About Cobham

Cobham is a world leader in the defence and
aerospace industry, employing over 11,000 people on five continents.

The challenge

As a portfolio company, Cobham has a complex media monitoring requirement: 25 subsidiaries to track across a variety of media.

Previously, it relied on a paper-based clippings service, delivered daily.

'It was very labour-intensive,' says Julian Hellebrand, Group Director of Communications. 'It went to named recipients, was difficult to forward and added another layer of bureaucracy and overhead.'

'It also had a major disadvantage,' he says. 'Many of our senior executives travel extensively, and not knowing what was being said about the company was a major inconvenience, with a reputational and a business impact.'

The solution: breaking news, delivered daily

Magus's CrucialInformation solution now delivers alerts daily by 8.00am, to ensure information is available at the start of the business day.

Because the information is in electronic format, it's easy to manipulate and distribute. There are multiple delivery options, including email alerts to employee computers, and direct to the CEO's Blackberry.

Magus CrucialInformation captures breaking news, so users don't have to wait for it to reach print media. Key issues are highlighted in the results so users can see the relevance at a glance.

Comprehensive and flexible

The scope of media monitoring has been expanded to include regional, national and international publications, trade journals, competitor websites, government, public bodies and exclusively online news sources.

The solution's flexibility means that extra sources of news can be added within hours.

Magus has also customised a number of features to suit Cobham's operating environment - in particular the high penetration of mobile devices.

Functionally rich and cost-effective

Magus has transformed media monitoring at Cobham, delivering a comprehensive overview with speed and efficiency.

'It was a no-brainer,' says Hellebrand. 'The system is functionally rich and cost-effective. It's been a very valuable service.'

'The Magus people are very flexible and responsive,' he continues. 'If I have a query, I get a response within a couple of hours. If all our suppliers behaved like Magus, life would be a lot easier.'