Background
Founded in 1973, Wilmington, Delawarebased Associates International (Ai) has been a leading regional commercial printer for over 38 years. In 1997, Ai expanded into digital printing and mailing services, beginning its transition from a traditional print service provider to the successful marketing service provider it is now. Today, Ai offers personalized, on-demand and conventional printing as well as web-based document management to both large and small customers. A long-standing Xerox customer, its digital division includes two Xerox® iGen3® Digital Production Presses and one Xerox® iGen4® Press, all with CREO Color Servers.
With a keen focus on continuous improvement and lean manufacturing principles, Ai has ramped up its efforts to automate manual functions and increase productivity while increasing revenue. In 2007, Ai set out to win the print collateral business for a large U.S. pharmaceutical company. Requirements included producing customized sales literature, pads, booklets and personalized materials such as labels and appointment cards for a 7,000-user customer base. Ultimately, the new business entailed an additional 200 to 300 new print-on-demand orders each day. What’s more, the customer also required 36‑hour turnarounds and a 40 percent reduction in costs.
To accommodate this impressive list of requirements and win this customer’s business, Ai revamped its existing workflow and staff extensively. Rising to the challenge, it developed an award-winning, proprietary digital workflow branded as AiConnect™ Enterprise Storefront. With AiConnect, users are able to customize and order documents right from their Web browser. Prepress, printing, finishing and shipping processes are all automated. AiConnect effectively enabled Ai to meet the customer’s printing needs while delivering an average turnaround of 24–36 hours and a 40 percent cost reduction for the process.
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