Consolidated Solutions

Consolidated Solutions make a full service transition

Consolidated Solutions (CS), a leading print and marketing solutions firm in the Midwest, offers a wide range of services focusing on direct mail, printing, and marketing services. CS offers digital and variable printing, full service finishing, fulfillment, distribution, embroidery, apparel, promotional products, consulting services, list brokering, and information services for data processing.

A large company with diverse obligations

As a large company with diverse professional obligations, CS had worked with multiple technology providers for some time— identifying distinct solutions as the right fit for specific operational challenges. BCC Software had been in the CS solutions mix for over five years when the company began to notice a slip in quality and support from another vendor, so CS began to rely even more on BCC Software.

“The sales people that were contacting me didn’t have a clue what we were doing, even though we’d been their customer for years,” says Michelle Hilston, Director of Postal Affairts and Client Solutions. “They didn’t know what products we were using. When I explained what direction we were going, they were flatout unsupportive. It seemed as though they were more interested in catering to other markets rather than the PC market.

“That was when we first seriously started looking at BCC,” she added. “Needless to say, I think I made a good choice.”

From flagship to top tier

Until 2008 CS’s partnership with BCC Software had centered on BCC Mail Manager™, the company’s flagship product, with scalable functionality capable of accommodating most levels of postal sophistication. As other mailing trends and business realities began coming into focus, however, Hilston recognized the benefits in upgrading to BCC Mail Manager Full Service, BCC’s top-tier offering with the widest possible array of standard and advanced features. BCC Mail Manager Full Service™ is an ideal fit for major mailers such as Consolidated Solutions.

As CS looked for ways to increase efficiency and economy, the possibility of developing automation protocols for certain jobs became more and more appealing. That proved to be a major selling point for BCC Software’s BCC Mail Manager Full Service, whose TaskMaster and Job Manager scripted capabilities make it a highly adaptive component in any automation-oriented operation. BCC “knew what we were trying to accomplish,” Hilston says, and the decision makers at CS were able to see exactly how BCC Mail Manager Full Service’s operator-independent functionality could benefit them in the long term.

A commitment to customer support

On its own, BCC Software’s superior technology development might have been sufficient to merit CS’s increased confidence in an ever more complex mailing industry. Once the company’s clear commitment to customer support was factored in, however, Hilston’s decision to reinvest in BCC Software products was an easy one.

“Your customer support has really grown,” Hilston says of BCC Software’s Mailpiece Quality Certified team of in-house support technicians. As the stakes for mailers have grown higher, she says, BCC Software’s support offerings have risen to the challenge— something Hilston cannot say for her previous mailing software vendor.

Today, CS takes full advantage of the capabilities that BCC Mail Manager Full Service provides. From the enhancements it adds to the company’s automated environment to its ability to help CS leverage the latest postal technologies, the switch to BCC Software has provided Hilston’s team with the quality and breadth of capabilities they require to handle their diverse needs.

“The TaskMaster enhancements have been an enormous help to our operation,” she adds. “We were also interested in Suite^Link®, and [Full Service’s] enhanced merge/purge capabilities. The Full Service product just seemed to have more to offer.”

Another important consideration for CS was the growing importance of PostalOne! and the Intelligent Mail® barcode, two linked postal technology initiatives that together provide a primary focus for the near future of the high-volume mailing industry.

“When I was going through [periods of] various PostalOne! testing, I saw that your PostalOne!files are perfect,” Hilston says. “That was shared with me by various postal people I dealt with when I was going through the qualification process.”