What Really Makes an Optimization and Cost-Savings Impact for Print and Communications Today?
It hit us here at Solimar Systems recently that it might be hard to tell what truly impacts a Customer Communications Management (CCM) process and workflow. In fact, as your read this you might already be asking what CCM really is. And, if you have a moment, our Meet Max video from a few years ago is one of the best expressions of CCM in a real world scenario. It is worth the 12-minutes to get a good understanding of what vendors, like us, mean when we say: “critical communications”, “Customer Communications Management”, “workflow” and “print production environments”.
In short, when you deliver information to your customers—whether it be in the form of print document, direct mail, electronic document (like PDF) or as a text message—the process of getting it from the system that creates the communication to the customers hands is what we as vendors talk about as your workflow. Which is fitting considering the Oxford definition of workflow:
The sequence of industrial, administrative, or other processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion.
With technology today, sometimes it is hard to believe we haven’t already solved all the efficiency and optimization challenges to create the best customer communications workflows possible. But then, due to complexity, laws and available budgets there are many processes that are still run by 5…10…or even 20-year-old software and hardware or being completed manually.
So what impact can you really see by implementing CCM workflow software into your print and communications environment?
Hastings Mutual Insurance Company has seen improvements not only in their development expenditure, but also in their overall CCM workflow productivity. And like most companies looking to save money, upgrade their hardware and software and on a limited budget, they needed to meet some requirements in order for a solution to fit. Those included:
- A system that is easy to configure and maintain
- Scalability to enable future growth and expansion
- Ability to combine all print streams, including legacy and new, to achieve maximum postal efficiencies and discounts
- Integrate with USPS presort applications to enable householding, size segmentation, and inserter barcodes
Selecting Solimar Systems to help them, Hastings was able to see improvements in all these areas. Their Director of Applications, Michael Schaper, shared:
“In selecting the Solimar system, Hastings Mutual sought a solution that was more flexible, easier, and less costly to maintain. Using our current Solimar solution, we have cut our development costs by over $30,000 per year.”
Using the Chemistry Platform, Hastings Mutual was also able to increase the productivity of their projects productivity by three to ten times prior to using Solimar. An important metric in today’s fast-paced world where our project times continue to be compressed into shorter cycles.
That is the impact of workflow software when it is modular, flexible and designed to meet the needs of complex Customer Communications Management operations. Be sure to review all the results Hastings Mutual were able to achieve in the full case study.
In a different industry, we have a case study for that! Check them out here. And be sure to drop our Solimar experts a line with any questions, to setup a demo or schedule an appointment at one of our upcoming events.
For more information, call the Solimar Sales Team at +1.619.849.2800.