Case Study Brief: Direct Mail Campaign Automation
Praxis Automates Workflows for International Ad Agency, Fortune 50 Technology Client
SITUATION AND CHALLENGE
An international advertising agency was managing custom, co-branded direct mail campaigns for a Fortune 50 technology client. Prior to partnering with On Demand Technologies (ODT), the agency expended significant time and effort directing the proofing process, cleaning mail lists, transferring files, and manually compiling required reports. In addition to being extremely time consuming, the manual processes were fraught with errors and delays.
CASE DETAILS
Situational Analysis
Prior to engaging ODT and leveraging the PraxisTM workflow and process automation solution, account representatives at the agency would obtain artwork files, typically via email as an attachment or by manually retrieving them from an FTP site.
Similarly, they would acquire a mail list through manual methods or through a list acquisition service. The reps would then forward the artwork files as an email attachment to the corresponding co-op partner for approval. Significant time and effort was expended simply executing and overseeing this manual approval process.
Once approval was obtained, the artwork and mail list files were manually transferred to a service for postal certification (CASS and NCOA). If a certain percentage of the addresses were non-deliverable, reps had to contact the co-op partner to acquire a new list or get approval to proceed with the current list.
When the list was certified, it and the artwork were sent to a digital print provider, who merged the list and artwork and distributed the pieces via U.S. and Canadian mail. Finally, at the end of each week, reps would compile data from a wide variety of systems and sources to produce required reporting for their Fortune 50 client.
Meeting the Challenge
The agency realized that the inefficiencies and errors were putting their business at risk. To address these issues, they engaged ODT to streamline their operation with Praxis, a highly configurable workflow and process automation solution. Using Praxis, the agency quickly reduced the time and effort involved in processing the campaigns, and errors were all but eliminated. The results were a dramatic reduction in costs and improved service to their client.
Successful Results
ODT worked with the ad agency to map out the workfl ow each agency rep used to process the custom direct mail campaigns for their
client. Praxis was quickly configured to perform the steps automatically, moving files seamlessly between systems and providing an easy-to-use web-based interface to automate and manage approvals, list certifications, and the other tasks that were once being handled by reps using email, FTP, and telephone.
In addition, the Praxis solution provided a dashboard that agency reps use to get a full view of each step in the process. This insures that nothing “falls through the cracks” and gives the reps quick access to information when the client has a question. Praxis tracks and compiles information throughout the entire workflow, allowing weekly reporting to be generated automatically. Not only has this reporting capability saved the reps significant amounts of time, it also produces immediate and accurate reporting for the client.
Because of the modular nature of Praxis, ODT and the ad agency were
able to implement a successful solution in a matter of weeks. The modular
nature of Praxis also makes it highly scalable, easily supporting an
increase in sales and business growth without additional investment.
SUMMARY
ODT’s Praxis enabled the agency to quickly realize real benefits of a fully automated solution:- Significant Savings in Time and Effort
- Reduced Costs
- Reduced Errors
- Rapid Implementation
- Improved Customer Service
- Higher-Quality Reporting
