How ManageArtworks Helped the World’s Fifth Largest Agrochemical Company Improve Packaging Artwork Lifecycle Management
The agrochemical industry is highly regulated, given its direct impact on agriculture and the quality of products we consume.
Excess use of agrochemicals can be hazardous for farmers and consumers. That’s why governments and food regulatory bodies worldwide are particular about labeling compliance.
In fact, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has several stringent specifications for labeling agrochemical packages. Complying with these specifications is not just a requirement but a necessity for agrochemical companies. For example, publishing information such as the product name, ingredients, registration and batch numbers, directions for use, safety precautions, and net content is mandatory. Besides that, there are also artwork specifications like using specific typefaces such as Helvetica, reducing white space, using red only for highlighting warnings and embedding only FAO-approved pictograms to convey a message without words. More importantly, agrochemical companies must ensure that the printer complies with the labeling standards.
Additionally, companies that operate in different locations and use more than one language are expected to print the complete label with exact translations on the package or the attached leaflets.
Manufacturing and delivering products while adhering to different labeling guidelines across different geographies can be challenging for companies.
That’s exactly what happened to one of our clients.
Challenges:
The client is the world’s fifth-largest manufacturer of generic agrochemicals. They are known for manufacturing and marketing agrochemical and industrial chemical products. They have a strong presence in India, the US, the EU, and Brazil and sell their products in over 150+ countries.
The client wanted to streamline and manage the labeling compliance for different regions and thus had the following needs:
Moving to a global cloud based system: Initially, the client’s operations were within India, and they used on-premise servers to manage their labeling artwork. However, they soon expanded their presence in other countries after a major acquisition. This forced them to implement a common global system that all teams across geographies can use and manage. So moving to a cloud based system was important.
Support multiple languages: Since the client had operations in multiple countries across the globe, the artwork system needed to support regional languages
Implement Single Sign-On (SSO): Besides internal users, The client wanted to include in the same system their extended ecosystem players, namely the agencies and print vendors.. This would create a seamless workflow and collaboration platform for artwork design and delivery. While internal users were on a SSO (Single Sign-On) mode, the external users (agencies and printers) had to be accommodated without a SSO. A mixed authentication requirement was crucial for the client. However, they wanted to ensure that only authorized users could access the software. This was especially crucial because they had to manage and provide relevant access permissions to hundreds of users worldwide.
Create a Digital Asset library for all regions: The client wanted a single digital asset library to manage artworks across all regions in a centralized repository. However, they wanted to ensure that only users of each region could only access the artwork files from their region. For example, if the product was to be manufactured in India and marketed in the US, the client wanted only the users of these regions to have access to the files. The client also wanted to follow different version control methods in various geographies.
Implement separate workflows for different regional entities: While the client wanted a single Digital Asset library, every region had their own separate workflows. The client wanted the software to allow the regional users to manage their own workflows independently without having any dependencies with other regions.
Manage Artwork status diligently: To ensure that users didn’t use outdated or expired product artworks, the client wanted the software to have a provision allowing them to mark the previous version of the label as expired when a new artwork version was approved or if the expiry date on the existing artwork was not extended
ManageArtworks Solution:
- Global cloud based system: We ensured all regions transitioned their application to the cloud for seamless operations. ManageArtworks’s data migration services were deployed to transition the users and existing data from on-premise to cloud.
- Secure and easy access: A mixed authentication mode with internal users integrated to Okta for SSO services and external users being authenticated using ManageArtworks’s own authentication services was implemented. So all users whether internal or external had a single integrated way to authenticate into the application and use its features.
- Secure and easy access: A mixed authentication mode with internal users integrated to Okta for SSO services and external users being authenticated using ManageArtworks’s own authentication services was implemented. So all users whether internal or external had a single integrated way to authenticate into the application and use its features.
- Single Digital Asset library for all users: A central Digital Asset library was implemented where artworks and other related files across regions were managed. ManageArtworks’ advanced metadata search allowed the client to search and retrieve relevant files in their region. It also gave them the flexibility to follow region-specific version control rules. Indian users, for instance, could view their files stacked by versions, while other regions could view them as separate versions with obsolete status.
- Workflow management: While the Digital Asset Library was common, each region had their own workflow templates and different processes to follow. With ManageArtworks, all regions could manage their workflows separately. This enabled the client to streamline workflows efficiently and quickly route their artworks and proofs through different stakeholders both internally and externally such as printers and agencies.
- Region-wise roles and access control: With hundreds of users across regions, the client could use ManageArtworks’ Access Control feature to define user roles and groups in each region. This ensured that only authorized users had access to specific assets and projects.
- Language support: ManageArtworks’s proofing and compare tools are based on Unicode, which means it supports all languages. So the client could compare artworks in any language they currently need. Besides, the user interface also supports multiple languages and the client was able to use this feature to operate the application in their local language.
- Artwork Status management: ManageArtworks ensured that Artwork status information was managed correctly so that no artwork is released or used beyond its expiry date. By obsoleting or expiring the artwork and clearly marking it so that it's visually clear that it's been obsoleted, helped the client in making sure they are compliant with regulatory requirements related to expiry date.
Summary:
Over the past three years, utilizing ManageArtworks across multiple regions has enabled the client to streamline their artwork process on a global scale. Given the critical importance of labeling for Agrochemical product compliance, the client is happy with the implementation of ManageArtworks, which has provided a standardized platform across regions. This has significantly improved efficiency, allowing them to process more artworks faster with the same workforce.
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This 100% English platform was quickly mastered by internal and external collaborators. It offers centralization, data security, traceability, and streamlined packaging reviews, saving time and effort. After 3+ years, it continues to receive unanimous praise and a growing user base!
