Producing a catalog with lots of detail and repeated content? Are your people tired of entering reams of data manually every year? Then you’ll be interested in learning how we revolutionized Mountain Spring Nursery’s catalog production process through catalog automation.
Before Catalog Automation
As a wholesale grower and supplier of nursery products, Mountain Spring Nursery sells thousands of items. Their wholesale customers wanted a catalog listing all their different kinds of plants along with descriptions and pricing.
In 2016, Mountain Spring Nursery’s inventory data was in disarray. They cobbled together a catalog for 2017, but knew they needed an easier approach going forward. The thought of someone having to enter thousands of products manually every year was not appealing.
Mountain Spring Nursery had heard how Rosewood used an automation process for information-heavy catalogs, so they hired us to produce their 2018 catalog. The first step was for Mountain Spring Nursery to collect and organize all their product information.
Collecting Product Information
Because their existing inventory data in QuickBooks was not accurate, employees at Mountain Spring Nursery spent hours cleaning up and sifting through thousands of products. Then they used a Quickbooks feature to export the data to a spreadsheet. After entering some additional information and prices, they sent the spreadsheet to Rosewood.
Producing the Catalog
Rosewood specialists spent a number of hours setting up the initial automation configurations that would connect the spreadsheet to the catalog document. This included designing a standard overall page format as well as the standard arrangement of information for each item. Then Rosewood imported the spreadsheet with its hundreds of entries into the layout program and the automation process created a fully formatted catalog.
Now that the initial setup is complete, we can update the catalog for Mountain Spring Nursery in very little time. Rather than the catalog being a stressful project, all they need to do now is update their spreadsheet information each year. Though the initial programming and streamlining process is more involved than a traditional project and requires a larger initial investment, subsequent issues of the catalog will be simple and efficient to produce.
“Since our implementation of the automation, the catalog process has greatly improved, and we have saved time and money. The new catalog was well received by our customers. They can now use it to assist them in design, estimating and purchasing. I would recommend Rosewood for automation projects. Now that we are set up, it flows well.”
-Clair High, Mountain Spring Nursery
Are you selling thousands of products? Does just thinking about catalog time make you weary? Make your life easier by contacting Rosewood today to bring catalog automation to the rescue!