Carlo De Matteo, the EMEA Marketing Resource Management Lead at Hewlett-Packard, is responsible for one of the largest MRM implementations as measured by number of users and dollars planned and managed.

We spoke to him a few months ago and one of the things that strikes us every time we speak to ‘MRM project leads from the field’ that the conversation is often about implementation and acceptation of MRM processes and software. Not about technology, functionality and financial results.

Carlo told us that there are 3600+ people trained on MRM, from which 1700 are located in the EMEA region. But it wasn’t a walk in the park. There were users resisting the change and unwilling to leave the old tools. There was the risk that MRM was perceived as an “executive mandate”, because of a limited understanding of the daily benefits to HP marketers. And there were more practical challenges such as concerns about data integrity between systems and the unplanned time consuming data entry activities.

A few tips and tricks from Carlo:
1. Sponsorship is key – gain understanding at all levels in the company
2. Get down to basics – and stick to them
3. Practice practical, simplistic change management – use real life examples
4. Be specific and contextual to the job function

The first results? There is an attitude shift from reluctance to enthusiasm. Feedback like; ‘I feel like you’re investing in me’, ‘MRM helped me to understand marketing processes better’ and ‘very applicable to our roles and responsibilities’ sure look promising.