CASE STUDY: BASE Implementation at Major League Soccer

The business problem:

Major League Soccer is an iconic sports league brand that has had tremendous growth in adding teams and corporate infrastructure. Major League Soccer had multiple issues pertaining to the approval, ordering, and printing of business cards and their entire stationery suite.

Problem #1: Managing how the brand was to be produced accurately and consistently across multiple business card templates and the entire stationery suite.

Problem #2: The process to request something as simple as a business card was too long as requests originated with employees and then went through 3 levels of approval; all while waiting on a proof of the card to approve and print. The entire process was taking as much as two weeks to simply get an order for 1 lot of business cards placed.

Problem #3: A high percentage of cards were printed with incorrect information.

Problem #4: Accounts payable was receiving dozens of invoices each month, coding cost centers for each invoice and entering each for payment.

Problem #5: Budgeting responsibility for the annual spend for these products crossed multiple departments and required gathering information from internal accounting as well as multiple external vendors.

the ipg group solution:

IPG Group’s BASE (Brand Asset Service Exchange) platform addressed all of these problems and more! BASE provided Major League Soccer with a system that saves money on the hard costs of the products they order as well as an average of $75 in soft cost (time) every time they hit the submit order button. Additionally, BASE affords them 24/7 access and 100% protection of their brand standards across ALL branded collateral. From printed items, promotional products, and apparel to custom packaging, tradeshow support and pick, pack and fulfillment, BASE is what every business with client facing personnel needs to contain costs, speed production and maintain brand standards.

proven results showcased:

Solution #1: IPG Group’s printing program locked in Major League Soccer’s color profiles so that no matter what product is ordered, the colors are printed the same way every time. They will never show up to a meeting and lay down business cards that vary in color no matter when they were printed. Corporate marketing departments demand consistency in following brand standards and BASE makes this process near perfect.

Solution #2: The ordering process is easy with BASE. Employee names and other details are already loaded in BASE so all that is needed is to select a name and quantity. That’s it. The rest of the process is no different than any other e-Tailer. If approvals are needed from direct management, human resources, finance, marketing, etc. it is all handled with BASE as orders are routed via email for easy approval and release to production.

Solution #3: On BASE, what is created is what is printed. The proof you see and approve on BASE is EXACTLY what prints. Every time.

Solution #4: Simply put, one invoice every month. We format the reporting you receive with your monthly invoice exactly how your accounting department needs it. The only thing easier than placing orders on BASE is paying your invoice.

Solution #5: Robust reporting is just a few clicks away. Whether you need a line item report, an order report, inventory report, etc…every BASE site has access to the data from every order so budgeting and forecasting is a breeze.

bonus section:

- Major League Soccer has an intranet that all employees access so we implemented a single sign on (SS0) application with BASE making the ordering process even more streamlined.

- Approval hierarchy is set to align with multi-department requirements to make sure titles, business units and affiliations are correct.

- The BASE application is secure, leveling top notch encryption.

- BASE communicates 24/7 with Major League Soccer’s active directory updating employee information on their business cards in real time. This further reduces ordering time because changes in name, phone number, title, etc. are updated every time the active directory is updated.

- Our team consulted with all of the Major League Soccer brand stakeholders to make sure what was implemented was easy, streamlined, accurate, and in line with their published brand standards.