The University of Chicago Press (UCP) recognized the benefits of using Sheridan Select for their print journal orders. Over the past three years UCP has more than doubled the number of journal titles being produced at Sheridan, transitioning 38 titles to the platform — which allows them to set up and store journals, as well as utilize the Sheridan Select print-on-demand (POD) feature.
Challenge
In mid-2015, UCP was first 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 four existing UCP journal titles at Sheridan but also 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 and managing optimal inventory levels.
Results
Today, UPC 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. 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.”
Contact your Sheridan representative for a consultation or visit our contact page to learn how Sheridan experts can help streamline and simplify your publishing processes.
