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Online Print and Fulfillment Solution for Hologic, Inc.

Challenges

Hologic, one of the world’s leading providers of health care solutions for women, wanted to develop a more efficient way for its customers to order marketing and promotional materials that help promote its services. At the time, hospitals and doctors’ staffs were calling the company directly to order materials or requesting electronic files to print locally. This often required a huge amount of time to fulfill the many requests that came through on a daily basis. When customers did print locally, their costs were often higher because of smaller quantities and at times, branding or print quality standards were compromised. Therefore, Hologic was seeking an alternative process that protected its branding requirements and reduced the costs of order processing. They decided to look into online solutions, which they felt was the only way their requirements could be met.

Solutions

Hologic selected us to develop and implement an easy-to-use web-enabled print and fulfillment store. The store, incorporated directly into Hologic’s corporate website, maintains the “look and feel” of their corporate branding. Customers can use either a major credit card or submit a purchase order for payment. The customer can also buy static or personalized items directly, as well as accessing digital file downloads within a secure environment. The digital file downloads include customizable templates for press releases, letters, technology white papers, and PowerPoint presentations to utilize for their marketing efforts. Customers are able to add their facility names and contact information to the personalized pieces while maintaining Hologic’s branding guidelines.

With the online store now in place, handling customer material requests is fully automated. Hospitals and doctors are now ordering personalized marketing and promotional collateral that includes the latest branded corporate promotional materials and product literature to promote their business development efforts. Within 3 days the order is shipped directly to the customer’s door. By providing an online store, Hologic reduced the time needed for program administration, maintained brand standards and reduced costs by streamlining production. Full visibility of program costs and activities for ROI and forecasting was achieved with comprehensive 24/7 reporting tools, along with a monthly status meeting. Most importantly, Hologic’s customers receive their materials efficiently, affordably and when they are needed.

Features/Benefits

  • An easy-to-use web store with customized ordering capabilities to enhance customer experience
  • Maintain branding  as determined by corporate guidelines
  • Reduce waste leading to lower costs.
  • 24/7/365 access to corporate materials from any location, through a secure centralized hub that supports print production, ordering, assembly, fulfillment, inventory management and distribution, reducing costs and streamlining logistics support.
  • Cuts administrative overhead costs by reducing the time spent by internal administrative resources.

Customer Testimonial

“Audrey, President of Ferrante & Associates, worked with us to fully define our needs and budget requirements and assembled a ‘best in class’ team to design and implement our new web store for print and marketing collateral, order processing and fulfillment. Her attention to detail and strong communications skills proved invaluable to pushing the program to the success that it is.”

Nicole Athanas

Corporate Marketing Communications Manager,  Hologic, Inc.

Additionally, one of the marketing collateral pieces that is available on the web store is the “Hologic MammoPad Select Customer Program” which recently won the 2009 MM&M Medical Marketing and Media Gold and Silver Awards for Best Direct Marketing to Consumers and Healthcare Professionals. The integration of superior design and technology made this program a winner for all involved.

Congratulations Hologic!

Best of Days to You,

Audrey Ferrante

Posted in Case Study, Communications, Internet, Print, Print On Demand | No Comments »

Random thoughts about the changing Print (Communications?) world in 2009 and 2010

“The Times They Are a-Changin”…Was Bob Dylan thinking of the print industry in 2009, and moving forward into 2010, when he released this song in January 1964? Probably not, but it certainly seems to fit the situation! Here are a few of our thoughts on what happened and where print is going.

Mergers of vendors (or rumors of upcoming mergers…Heidelberg & ManRoland?) continue and will increase in frequency. Will the Big Three (Kodak, Fuji, Agfa) become the Big Two in 2010? Very possible…

Consolidation of the Print Service Providers (PSP) accelerates, but will provide a much needed cleansing of the market of both weak organizations and obsolete technologies.

Transitioning from a PSP to a Marketing Service Provider is harder than most thought, but many consider it critical for survival.

Shifting of marketing dollars to internet and electronic (Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Email) is growing, at the expense of traditional print methods.

Newspapers and magazines struggling in their transition to internet business model. Less will be more in the future.

Public concerned about maintaining their privacy on the internet and becoming more reluctant to provide personal information on the internet. This will impact ability to provide relevant information to the consumer.

Print runs continue to drop, forcing PSPs to become more efficient and automated. If they don’t, they join the dinosaurs.

Web-to-Print (Web-to-Ondemand-Print?) is becoming the preferred workflow for customers and PSPs.

Commercial printing moving closer to a commodity due to increased access to web-to-print solutions from retail focused organizations (Vistaprint, 48hourprint.com, Mimeo.com, Fedex/Kinko, etc.)

Web-to-Print becoming “Web-to-Everything” within the PSP’s workflow, continuing to confirm that web-based workflows are boss and it’s more than print when planning a communications strategy.

Print sales professionals are struggling with the transition to “Solution Selling”. Many won’t make it, but a select few will become “Stars”, when they think of helping their customers instead of selling to them.

Training for print professionals is not as readily available as it should be (more interactive web based solutions on the way!). Have we lost our ability to train for print due to reduced resources available and expansion of hybrid (offset and digital) and cross media workflows?

Inkjet grows in popularity as an imaging technology…thinking it will take market share away from silkscreen, offset and toner-based solutions. There are still some quality and speed issues, but those are slowly being overcome.

Wide format inkjet solutions growth accelerating. Marketers are learning how to best use the wide range of media available.

Personalized URLs do not guarantee success of a marketing program. It is best integrated with print component and automated email responses and alerts.

Integrated marketing solutions (print, email, web, video, etc.) are becoming the norm. An ONLY print strategy has become obsolete.

Book publishers are struggling with transition to eBooks and digital rights management is becoming a bigger issue.

Libraries are seeing increased usage due to the economy. Used for both access to print material (books, magazines, etc.) and to the internet for those who don’t have access at home.

United States Postal Service (USPS) is struggling with pension funding and reduced volumes while trying to break even (maybe even make some $$$). Trend will continue without RADICAL change in structure and service offerings.

Lots to think about when looking back and learning from the past as we move into the future. “The Times They Are a-Changin” and opportunities are everywhere, if you are willing to change with them.

Best of Days to You,

Audrey Ferrante

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Posted in Print, Print On Demand, Wide Format Print | No Comments »

What does “web-to-print” mean and why do I care?

We’ve noticed that “Web-to-Print” and “Print-on-Demand” are used almost interchangeably. It almost should be “Web-to-Print-on-Demand!” That’s more to the point, but much too wordy.  Still, the connection cannot be denied. So let’s go on to discuss “Why I care…”

The WORLD is now 24/7/365. Companies from overseas can order our product or be our vendor partners. The internet is ALWAYS on (except when Comcast/Verizon/”Put your ISP name here” goes down…Which is a HUGE pain!). There is ALWAYS business being done somewhere in the world.  Why shouldn’t you use tools that are 24/7/365 and have access to the world?

It is absurd these days to even think of running a business that is not leveraging the power of the internet.  Enlightened print buyers and print service providers use the internet in their purchasing and ongoing communications to achieve high quality printed products. Now integrate this capability with the ability to monitor your printed inventory and you really have a powerful tool at your disposal.

Just by having a secure web portal for your inventory that you can monitor, you can interact with and place orders with your print service provider on your timetable, not on the provider’s business hours. If they are really savvy, the print service provider will integrate the ordering portal with their preflight and production system, to process the order faster.

So remember…” Web-to-Print-on-Demand”…It may just catch on and you will be able to say that you saw it first here!

Best of Days to You,

Audrey Ferrante
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Posted in Print On Demand, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Why you should use print-on-demand

Print-on-Demand (POD) has now become an essential business tool for all enterprises that use printed materials (which is EVERYONE!). Ordering printed products through a secure web portal, with automatic pre-flight and scheduling, is an efficient and effective way for both the enterprise and the print service provider to process these orders. As print run length requirements continue to drop, reducing any handling or logistic costs is imperative for print to maintain its viability and relevance in today’s communications food chain.

I think that the key words to focus on are “…on-demand”. That means that the requestor controls the beginning of the transaction. And this applies to all printing, digital or offset. Providing access to the print ordering system from the client’s desktop (or laptop) is powerful. It makes it easy to do business with each other, because users can request a quote or a print job any time of the day, anywhere in the world that has a internet connection. (That’s pretty much everywhere, isn’t it?)

As mentioned earlier, shorter print runs are now the norm. This allows the enterprise to reduce inventory costs and wastage. A side benefit is that a central repository for your documents will be established. Organizing and publishing the latest version of a document in an easy to access environment provides for a more “user friendly” (and error free) process for ordering product.

Print-on-Demand = Web-to-Print = Flexibility + Savings. What else do I need to say? Oh, don’t forget to consider it for both digital and offset applications. The benefits provided are a Win/Win for everyone.

Best of Days to You,

Audrey Ferrante

Posted in Print On Demand | No Comments »