Success story
TPF SportsIndustry• MediaSolution• OpenText™ Hightail™

Results
Centralized management of thecreative review process
Streamlined feedback andapproval cycles
Increased productivity withimproved communicationand collaboration

TPF Sports brings clients, employees
and processes together with creative
collaboration solution

Sports agency deploys OpenText Hightail to centralize its creative process
for increased efficiency, productivity and customer satisfaction“The onboarding process was straightforward.
OpenText Hightail is intuitive and we believe in it.
This made it easy to encourage adoption.”
Mark BarleeBusiness Analyst
TPF Sports

TPF Sports brings clients, employees and processes together with creative collaboration solution

TPF Sports, part of TPF Group, is Australia’s leading provider ofsports services, including digital technology, licensed merchandise,fulfillment, retail and brand management solutions. More than 50 of
the nation’s top sporting clubs and associations trust TPF to ensure
their members get access to games, wear club colors and connect
and engage with their brand.
Juggling the brand management and merchandising responsibilities
for multiple sports and entertainment brands requires managing large
volumes of product artwork. Since the company’s studio in Vietnam wasresponsible for the creative work, most of the communication between
the design team, account managers and clients was done via email,increasing the chance for miscommunication and misinterpretation.
When dealing with production volumes in the thousands, mistakes
could be costly.
In addition, if there were multiple products featured in a file for review, it
was difficult to determine which comments referred to which products.
This caused frustration and confusion between teams. Also, the highvolume of emails quickly filled inboxes, requiring Microsoft® Exchange
Servers to be upgraded and forcing staff to delete messages from theirinboxes to make room for large attachments.
To centralize and streamline this creative process, TPF Sports turned toOpenText™ Hightail™, a file sharing and creative collaboration platform.
Mark Barlee, business analyst at TPF Sports, explained the initialapproach with Hightail. “Our aim at the beginning was to create aregimented process around product approvals. It was basically anindemnity against mistakes, so we were clear about which file wasthe approved version, and we could have that archived correctly sowhen the pre-production samples arrived, we could benchmark it off
that approved artwork. The trial was conducted with three AFL clubs,
three National Rugby League clubs and two motorsports teams,
including Red Bull.”To encourage clients’ full adoption of the new creative process, the TPF
team would share each client’s artwork in a project Space in Hightail,accompanied by an email outlining the new process and the steps
required within the new platform, including commenting, reviewing newversions and approving work. Barlee noted that it can take time to getsome clients used to following a new process, but Hightail’s intuitive
interface has been easy for clients to pick up. “The onboarding
process was straightforward. OpenText Hightail is intuitive and webelieve in it. This made it easy to encourage adoption.”
Clients can see a small thumbnail preview of every item in a Space andthen click on each one to see the detail. Targeted comments have had
the biggest impact. Selecting an area and writing a comment on theartwork is preferable to listing multiple comments in an email and it
improved communication throughout the process. Another key successfactor was having clients designate one person to take responsibility
for approvals.
Barlee described the TPF creative process before Hightail as “horrible.”
Fast forward to today and the new creative process has been praised
across the board. Internally, the creative team has benefited andeliminating many of the once frustrating elements of the creative
process has boosted morale. The project coordinators at TPF Sports“Finding better ways
to do business goes along way in showingthat we are challenging
standard practice, which
our clients appreciate.
OpenText Hightail isthe only way to managechange and approval for
creative assets.”
Mark Barlee

Business Analyst
TPF Sports

TPF Sports brings clients, employees and processes together with creative collaboration solution

manage the creative process with clients and are responsible forcommunicating creative changes to internal teams. “Some newer
coordinators don’t know what life was like before OpenText Hightail
and have found it easy to pick up,” Barlee said. “Those who were here
before we switched now swear by it.”
Clients have also responded well to the new solution and enjoy having
a centralized space, with every asset located and decision made in
one place. They also appreciate the transparency in communication
between departments. Additionally, every client now has a creative
process in place that minimizes the risk of production mishaps.

With Hightail, TPF Sports has cut the average number of creative
reviews in half. In addition to the efficiencies gained, the user-friendly
platform has increased customer satisfaction, both internally andexternally. Barlee summarized the company’s success with Hightail:“Finding better ways to do business goes a long way in showing that
we are challenging standard practice, which our clients appreciate.
OpenText Hightail is the only way to manage change and approval for
creative assets.”
tpfsports.com.au

About OpenText

OpenText, The Information Company,
enables organizations to gain insight
through market leading information
management solutions, on-premises orin the cloud. For more information about
OpenText (NASDAQ: OTEX, TSX: OTEX)
visit opentext.com.
Customer stories

opentext.com/contact
Twitter | LinkedIn

Copyright © 2018 Open Text. All Rights Reserved. Trademarks owned by Open Text.
For more information, visit: https://www.opentext.com/about/copyright-information• (11/2018)10976EN