CVL Think | Plan | Do

The Background

Frontline and Seymour liaise with hundreds of publishing houses (including BBC, Emap and Bauer), and their printers and retailers. They have a combined distribution coverage in the UK magazine industry of more than 52%.

An initial strategic review had been completed that identified weaknesses in the current systems architecture and a limited ability to meet the changing requirements of consumers and retailers because of existing applications.

Frontline engaged CVL to complete a feasibility study to indicate if a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) solution existed that could replace a number of current applications that were becoming costly and difficult to support.

"We found CVL to be quick on the uptake and they understood a very complex business and organisational structure. They refocused our effort and we were able to distil requirements effectively."
Greg Hayden, IT Director, Frontline

               

The CVL Solution

CVL undertook an assessment of the key functional processes to determine the high level requirements in planning, order and event management.

CVL managed the evaluation of application providers through a mix of existing knowledge, research and current implementations of the vendor solutions.

This culminated in a detailed evaluation of more than twenty providers and a short list being produced identifying key functional and technical fit and a likely cost for implementation.

The Benefits

CVL presented key members of the Frontline and Seymour board with a distilled vendor assessment of the applications across the key functional and technical requirements. Through rating the vendors, relative strengths and weaknesses were identified.

In addition CVL created a "To-Be" architecture model which demonstrated clarity for the next stage of the selection.