Sourcing artwork solutions

Situation: The client, a large and expanding multinational pharmaceutical company, wishes to improve control over its artwork assets and artwork production. In this respect the client is not well aware of the current market place and what is available. Short Mountain Consulting Ltd is engaged to scope the market, present option and provide Expertise for the sourcing activity

Target: The client wishes to understand the alternative models of control as well as web enabled asset management and workflow solutions.

Proposal: Short Mountain proposed to research and present a range of alternative artwork management solutions ranging from fully insourced to fully outsourced with a sliding scale in between. In addition to this SMC undertook to investigate the latest Digital Asset Management and workflow solution on behalf of the client.

Narrative: Having assessed the client’s approach and carried out interviews with the key stakeholders we undertook to find the best solutions for the client.

In this instance with client’s assent we separated Digital Asset Management (DAM) from artwork production supply so as to best assess the market. Whereas it is tempting to use a one stop shop DAM and artwork production are very different so a single source may not be an optimal solution. In this case however it was found that one supplier was more than able to supply both services without compromise

SMC engaged in a full sourcing process together with the client’s procurement professionals and legal team.

The process consisted of 6 stages

1. Pre qualification

2. “Request For” process

3. Assessment

4. Qualification

5. Contracting and on boarding

6. Continuous management initiation

Pre Qualification: Extensive scan of market for suitable supply candidates. This activity involved close attention to suitability, fit and size.

“Request for” Process: SMC arranged both a Request For Information as well as a Request for Quotation.

Assessment: Having received back the requests SMC together with the client assessed the replies against set of agreed criteria. This revealed three suitable candidates,

Qualification: The client agreed to audit all three candidate suppliers. The audit involved both a Quality ad a financial back ground check. SMC attended the quality audit to provide Subject Matter Expertise to the client’s professional auditors

Contract and on-boarding: Having selected the most suitable candidate the client informed the successful bidder and commenced the on boarding process. This was done before the final contract was awarded. The on boarding process was critical in the success of this project as it allowed the supplier to fully appreciate the clients requirements. This was not truly possible on the FRP process. In particular it allowed the supplier to best assign duties on their internal team.

Continuous management initiation: Before the contract commenced all aspect of day to day management were agreed in terms of governance, communication, escalation, metrics management