Covering All Areas for Ergon Energy
Ergon Energy, headquartered in Townsville, is a subsidiary company of Energy Queensland Limited and owned by the Government of Queensland. Ergon employ over 2,000 and operate and maintain one of Australia’s largest electricity networks across the whole of Queensland, a state larger than France, Spain, Germany and the UK combined.
Ergon needs to service regional and remote areas with branded training, information and marketing materials while maintaining costs efficiently. Information and marketing contents change frequently. Environmental events can prompt urgent needs for up to date materials. Ergon found themselves restricted by their previous suppliers: they were not able to service their customers efficiently and provide up to date, region specific printed materials. They used a 3PL provider and as a result their freight costs were high, because print and merchandise were shipped separately.
In addition they found that they had to pulp materials too often due to obsolescence.
Ergon tendered out their print requirements to look for a new, innovative supplier.
CPX Print & Logistics won the tender by providing a sustainable solution that went beyond current needs.
IT Integration for Print, Warehousing and Distribution
CPX created a task force and involved procurement and marketing specialists from Ergon. The team scoped out a solution that is based on modern production technologies and a custom-made portal to provide full transparency of production progress and inventory levels at all times.
Apart from a catalogue that shows standard items, CPX also included the option to dynamically customise items online. This means that the regional managers can develop materials online, with their specific information, while adhering to brand guidelines and using templates that are approved by head office.
Approved items are then printed digitally on demand and distributed.
Shipments can contain printed item as well as warehoused merchandise, providing additional savings in freight.
One of the major challenges was the cooperation across the Ergon firewalls: as a government utility, Ergon adheres to the highest security standards and suppliers need to comply to strict standards.
Ergon submit data daily to CPX to create outage notice mailings. The accuracy of these mailings is paramount, they affect residents and are required to adjust life support and other energy dependent systems. CPX processes data automatically, mails out same day and provides digital proofs to Ergon as part of the system.
CPX provides a multi-faceted, integrated solution that is transparent and accessible from all corners of Queensland. As a technology focussed company, CPX continuously updates its equipment and capabilities and shares gained efficiencies with Ergon.
Ergon have gained significant cost savings and are able to service even the remotes areas reliable with accurate printed information. The print on demand model ensures currency of materials and avoids wastage through obsolescence.