People have the ability to easily monitor many aspects of their lives. By employing their own personal army of technology, perhaps consisting of a Nest Learning Thermostat, a Fitbit, MyFitnessPal, a Hum device, Class Dojo, Facebook and Twitter, individuals receive streams of information about the energy consumption of their house, their health and fitness, their diet, their vehicle, their kids’ classroom behavior, their social network and the status of important events in the world. After measuring data, people can make informed improvement plans for just about any situation.
This concept goes well beyond the scope of individuals striving to be their best or exert control over their personal lives. Companies now use software that keeps them connected to each other, delivers critical information and monitors processes. By enabling teams to access data that’s housed in a centralized location from anywhere in the world, businesses are benefiting from better-informed decision-making across roles and departments. Marketing and packaging departments are utilizing tracking and monitoring for their approval processes for brand assets, dielines and collateral with great results.
What is the equivalent of a Fitbit for packaging graphics and product information approvals?
Brand Lifecycle Management (BLM) software. BLM automates the approval workflow, tracks progress or delays automatically, alerts individuals when they need to perform a task, enables them to complete their tasks from anywhere with an internet connection, measures durations against a baseline, and produces powerful Key Performance Indicator (KPI) reports.
If a $150 Fitbit can give you information to make better decisions to improve your health and sleep, how much does one benefit? If BLM software can provide information to individuals making approval decisions to help improve their speed to market and reduce the risk of product recall, how much does a company benefit? These business savings can be measured. Let’s look at how.
The Problem of Slowness
When a person wants to lose a few extra pounds, they know the problem can be based on a few key factors such as caloric intake or lack of proper exercise. A Fitbit or MyFitnessPal can give you useful data to help you modify your behavior. See how many steps you’ve taken, stairs you’ve climbed and calories you’ve consumed and you’ve got a picture of what your goals should be and if you’re reaching them.
As calories equal weight, time equals money. A company that struggles with speed problems like missed ship dates or delays launching products need to shed time from their processes. And like a Fitbit or MyFitnessTracker, BLM software can be used to help companies bring their packaging and marketing approval processes back to full health. BLM software can give you access to information in the same way a fitness tracker can. Suddenly it’s no longer a guessing game. Are long cycle times slowing you down? What is the most common reason why packaging, labels or free-standing inserts (FSIs) get rejected? A BLM system can deliver KPIs that make the causes of your management problems clearer, enabling you to be proactive about improving your artwork approval process.
And like a fitness tracker that automatically reminds you to exercise and tracks your activity, BLM software automatically prompts individuals to perform their tasks throughout the workflow and measures their timing and activities. Each individual on the approval chain receives their task, and when completed, the next task is automatically triggered. Remote and travelling employees can log in from anywhere and make annotations on hi-res files through a cloud-based interface in real-time that can be viewed by everyone. Then you can see who contributed what and when they did it, which raises accountability. Errors and delays are reduced, expensive recalls are avoided. Most importantly: profitability, the primary health metric of your company, is maintained.
