Content Management Integrated with DAM for Marketing Communication

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1 Content Management Integrated with DAM for Marketing Communication Presenters: Diane Rooney VP, Production Services Grand Circle Travel Joseph Bachana President/CEO, DPCI

2 About Grand Circle Travel Grand Circle offers 46 years of leadership in international travel, adventure and discovery for Americans over 50 years old. Headquartered in Boston, the company has 39 offices and 2000 associates worldwide.

3 How things used to be Content was in Word, Excel or on paper Images were managed on a file server Hard copy catalog pages were picked up and marked up with changes Catalog pages were done manually

4 Challenges of the old way Keystroke errors Manual layout creation was time consuming Approval process took a long time in hard copy and was repetitive Design had to reformat Excel rate grid files in QuarkXPress format Image captions had to be written every time Metadata for Images/Photos (who the photographer was, location, costs) was not being maintained. Multiple sources for product information, necessitating return to hard copy to find the latest

5 Major Requirements Support GCT s business model as opposed to forcing GCT to work with an application that didn t fit the way we work. System had to cut production time by 33% One repository to preserve all product and photo information for publishing effort Allow pricing information to be posted realtime from all worldwide offices System must track information about photos

6 Other Requirements A system that could pull pricing information directly from the Mainframe Simplify production process reduce repetitive actions Simplify approval process reduce repetitive actions System that could grow with us

7 Vendor Competency Exam Researched Major Software and Service Vendors Interviewed Candidates Vendor Visits Demos and custom presentations Reference Checks Financials Check

8 What did GCT Decide To Do? Decided a custom-built content management system would support our unique needs, but Digital Asset Management was a solution that we could purchase Hook the CMS into the DAM for maximum power Wanted personalized attention on upgrades of our system. Didn t want to wait for scheduled mass upgrades

9 What did GCT Decide To Do? Selected DPCI as custom solution provider Insisted on a fixed cost and schedule for project Co-developed requirements definition with DPCI for new system Established an ROI Coordinated DPCI and print vendor on digital asset management implementation as well as prepress checks on output

10 GCT s ROI Proposition Created the following ROI Criteria: Reduce Production cycle by 33% Reduce Creative/Production hours by 25% Reduce Rate Grid lead-time by 2 weeks 50% Reduction in price related Brochure Errors

11 GCT s ROI Results Results gleaned in a test of one catalog run: 4/30/2002 March May June July Measurement Creative Hours* Traf f ic Production Acct. Mgmnt Copy Design Photo Total Creative Hours Reduction in Hours May 2002-July % Lead Time - Days Lead-time Reduction from May 2002 to July % Cost Per Page** $ $ $ $75.63 Non-Creative Grand Circle Corporation 24 Page ANZ CMS Analysis Product Mgrs Finance Inventory Total Non-Creative Hours Non-Creative Hours May 2002-July %

12 Constraints for Project Minimal IT involvement at GCT Minimal Onsite involvement early in project Complexity of data model (business logic) Change Management Issues No institutionalized PM process at GCT Design-driven magazine format was not conducive to template-driven workflow

13 Exciting Features of CMS Automate MS Excel rate grids onto design templates with styles applied Automate placement of text and image content onto design pages Automated creation of MS Word documents directly from the CMS web interface Automated creation of PDF documents for approvals

14 Exciting Features of CMS Link between Cumulus and CMS Multi-caption database Automated pickup with minimal or no changes (catalog, individual trip)

15 Organizational changes required by the new system New CMS required a fulltime administrator and project manager Department also assigned an account manager/traffic resource to handle change management for CMS While the system required the addition of two new resources, staff attrition was 30% after 9/11 yet promotional volume increased 100%

16 New Challenges Web content is not integrated with CMS, but it could be Business issue, not technical Pre-trip material is stored in a Lotus Notes database, so there is no one source for product information. This could be consolidated with CMS Pricing from mainframe could be fully integrated with CMS, but again this is a business issue, not technical

17 Thank You! Contact Information: Diane Rooney, Grand Circle Travel Joseph Bachana, DPCI