Case Study: Automation Frees Up Resources

Automating labour-intensive, low-value processes

If you have a project to manage, give it to experienced project managers

The Challenge

ConsumerServe Corp.^* is a consumer-services company that recently embarked on a drastic cost-cutting campaign. One area targeted for savings was a 12-person internal department that procured content from outside suppliers on behalf of internal marketers and managers. ConsumerServe needed a more efficient content-management process - and it wanted to redeploy several employees to more customer-centric positions.

Solution

The project management team at PGeMarketing used its experience in automating the print-procurement process to streamline ConsumerServe's^* content development system.

In three months, we redesigned ConsumerServe's content procurement process and placed it online. Managers and marketers from across Canada could log into the system to open new files and describe the projects they needed done. Based on the staff's needs, the system automatically transmitted the work to the most appropriate suppliers, based on a detailed fee schedule.

The new system also monitored the editing process and automatically generated detailed invoices.

Results

ConsumerServe was able to meet and exceed its cost-reduction goals. The system automated so many tasks that the company was able to shift six of the department's 12 employees to more productive posts in other departments.

So easy to use was the system that even outside suppliers saved time and money. Because of this increased efficiency, ConsumerServe received an unexpected benefit: per-word content costs fell nearly 10% as suppliers spent less time administering their projects.