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Introduction
In most departments, buying things is straightforward. You order paper, laptops or software licenses, and you are done.
But marketing procurement management is different. You aren't just buying "stuff." You are buying custom printed brochures, branded stress balls, 10-foot banners and window clings. And you are buying them for hundreds of different people across the country.
It gets messy fast. You end up with too many vendors, different prices for the same thing and zero visibility into who is buying what.
IRIS Strategic Marketing Support (IRIS) fixes this. We use GearBox® by IRIS to bring all your marketing buying into one place, making life easier for your procurement team and your marketers.
Why Marketing Procurement Is So Hard to Manage
Marketing isn't like IT or HR. The needs change every month, which makes standard procurement management difficult.
1. Too Many Vendors
You might have one guy for business cards, another for T-shirts and a third for large signs. Managing 20 different relationships, contracts and invoices is a full-time job.
2. Rogue Spending
When the official process is too slow, local managers go rogue. They use their corporate card to buy overpriced flyers from a local shop. You lose bulk pricing and you lose control of the brand.
3. Quality Inconsistency
If you use five different printers, your brand red color will look different on every piece. That makes your brand look cheap.
4. Inventory Waste
Without a central view, you end up buying more brochures when you already have 5,000 sitting in a warehouse somewhere. That is money down the drain.
How GearBox® by IRIS Streamlines Procurement
GearBox® by IRIS acts as a central hub for all your marketing assets. It satisfies the procurement team's need for control and the marketing team's need for speed.
- Vendor Consolidation: We hook up all your approved vendors into one platform. Users see one store, even if the items come from five different places.
- On-Demand Ordering: Move away from bulk storage. Print what you need, when you need it, to reduce waste.
- Budget Guardrails: Set spending limits by user, region or department. The system stops the order if there is no money left.
- Reporting: Get a clear report of exactly what was spent, by item and by location.
Use Case: Fitness Franchiser Consolidates Systems for Better Buying
A major fitness franchiser was struggling with growth. They had acquired multiple brands and ended up with three separate ordering platforms. This meant three times the work for their procurement and admin teams.
They needed to clean up their procurement management.
They turned to GearBox® by IRIS to merge everything.
By using the platform, they:
- Consolidated three separate ordering sites into one branded portal
- Served a network of 2,000+ franchise locations
- Streamlined the supply chain for all print and promo items
- Improved speed to market for new campaigns
Read the Fitness Franchiser Case Study
Conclusion
Good procurement management isn't just about cutting costs. It is about making the process smoother.
When you centralize your marketing buying with GearBox® by IRIS, you stop chasing invoices and start building a more efficient business. You get the best price, the right quality and happy stakeholders.
Talk to IRIS to fix your marketing supply chain.
