Innovation platform launch

U.S. accounting firm launches tech democratization platform, promotes home-grown solutions

OBJECTIVES

Re-introduce internally, and build excitement for, an industry-first platform for democratized innovation and “citizen [software] development,” intended to help solve business problems faced internally and by the firm’s clients. These often involved automation of manual and error-prone processes.
Follow the launch with a series of compelling internal announcements, written as “news items or interviews, where possible,” to draw attention to several solutions developed internally and intended for commercialization and/or to enable delivery of client work.

APPROACH

I pitched a launch video, to be used to kick off an upcoming annual firmwide meeting. The video replaced a(nother) planned email and intranet post, which were both to be text-based and were not expected to garner high readership.
On short notice and using only internal, non-dedicated resources, I wrote and voiced the script, and partnered with internal art direction and video resources to bring it to life.
From start to finish, the video was produced in under two weeks.

Over the following six months (driven by the releases of new tools), I wrote several internal news stories (later used as inputs to the development of external/market-facing press releases), announcing internal innovations that addressed common client pain points, like:

Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance — using a firm-developed tool, and leveraging a strategic partnership
Automation of controls testing
Meeting property tax compliance obligations

RESULTS

All deliverables were positively received, with the video being re-purposed across several channels for approximately three months following its launch at the annual meeting. This note, ghost-written for Transformation leadership, spoke to a positive growth trajectory fueled by the platform and innovations derived from it.