The Communications Management standard (CMS) is the only accreditation developed by the PR and Communication sector agencies. It is a unique accreditation. 

Developed by and for PRCA corporate members it is a sign to your clients and teams that you carry out the best ethical and effective practice.

For agencies based outside the UK the assessment covers eight areas

• Leadership and Communication
• Business Planning
• Business Improvement
• Financial Systems
• People Management
• Client Satisfaction
• Campaign Management
• New Business

Within each area the process explores best practice and prompts agency leaders to review essential business and governance practice. For example, in leadership and communication we explore how effective your processes are in ensuring team members know who is who and does what.  In client management we look for a process which ensures clients are happy with their agency’s service, therefore creating an early warning system to identify client’s unhappiness early. Or, to identify and build new business areas. It is a thorough process, but completed with support, fully remote and online, with an assessment at the end lasting no more than 2.5 hours. Most established agencies can complete CMS within 8 weeks, new agencies can complete within a year.

Key to CMS for agencies is that it demonstrates to the brands they work with that they have been independently assessed as excellent by the industry’s own membership body.   CMS is also accepted as evidence of independent verification by tenders and in pitches.

For agencies that have UK CMS a bridging process is in place so they can extend their UK certification to other locations.  This process also helps demonstrate that agencies with Global CMS have a consistent approach to excellence across the world.  This bridging process is resource and cost effective to UK agencies with a reduced assessment time and fee from £330 (depending on employees based overseas.)   Agencies must also be corporate members in the regions where they wish to obtain international CMS.

Agencies who complete CMS receive marketing assets and a certificate of completion.  CMS is an annual accreditation with costs based on fee income.