The world’s stretchiest skin and the world’s largest cake sculpture are just two of the bizarre and extraordinary achievements to be awarded by Guinness World Records since its beginnings in 1955. But when the company wanted to transform their record management system, they turned to Building Blocks for help
Guinness World Records is the universally recognised authority on record-breaking achievement. For over 60 years, people across the globe have been enthralled by an ever-increasing number of record challenges and achievements.
Guinness World Records currently have over 40,000 records in their database and continue to receive 1,000 new applications every week from 174 countries, with over 6,000 records being approved annually.
As such, Guinness World Records were keen to improve efficiencies and centralise its record management operations, so they contacted Building Blocks to see how we could help.
It soon became clear to us that the initial problem of record management was a symptom of a larger issue, and that there was a huge opportunity to drive digital transformation within the business.
The business objective was very clear: to transform the processes for creating and managing records, by using a centralised tool to speed up customer response times, drive predictable results and improve the accuracy and re-use of information.
We recommended a centralised content management hub that would go beyond simply managing records. We proposed a system that would meet Guinness World Records’ record management objectives and also enable accessibility of all the stored information to be used across its digital touch points.
The benefits of implementing this solution included:
• Improved workflow processes
• Centralised view of records—number, workflow stage, engagement
• A reduction in the paper mountain
• Consistency in both processes and communications
• Increase in digital marketing opportunities
• All the content stored within the system acts as a blueprint for the printed book and can be sent directly to the publisher
• Localised content
• Microsites
Localised content for global markets
We selected SDL Tridion for the project, as it was a good fit for Guinness World Records’ global business divisions. Digital content can be localised and translated for each market, so the organisation can deliver truly targeted experiences, for each market across the world.
Digital transformation
The project has seen the organisation undergo a digital transformation. Building Blocks have helped Guinness World Records to improve its offline processes, and revolutionised the way it tackles record and content management.