A BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING

Everyday, over 150 million people around the globe choose a Unilever branded product. Unilever’s heritage for
developing innovative products that meet the needs of consumers in a global market has roots dating back to the late
1800s. In 2004, Unilever announced an initiative to build on its heritage and to consolidate a segregated brand portfolio:
One-Unilever. Key to the success of One-Unilever was launching and then maintaining global brand consistently across
all media – including print – but doing so in a way that builds shareholder value. Finding the most cost effective solution
for procuring the marketing and commercial print used to promote Unilever products and global brands became critical.
While meeting the goals of the One-Unilever initiative was required of any proposed solution, the requirement that the
solution reduce costs and the impact printed materials had on the company’s bottom line was non-negotiable.
CONSISTENCY IN PROCESS, VISIBILITY AND CONTROL
“Like many large companies, we used a myriad of methods to buy print,” said Robert McKay, Manager of Outsourced
Services for Unilever. “We had limited staff to manage some projects and brokers to manage others. But for many
projects, we utilized a number of creative agencies that procured print as an extension of their creative services.”
Recognizably not a best practice, this disparate approach to print procurement inevitably led to inconsistency in the
production and delivery of the final printed products. Conversely, the introduction of a coherent, unified process would
ensure consistent delivery and quality and would drive costs down by institutionalizing repeatability, leveraging successes
and by eliminating errors. From Unilever’s standpoint, establishing business best practice around print procurement was
the only way to address specific business challenges and reinforce One-Unilever goals.
Implementing the NewlineNoosh technology enhanced Business Process Outsourcing Solution for print has helped us
leverage expertise where we had none and has created a process to continuously improve our sourcing practices. Further,
our overwhelming success with print outsourcing has allowed us to reinforce our focus on consistent quality and branding.
OUTSOURCING RESULTS IN PRINT RELATED SAVINGS OF MORE THAN 17% FOR UNILEVER
Robert McKay
Manager of Outsourced Services
Unilever
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A BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING
Case Study