Profile
Newsprinters’ vision is to work collaboratively with publishers for mutual sustainability and benefit.
In London, Newsprinters’ doorstep delivery service operates 7 days a week and services more than 30,000 different homes every week around the capital.
"We've now got to a point where we're pretty much 100% automated. There are files that just flow through from our system into the TAAP portal and then flow back outwards to the publishers. There's no manual intervention in those processes."
Matt Wadsworth
Head of Commercial, Newsprinters
100% Automation from paper based processes
50-60% Scaled Data growth handled seamlessly
Real-time data for publishers and operations
Error rate eliminated through automation
Mobile Driver Application
Real-Time Operations Dashboard
"The easiest bit for the driver was the fact that they didn't have to go around with a clipboard trying to write in the dark. It was effectively on a device which we gave to them that was easy to use.”
Matt Wadsworth
Head of Commercial - Newsprinters
"For them to be able to have that live view in their customer service centres and they can actually see what's going on, which is something that not many other home news delivery providers can offer them."
Matt Wadsworth
Head of Commercial - Newsprinters
Newsprinters Delivery Platform
Opportunity
Newsprinters issued an RFP to offer an enhanced level of service and business operations for its print distribution business, delivering its own product to consumers and retailers. These systems were called Direct to Consumer (DTC) and Direct to Retail (DTR).
TAAP was awarded the contract to deliver a fully managed outsourced solution, effectively taking the billing and work order instructions from SAP, the master system of record, and then managing the overnight operations for DTC and DTR.
DTC - Direct to Consumer Solution
DTC, the consumer service, relied upon third-party organisations and drivers to collect their deliveries and ensure that all products were delivered by 7 a.m. the next morning. The client provided Nokia smartphones upon which the solution was delivered, with integrated SatNav.
The DTC drivers were tracked using GPS, with verification and even photos providing proof of delivery for high-value products. Each driver typically made 200 deliveries per night, and each delivery was GPS-tagged upon completion. GPS tracking improved customer satisfaction by ensuring deliveries met SLA times.
Routes varied every night, and the integrated SatNav helped drivers adapt to frequent route changes. Drivers could reverse routes or re-order stops to accommodate overnight road closures.
The DTC solution tracked drivers to ensure SLA compliance and included a lone worker tracking function to enhance governance. All data was available for SAP to retrieve, analyse, and report back to the business and delivery partners. News could then use its network to offer personalised delivery services to third parties.
DTR - Direct to Retailer Solution
DTR, the direct-to-retailer service, was similar but focused on delivering bundles of products to retail locations. DTR drivers, directly employed by Newsprinters drove vans and HGVs equipped with ruggedised laser-scanning smart devices. These tracked bundles loaded onto vehicles and scanned QR codes at delivery points. Drivers would drop off publications and pick up unsold stock. This return data informed billing and inventory processes in SAP.
TAAP Delivery
The Newsprinters Platform was created and designed to run on the TAAP Platform by three people in six weeks from scratch.
The client provided superb documentation in terms of the functional requirements for DTR, and TAAP created and shaped the solution for DTC, which was a completely new service being introduced.
The TAAP technology is a no-code/low-code platform that has been in use for over 20 years by global brands seeking to accelerate their digital transformation. Further, once apps are built on TAAP, they can be run for 10, 15 or more years, eliminating legacy technical debt, which would normally require significant revision over a 12-year term.
TAAP fundamentally changes how organisations can embrace technology, focusing on operational agility rather than spiralling maintenance costs. In this respect, the client was able to make numerous enhancements to the DTR and DTC solution with their investment, improving the operational features and capabilities, as opposed to incurring maintenance and legacy costs.
Newsprinters was able to run and operate the technology for a significantly lower build, maintenance and operational cost than could be achieved using other technologies. This is a key core feature and function of building and running apps on TAAP — the business can rapidly pivot and adapt to new business and operational demands.
Newsprinters completely outsourced the solution to TAAP. It was hosted on the Microsoft Azure Cloud, which provided and supported the solution using its elastic compute and data platforms, thereby delivering a highly reliable and stable service that enabled News to focus on and run its business. There were 2–3 outages over the 12-year term, but these were infrastructure- and connectivity-related issues. Many of the issues were cellular network or internet connectivity issues, but much of the disruption was mitigated as the solution had been designed to work around these real-world issues. The TAAP applications could operate offline without any connectivity, should such an issue occur, with no loss of data.
The Newsprinters Platform had to be extremely reliable and durable. A failover to manual operation would result in significant manual work and intervention. TAAP was able to deliver the level of reliability that an organisation like Newsprinters, operating at enterprise scale, demanded. When real-world issues occurred outside of TAAP’s control, there were compensation routines to mitigate a full failover to manual operation.
"We do need to find ways of leaning on AI to make us all more productive” - The TAAP Platform will allow Newsprinters to pragmatically embrace AI for the future. - “To help meet our long term goals”
Matt Wadsworth
Head of Commercial, Newsprinters
News Printers has evolved from a completely manual, paper-based operation to 100% automation, eliminating data entry errors and streamlining processes. Staff reallocation to customer service: Instead of losing jobs, the 8-10 call centre staff were reallocated to focus entirely on customer service rather than data entry, improving customer relationships.
Staff Reallocation
Instead of losing jobs, the 8-10 call centre staff were reallocated to focus entirely on customer service rather than data entry, improving customer relationships.
Scalability
During COVID-19, the system effortlessly handled a 50-60% increase in delivery volume (with peaks of 80%), maintaining performance without intervention.
Cost Savings
Reduced paper usage, eliminated storage costs, and optimised mobile data expenses through intelligent connectivity.
Reliability
The real-time dashboards and publisher self-service portal provide a unique competitive advantage in the industry, offering visibility that competitors cannot match.
