For over 25 years, Vestcom has provided national retailers with shelf edge marketing solutions through a variety of models, services and products. Vestcom approached Mainstream Technologies when the classic staff augmentation approach no longer satisfied the company’s need.
Many companies hire temporary contract workers from external labor pools based on individual skill sets required to complete a project, often working alongside the company’s internal development staff. This practice is called staff augmentation, and while it can help contain personnel costs it carries with it all of the risks and management demands of hiring permanent employees.
Mainstream Technologies offers a new approach, offering their clients the opportunity to “hire” a company rather than an individual for roles that once were filled by individual contractors. This approach offers two significant benefits to the client. First, by hiring a company, the client has access to a broader set of skills than normally found in an individual, and if the requirements shift during the course of the project — or if the project requires many different skill sets — no personnel changes are necessary. Second, the project’s successful completion is no longer dependent upon contracted individuals with no long-term loyalty; it is the responsibility of Mainstream: a company with a reputation and track record of delivering projects on time and on budget.
Vestcom contracted with Mainstream Technologies to develop their internal CSR Toolkit Print Job Viewer. This .Net application accessed various internal systems within the company’s data warehouse to collect, catalog and view all customer production print jobs. The interface allowed customer service reps to reference, search, sort and reprint past customer projects. Once deployed, this application significantly improved their ability to quickly respond to customer requests.
