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Blue Star entered a crowded market where intense competition required a new strategy to drive growth. So how did the company manage to not only survive but flourish in the tough world of print management?
Blue Star is a communications group that provides market-leading solutions across sheetfed, digital and web printing, print management, direct mail and national logistics operations. With major operations throughout Australasia, it provides a range of innovative solutions to the region‘ s leading organisations – from financial services to telecommunications, the retail sector and government departments at all levels.
The challenge
In today’s environment, quality is a minimum requirement of entry for Australian and New Zealand printers forced to compete against the rock bottom prices of printers in Asia. The real opportunity for differentiation lies in service. In a flooded market, Blue Star needed to make it easy for corporates to do business with them. That meant finding an ecommerce partner with software tools that would enable clients to initially order and manage its printed products online. Any such software needed to feature flexible and open architecture to ensure it would meet the future needs of both Blue Star and its clients.
The OrderWare solution
OrderWare allowed the print group to streamline its processes and supply chain across its many business units. A key aim of the project was to improve customer satisfaction by delivering efficient and timely processing and delivery. That’s no easy task given the multiple vendors, customers and business units distributed throughout New Zealand and Australia, which is why Blue Star needed a specialist supplier.
OrderWare's two areas of focus are the integration with third party applications and the ability to deliver excellent service, faster.
"It started out as a tool to provide key clients with online cataloguing, ordering and inventory management," says Stephen Herkt, Blue Star's Manager – Client Information Systems.
The software processed client-specific data from Blue Star's internal ERP systems into information that was then presented back to clients in the form of personalised online catalogues and ordering.
Since then, Blue Star has evolved the use of Orderware as a tool. "We're now using 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," he says.
The seamless integration between systems means Blue Star 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."
Blue Star works with many leading New Zealand corporates, primarily using OrderWare to support the storage, logistics and distribution processes on behalf of clients.
Herkt takes 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 it meets normal 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 and informed of any changes to the order.
The next step is for OrderWare to send the order through to a ‘pick list’ in Blue Star's logistics operation, as part of the group's ERP software. But OrderWare's job is not over. 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 plus reports of which users have purchased how much print product – both essential tools for planning.
The software also integrates with Crystal for financial reporting of key performance indicators; and, Blue Star's digital asset management system, which provides an up-to-date online repository for a company's imagery used in advertisements and collateral. When an image or asset is updated in the digital asset management system, that information is instantly updated through to OrderWare and in turn updated on the client’s website.
OrderWare allows Blue Star 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.