Online Tool for Fulfillment of Detail Aids Enables Salesforce | Pharma

5/5/2020 RRD

Fulfillment program delivers cost savings, simplifies entire print supply chain

CHALLENGE

A leading pharmaceutical company was seeking a solution to improve the speed and overall order management of marketing materials to over 5,500 sales representatives. The solution should also reduce inventory obsolescence and rework cost due to ever-changing marketing collateral, market dynamics, and regulatory changes.

This would require process and technology enhancements to the company's current fulfillment and distribution program. In addition, the client had the following goals:

• Develop a multichannel order entry system within one month prior to the busiest month of releasing new products, without causing a disruption
• Meet or reduce the collateral order cycle time while reducing shipping cost
• Move existing collateral inventory to a new warehouse within 15 working days over the Christmas-New Year holiday period

SOLUTION

RRD designed an integrated print management and fulfillment solution to improve the client's existing marketing materials process. Capabilities within the solution included:

• An order entry system that enables sales representatives to place orders via IVR (Interactive Voice Recognition), the web, or a dedicated call center
• Business rules and KPIs to ensure only current collateral is sent to salespeople
• A strategically located (RRD) fulfillment center to reduce costs and delivery time
• A dedicated account management team to develop a transition plan and manage the entire development project

RESULTS

Estimated 25% reduction in print obsolescence

$500k annual decrease in packing and shipping costs

5-8% reduction in outbound freight costs

No disruption in marketing-to-sales supply chain 

The RRD print fulfillment program produced significant cost savings, improved efficiencies and simplified the entire print supply chain. For example, from order entry to shipment to sales representative, the average shipping time was reduced by five days. 

Savings allowed the client to redirect saved dollars to other marketing initiatives. Within the first year, the client reduced its overall program cost budget by 8% and reduced its time to market by 50%. The pharmaceutical company also streamlined its print supply chain process and reduced overall costs by adopting RRD's vendor consolidation recommendation. 

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