Linney Connect

Our ability to create and maintain a robust global supply network is a fundamental requirement of our business.

We also don’t forget the need to have local supply sources on hand to improve efficiency and our ability to react quickly to difficult demands. Our market intelligence together with accurately managing expectations is a great strength in delivering the right solution.

The development of true partnerships that are mutually beneficial reflect our respect in the market place. Suppliers want to work with us. Within our industry that is a rarity.

From initial supplier auditing and approval, to delivery of finished goods and services, quality control is our primary consideration.

We work with suppliers to maintain our comprehensive and highly demanding production, packaging and delivery expectations.

Process management is driven through ISO9000 accredited procedures, to give flow chart ease of use and understanding. The flexible supplier database that has been developed over many years means that we always have a back–up in difficult situations.

We ensure regular reviews are undertaken with our key partners to continually build and manage all our expectations.

Linney Connect is made up of highly professional teams, who are dedicated to process and supplier management. We use our experience in buying from all areas of the print marketplace to create a comprehensive supplier base for our clients, which covers all types of printed materials and marketing merchandise.

Our procurement team are experts in researching specialist print and marketing service suppliers, who will accept suppliers onto our directory once they have surpassed our rigorous auditing processes. These audits not only test for quality and speed, but they also examine the potential supplier’s environmental and corporate social responsibility commitments, to ensure that they match our own stringent policies.

Our experience has shown that strong working relationships are the key to the smoothest of operations. By working in partnership with our suppliers in this way, we ensure that long–lasting relationships are built. We also invest a great deal of time in our relationship with our clients’ design agencies, so that effective communication exists from the very planning stages of the campaign production process.

Linney Connect is committed to providing savings for all our clients. We create individually tailored management information systems that provide full visibility of savings made throughout a given period. Always innovative in our approach to cost, we discuss ideas and methods for further cost reductions at every opportunity with our clients and we have a catalogue of testimonials that attest to our cost–saving achievements.

One of Linney Connect’s key offerings is the creation of a variety of electronic and online systems, which achieve a wealth of efficiencies on behalf of our clients. These systems are able to combine artwork approval with asset storage, proofing and movement into print production, so that all elements of the marketing supply process are managed in a streamlined and user–friendly way.

We have an internal application support team of 16 staff, who are able to develop systems that are tailor–made to each one of our clients’ business needs. By allowing system access to key players at each stage of the marketing supply process (from design agencies, to client users and print suppliers), we are able to ensure that the administrative burden on our clients is greatly reduced.

Not only is all data pertaining to a campaign able to be stored and retrieved using our systems, all proofing is able to be conducted electronically and in collaboration between key users at the proofing stage of the production process. All activity and movement of data and assets can be tracked, so that there is a complete audit trail of production stages that have been achieved, and the key users involved.

Our specialism in the retail print management market has resulted in us having a high level of spend in the POS marketplace. This focus provides us with a platform to develop supplier relationships through technical knowledge and deliver competitive prices whilst really adding value.

Our methodology takes the dual track approach of targeting our supplier base correctly to ensure we have good levels of competitive tension, but also removing non–added value activities. In short, we help our suppliers work on their cost base as examples by leading the technical agenda, reducing their sales and administration costs and through the utilisation of our transport facilities. This enables us to reduce costs collaboratively and ensure very healthy relationships with our supplier partners.

We have found the best approach is to separate the operational duties of print production from the overall supplier management and purchasing duties. This way we ensure that we are not compromised at a Project Management level into non–commercial supplier choices based on favour, but objectively, on service, quality and cost.

In addition to the establishment of the core supplier network, the procurement team are the professionals at sourcing either mainstream or ad–hoc materials, again ensuring that the Account and Project Managers are focused on delivering the core service and not compromised by other tasks.

We know the smoothest of operations fall back on a combination of strong systems and good relationships and robust communications. With this knowledge we view the triangular relationship between client, agency and ourselves to be key.

To facilitate this we invest our time in nurturing agency relationships and applying our online Campaign Management Tool (CMT) as shown in the Campaign Management Systems diagram.

At the planning stage we discuss with the agency and client the campaign objectives, budgets, timelines, resource and responsibilities. From this we can then start the formal planning by entering the data onto the CMT and setting a campaign template for the campaign collateral plus any other printed and non–printed items to be managed.

Once the campaign template has been set, the milestones, responsibilities and budget for the campaign will be assigned and will drive activity with automatic reminders, either through timed ‘work to’ lists or emailed action requests. An overview can be taken then from a control dashboard.

It is the role of the Linney Account Manager to contribute effectively and proactively at the campaign briefing, taking responsibility for all downstream proofing, print, procurement and scale out operations. It is at this point that the campaign template will be established and costs collated to set a budget for the production and logistics of a campaign. Once processed, the information is distributed for budgets, print requirements and scale out distribution plans.