As a person responsible for a service that helps our clients go digital, it may come as a surprise that I think the often-discussed “paperless office” is a myth.

Despite paperless predictions dating back to the 1960’s, I can tell you with certainty that I have not encountered a single organization that has achieved this ideal in 2016––more than 50 years later.

Given we have the technology to digitize the entire human communications process, you may wonder why.

SAP Ariba, was one of the first major internet software and service companies to bring the procurement process online. Until then, procurement was primarily an offline task, involving mountains of paperwork and hours of wasted time shopping around for the right seller.

Today, SAP Ariba has become more than just a tool. It’s a community of companies all using its proprietary procurement software to make inter-enterprise commerce simpler and cheaper. 

But where SAP Ariba has succeeded in building an easier, more affordable enterprise marketplace, others are starting to explore ways to make the procurement process faster. 

Managing the modern marketing supply chain is, at best, a difficult balancing act between end users, suppliers, systems, costs, and risks. At worst, it’s a logistical nightmare that can derail a great campaign before it gets off the ground. 

The problem at the center of most marketing supply chain issues is actually quite simple:

The demands on the modern marketing supply chain is simply too much for traditional management systems to handle.

Tools and processes that may have worked for years are proving ineffective at controlling the increasingly complex task of planning, producing and promoting marketing messages on a large scale.

These days, it’s fashionable to declare direct mail “dead.” In reality, however, nothing could be further from the truth.

While it’s true the number of direct mail pieces showing up in your mailbox is steadily declining––down from 176 billion in 2009 to 155.4 billion today––less mail only means more visibility for those who still take advantage of this extremely viable channel.

Despite the stigma of junk mail, research by a global marketing firm suggests 59% of Americans value direct mail for brand communication and 73% appreciate its convenience in the mailbox. Eight out of 10 homes sort through this mail daily.

ROI is a top concern for direct mail marketers. With new tools giving insight into what’s working and what’s not, as well as expanded capabilties to personalize mail pieces to individual recipients, it’s finally possible to apply a simple, repeatable formula to plan for the best ROI possible. Here’s the formula:

Although they may seem like polar opposites, print and social media each have unique qualities that come together to create powerful multichannel campaigns.

Typically, the more channels you bring into a campaign, the tougher it is to keep your brand’s voice consistent between them. But with a few simple tips and tricks, it’s possible to leverage the offline benefits of print to drive online engagement on social media.