Placement Report

BComm Placement Report 2015

March 18th-August 28th

Roisin O’ Dwyer - 112496558

Executive Summery

This document is an overview of my Placement module experience from March-August 2015. As I am the only student in my course to have worked in this particular company, this document will be unique and easily differentiated from others. I found this placement a positive learning curve for me as a keen, enthusiastic marketing student. This contemporary office space exudes innovation and tech development. It proved to be the perfect setting for an intern, like myself, to maximise this opportunity and make the most of it! I organised my own placement outside of the college, as I had been looking for a more specified area of study – Digital/Social Media Marketing. For the duration of my six month placement, I was working in the marketing department in a company called LogMeIn on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2. LogMeIn provides Software as a Service (Saas) and cloud-based remote connectivity services for collaboration, IT management and customer engagement. This is an emerging market and industry with ongoing advancements being made in the Internet of Things sector (IoT). The headquarters is in Boston. Overall there are approximately 900 employees working at LogMeIn and this figure is changing constantly with new recruitment in the offices Worldwide – Boston, Bangalore, Budapest, Dublin, London and Sydney. The products sold include Join.Me, BoldChat, Rescue, Xively and more. Each of these products represents the company’s innovation and passion to create possibilities for customers. This company is somewhat of a startup in EMEA. As a result, there is a unanimous goal priority - Growth! The year on year growth in 2014 was 34%, a figure which is expected to increase further. This year, I was part of the first ever internship programme for EMEA. Three interns joined me in June 2015 during my placement and provided more opportunities for me to network and work with others my own age. I was the first intern in EMEA therefore the programme didn’t have any particular structure but I have paved to way for more interns and the internship programme will be one that will be continued next summer. This will enable growth as it will introduce the IT sector to millennials like me and perhaps in the future there will be a graduate programme available.

Despite the corporate leadership structure in place at LogMeIn, the company avoids creating a corporate work environment. The inter-departmental collaboration is a daily occurrence and ensures everyone is on the same page. Sales and Marketing, in particular are closely in line with one another, thus enhancing communication across the board. The open floor plan proves to be a welcoming environment to work in, especially for an intern like myself with plenty of questions to ask. I was introduced to my mentor on my first day. She was very helpful over the course of my six months, along with the others in the department. The marketing department consists of 7 people; including the Vice President of International Marketing therefore there is constant cooperation and interaction. I work both alone and in a team and this variety is something I enjoy. At any one time, I might have been involved in 3 projects therefore I learned how to manage my time efficiently and prioritise my tasks accordingly. This helped me to meet my targets and manage my responsibilities affectively. As this is a relatively small office (60 people), it didn’t take long to get to know people throughout different departments and therefore I feel I got the most out of my experience. Any opportunity I got, I sat in on Sales calls and meetings and shadowed the Account Managers to see their work style and learn as much as I could.

Availability and Communication of information within the Organisation: the young, tech-savvy workforce makes for a very welcoming and approachable environment for an intern to adapt to. With small numbers on each team, (7 on the Marketing team) I was able to shadow each member and gain insight into their particular expertise in the Marketing field. Throughout my time here, I have learned that marketing is a much broader subject that I had originally thought. It is far more complex and dense than the basic modules I have studied in college. However, this challenged me which, in turn, broadened my knowledge of the subject completely. The work style here at LogMeIn is based on teamwork, leadership, communication, co-operation and working towards a common goal. These goals tend to include; profitability, productivity, customer

satisfaction, brand awareness, competition and growth. Communication is the fundamental key to this much desired success. Similar to any global company based in several regions, using different languages and working in contrasting cultures, it is essential that communication is maintained throughout any project. The internal chat facility “jabber” allows an employee to get a rapid response to a query from a fellow colleague. This was especially helpful to me at the beginning as I had plenty of questions to ask in order to familiarise myself with the products and services LogMeIn offer. Along with this is the email system where every employees email is stored and available to contact at any time. The meeting schedule view allows you to view a colleague’s calendar to identify available time slots and organise a meeting or conference at a time that won’t conflict with another engagement. This is an efficient tool as it saves time re-scheduling meetings and curtails the amount of absences at meetings due to prior commitments.

How did your placement link to your academic studies?

I found my placement to be very relevant and harmonious with my college studies. I utilised information and knowledge I attained in 1st, 2nd and 3rd year of my BComm degree so far. While I was working in a marketing department, the inter-departmental collaboration meant that I gained insight into more areas of the company than just the one.

Marketing Modules: Marketing (MG1002), Consumer Behaviour (MG2003), People and Organisation (MG2011), Enterprise and Innovation (MG3012), Marketing Communications and Social Media Marketing (Applied) (MG2013/MG2014)

Information Systems Modules: Management Information Systems (IS1105), Business Systems, Analysis & Design (IS2200), Information Systems (IS3321).

The marketing element of the placement largely involved digital and online marketing, Social media engagement, event planning, data analytics and the creation of awareness campaigns (landing pages). I found these areas of marketing far more advanced and complex to the modules in college. However, the knowledge I have acquired in college so far definitely stood to me and proved very beneficial in my understanding of the marketing field.

The I.S element was extremely evident in this role. Aside from my regular use of Excel spreadsheets and powerpoint (both of which I received in-house training for), this innovative technology company is based on the Software as a Service (Saas) model with emphasis put on the up and coming Internet of Things (IoT) development. LogMeIn focus on Support of Things (SoT) with their range of unique, popular, user-friendly products such as Rescue, Rescue Lens, join.me, BoldChat among others.

The application of the ECDL module is relatively helpful. This module gave me a basic understanding of the uses of Microsoft Excel and meant that I was comfortable using the basic functions when I first arrived. However, in my opinion, a basic ECDL certificate is not enough and it would be my recommendation to students coming into these work environments to up-skill and complete an advanced ECDL course or perhaps this could be provided by the college if possible. It took a number of weeks to become completely comfortable with the advanced functions within excel and this is something which hindered me in the beginning of my time here.

What have you gained from the experience?

Firstly, I have gained a unique experience here at LogMeIn. As the office’s first intern, there was a lot more individual focus put on me than there would have been at a large corporate firm with many interns. This boosted my enthusiasm as I felt I had to set a standard. The summer internships were then advertised where 3 other interns (1 finance and 2 user services) joined the programme. The level of responsibility and involvement I have been given is extremely valuable for my future career. My patient and helpful mentor, Claire, ensured I was keeping up with the work happening around me. I have made contacts for life in the marketing field and hope I left a good impression so that I can work with them again one day.

My interest in marketing has grown with every task and project I was placed on during my 6 month placement. I have gained a level of confidence in this area and I think this will stand to me during interviews for future jobs. I attended a day of in-house training for Excel which consisted of an external tutor coming over the course of 2 days (9am-5pm) where we started from the basics and gradually ease into the advanced areas. Along with this, I received Powerpoint training by an external expert who came in to run a training programme for any LogMeIn employee that signed up. 30 of us attended the class from 10am-4pm. This training was extremely beneficial for me. It is a life skill I will find particularly useful, the older I get. The things I have learned will contribute to many presentations that will, no doubt, be involved in my final year of college next year. I feel one can never have enough knowledge and practice in this area as it is so important.

I was responsible for conducting online webinars, collaborating with an intern in the Boston office. I familiarised myself with online tools in order to complete the projects efficiently. On24 was the webinar tool and ASANA, which I received training in through a conference with the Boston office, was a project overview tool which I will use in future college projects as I found it a brilliant way to communicate with team members without the use of email. Typically, I would be in charge of organising signups and dropout rates and feedback etc. I have to transcribe hundreds of people’s details into a landing page which registers them for the webinar. This can be quite tedious but it is very beneficial to the other team members that I can help out in this way. I also used an online cloud computing tool called Salesforce.com. I have been trained in using this but in order to become familiar with it, you must spend a lot of time spent playing with it as it can be quite complex. I did an audit of the collateral pieces and the localised content which involves compiling an excel spreadsheet of what is translated/localised and what is yet to be done. It provided the Marketing team with a reference point for localised content. I helped create and organise webinars – English, German, French etc. I would upload the slides, register the attendees, log in as a producer/presenter and record the Webinar and save it to the archive for future use. This is a skill I will use in the future as Webinars are very much at the forefront of marketing.

Working for a relatively small company means that communication is often easier on some levels. I got the opportunity to sit with various partners in the company that I wouldn’t have expected. On June 15th, there was a video conference scheduled between the Boston and Dublin office where the CEO Michael Simon spoke to the interns in a Q & A type set up. This was the first of several roundtable conferences with the senior partners of the organisation. It was a great opportunity to be personally introduce myself to the CEO of this growing startup, along with the CMO & the SVPs of both Sales & Products. The CEO offered his time for anyone looking for advice and career guidance while also answering some of the questions we had. I asked in relation to the culture and innovative environment of the company, I asked; ‘What challenges do you see in keeping that vibrant culture alive as the company grows’. To which he replied stating that sustaining a culture is harder than creating one that appeals to all. If a culture is bad to start off with, it’s difficult to reverse. Once this mission statement and environment is created and established, it’s all about hiring people you would like to go for drink with, sit on a flight next to etc. He said there is a common mistake made by companies to hire experts that will solely exceed in their duties and role but they won’t contribute socially to the overall culture. I found the CEO an inspiring person to listen to and I admired his interest in the millennials like the interns and our contribution to the future of the company! In total, there were 10 interns from the Boston office

present and 4 interns in the Dublin office. In particular, I took away with me the idea that we should “always make new mistakes”. Michael Simon claimed that if we make the same mistakes, we are not learning. If we make new ones then we are constantly evolving and moving forward. Another inspiring thought he had was the simplifying of success. He made if sound quite easy to excel once there are components consisting of;

“Good execution + good idea + make it brilliant = SUCCESS”

All in all, it was great to speak to someone with so much experience and passion for the future of the company – in particular the Internet of Things phenomenon (IoT).

On June 25th, the interns sat down with Sean Ford, the SVP and Chief Marketing Officer of LogMeIn. This was very interesting for me, being the only marketing intern, as he is an expert in the marketing field. He highlighted the role of marketing and the level of ambiguity present in the understanding of Marketing’s contribution as a department. It is a leading indicator in driving the business and is the cost centre of a lot of money. He believes marketing needs a seat at the strategy table and needs to be moved to a higher end of the spectrum in terms of relevance. Before Sean Ford’s arrival to LMI, there were no metrics- no targets, no recorded results etc. His main priorities are the accountability of marketing and the hiring of appropriate candidates. The advice I took from this roundtable meeting would be to not limit myself to one area of marketing in one product field, don’t be pigeon holed! ‘You want to tell a story that gives you a broad range of experience and in order to do this you need to try as many elements as you can’.

On July 9th, we met with Matt Kaplan, SVP of Products at LogMeIn. He explained his passion for startups and what led him in the direction of LogMeIn. He explained his thrill of the ‘unknown’ and the enjoyment he gets working under extreme uncertainty. The main elements to a successful product in this industry are simplicity and connectivity. He used Uber as an example – stating that there was no new technology invented for this business prospect, it was pure and utter innovation that led them to be a multi-million dollar corporation. He spoke about the evolution of the ‘workplace’ whereby it doesn’t exist as a physical presence anymore and meeting are becoming virtual meaning the workplace can be wherever you are at any one moment. The Internet of Things, he predicts, will be the biggest phenomenon of our generation and generations to come. LogMeIn are ahead of the game in that they are focused on the Support of these Things (SoT) before these ‘Things’ are even properly developed and created.

On July 21st, there was a Roundtable set up for us to speak with Larry D’Angelo, SVP of Sales at LogMeIn. He described the different levels of the sales team and their individual purpose –dealing with prospecting customers, existing customers and renewals or field sales. He chased sales primarily for the money and his love of a face paced, interactive business strategy. He enjoys the ideal of an unlimited level of growth in that the ultimate goal with be a constant chase and one will never be fully satisfied which maintains motivation in a Sales team. He described what was discussed at the QBR and what changes were being implemented.

The QBR (Quarterly Business Review) took place in the Dublin office this year which was great. There was a buzz around the office with various evening events, presentations, lunches and general excitement all round. 40 employees flew from the Boston office including the Executive team members of CEO, CMO, COO, SVPs etc. I had spoken to these people as I sat in on conference calls and more interactively with those who held a roundtable Q&A with the interns, but this opportunity was a fantastic way to network and meet those who built the company from the bottom. The CEO, Mike Simon, seemed to have an invested interest into the intern’s development, progress and overall experience. He spoke to us individually to see how we were finding it and how we felt the LogMeIn Internship programme had served us. As part of the QBR, there was an

evening organised on the famous ‘Cill Airne’ boat docked near the office. We had a barbeque and drinks and it was a great evening

Skills acquired throughout the placement period?

Organisational skills: I have improved the skill of organising and prioritising work. As a number of projects I was given were to be completed before a certain deadline, I was expected to have a finishing product ready by a specific date. In order to complete the placement report as accurately as possible, I kept a journal of my time here and included a brief overview of each meeting I attended and allowed me to summarise my work without forgetting certain minor projects.

Communication skills: With the use of tools like “jabber”, email and an online conferencing product ‘join.me’, I have enhanced my communication skills by using unfamiliar platforms to contact internally to my colleagues and externally to the clients and event coordinators. The

Company’s number one priority is growth. This requires regular communication with the Boston Headquarters in order to ensure we are collaborating efficiently. The time difference can be a hindrance at certain points, particularly if you require an instant response, however you overcome this by timing your emails and queries to a specific time during the day.

People skills: I had a good level of people skills prior to my placement as a result of my customer service experience. In a fast paced industry with several intelligent people sharing ideas to achieve the same goal, these skills are very necessary to have. Different personalities emerge and often these personalities clash but this is a natural process of teamwork. Along with this, in a global company there are often language and cultural barriers that must be overcome in order to achieve the common goal.

Project management skills: The summer months proved to be a busy time for the launching of product add-ons and new product development which meant more events. I was involved in a customer engagement event on May 27th in the Residence Members Club on Stephen’s Green. I had a hand in organising and arranging the room setup. The event was low-key in order to encourage interaction from clients about the products. There was an element of networking at this event also which I thoroughly enjoyed. Any questions that people had were answered and the overall event was a success. I discuss this in detail in the ‘projects’ section below.

Decision making skills: I applied this skill when planning the events I was involved in. I often had to make minor decisions regarding seating arrangements, food and drink etc. I would consult a manager about a major decision if it were to arise, however the management team are often so busy that they would appreciate me taking the initiative to make a decision for myself.

Teamwork skills: Many of the projects I was involved in were in groups of 3-12 people. It varied from task to task but teamwork skills are valuable for every walk of life. Teamwork in college is similar in that each person is working towards a common goal (good grade) however, on a larger scale, it can take some getting used to.

How has placement affected my career plan?

I thoroughly enjoyed working in such a fast paced sector, in particular the opportunity to contribute in any way to the highly anticipated Internet of Things phenomenon. The inter-departmental coordination in LogMeIn has enabled me to gain insight into a number of different areas- Sales being one that has appealed the most to me. The Sales and Marketing departments work hand in hand in this particular organisation which added to the depth of my work experience. The marketing aspect of my work experience, though highly complex (data analytics, demand generation, global online marketing, event planning etc) has really solidified my interest in this field. The Sales aspect suits my personality also. I watched the Account Managers and Hunters closely and through this I have gotten a feel for the Sales aspect. A company where Sales and Marketing are closely aligned is something that I would look for in the future and perhaps get the best of both worlds. My placement has affected my career plan in that I hope to do another internship, perhaps a year-long in a large city abroad in order to build my experience and CV in order to excel in marketing.

Projects –

Residence Event:

I helped co-ordinate an event held on the 27th May in The Residence on St Stephen’s Green. There were 20 attendees signed up but as expected, there were a few drop outs. On the day, 15 representatives from various companies were in attendance. The event was mainly to attract local businesses in Dublin and make them aware of our products. It was about customer enablement, customer engagement and the customer journey with LogMeIn. The room was relatively small to create an intimate setting to create an interactive environment and encourage a detailed Q&A session. The informality of the open forum discussion was intentional due to the timing – 4pm Wednesday evening after work, people wanted a discussion. There were 3 presentations, each lasting 15-30mins which held the small audience’ attention. The attendees seemed intrigued by the company’s products and continued to ask how it would specifically benefit their particular organisation. In my opinion, we should have addressed each individual, as there weren’t that many, and explained how a product could help them and save costs in comparison to their current system in place. We provided an agenda and a feedback sheet for each member to fill out and they were mostly positive, however there are definitely some changes to be made on our part for the next event. Many requested a product demonstration which we will take into consideration in the future. All in all it was a learning curve and I got the opportunity to meet and network with people in the IT sector, many companies I have an interest in working for in the future. The companies in attendance included LinkedIn, Facebook, Airbnb, Oracle, Microsoft, Dell, HP, Diagio, PayPal and SurveyMonkey. These are large players in the industry and it was a great experience for me.

I had viewed the venue prior to the event and made suggestions on the table setting, room setup, food and drink to be provided. On the table in the photo above you can see a cocktail. I helped the bar tender to choose this particular cocktail as we needed to keep the company’s blue theme consistent throughout the event. I set up the banners for the room and collaborated with the waiting staff regarding the timing of food, drink, heating and the screen set up for the presentations. I gave every attendee a name badge that I made the morning of the event.

The main aim of the event was tech-penetration in order to nurture and educate existing and potential clients. This intimate event generated questions from the clients present with instant responses from the LogMeIn representatives. The event attracted local contacts on global accounts and highlighted the e-commerce element of the business structure. We aimed to avoid an event based solely on networking or

sales and opted for a more thought provoking method in which the clients would ask themselves - ‘What value can LogMeIn add to my business?’

In reflection, we found the involvement and engagement from the customers very reassuring and positive. The feedback sheets were mostly positive however there were some negative comments too which proved thought provoking. We learned that for future events we will need a product demonstration, customer testimonial and a tight corporate overview (YOY growth) stating our competitors and the differences between our product and the competition. I suggested to the team that we use a real life example, applicable to the customers present at the event, to show the potential clients how this could work for their company specifically – LMI solution applied in a practical sense.

BoldChat Shovel Ready Campaign:

The marketing team were approached with a ‘fire drill’, meaning this matter needed urgent response and planning. One of LogMeIn’s products – BoldChat which is a chat experiment engine was given extra budget to be spent before the quarter. 6 members of the team, including myself and one on conference from London, sat for 3 hours and brainstormed ideas on how to spend this extra budget. The proposal was immediately praised and given the thumbs up by the VP of Marketing, Steve. Since that, we have arranged a weekly reoccurring catch-up to ensure progress is being made to fulfil this plan. My duties were the webinar signups and entering each interested party into a landing page system that would log their details for future reference. This helped the others on the team to focus on the more specified areas while being confident that the administration work would be completed. I was paired to work closely with an experienced intern called Golzar Yaghoupour in the Boston office. We arranged numerous video conferences and phonecalls where we discussed our plans and progress so far. It was great to work with somebody who started off at my level and has become so experienced over time. We used online tools like ‘on24’ and ‘ASANA’ in order to collaborate together and

work on the same things from two different offices. I was trained in on both these tools and I will put them to use in the future. Below shows our guidelines for this project;

Shovel Ready – Fire Drill meeting

I also gave a helping hand to a video being filmed in the office for the BoldChat product. It was an informative 4 minute video that was to be used as a YouTube advert and various other websites online. The filming of this took a day to complete before it was perfect. An external camera crew came in to film this and I acted as an extra pair of hands if I was needed. It was a great experience to witness the behind the scenes work that goes into such a short advert. I really enjoyed participating in this and I took photos of the equipment being set up in the office canteen.

International Marketing Plan & France Planning:

I was asked to put together and compile a number of slides sent to me by each regional marketing manager of EMEA, ANZ, LATAM and India. Each of these team members sent me their aspirations for their particular regions for this quarter and the rest of the year. This included any success/failures to date in these region, events planned, product launches, upcoming campaigns, predicted peeks and downfalls etc. I took each of these slide decks and formed one large International Marketing Plan consisting of 60 slides that would be used at numerous meeting and constantly referred back to. This proved to be beneficial to each Regional manager and the Vice president also.

France is a particular market that LogMeIn find hard to break. They tend to be accustomed to certain products and use internal products rather than exploring with externally sourced alternatives. In order to overcome this barrier, the marketing team brainstormed and made plans for the future in relation to the French market specifically. The main aim is to drive interest and raise awareness in France. I also prepared this slide deck of 20 slides and it was used in many meetings in order to plan activity in France. I had to present this deck to Sales representatives for the French region and fellow marketing team members in the Dublin office and elsewhere. Essentially it was a Q1 versus Q2 and that we would do differently for the coming quarters 3 and 4. (2H Second Half).

Sample slide I compiled as part of the International Marketing Plan.

Sample slide from my slide deck for the France Planning/Activity Project

APPENDIX

My desk at LogMeIn:

The day a Mexican Ship docked at Sir John Rogerson’s Quay. The Marketing Team climbed aboard!!

Celebrating QBR Results with a dinner on a Boat called ‘Cill Airne’ docked near the office. Representatives from the Dublin, London & Boston offices were in attendance.

The 4 Interns at LogMeIn.

ADD PRESENTATION SLIDES!!!!!!!!!