Identifying and Matching Your Needs to a Fulfillment Partner

Choosing a fulfillment partner is more than picking a vendor with a flashy Web site or a slick marketing pitch. Picking a fulfillment partner, as with any third-party vendor, means matching your needs to their core capabilities. While it may seem like a “no brainer” to identify your own fulfillment needs and then evaluate vendors based on these needs, it’s often more challenging than people realize.

First, identifying your own needs takes the willingness and effort to really think outside the box. Second, as if identification of needs isn’t difficult enough, now you have to prioritize these needs. (Remember, not everything is a deal breaker!) And third, creating and following a scorecard or other type of objective measurement also takes commitment and focus. In this issue, we provide some information on why it behooves you to go through this process as well as some tips to (hopefully) make it more productive.

WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT TO PICK THE RIGHT PARTNER?

• Reduced Risks: For businesses that depend on accurate and confidential fulfillment — those who are regulated by HIPAA, the FDA, Gramm–Leach– Bliley (GLB) Act, Safe Harbor, and others — finding a fulfillment partner that will help you meet your compliance needs is critically important. This point cannot be overstressed.
• Hidden Costs. Your costs can skyrocket in ways you might not have thought of, including the cost of moving and storing your collateral, if you make the wrong choice.
• Total Customer Satisfaction. When fulfillment is done right, you can fully realize the return on your investment — collateral has no chance of supporting sales if it is not available or in good condition.
• Image. Fulfillment determines how and when your audience will receive information. World-class fulfillment can leverage your investment to directly and positively affect marketplace image and relationships.