McCain Food Service

Needs

• McCain had a site for front-of-house print-on-demand (POD) items that was not user friendly
• Create an easy-to-use, intuitive site for a wide variety of users
• The site needed to be easy to update in a timely manner

McCain Food Service, a North American-based manufacturer for the food service industry, had a difficult and inflexible front-of-house POD system that their sales force and distributors used to create on-site promotion materials. The system did not utilize a centralized database and content management system (CMS), so any content changes required the user to update each individual element, creating extra work and higher potential for error.

Ideas

• Creation of a behind-the-scenes database holding all of the information on each product
• With the database, product updates can occur in a single location and be seen across the site
• A workflow allowing orders to be gathered then released each Tuesday afternoon and shipped Friday

Darwill recommended implementing a CMS system that would hold all product information in a centralized database and allow users to make changes once to roll out across all related promotional materials. The tool features a powerful template-based system that allows McCain to develop professionally printed materials that are easy to customize for their local customers.

Outcomes

• Darwill created an easy-to-use site for users to create custom front-of-house materials
• A robust group control for each product allowing simple activation, deactivation and assignment
• Increased variety of products for ordering for the distributors

McCain's new POD system has improved user experience and efficiencies, ensuring higher quality control through centralized content review and approval. Through permissions, users are only able to see what they are supposed to see, which is particularly important for their larger accounts. Data capture capabilities of this system allow for creation of robust reports to monitor and glean performance insights.

Since the system has been in use, overall POD volume has increased significantly and user comments have been very positive; many have said that it's a great tool to use.