are keen to explore corporate communications as a future career option.
Contents
- Setting the Context and Creating Urgency
- Introducing CommTech and Its Foundations
- Data-Driven Approaches and Storytelling
- Operationalizing and Automating Communication
- AI, Advanced Technologies, and Emerging Realities
- Special Considerations and Human Elements
- Tools and Practical Implementation
- Why Companies Need to Get Started with the Digital Transformation of Their Communication (Thomas Mickeleit)
- Communications is Not Immune to Digital Disruption (Thomas Mickeleit)
- CommTech: Enhancing Communication Impact through Stakeholder
Journeys (Thomas Mickeleit) - Data-Driven Controlling of Corporate Communications with CommTech
(Christina Rettig) - CommTech to Enable Data-Informed Decisions (Brittany Paxman)
- Media Analytics – No Data, No CommTech (Jörg Forthmann)
- Holistic Data Storytelling – A Framework for Individualized, EQicient, and EQective Communication with Stakeholders (Annette Siragusano)
- Understanding Consumer Conversations Around Brands: Lexical Analysis of 16 Brand Campaigns (Mudgal Aditi)
- Data-Driven Communication (Greiner, Lammers)
- Communication Conversion Optimization (CCO) (Trummer, Nitsche,
Seebacher, Seebacher) - CommTech and RoI (Tuhin Banerjee)
- Building a Corporate Agenda: Balancing Alignment with Business Goals and Stakeholders’ Interests in Topic-Based Corporate Communications (Alena Kirchenbauer)
- Artificial Intelligence in Corporate Communications: Basics, Opportunities, and Hurdles (Tigges, Schmid)
- Predictive Communication Intelligence (Gabler, Seebacher, Seebacher)
- Fascination Metaverse – How Extended Realities Will Disrupt Corporate
Communication (Schmid) - The Future of Influence: Transforming Lobbying with Predictive Intelligence and CommTech (Forthmann, Oswald, Seebacher)
- Mastering CQ in the Era of CommTech and Predictive Communication
Intelligence (Krings, Nissen, Seebacher) - CEO Positioning as an Integral Part of Corporate Communication in the
Digital Age (Karlic) - In Search of the Perfect Communication Machine (Tigges, Schmid)
- AP CommsMate AI Writing Assistant (Riemenschneider)
Dr. Uwe Seebacher holds a Ph.D. in business administration. As a visiting faculty member, his academic focus lies in the fields of Predictive Intelligence, Management and Organization, Marketing, and Communication. He contributes to international research collaborations and teaches in graduate and executive education programs across several European institutions. His work bridges theory and practice, with a particular emphasis on applied business analytics and the digital transformation of corporate communication.
Jörg Forthmann is the managing director of the IMWF Institute for Management and Economic Research (Germany) and head of media analytics projects in the CommTech working group. Forthmann is an expert in crisis communication and strategic corporate communication.
Thomas Mickeleit is a communication consultant for digital transformation and head of the CommTech working group. Previously, he served as the communication director and a member of the executive board at Microsoft Germany for 15 years, successfully driving the digitization of communication processes in a newsroom.
The digital transformation of corporate communications
This book describes how communications departments can digitize their processes to successfully contribute to the value creation of their companies in the future. More than 30 renowned industry experts and scientists provide a fundamental insight into the topic, create market transparency, describe implementation strategies, and describe their experiences with concrete IT and communications projects.
Among other things, the following questions will be answered: Why is the digitization of corporate communications mandatory and not optional? Which data promises the greatest success? What are optimal solutions for KPI reporting and data visualization? What role does data storytelling play and how can artificial intelligence help? Which roles and skills will be important in the future? Plus: an overview of the most important tools and trends as well as everything crucial on the subject of data protection and media law.
The content
- Introduction, conceptual basics, definitions
- Fields of action and areas of application: Stakeholder journey, KPIs, reporting
- Data Storytelling, Media Analytics
- Technologies: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Tools, Software, Services
- Competencies and frameworks: Skills, change management, agile structures, data protection as a challenge
- Why companies need to hit the ground running when it comes to the digital transformation of their communications (Thomas Mickeleit)
- CommTech and the Digital Transformation of Communication Departments: Conceptual Foundations and Empirical Findings (Ansgar Zerfass & Jana Brockhaus).
- Communications is Not Immune to Digital Disruption (Jon Iwata & Thomas Mickeleit)
- CommTech: Increasing the Impact of Communication with the Stakeholder Journey: Data-driven Dialog with Diverse Stakeholders (Thomas Mickeleit, Klaus Treichel, Sarah Ellmann & Marie Sophie Groß).
- Data-driven management of corporate communications with CommTech: From data and key figures to KPIs and reporting (Christina Rettig, Antonia Eidner, Oliver Loenker & David Willmes)
- Holistic Data Storytelling: A Framework for Individualized, Efficient and Effective Communication with Stakeholders (Annette Siragusano, Lena Wouters, Christian Krause, Paul Peters, Valentina Wiedemann, Yannick Houdard & Birgit Schiller).
- Media Analytics – No CommTech without Data: Making the Impact of Corporate Communications Visible along the Stakeholder Journey (Jörg Forthmann & Lothar Rolke)
- The perfect communication engine: integrated, topic-centric, data-driven: What Communicators Want from CommTech Tool Developers (Barbara Bossmann, Christopher Storck, Thomas Massmann, Meike Ostermeier, Richard Tigges & Christof Schmid).
- Artificial Intelligence in Corporate Communications: Areas of Application, Opportunities, Challenges and Ethical Guidelines (Andreas Rossbach, Andreas Quest & Volker Markus Banholzer)
- Data Analysts? Desperately Wanted: There is a shortage of experts in the engine room of digital transformation – a survey reveals what needs to be done (Christoph Hardt)
- CommTech and Internal Communication: Mindset, Guiding Questions and Implementation Recommendations for Digitization in IC (Oliver Nissen)
- Data Protection as a Challenge for CommTech (Tanja Iron, Kai Nungesser, Alexander Eichler, Tarmio Frei & Gerrit Woltemate)
Thomas Mickeleit is a communications consultant for digital transformation and head of the CommTech working group. Prior to that, he was head of communications and a member of the management team at Microsoft Germany for 15 years, where he successfully drove the digitization of communications processes in a newsroom.
Jörg Forthmann is Managing Director of the IMWF Institute for Management and Economic Research and Head of Media Analytics Projects in the CommTech AG. Forthmann is an expert in crisis communications and strategic corporate communications.
Updates and further information
Digital transformation is a dynamic process, driven and accelerated by technological developments and their adaptation in companies and organizations of all kinds. A book that addresses these issues is thus part of this dynamic. New knowledge changes processes, structures and cultures faster than books can be printed and updated. Since January 2023, the AG CommTech has been working on numerous initiativesthat deal with specific issues relating to the digitalization of communication functions. The findings from this are to be updated. Therefore, in the future, updates on issues addressed by the articles in this book and other topics in the same context will be found here.
