Ensure compliance and improve speed-to-market: some of what BLUE’s clients’ love most about our Automated Workflow Management technology. As the leading provider of SaaS-based Label and Artwork Management solutions, BLUE’s clients range from start-ups to well established enterprises in the marketing, retail, CPG, and life sciences industries. Regardless of size or industry, however, what all of these companies have in common are struggles with their end-to-end label and artwork management. In fact, when we ask our clients why they contacted BLUE, the answers typically sound the same from one company to the next: Approvals are always delayed. Content is inaccurate. Artwork cycles are seemingly endless. And the unfortunate reality is that these kinds of struggles have a negative impact on the bottom line: Creative resources burn out and turnover escalates. Products are late to market. The risk of recall increases.
To improve efficiency and productivity, companies can convert manual label and artwork management processes into secure, automated workflows, which save time, reduce costs, ensure compliance, and improve speed-to-market. Automated Workflow Management simultaneously delivers consistent label and artwork management execution and improves label and artwork quality and accuracy. Every function – from creative to brand to regulatory – can benefit from automation. Here are five of our clients’ favorite benefits:
Accelerate and Track Approvals
Even in the simplest and most mature markets, packaging labels and artwork still typically requires approvals from at least three or four stakeholders. In more complex scenarios, as many as 15 people may need to approve packaging labels and artwork at various stages of its development, including packaging coordinators, quality assurance people, packaging engineers, health authorities, printers, design agencies, and others responsible for technical, regulatory, and compliance approvals.
Unfortunately, even today some companies still use email to route label and artwork approvals, or worse: they manually distribute physical documents. In fact, according to McKinsey & Company, on average, workers spend 28 percent of their time reading and answering email. If you could significantly cut email time, imagine the positive impact on employee productivity (not to mention work-life balance!).
At its core, automated Workflow Management changes the way approvers work. Instead of hunting through a cluttered email box, they simply open the Workflow Management tool. A list of tasks to complete awaits them – with supporting documentation attached and available for review. The Workflow Management tool also enforces deadlines by automatically sending reminders and flagging an approval that is overdue.
And the real “kicker:” BLUE clients report that by cutting approval times, on-time completion rates increase by 75%.
Improve Audit Readiness
Automated Workflow Management helps companies maintain audit readiness and improve compliance through efficiency, consistency, and documentation. Your company has clearly defined internal controls, and automated Workflow Management ensures those controls are followed every time, with signature-level burden of proof. Alongside the functional attributes, automated Workflow Management in a Label and Artwork Management solution can also manage and retain historical records and associated evidence to demonstrate that all the right people have been involved during reviews, adjustments, and approvals to ensure preparedness for the inevitable internal or external audit.
Send Proactive Alerts
With proactive alerting capabilities, automated Workflow Management keeps processes moving. Approvers receive automatic alerts and reminders when an approval is pending or overdue. Or, when an approver is on vacation, approvals can be escalated or put on hold – without manual intervention.
Quickly Trace Approvals
Automated Workflow Management also enables companies to trace multiple iterations of an approval. Documentation is available for each step, and this transparency and traceability supports root-cause analysis when delays occur. It pinpoints bottlenecks and shows where an item is in the approval process at all times, enabling efficient follow-up or highlighting opportunities for process improvements.
Improve Document Security
Automated Workflow Management protects proprietary information. To view documents, users must log into the tool. There’s no risk of accidentally emailing files to the wrong person or exposing confidential information through email hacks.
Change the Way People Work
Automated Workflow Management eliminates the headaches associated with manual approval processes and fundamentally changes the way people work. It’s easy to implement and generates a rapid return on investment. Employees save time; companies save money; processes are auditable and compliant; and speed to market improves.
To learn more about the benefits of Workflow Management, download our e-book: Boost the Bottom Line by Streamlining Package Design.
