Modern marketing is a high-pressure balancing act involving more channels, tighter budgets and rising expectations. In a recent Adweek webinar, Quad leaders George Forge (Senior VP, Client Technology and Product Development) and Oliver Kimberley (General Manager, Managed Services) broke down what’s making marketing operations so complex — and how managed services, business process outsourcing (BPO) and other partnership models are helping brands regain control.
What is business process outsourcing?
Business process outsourcing (BPO) involves contracting external providers to manage specific business functions. For marketers, this can include vendor management, supply chain coordination, production and procurement, local campaign execution and more. The goal? To streamline operations and allow internal teams to focus on strategic initiatives and core competencies. (For example, instead of wrangling file management, your creative team could be focused on dreaming up bold new ad concepts.)
Quad’s Managed Services team, led by Kimberley, partners with clients across industries to ensure brand consistency, drive cost efficiencies and eliminate the operational roadblocks that make modern marketing so challenging.
“It’s not outsourcing — it’s outsmarting,” Kimberley says. “A smart partner doesn’t just fill gaps; they improve your whole system.”
In the webinar, Forge and Kimberley discuss how partnership models — like Quad’s Managed Services and traditional BPOs — can give brands a 360-degree, objective view of their current marketing operations. They also share the common pitfalls they’ve seen and offer guidance on how to overcome them.
Business operations challenge #1: Poor marketing processes
Many marketers are drowning not in strategy, but in operational chaos. As campaigns and teams expand, outdated processes become bottlenecks.
“How your business ran in 2019 should be markedly different from how it runs today,” says Kimberley. “If you haven’t rewritten your processes in the last year to account for recent changes, you’re running a huge risk of inefficiency.”
Managed services can help identify what’s no longer serving you. A structured operational audit reveals where there’s room to automate, cut or reallocate.
In action: Streamlining content production for multi-brand retailer
Business operations challenge #2: Investing in the wrong technology
The wrong tools can slow you down just as much as the wrong process. Many teams struggle with sprawling tech stacks that don’t talk to one another.
A tech audit can often uncover these inefficiencies, highlighting inconsistencies, redundancies or gaps. Maybe your marketing team uses multiple work management platforms, or there’s a key integration missing from your CMS. An experienced partner can bring an objective, comprehensive perspective to help identify and address these issues.
One of the more common challenges the Managed Services team at Quad address is “local marketing at scale,” according to Forge. “How do big brands maintain national vision, national strategy while still being hyperlocal?”
The answer, Forge says, often lies in technology that unifies data, content and process — creating a scalable system that supports both precision and reach.
In action: Building custom campaign workflow software for national health payor
Business operations challenge #3: Low-impact work for highly strategic people
Low-impact busywork is a silent killer of creativity. In the webinar, both speakers emphasized that outsourcing and partnership services should not replace people, but instead liberate them to do their best work.
A managed services model empowers your team to move from reactive tasks to truly strategic efforts. Kimberley suggests, “Ask yourself: What are 10 things I don’t need to do every day? What’s slowing me down?” as a starting place.
In action: Moving from execution to strategy for home décor retailer.
Smarter outsourcing for better marketing operations
In today’s complex marketing landscape, outsourcing isn’t about replacement, it’s about reinforcement. Whether through business process outsourcing services or a managed services model, the goal is the same: to streamline operations, eliminate inefficiencies and unlock your team’s full strategic potential.
As shown in the examples above, the right partner doesn’t just take tasks off your plate — they help you reimagine how the work gets done. From optimizing tech stacks and standardizing processes to freeing up creative teams and accelerating campaign execution, modern BPO enables brands to stay agile, efficient and future-focused.
Because ultimately, outsourcing isn’t just a cost-saving measure. It’s a competitive advantage.
In the webinar, Kimberley and Forge identify process, technology, people, and partnerships as the four essential pillars of efficient marketing operations.
What are managed services?
Managed Services are long-term, embedded partnerships that take on the operational heavy lifting — allowing internal teams to focus on strategy and growth. At Quad, this can include everything from full-service production to scalable client support, all designed to ensure brand consistency, reduce costs and remove marketing roadblocks.
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