Founded in 2010, this magazine marketing and distribution company has achieved very strong revenue since launch and in the last few years, subscription marketing and fulfilment is where much of this growth has come from.
This has led to the expansion of its warehousing and logistical operation which houses growing stock levels of magazines and subscriber gift items which are then picked and packed to customers through its mailing service, both domestic and international.
As this activity grew and more publisher clients were brought on board, a separate division of the company was created to handle it. Initially logistics were outsourced to a third-party provider however, after some time the company felt it could offer greater flexibility and more competitively priced solutions by bringing the activities in-house. Having moved to new premises in 2016, the company now occupies eight times its original space, and its staff numbers have quadrupled.
At the outset, the company operated its stock control using sophisticated spreadsheets to record stock and despatch activity, but with a clear objective to implement fully fledged warehouse management technology to support the ongoing growth and operational efficiency of the business.
The chosen technology needed to control stock accurately by location, produce picking and despatch paperwork and maintain a full history of orders and stock movements. It also needed to integrate with a specialist subscription management software for the publishing industry which in turn, needed to link directly with the WMS.
After product demonstrations and discussions, the ProSKU cloud-based WMS system was selected. The company was looking for something to provide robust stock management, offer automated documentation and auditability. It needed to satisfy reporting needs and be easy to interrogate.
Once the ProSKU decision was made, some internal work was needed before going live, including defining processes and creating a location coding system. The order integration with the subscription software proved straightforward however, being completed in a few days using the standard ProSKU API features. But in the event, thanks to their preparation, the company needed very little training and almost no handholding at go-live, other than occasional reference to the ProSKU helpdesk.
Since going live, new system developments have brought further benefit to the operation. Supporting a business model that requires the despatch of many single item orders meant a high frequency of repetitive pick face visits. But functionality in ProSKU now means that multiple items can be bulk-picked in one exercise and then sorted into individual orders. The new process saves time and increases accuracy and efficiency and has revolutionised the way they do things.
Previously if picking errors were made, they generally became aware of them because of client complaints. Now, because of the two-phase pick and sort process there is a secondary check element. They have brought recognition of errors forward and can do something about it before orders are despatched and this is one example of how they have matched their processes to suit the system, and as a result, those processes have been improved.
The original remit of the subscription division was to support the main brand marketing activity, but also to develop as an independent service provider. So in addition to the client mailing service, it now offers a range of services in both B2C and B2B areas. These include support for retail operations involving shipment of publishers’ titles to smaller retail operations; management of e-commerce shops for publishers, involving pick and despatch of gifts and toys; and wholesale orders, where large volumes of titles are shipped to wholesalers for onward supply. In short, they now aim to offer everything that a publisher could want as a service.
This successful growth relates to a number of factors. Their connections with the publishing world have created spin-off business and led to a growth in solutions they can offer. This has been assisted by the departure of one or two competitors, with the result that business that had grown steadily over three years has accelerated. Where they once used a single courier, they now have a total of six, as well as a pallet network operator and an international consolidator.
As a result of continued growth, they are keen to embrace other technology to benefit their operation. Their increase in despatch activity for example means that before long they may consider integrating ProSKU with some form of carrier management system. As far as ProSKU itself is concerned they are aware there’s quite a lot more it can offer that can help enhance their business.
In conclusion, the company is very happy with ProSKU and the benefits it provides to them. As well as the product features, they are also delighted with the flexible approach shown by ProSKU in relation to a number of non-standard requests, especially on the reporting side. The system is helping them manage current workloads in ways that wouldn’t be possible without it, and they expect that to continue in the future, whichever way their developing business takes them.
