Polestar Applied Solutions: winning with the three card trick

Polestar Applied Solutions combines three propositions; print management, technology solutions and the UK’s largest print capacity to offer clients a winning blend.

Many companies talk about the breadth of their services and the markets they operate in, but when you are Polestar Applied Solutions, and part of the UK’s largest print group, these are assertions that tend to hold water.

Polestar Group does of course boast a huge range and capacity in print solutions, pure and simple. From short run digital print up through litho processes and direct mail, to gravure print for multi-millions of copies, it’s an area that is well covered. However, the fastest growing part of Polestar Group is its Applied Solutions division, which includes its technology solutions and print management.

So when Tim Smith, category director of Applied Solutions, talks about the breadth of Polestar’s services, he really does mean a blend of high quality manufacturing, the latest technology and effective, professional print management.

“We have a modular approach, which brings together the strength of print management and manufacturing (Polestar’s and external) with flexibility, project management skills and technology solutions. We have a business that’s not just interested in putting ink on paper, but on streamlining the whole workflow, delivering processing improvement and cost savings,” says Smith.

“Every customer we deal with has an opportunity to benefit from all the things we offer, but they will benefit by different amounts in different circumstances. It’s not a ‘one size fits all’ approach with a particular way of doing things. It’s about going into a client and engineering a solution by being able to apply our strengths in different measures to achieve the best result for the customer.”

Customers might therefore undergo a process of evolution in their relationship with Polestar Applied Solutions. Traditionally, they came into contact first through the need for a printer. That scenario still occurs naturally, but also customers are increasingly likely to approach Polestar looking for e-procurement or on-demand publishing technology, or to use its print management expertise. Customers are turning to Polestar Applied Solutions because they want to extend geographical reach, communicate more effectively with clients or benefit from technology to improve their publishing workflows and procurement strategies.

Matt Spencer, print services director, says: “When we are talking to a customer, we ask ‘what is the best solution for you as a client to achieve your corporate objectives?’ We are happy to lead on any one of the three propositions;

• print management
• manufacturing
• technology solutions

Customers get an open minded view of what the best solution is, and as the needs of our clients’ businesses change so the mix changes.”

“We have to take a very consultative approach with our clients to determine what the need is. Our specialist knowledge of this area enables us to get to the heart of issues and quickly find solutions. The aim always is to make things better for the client: better buying, better communications with their clients, total print management services, and distribution. To achieve that, we have to be and are business consultants around the entire corporate communications workflow. It’s a very different discussion to the one you will have if someone is just in your office trying to sell you print management. We can provide the total range of products that you might want from a print manager across a wide range of sectors.”

Tim Smith says that this kind of approach is beginning to get Polestar Applied Solutions traction as pure consultants, where it is not actually looking to win the business but simply advising the customer on finding other solutions in the marketplace. While working for one client, the Gala Coral Group, in this way, Polestar says it has been able to deliver sizable savings to the client in one commodity area purely through consultancy.

Gala Coral Group purchasing manager Diane Atkins commented: “I have been very happy with the service provided by Polestar so far and it has been extremely helpful in terms of negotiating some of our print requirements in areas that are business-critical to the Gala Coral Group. The results of this process have driven significant financial benefits and provided a robust supplier evaluation process. Polestar has provided a very professional service, as a result of which we are now working with them on other print-related areas."

Paul Seaborn, technology solutions director, picks up on what this means for the Group’s clients: “Our objective is that customers can see a lot of touch points at Polestar of how and where this can work for them. Our clients benefit from our unique mix of capabilities, with breadth and flexibility which stands out from the rest of the market. We are seeing the convergence of communication across web, SMS, direct mail, print and other media; we are here to help our clients maximise their advantage from these developments.

“If clients just engage us for technology we are absolutely delighted, and the same goes for manufacturing and print management. It’s because of that open minded flexibility that our customers are getting the best. Because we are providing more technology solutions and print management we’ve become more of a service-oriented business, and to do that we’ve needed a service-oriented architecture. Our back office therefore has to be completely robust, and access to resources is a must in software development terms. A ‘one size fits all’ approach won’t work going forward.”

Reed Business Information has recently adopted httprint for its noncontract print work. Eric Lambert, RBI procurement and production director, says: “The savings we have made in rolling out httprint across our print marketing spend have been significant and very welcome. It’s been an easy to use and flexible solution, allowing both buyer and printer to work with the system very effectively. The significant added benefit is the management information produced by the system. In working with Polestar we have now extended this use into non-print areas to further increase our savings.”

With print management clients becoming ever more demanding, requiring better information and ongoing added value over and above the savings promised in the first contracts signed, Polestar finds that its position in also offering the allied technology solutions and manufacturing provides many of the answers. “It’s all about improving processes, reducing cost and delivering top line benefits,” confirms Seaborn. “It’sAPPLIED SOLUTIONS very hard to differentiate just on one of those areas, and that’s why our areas of interest and the benefits for our clients are around all three propositions”

Polestar Applied Solutions is working alongside major corporate organisations, publishers and agencies with all of these offerings, and is also undertaking a number of complex projects for government, where its project management skills can be “mapped” onto the three core services of print management, technology and manufacturing to produce the best result.

In the corporate sphere, brand policing is becoming an increasingly important aspect of Polestar’s duties, often working alongside a number of creative agencies to manage content and control consistent colour and brand integrity. New horizons, particularly cross media, keep presenting themselves to brands and marketers as technology develops, and Polestar Applied Solutions is finding itself right at the forefront of developments. The consultative role extends into these areas also, says Smith.

Taken all together, Polestar Applied Solutions service lends itself to considerably more than just saving a few pounds on print spend. Using its technology advantages and print expertise, it is constantly looking to see how automated publishing solutions can enhance customers’ top line, and how it can improve their brand control. “That’s how you add value to your clients,” Smith concludes.

Polestar’s technology offerings

Httprint - Httprint is a browser-based e-procurement solution that is designed to accommodate the nuances of sourcing and procuring print services. It provides sourcing efficiencies, procurement control, enhanced supplier relationships and improved management information.

Global design agencies, major publishers such as Emap and Reed Business Information, corporates such as Virgin, and even other print managers, use the httprint system.

ISIS - ISIS is a browser-based publishing workflow solution, which helps to streamline and automate a range of production processes, such as flatplanning, advertising and editorial workflows, and reporting.

Marketing & Stationery Management solutions - Polestar’s online template-based solutions are designed to provide time and cost savings when managing content and creating marketing collateral and business stationery. Print ready files can be created and approved in minutes, and products such as direct mail, product literature, customer travel itineraries, passenger timetables, stationery, poster and point of sale have all been created using the technology, including the use of intelligent variable data and creative design.