Ocean Spray Cranberry
Case Study Overview
The director of Ocean Spray Cranberries creative department wanted to “go paperless” and get rid of all the file cabinets and trays of photos crowding the office. He wanted to streamline the design and production processes from proposal to completion. The multiple rounds of editing and step-by-step approval involving multiple departments – accomplished by walking hard copies around the company – was especially time consuming.
Before
The director inherited a 15-year-old FileMaker system that was not able to manage the digital files and work flow requirements of his office. His staff was mired in labor- and time-intensive processes including:
- Image requests. If somebody requests an image, a staff member would physically sort through the paper files and photo trays, identify potential matches, and then physically deliver them (it was not uncommon to return to the office to find a better one). He’d have to re-file those not selected and log-out the chosen photos to keep track of their location.
- New product development – packaging and labels. There are many people and departments involved in the creation of new labels: artist, photographer, designer, the marketing department, product manager, etc. Additionally, there are typically different versions for various flavors and package sizes. Rounds of edits and approvals for each one must be obtained from multiple departments – marketing, product, legal, nutrition, etc. Paper files move from one department to another making progress difficult to trace. Further, due to the physical nature of the approvals, progress stops when someone is out of the office.
- Advertising campaigns. Campaigns go through the same laborious process of moving hard copies through multiple rounds of edits and approvals across multiple departments.
After
Silver Lake upgraded their FileMaker software and created a custom, web-based workflow and digital asset management system available remotely not just from within the office. Now the director’s staff was able to focus on valued-added work and leave the paper-schlepping behind.
- An online digital asset manager, which was indexed and searchable, enabled self-service file retrieval by people throughout the company. They could download a copy and the same file would be still available to someone else.
- All new projects – from advertising campaigns to label redesigns – began with an online questionnaire. For example, a product manager now goes to the department’s new website to initiate the project and provide key information at the onset: high-level view and objective, marketing ideas, size information, packaging and display requirements, flavors, etc.
- Creative workflow, file distribution, progress checks, and approval management are now accomplished online. The web-based system allows the director to manage the creative side, obtain approvals, and send the files to production for each SKU. No lost files. No wasted staff time.