SailPointe Creative Group was formed in 1995 as Federated Design to support the design and creative needs of The Federated Group, a premier sales and marketing company in the grocery, food service, drug and convenience store businesses. Working with retailers, distributors, wholesalers and manufacturers, Federated provides programs and services to drive growth in private label programs.
As the Twenty-First Century began to unfold, SailPointe Creative Group was established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Federated Group and chartered with not only supporting the design needs of its parent, but seeking outside business as well. This change in business model was driven by changing market dynamics and provides SailPointe Creative with new avenues for business growth.
Prior to that time, the company had acquired MetaCommunications' Virtual Ticket and Job Manager. According to Marty DiFrisco, Director, "At the time, we had a staff of 24 that was producing designs for over 2,000 SKUs per year. The sheer volume of work mandated an automated process to keep track of everything."
With Virtual Ticket and Job Manager in place, SailPointe has an end-to-end record of every project. Account managers initially open a new job number in Virtual Ticket, which has a customized packaging checklist form that ensures that the account manager provides all necessary information for designers to do their jobs. Designers and production staff begin work based on the information contained in Virtual Ticket and use Job Manager to track their time for each project in which they participate. DiFrisco adds, "We use Virtual Ticket and Job Manager to manage the entire packaging design project, from creative through production, including coordination with the printers who will actually produce the packaging."
By using Job Manager to keep up with daily performance, our billing is much more accurate, and that is important for our overall profitability.
Marty DiFrisco, Director
DiFrisco has also found Job Manager to be an important management tool. He says, "We expect 80% to 90% efficiency from our staff. I can easily see and evaluate each staff member's activities on a daily basis, including what they were doing in terms of design, production, mock-ups, printing and more. If individuals are not performing at the optimum level, those performance issues can be addressed before they become a bigger problem." DiFrisco points out that often, users will simply forget to enter activities, and his ability to monitor performance on a daily basis makes it easier to accurately correct those inadvertent omissions. He adds, "If it is not in the system, we can't bill for it. By using Job Manager to keep up with daily performance, our billing is much more accurate, and that is important for our overall profitability."
The solution has also made it easier for customers to log in to check project status, eliminating the need for them to call. DiFrisco points out, "Today, we have a staff of seven plus some free-lancers, and we are producing some 1,000 SKUs annually. That's half the volume we were doing before we spun out, but we are able to manage the work with one-third of the staff. Virtual Ticket and Job Manager are a major contributor to our ability to work that lean."
