Situation (Challenge)
In mid 2015, the University of Chicago Press (UCP) was introduced to Sheridan’s central product management platform, Select™, as a good fit for their initial print journal work. After demonstrating the platform’s functionality and workflow to UCP’s journal production team, the Select team transitioned not only the 4 existing UCP journal titles at Sheridan, but 10 additional journal titles to the Select workflow.
Solution
In mid 2016, UCP began using their dedicated Select portal to place all initial print orders for a growing number of journal titles, which were produced in Sheridan’s Pennsylvania print facility.
As the initial print orders were produced, the final content files were automatically set up for POD if/when needed.
One short month after realizing the benefits of Select for initial print, UCP placed their first POD order in Select. While UCP currently warehouses their journals, Select’s ability to provide self-service POD functionality when needed creates a convenient safety net for when an issue runs out of physical inventory. This also reduces the risk associated with forecasting & managing optimal inventory levels.
Results
Today, UCP has established 38 of their journal titles on the Select platform, currently totaling over 250 issues that are set-up, stored, and available for POD if needed. Over 200 initial print orders have been placed since the first order back in 2016.
The system is easy for UCP users to work with, and as an added benefit, it gives the UCP production team exposure to the status of all their orders via Select’s central order history dashboard, thus eliminating the need for UCP to wait for a weekly order status report to be sent to them. UCP calls the system intuitive, easy to access, and responsive.
Sarah Gardiner, UCP Production and Operations Manager, commented: “The Sheridan Select platform has been an extremely useful tool for the Production team at UCP. It has allowed us to move away from sending bulky files via email and instead submit and track everything in the Select portal. The system is intuitive and allows me to quickly track all jobs happening at Sheridan, instead of having to check in with individual team members. I also appreciate the email feature which tells me when something is accepted and shipped, allowing me to update internal databases right away. All in all, we’ve been able to streamline our production processes, communication, and track the schedule at each step! I highly recommend Sheridan Select.”
Products and Services Used
- Select™
- Sheridan Print
Company Profile
University of Chicago Press
Founded in 1891, the University of Chicago Press is one of the oldest continuously operating university presses in the United States, publishing 81 scholarly journals that cover a wide range of disciplines, from the humanities and the social sciences to the life and physical sciences. In addition to working with departments and faculty of the University of Chicago, the University of Chicago Press publishes influential scholarly journals on behalf of learned and professional societies and associations, foundations, museums, and other not-for-profit organizations. All are peer-reviewed publications, with readerships that include scholars, scientists, and practitioners, as well as other interested, educated individuals.
About Sheridan
Sheridan is a leading provider of print, publishing services, and technology solutions to publishers, associations, university presses, and catalogers. A division of CJK Group, Inc., Sheridan has six U.S. based production facilities; each location has a market specialty that supports scholarly journals, books, magazines, reprints, or catalogs. Sheridan is also the provider of the scholarly publishing platform, PubFactory.