Aflac In-plant Adds Avanti Slingshot Print MIS
Communicorp, a subsidiary of Aflac and one of the largest marketing solutions providers in the Southeast, announced a new partnership with Ricoh to implement the award-winning Avanti Slingshot Print Management Information System (MIS), demonstrating Communicorp’s ongoing commitment to driving operational efficiencies and improving workflow across its print production and fulfillment projects.
Standing with one of Aflac’s two Pitney Bowes IntelliJet 20 inkjet presses (this one affectionately named “Franklin”) are (from left) Gillian Seguin, manager, Print and Mail Services; Mike Thomas, VP of operations, Communicorp and second VP, Aflac Support Services; Eric Seldon, president & CEO, Communicorp and senior VP, Aflac Business Services (holding an Aflac policy packet, printed on the inkjet press); and Frank Butler, senior manager, Aflac Support Services.
Avanti Slingshot is a high-performance print MIS solution that creates one seamless process for incorporating business intelligence (CRM, dashboards and reporting); production planning (estimating, imposition, planned purchasing, sales orders, inventory management and scheduling); as well as warehousing, shipping and billing. The solution provides secure access on any Internet-enabled device—anywhere and anytime—while supporting multiple lines of business, including offset, digital, large-format, fulfillment, mailing and marketing services.
"We’re always looking for ways to meet the growing demands of the digital print and fulfillment industry," remarked Mike Thomas, vice president of Communicorp. "Avanti Slingshot is a cutting-edge solution that will allow us to stay competitive in the marketplace and be extremely responsive to our customers. The solution is flexible and scalable, meaning it will continue to adapt and grow with our business over time."
With Avanti Slingshot, Communicorp will be able to improve key workflow procedures, including:
- Estimating job costs for clients more quickly;
- Capturing all billable tasks more efficiently;
- Reducing manual intervention and human touchpoints within the production process; and
- Streamlining tasks between areas of responsibility more proficiently.
Additionally, the advanced Avanti Slingshot tool will provide Communicorp’s customers with the ability to track orders online, enabling quicker turnaround times on jobs and faster response times from project managers and internal work teams.
“We developed Avanti Slingshot to assist companies like Communicorp with eliminating manual processes and redundancies, while also allowing them to improve resource planning and production time for projects. All of these enhancements significantly improve the end product for customers,” noted Patrick Bolan, Avanti president and CEO.
Ricoh made a significant investment in Avanti in 2013 as part of its workflow strategy to provide customers an open MIS platform that integrates with other systems and automates the entire print and fulfillment process. Ricoh uses an implementation methodology which ensures projects, such as Communicorp’s, are managed with flawless execution and delivered as promised.
In-line finishing on the inkjet presses—comprising a buffer, cutter, separator and stacker—has greatly enhanced productivity and efficiency. From left: Eric Seldon, Gillian Seguin, Frank Butler and Mike Thomas.
“As a systems integrator of production solutions, we are proud to have Communicorp as an industry partner, and look forward to helping them expand their business with this solution,” offered Brian Balow, vice president, Professional Services and Strategic Vertical Markets, Ricoh Production Systems, Ricoh USA.
About Communicorp
Communicorp Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aflac, is one of the largest marketing solutions providers in the U.S. Southeast region, serving major brands and leading corporations since 1981. Known for its excellence in creativity, design and marketing innovation, Communicorp has received numerous accolades from the graphics and communications industries—including American Advertising Awards (ADDY), The Premier Print Awards, Printing Impressions magazine’s Gold Ink Awards and Printing Industries of America’s (PIA) Best of the Best Award.
About Avanti
Since 1984, Avanti has provided innovative, award-winning Print MIS and Web-to-print solutions that help print shops and marketing communication organizations automate all facets of their business and cultivate a more meaningful customer relationship. Avanti’s solutions are the most open in the industry, are JDF certified, fully integrated and extend from Web-to-print through to production and billing.
Source: Avanti.
