3M Commercial Graphics

Force.com & Hybrid IT

Magnet 360 Member Agencies:
Reside, Refactr, and Magnet 360

Situation

3M Commercial Graphics approached Magnet 360 with a unique challenge: an opportunity to create a new service offering from the ground up under their Scotchprint® brand. The idea, which was only a concept at the onset of the engagement, was to support a growing trend--personalized vehicle graphics--by creating a web-based service to connect automotive dealers, graphics installers, and the graphics producers. A key challenge for Magnet 360 was to establish the long-term vision and build priority capabilities of this service in less than five months.

Engagement Opportunity

3M Commercial Graphics essentially created the market for films and materials to support unique graphics applications, and they already knew they would be a leader in providing films to support personalized graphics. The greater opportunity, however, was to leverage an asset that virtually no other player in the personalized market had--relationships with a national audience of graphics installers who would be the critical link to deliver this new service. With this opportunity in hand, Magnet 360 recommended an approach that would allow 3M to stand up the new web-based service quickly and meet the objective of quickly attracting the installer audience.

Outcome

Magnet 360 designed and delivered a service built completely upon the Force.com platform. Leveraging this technology approach, our team was able to guarantee the required time-to-market that simply wouldn't be achievable with internal resources and infrastructure. Within three months, 3M Commercial Graphics was able to announce and demonstrate the new service to installers at a high-profile trade show, which led to the acquisition of their first 100 installers. In the months following the event, delivery of the full-featured system was completed, including critical integrations to strategic partners within the process of selling and installing personalized graphics. Today, 3M boasts nearly 500 active installers and processes has processed more than 400 personalized graphics orders since the spring of 2011.