GL Direct and pro-mail®: A Study in Innovation and Ingenuity

Great Lakes Integrated (GLI) formerly Great Lakes Lithograph Group is best known for their high quality printing, direct mailing and fulfillment, and digital inventory services. GLI encompasses three divisions under one unified umbrella: GL Print, GL Direct and the latest addition AKSESS. Core tenets of the Great Lakes philosophy, ever since its establishment 73 years ago, have been innovation and ingenuity. Therefore, it was only natural that CEO Jim Shultz, the third generation of Shultz's to oversee the operation, would foresee and pursue opportunities for GL Direct to diversify its offerings.

GL Direct was created 11 years ago to handle the direct mailing needs of GL Print clients. It was Software Marketing Associates Inc. (SMA), that assisted GL Direct when they pioneered into the direct mailing industry. The pro-mail® Business Management Solution offered tools to help GL Direct manage inventory, track postage, meet production deadlines and provide superior customer service.

Many clients also began to request fulfillment services from GL Direct. 'It was actually print clients who caused Great Lakes to offer fulfillment services. One of our major clients was handling their own fulfillment services in-house and needed the space for manufacturing instead. They asked us if we had ever thought of offering fulfillment services,' said GL Direct's vice president and general manager Neil Gallagher. In keeping with the Great Lakes philosophy, Jim Shultz made the decision to expand GL Direct's offerings to include fulfillment services.

The Challenge

 
The pro-mail® Business Management Solution was instrumental to GL Direct's success as they pioneered into the direct mailing business. Naturally, they sought help from SMA as they began their diversification into fulfillment services.

GLI was able to offer a wide range of diverse services, including the ability to create highly customized, front-end, internet order capturing. However, GL Direct needed a software system that would enable them to process the orders they captured, control their client's inventory and manage the warehouse workflow. “We had our own front-end order capture system, but we needed a software solution capable of processing orders and taking care of the back-end warehouse management,” Gallagher stated.

It would also be necessary for GL Direct to re-organize their warehouse space to better accommodate vast numbers of inventory items. “Our fulfillment software also needed to aide with warehouse organization,” Gallagher added.

The Solution

The pro-mail® Fulfillment Solution was first licensed to GL Direct over 8 years ago, allowing the company to provide fulfillment services to its clients. GL Direct utilized in-house resources to create their front-end, internet order capturing system. Their front-end system was then integrated with The pro-mail® Fulfillment Solution for order processing and warehouse management. “It was the exact
relationship we were looking for,” Gallagher said.

pro-mail® offers the tools necessary for GLI to reward their clients with real-time inventory control, efficient order processing and control, and accurate warehouse management. GL Direct effectively organized more than 20,000 inventory items in their 130,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space to better manage both the direct mailing and fulfillment operations. “Kitting was something which was rather un-chartered territory for those of us in the direct mailing industry… The pro-mail® Fulfillment Solution software helped us to organize our warehouse so we could quickly and accurately compose our kits,” Gallagher said.

The Results

GL Direct was able to become a one-stop-shop communications provider for their clients. This eliminated the need to look elsewhere for fulfillment services and awarded GL Direct with even more marketing options. Currently, over 40 clients turn to GL Print for their direct mailing and fulfillment services.

The comprehensive pro-mail® Fulfillment Solution has helped GL Direct improve service levels, and reduce customer service costs by providing their clients with on-line access to their crucial data. “The pro-mail® Solution offers a better user-experience from the recipient end. Immediately, our clients, their customers and our warehouse team knows if inventory is available or not” Gallagher reflected.

GL Direct also found pro-mail® to be extremely “kit-friendly”, considering the high volume of complex kit-orders GL Direct receives. “We do a lot of kit-building, as well as inventory transfers and process roughly 25,000 to 30,000 orders a month. Day in and day-out The pro-mail® System has proven, reliable, accurate and efficient.”