brandmaker focus paper: review job manager

8/3/2019 BrandMaker Focus Paper: Review Job Manager

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FOCUS PAPER

More efficiency and effectivenessin the creative processThe creative supply chain under control



FOCUS PAPER The creative supply chain under control

© BrandMaker GmbH, Mirko Holzer Page | 2

The creative supply chain under control: More efficiencyand effectiveness in the creative process

Supply chain management postulates that in the future it will no longer be enterprises, but rather supply

chains, which compete with one another. Because: The fewer interface problems and breaches an

enterprise encounters in its processes, the more efficiently and effectively can it serve its customers.

In times of comparable products, extremely competitive markets and global competition, this is a key

element necessary to survive in the market. But what is the status of the supply chains in marketing and

communications — the creative supply chains? Are they both efficient and effective – i.e. competitive – or are they more like a ball and chain for market communications, in matters of quality, cost, and speed? This

focus paper is dedicated to the challenges within the creative supply chain, and demonstrates timely

solutions, with the aid of modern IT, which make marketing forceful and agile in regard to processes.

Interfaces: The Alpha and Omega of Marketing

Hardly any other corporate field is comparable to marketing in its emphasis on interfaces in its processes. Information,

ideas, concepts, and thoughts are exchanged via these interfaces, and their conclusion should be of a successful

campaign as the output of the creative process. A particularly critical process in marketing is the creative production

process: There, diverse process participants within and outside the enterprise exchange an idea, a concept, and its results.

Creation usually takes place under enormous time and cost pressure – in the triangle of objectives regarding quality,

costs, and time, at least one dimension suffers – and so do the nerves of the participants.

Figure: The Creative Supply Chain

Challenges in Creative Supply Chains

Several problems and challenges arise for the participants in the course of a process of creation. The most important are

as follows:

- Capture requirements and ideas in a structured manner

Marketing receives ideas, wishes, or suggestions for campaigns from product management, from the sales and

distribution department, or directly from the corporate leadership level, and in addition generates its own plans.

This input is captured in a variety of forms; sometimes in the form of e-mails; sometimes only orally in informal





talk at the coffee machine; sometimes in a regulated process as well. But: Only rarely plans and ideas for

creative productions are captured centrally and designated as a job. This results in a lack of transparency about

the current workload and the “pipeline” of currently existing projects. Thus, not only in marketing itself, but also

on the corporate leadership level, it is elusive exactly what is pending or already underway.

- The crux: Briefing

Once the process of creation is started, the next step involves the selection and briefing of the appropriate

service provider – whether an internal production department or an outside agency. Whatever is received as

unclear input unclear here, will not become any clearer in the course of creation; for this reason, a core

challenge in the creative process is the preparation of an exact, complete, and timely briefing.

- Coordination and Reviews

Briefing is followed by creation and the associated coordination processes. In a more or less time-consuming

process going back and forth, the desired solution is approached in a step-wise way. Working efficiently and the

effective communication of desired changes and feedback are a particular challenge. In reality, this process

frequently takes place via e-mail, involving large mailing lists and file attachments. It also involves the

conversion of files, so that all participants can take a look at the design: For example, before each review the

layout draft must be converted from a desktop publishing (DTP) program into a PDF or other well-established

format. The result is an abundance of file versions and a process that is no longer fully traceable, so that in the

end, sometimes it is not even possible to explain why one has selected one thing over the other.

- Time Pressure

In the previous process step, time pressure frequently grows sharply, because coordination takes longer than

anticipated or because a concept must be redesigned in its entirety because there is a new idea or the original

idea is just not realizable. Time pressure frequently results in loss of quality, which in turn leads to the need for

corrections and reviews. The real objective is to be able to invest as much as possible of the little time available

into the creative process by minimizing the time spent for reviews, corrections, and file transmissions.

- Status and Release

In the review phase, staff easily lose the overview over the current project status, over costs, and releases which

have been given or are still pending. The results are errors due to lack of transparency; forgotten releases,exploding costs, and erroneous transmission of documents due to a chaos of versions.

- Lack of Standardization

A further source of error is the lack of standardization in the course of a project. Even though the content of

each creative project may be different; the workflow sequences may be standardized to a great extent, at least

as long as media are the same (for example, for all advertisement or for all brochures which are developed). This

is utilized only by a small number of companies which in part is understandable as different employees are

involved in different projects: from an individual point of view, the easiest is for each of them to execute the

project in his/her own way. However, especially in the standardization of the creative processes there is an

enormous potential for increased efficiency.





Tough timelines forcreation andprocessing

Lack of transparency,unclear requirements

and briefings

More errors

Increased number of required reviews and

corrections

OrderBriefing

and

Quote

CreationReviews

and

Feedback

Corrections ApprovalPre-

Production

/ Typesetting

Production

Figure: The review cycle in marketing – from “the hundredth to the thousandth”

Approach to a Solution: Web-based Workflow Management in the Creative Supply Chain

The approach to a solution for marketing departments which want to simplify, accelerate, and better document theircreative workflows, are standardized processes, together with the application of a suitable software platform for the

support of those workflows.

As a starting point, the creative production process may be divided into its individual components and these components

can be analyzed as to their optimization potentials. This analysis eventually leads to a holistic improvement of the

process:

Figure: Processes involved in a creative production process

How to Standardize Creative Processes

Creative processes can be standardized by dividing them into two components: the framework¸ the scaffold, so to speak,

for the sub-process; and its content. The process framework represents the component that may be standardized: Here

mistakes can be minimized, quality optimized, workflow times speeded up and costs reduced. The content-related

component refers to the creative work. Here, effectiveness and efficiency largely depends on the persons involved in the

process.





Objective of process optimization is to provide a framework to the creative part of the work which provides enough

stability for standardization and at the same enough flexibility to optimally support the execution of creative work and

to allow that the available resources can be fully focused on the content. This means: minimal frictional losses, and total

focusing on the creative core mission of the marketing and communication spheres. With the help of specialized

software adapted to marketing and creative production this framework can be optimally supported.

Software for the Framework

A software solution that provides a framework for the execution of creative supply processes in marketing must master

the balancing act between standardization and flexibility. Standardization is required to work efficiently; flexibility is

needed to incorporate the specific aspects of each creative project to the degree necessary.

In the search for suitable software for marketing workflow management, there are several necessary prerequisites:

- Web-based

Projects, workflows, and media must be centrally filed and accessible. This is best accomplished via client

server-based software or, even better, web-based software, so that users as well as outside service providers

such as agencies and printers can access their projects and the media via the Internet from any location.

- Flexible

The online project platform for the creative supply chain must flexible enough to cover the job contents and the

processes specific both to the enterprise and to the project. This is the only way to achieve complete projectdocumentation and frictionless workflows, by, for example, providing standard workflows for each type of

media, so that e.g. print adverts automatically go to the appropriate approver, and online banners likewise are

automatically routed to the right contact person in the company.

- Collaborative

The processes shown must of course enable collaboration between the employees working on the project. As

these participants are both internal and external users, different access rights and project views are

indispensable. Role-based access capabilities meet this requirement.

- Any File Format

The review process must always be of the same simplicity, independent of the file format to be reviewed –

without additional file conversion and multiple saving of files. This way, a company saves a great deal of timeon the part of external service providers and internally.

The Optimized Creative Supply Chain

But before any advantages of a software solution can take effect, the process must be highlighted and analyzed.

Thus, in the following, the standard creative process is outlined with its essential characteristics. Additional comments

give information as to how a software solution provides support in this step. It should be noted that the concrete

characteristics of an optimal process differ from company to company; depending, for example, on the kind and number

of external service providers, or on the organization of the approval processes. The following depiction is intended as an

aid to becoming aware of existing and optimal processes in your own company.




© BrandMaker GmbH, Mirko Holzer

Process Component What happens in this step? What information is required? Who are the participants? Ho

Corrections - The service provider makes required

corrections and provides a new

media version.

- Cumulative correction requests and

changes, as well as the media

version with comments.

- The new media version.

- Assigned service providers.

Approval - The client approves the medium for

production.

- Final medium, final cost data,

timing.

- Internal project employees, but also,

for example, technical approval by

project management, or legal

approval by legal department.

Pre-Production / Typesetting - The released medium is given over

to production preparation or to

typesetting.

- Review, correction and approval

steps follow as described above.

- The project may be returned again

for new creation.

- The final media version, and as

necessary, also information on

corrections and changes as well as

releases.

- The producing service provider and

the internal project manager from

marketing.

Production - The medium is produced and

delivered to the client.

- Final media version and production

approval.

- Production service providers.





Advantages of Software-Based Supply Chain Optimization in MarketingThe use of suitable software for the management of creative workflows in marketing supports the realization of potential

savings, higher quality, and better timing of creation. The advantages in detail:

- more transparency for the process participants through traceability and documentation,

- better evaluation of weak points and risks; for example, more accurate estimation in advance of the time

needed for creation up to the delivery of the finished media,

- early recognition and solution of bottleneck situations by transparency over the entire volume of jobs,

- faster and more structured coordination via standardized processes, less complexity, and up-to-date

information,

- higher quality through complete information,- flexible job handling by workflows and job files specific to different types of media,

- faster approvals,

- better communication within the team,

- Reduction of administrative costs (file format conversions, e-mail transmission).

Figure: Job overview and interactive review tool using the example of BrandMaker

Connection to Media Asset Management (MAM)

Software solutions for workflow optimization in the creative supply chain are frequently inseparably connected to mediaasset management, a central database for created media objects. This connection is recommended to companies that





strive for a complete integration of their creative processes, without media breaks and interface losses:

- The media asset management system is the central storage location for all media designs and for the final

media.

- It guarantees a transparent and correct version control.

- It provides further optimization of the creative processes through a direct connection with the desktop of the

designer allowing the interface-free uploading of data.

- Immediately following release, media are available in the media asset pool for intended users.

Possible applications for Media Service Providers, Agencies and Print Shops

The scenario which is described here can be turned around from the point of view of the creative companies involved inthe value chain, because an optimized supply chain, on the basis of appropriate software, also offers increased potential

for these companies. If, for example, an agency or a printing service provider installs a web-based review tool in order to

present its customers media designs and correction copies for coordination, correction, and approval online via the tool,

the company provides itself with a considerable competitive advantage. For:

- A web-based review tool provides an incomparably comfortable possibility to view and comment media for

clients at the company side. No more umpteen megabytes in the in-box, no version chaos, no redundant

feedback on a now-obsolete design. Via web link, the client goes directly to the review tool and provides his/her

feedback.

- In addition to perfect customer service, a service provider can gain time for itself and its clients, since review

and correction cycles are accelerated.

- The service provider also retains the upper hand on source data of the designs, if this has been agreed upon with

the client.

- And: Service providers who are able to offer their clients more service, faster processes, and better timing, have

a notable and positive competitive edge in a hard-fought and crisis-prone market.

About BrandMaker

BrandMaker is a Marketing Resource Management (MRM) system, which provides a broad spectrum of solutions: Offeredare solutions for marketing strategy (scorecards as “guide rails” for marketing) and management modules (for example,

software for integrated market planning and budgeting); as well as modules for marketing implementation and for

optimization of the creative supply chain (job management, review management, media asset management, a web-to-

print module, event planning, and a module for creation of online media). The system has a modular design and is applied

according to the individual client requirements. The software is developed and marketed by the company BrandMaker

GmbH. BrandMaker solutions are in use successfully in marketing departments of companies of varying size and in

various corporate sectors – for example at EnBW in the energy sector, Commerzbank AG and DekaBank in the financial

sector, at international service providers like Ernst & Young and companies from the producing industry such as ZF

Services GmbH. The software company for optimized marketing processes has about 150 employees across Europe.

http://www.brandmaker.com

brandmaker focus paper: review job manager

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