Case Studies

> Housing Partnership to Local Authority Housing Sector
> Business: Music Rights Representation to National Royalty Collection
Organisation

Housing Partnership

The Problem

The client had a busy communications department, with a high throughput of print work dedicated to delivering its brand to the marketplace. However, the department felt it was under-resourced. A variety of print suppliers was used for different types of work, and whilst the print work was spread thinly, each supplier required time and effort on management.

The Solution

Cyan Group quickly made an initial assessment of the client’s annual print requirements and classified their print spend. Then, we grouped jobs together and negotiated annual contracts with reliable printers on our supplier selection scheme.

The Result

The benefits were immediate: firstly Cyan Group acted as a much needed extra pair of hands, completely removing the time required for print management and allowing departmental staff to concentrate on their communication activities.

Additionally, whilst the client’s print costs did not increase, there were additional benefits. Their branding guidelines are now consistent across all media. As part of the Cyan service, an artwork library has also been established, giving the client immediate access to their historical artwork; further saving time otherwise spent reproducing and repurposing creative work.

The Benefits

- No increase in spend
- Huge reductions in manpower and time spent on print resourcing
- Consistency of branding across all media
- Artwork library on-demand
- Easy on-screen budgeting and spend management
- Wider range of print services on-tap

Music Rights Representation

The Problem

When the client came to us in 2001, they had 12 different departments, each purchasing print independently of each other from a total of over 40 different suppliers, ranging from printers to “print brokers” to creative agencies.

This led to several inadequacies:
- As time could not be devoted to sourcing the perfect supplier for each job, suppliers were being given requirements which they could not fulfil to a high standard. This compromised print quality, delivery times, and price.
- As print work was being passed through intermediaries such as creative design agencies, unnecessary margins were being paid. This is particularly unnecessary as the third party control over the print was minimal.
- The multiple suppliers, long chain of command through agencies and constraints of time also meant that employees felt they had an overall lack of control.

These problems meant missed deadlines, inflated prices and poor brand consistency became a day-to-day problem; despite the fact that plenty of manpower was being spent on chasing quotations and print jobs.

The Solution

We initially reviewed the entire print spend over the previous 12 months- job by individual job. From this we analysed the strengths & weaknesses of the client’s print procurement processes and developed a strategic plan to improve it. We brought together each of the different commissioning departments and assessed their ongoing requirements in an integrated fashion.

With such a wide range of suppliers already in use, we also reviewed each and every supplier using Cyan Group’s Supplier Selection Scheme assessment standards. Where new suppliers were needed, we provided them. Where existing suppliers could offer an acceptable methodology, we used our buying power to enforce service level agreements to ensure that the client received a vastly improved response.

The Result

In the first year of our contract, the client enjoyed savings of more than 10% on their previous year’s print spend. They regained complete control of their print and spend, including full monthly and quarterly financial reports; and were able to rely on Cyan Group to deliver print and promotional items of the highest quality on time and on budget. The brand has also been enhanced by the correct reproduction of corporate collateral on runs from literature to mouse mats.

Many of the existing suppliers enjoy higher volumes of work more suited to their capabilities, whilst many suppliers not initially meeting our stringent service standards have been given the opportunity to do so.

The Benefits

- Cost savings of over 10% in year 1, and the benefit of our buying power for future purchases.
- Huge reductions in manpower and time spent on print resourcing
- Consistency of branding across all media
- Control over suppliers regained for all buyers in all departments
- Easy on-screen budgeting and spend management
- Improvements made without losing existing supplier relationships