Condé Nast Publications asked F E Burman to provide a print-on-demand e-commerce solution to automate the production of showcards. Showcards are used as point of sale, promotional display material by a wide range of companies who have either advertised in Condé Nast’s exclusive magazines or whose products have been featured in the magazines’ editorial pages.

Condé Nast Publications Limited offers customers the opportunity to order showcards of editorial and advertising pages published in it's magazines.These are used as point of sale display material by a wide range of companies who have either advertised in the magazines or whose products have been featured. Showcards allow companies to highlight the fact that they have appeared in Condé Nast's exclusive and high profile magazines to further benefit from this exposure. They also help to promote the strong Condé Nast brand.

Challenge

• The quality of the showcards had to match or exceed Condé Nast's existing products and their clients' expectations.
• Print-on-demand ordering of showcards had to be automated in order to reduce the administrative burden within Condé Nast's Production and Accounts Departments and to eliminate waste.
• There had to be a simple, quick and secure ordering process, including an allowance for online checking of syndication rights.

Solution

F E Burman put forward a solution utilising state-of-the-art business intelligence practices, process automation and best-of breed print and finishing tools, to turn a headache into a profitable and time saving venture. The solution incorporated sophisticated integration between F E Burman’s SPARK PDF creation platform and Condé Nast's asset management systems to ensure products appeared and could be ordered on the magazines' on sale dates.

Print on demand

Applying F E Burman’s unique SPARK PDF creation engine generates print-on-demand files to drive the latest digital printing equipment to produce orders as they come in. This has resulted in reduced inventory and handling costs and eliminated waste.

Web ordering

The system allows clients to browse pages online as soon as soon as the magazines go on sale. Clients can order, preview, approve and pay for showcards via the website.

E-commerce

By applying an e-commerce engine to the solution ordering showcards has become simple and secure, eliminating time consuming invoicing and payment chasing by Condé Nast.

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