Labeling and packaging is a critical component of any product. Label and artwork management involves complex internal discussions, efforts to meet regulatory compliances, and numerous levels of approval. 

A dedicated artwork management software seamlessly becomes a part of your packaging development process and can improve the ROI. Earlier, the notion of KPIs for the adoption of an artwork management tool in workflows were vague. Now, there are numerous ways in which you can measure the improvement in the label and artwork development process.

Optimizing Bottom Line 

While it is easy to keep track of metrics related to sales and marketing, the same becomes slightly challenging with packaging artwork management. 

While an artwork management software may not directly affect your revenue, it drastically improves processes, consequently improving your business's bottom line. Here are some ways it helps in curbing costs and reducing waste of resources.

1. Reducing Recalls Because Of A Labeling Error

Labeling errors can be a nightmare. Typographical errors, errors in colors, or layout can lead to expensive product recalls or even lawsuits. The severity of such errors often varies depending on industries, but packaging errors can cause a lot of damage. Labeling errors in the pharmaceutical industry can have disastrous consequences. 

An Artwork Management platform can help reduce these errors by using collaborative checklists. Here’s how that works. 

1. Project managers can onboard reviewers to proof the artwork on one platform. 
2. Every reviewer will have assigned checklists with deadlines, so that  no aspect of the artwork is overlooked. 
3. Reviewers can provide their feedback through mark up tools and commenting features which can be easily tracked. 

2. Eliminating Regulatory Troubles

In industries such as like food and beverages, alcoholic drinks, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals, labeling regulations are often revised due to changes in market trends and for consumer safety.  A perfectly good batch of products can be prevented from being sold if it does not meet regulatory requirements. Failing to comply with regulatory requirements can lead to expensive lawsuits and recalls. 

With an artwork management platform, you can:

• Onboard a legal team to review the label while the marketing team and quality control review other parts of the label. 
• Use the built-in proofing tools to verify fonts, sizes, colors, and other aspects of an artwork. The online proofing tools enable the reviewers to check the accuracy of the artwork without even leaving the platform.
• Get your artwork signed off and approved using e-signatures. E-signatures drastically reduce the amount of paperwork and time required to get the artwork approved. 

3. Keeping Your Digital Assets Secured

When developing artworks, you need to share internal documents and designs with external teams. If you use emails, instant messaging apps, or file sharing apps help to send files, security can be a big concern. There is a risk of intellectual property theft or getting fraud products in the marketplace. How you store your digital assets also matters. In case of any accidental data loss, you may lose months of hard work. An artwork management platform addresses these issues. 

• You can store files securely in the cloud. The digital assets are separate from your accounts, such as Google Drive or OneDrive. You have one account that is dedicated to artwork development.
• You can share assets right from the platform. There is no need to send emails. You can even assign roles and provide appropriate permissions to collaborators. You can also revoke access when needed.
• Your data stays safe in secured cloud storage. There is no fear of a hard drive crash or ransomware attacks. 
• The storage in artwork management platforms also supports file versioning, unlike traditional cloud storage services. This allows you to revert to an older file version if needed. 

Improving Quality of Process

Efficiency is important in the process of manufacturing. Being a part of the product manufacturing process, the same applies to label and artwork development too. An improved design and development process saves you time and money, which improves your ROI. 

4. Reducing Time To Market

With product launches, you have deadlines to meet. You only have a limited time to get the artwork right. Then you need to send it to the printers, get the packaging made, and launch your product. While most brands factor in delays in the timeline, you can reduce that even more with an artwork management platform.

• You can onboard external design agencies with just a few clicks. Artwork management platforms can also integrate with popular design software such as Adobe Illustrator. 
• You can create checklists from templates and assign them to the respective collaborators. There is no need to list down every single task manually. 
• You can optimize workflows to ensure that independent processes take place in parallel, reducing idle time for stakeholders. Parallel workflows, when possible, makes maximum utilization of the resources available. 

5. Streamlining Approval Process

The approval process is what takes up most of the time in the artwork development process. It often happens because of the lack of proper collaborative tools. Here are some ways in which artwork management platforms can help you speed up the approval process. 

• Artwork management platforms provide an organized feedback loop that notifies collaborators about pending feedback. 
• Comprehensive feedback solutions enable designers to understand exactly what changes to make. 
• With better quality feedback, Artwork management platforms reduce the number of revisions needed and increase the number of first-time approvals. 

6. Feedback Through Annotations And Comments

When it comes to improved quality of work, high-quality feedback is indispensable. However, that is not possible when you are collecting feedback over emails, phone calls, or chats. To be able to provide proper feedback, a reviewer also needs the proper set of tools. 

An artwork management platform enables high-quality feedback by providing reviews with:

• Built-in proofing tools like an online scale, color extractor, pdf spell checker, font finder, pdf compare tool, and more. 
• Reviewers can annotate and comment right on the artwork to show where they want a correction. 
• Reviewers can comment on each item of the checklist they receive before they approve or reject it. This system makes the feedback concise, objective, and easily understandable. 

Increasing Team Productivity

Nobody likes to work on the same project again and again. Artwork development can get monotonous and frustrating with increasing revision cycles. With an artwork management platform, you can reduce the number of hours needed for each artwork development project.

7. Reducing The Number Of Revisions Needed

Increase revisions eventually trickle down the entire product launch and lead to delayed GTM losses. You can eliminate unnecessary delays by cutting down on the number of revisions needed to get the artwork approved. With an artwork management platform, you get

• Collaborative tools where every stakeholder has a clear idea of the tasks in hand as well as the deadlines assigned to them.
• High-quality feedback with the help of proofing tools and a checklist assigned to each reviewer. This clear and concise communication allows designers to make effective corrections to the artwork.
• Digital asset management allows all stakeholders to efficiently share artwork and comments without the fear of data loss. 

8. Ensure Accountability 

Do you struggle with keeping track of who has made what changes? Do you often find it hard to track down errors to their source? Artwork management platforms provide you with audit trails that keep a log of all the activities taking place in the project. 

• You get a clear view of who took what action and when. In that case, if an error got overlooked, you can track it down to the reviewer who mistakenly approved it. 
• All file changes are logged too. If a file is accidentally deleted or overwritten, you can know who did that and take appropriate actions, such as revoking write permissions. 
• Version control allows you to recover old files in case of accidental overwrites or deletions. 

9. Get Support Whenever Needed

No software is foolproof. It’s completely normal to come across glitches occasionally. You may also struggle to find something you are looking for. When adopting an artwork management platform, there is often some apprehension regarding the learning curve, and more importantly, the support one will get. While this generally varies from vendor to vendor, you generally get

• Extensive documentation, video guides, and FAQs to help you out during the initial phase. 
• You get customer service who you can directly contact via phone calls or chats. 
• Submit tickets to get help on your issues. 

Are you now ready to adopt online artwork management? With Artwork Flow, achieve 400% increase in approval rates and save 1000+ staff hours in your artwork projects. Book a demo with the team to know more!

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