Case Study on Monthly Magazine Designing

Situation

Our client is a well-known, independent design and advertising agency with over 20 years of experience in the industry, which designs monthly magazines for a number of its clients. The client has a large client base:

• Develops concepts, brand images and corporate identities of the highest standards
• Was looking for an offshore design partner who could help them achieve cost savings of 40–60%
• Approached Flatworld to take up the task of designing monthly magazines

Challenges

It was certainly a challenge to work for a reputed advertising agency, well-known for creating corporate identities for its clients. Based on our extensive experience in the field, the client had high expectations of us. The challenges we faced were:

• Creating 150–200 pages for various magazines
• Designing the layout with supplied input files
• Keeping the client informed round the clock
• Ensuring quick turnaround time
• Guaranteeing 99.0% error-free output
• Using licensed and updated software and ensuring maintenance of infrastructure to keep the client's work on schedule

Action

While the client expected us to abide by a tight schedule to deliver the designs, we had to upgrade our design application to a newer version. We developed an overall strategy in alignment with the client's goals. The actions we took were:

• Ensuring adequate resources to meet unexpected spikes in work volumes
• Reviewing our performance at regular intervals
• Providing skilled and knowledgeable editors for the project
• Guaranteeing 99.0% error-free output to ensure high-quality designs
• Ensuring quick responses to every client query
• Implementing adequate security for the client's data with Secure VPN communication—IPsec/ PPTP
• Keeping our workstations secure against viruses and malware with McAfee Enterprise suite for virus prevention and cure with HIPS (host intrusion prevention) and NAC (network access control), gateway level anti-spyware and spam filter for Internet access & email server
• Making sure there was no outside access to the client's resources through restricted Internet access based on domain authentication, centralized server-based storage, file system access policy based on user authentication, URL filtering application for surf control, domain-level access restrictions, along with group policies
• Maintaining 3–4 Mbps dedicated bandwidth for our Imaging department

Results

We constantly kept in touch with the client and updated them on the latest developments on their project. We kept our team informed about the feedback from the client, helping them effectively manage the project as per the client's requirements. Our actions resulted in:

• Adoption of best practices to ensure high-quality and 40–60% cost savings for the client
• The client's constant acknowledgment of the good work done by our team
• Successful completion of the project