Situation
Two regional banks in the Northeast wanted a better way to supply branded grand opening materials to about 10 new branches and potentially hundreds of newly acquired branches annually. Each location needed up to 75 items — from nameplates and promotional products to banners and signage — to open its doors and comply with federal and state regulations.

Having bank staff order and manage materials had proven disruptive to routine operations — especially since about 40 suppliers shipped these materials to the banks’ headquarters, where staff lacked the expertise and tools to efficiently do the job. Assembling orders for personalized business cards, nameplates and other items was especially time consuming and error-prone. At times, six bank employees could spend a full week sorting items and preparing shipments to individual branches.

The bank also lacked sufficient space to stage materials and didn’t have relationships with major carriers to use as leverage for lowering freight costs.

Solution
For several years, Curtis 1000 had provided printed materials to both banks through an e-commerce portal. With our deep understanding of our clients’ processes and challenges, we recommended our “Bank in a Box” solution to streamline ordering and distribution of materials for new and rebranded branch locations.

With “Bank in a Box,” banks can now provide materials to hundreds of branches simultaneously, with minimal involvement of bank staff. Curtis 1000 receives a spreadsheet of branch and employee data for affected locations, and we upload the data to our internal system to generate orders for personalized teller stamps, business cards and other items. We determine the quantity of materials each branch will need based on information such as the number of accounts and deposit levels at the location, as well as data we glean from our legacy e-commerce portals for the clients.

Curtis 1000 also receives shipments of externally sourced items at our facility in Cranbury, N.J. This both simplifies logistics and saves money, since the client pays each vendor for one mass shipment to New Jersey rather than multiple shipments to various bank branches.

Curtis 1000 warehouse personnel sort and kit all materials for each branch, place the assembled shipment on a pallet, shrink wrap it and label it. Before the shipment leaves our facility, we double-check to ensure the contents and counts are correct. For even greater convenience and cost savings, we consolidate shipments to include not only grand opening marketing materials but also forms, checks and other operational documents.

Outcomes
The “Bank in a Box” approach provided numerous benefits to both banks, including: 

• Smoother launch of de novo and converted branches
• Significant freight savings
• Improved utilization of bank resources
• Stronger compliance with regulations and brand standards
• Enhanced community image