HOW AN ONLINE SOLUTION CAN HELP STREAMLINE COLLATERAL ORDERS FROM GLOBAL OFFICES?
How an online solution can help streamline collateral orders from global offices?
Not far from the fictional house of Sherlock Holmes on Baker Street, at the intersection of two elegant 18th century streets in the Marylebone district, London, the sharp scent of eucalyptus trees hangs in the air.
Uniformed school children race about, and businessmen and businesswomen from neighboring areas flood the pathways with their bicycles. The district where Charles Dickens lived is a collage of British colours –double-decker red buses, coal-black taxis, grey-granite buildings, green trees – and a loud mix of bicycles bells sounds and cars honking; the spirited multicultural soul of the elegant Marylebone attracts a multitude of interesting working people to its period buildings…
The Client:
It does not surprise that the above location was chosen by the Quintessentially Group to set their new base.
Over the past two decades, the group, founded by Aaron Simpson, Paul Drummond and Ben Elliot, has built a state-of-art distribution system of luxury lifestyle management services that moves first class concierge operations, over 60 offices, to every corner of the world.
Quintessentially Lifestyle stands out among the different companies of the group for its remarkable specialization in extreme services as closing the Sydney Harbor Bridge for a private climb and unique marriage proposal, arranging a party for 300 at the Pyramids in Egypt, creating a romantic meal for two on an iceberg, and even building a replica 'bat cave' in the home of an avid film fan.
The Challenge:
How does such a global company, with many worldwide offices, each of them with specific needs/marketing plans/budgets, manage to be responsive to its demanding clients/partners/members’ needs?
How can it assure brand consistency of their marketing collateral across the globe? How can it monitor it with a click?
Complex organizations like Quintessentially Lifestyle need tailor-made solutions that are delivered by trusted and long term business partners who can assure them with consistently world-classquality standards and can anticipate their needs on a year-round base.
Last but not least, Quintessentially Lifestyle has a culture that strongly promotes creativity and innovation. Therefore, it’s important for them to work with agile and nimble partners who are able to wear several hats according to their moment needs.
The Solution:
Who: Q-Store
What: An online ordering platform designed to save money/time and revolutionize how a brand organization manages its marketing supply chain needs.
Why: To give to all of the brand's offices the direct power to place, record and track orders for their marketing collaterals instantly.
The revolution:
In the past, global companies with worldwide offices used to manage and place orders for marketing collaterals through their local, regional or global marketing administration team and/or purchasing team, who then consolidated orders and interacted with centralized global or local suppliers through numerous emails and EXCEL attachments.
How has Quintessentially Lifestyle benefitted from Icicle's customized online ordering solution?
Access to inventory: every country has access to all of the latest branded materials: member collaterals, service brochures, members gifts etc…
Digital archiving: all current and past orders are stored, data of which is very important for accurate planning and forecasting
Instant system confirmation: orders can be placed 24/7
Ease of integration: communications is sent through system to ensure all users are notified
Real time Visibility: clear descriptions on each item with photos, (no confusion over ordering multiple version items)
Real time Control: orders are recorded & traceable, prices / timeline are clearly listed online, costs of global fulfillment are calculated automatically & available instantly
Security closing: a final order summary includes all order information so there is never confusion or missing information,
Reliability: users have the ultimate sense of responsibility and accountability on placing orders.
Savings: with more coordinated orders, Quintessentially Lifestyle is able to benefit from overall lower cost marketing production and global fulfilment; various resources used for coordination between global offices are now re-deployed for higher value-adding activities
Conclusion:
In our personal lives, most of us by now would have experienced online shopping from efficient ordering platforms. We all know the benefits and the convenience that online shops can bring to us. So what are organizations waiting for to offer similar platforms for branded collaterals and merchandise to their stakeholders in the company?
Gone are the days of back & forth emails, redundant operations and precious timewasted on ineffective administration and procurement work. There are advanced online ordering platforms out there that will handle the job, making the organization more efficient and effective and placing you ahead of your competition.
About the authors: Bonnie Chan Woo is the CEO of Icicle Group
Kay Leong is the Business Development Manager of Icicle Group
The authors wish to thank Quitntessentially Lifestyle, we are grateful for the trust you have placed in us.