Blue Star’s logistics are in the pink with OrderWare

When a leading Australasian print group needed to differentiate its operation on customer service, it knew where to place an order...

Blue Star Print Group (BSPG) is the leading corporate print management provider in the Australasian market. In 2008, success in the printing industry is not only about manufacturing high quality printing.

In fact, quality is a minimum requirement of entry for Australian and New Zealand printers competing against the rock bottom prices of printers in Asia.

Thus the real opportunity for differentiation is around service. With so many competitors targeting its customers, BSPG needed to make it easier for corporates to do business with it.

In a quest to develop its online client tools, BSPG began a search for an ecommerce partner to build a long-term relationship with. Also high on the shopping list was software solutions that enabled clients to order and manage BSPG’s printed products online, while delivering a flexible and open architecture to ensure that the soluton would also meet BSPG and its clients future needs.

Integration across the nation
After evaluating various alternatives, BSPG formed a relationship with OrderWare and its Javelin and Fusion suite of tools. OrderWare allowed the Group to streamline its processes and supply chain across its many business units. A key aim of the project was improving customer satisfaction by delivering efficient and timely processing and delivery.

This was easier said than done, with multiple vendors, customers and business units distributed throughout New Zealand and Australia, which is why BSPG needed a specialist supplier.

OrderWare’s two areas of focus are integration with third party applications, and the ability to deliver excellent service, faster (the software processed client-specific data from BSPG’s internal ERP systems into information that was then presented back to clients in the form of personalised online catalogues and ordering).

“It started out as a tool to provide key clients with online cataloguing, ordering and inventory management,” says Stephen Herkt, BSPG’s client information systems manager. But in the eight years since the initial implemenatation, he says BSPG has evolved how it uses OrderWare’s tools. “We now use OrderWare to support a much wider range of business processes for a larger number of our clients,” he says.

“We’re now intending to use Orderware’s tools not only for those we started out with, but increasingly more for supplier management, direct system integration, data transformation, file transfer and process streamlining for our clients.”

Information is power
The seamless integration between systems means BSPG is able to deliver information not only more quickly, but also more accurately. “We’ve also used this tool in response to client tenders,” says Herkt.

“It’s been very important in winning new business.” BSPG works with many leading corporates, primarily using OrderWare for supporting the storage, logistics and distribution processes on behalf of clients. Herkt discusses one client as an example of the cost savings and efficiency gains. OrderWare allows a client to set up different permissions for different levels of users.

“We receive orders from all of their business users,” he says. “Those orders are either automatically processed – if they meet normally ordering guidelines – or passed to more senior people for approval.”

OrderWare then automatically generates an email to the manager to approve the print order. Approval is entirely web-based, so no desktop software is needed. Managers can edit orders, removing or adding items. Once approved, the original staff member who placed the order is also automatically emailed, informing them of any changes to the order.

OrderWare then interfaces directly to send the order through to a “pick list” in BSPG’s logistic’s operation, as part of the group’s ERP software. But OrderWare’s job isn’t over yet. As the order progresses through to completion, OrderWare is updated, so at the end of an order a user can look at the lifecycle of the complete job.

They can also view their order history and reports of which users have purchased how much print product – essential tools for planning.

The software also integrates with BSPG’s digital asset management system, which provides an up-to-date online repository for a company’s imagery used in advertisements and collateral. OrderWare also integrates with Crystal for financial reporting of key performance indicators.

The solution allows BSPG to provide high levels of customer service to clients, as well as providing timely, accurate information to suppliers.

Best of all, the entire process is auditable. “There’s a range of reasons why we’re the market leader, and our relationship with OrderWare has certainly contributed to that,” Herkt says. “We deal with a lot of large corporates, and OrderWare being part of our tool set has been key in gaining and retaining those clients over time.”

For more information
OrderWare Solutions
www.orderware.net

(09) 916 5010
enquiries@orderware.net

7/10/19_ex_h_m_nl

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