CCI Sourcing is ready to rumble.

The Atlanta-based outsourcing company, backed by CCI Europe’s parent company Stibo A/S and Indian newspaper The Hindu, has quietly been testing its ad production capabilities with a number of European ad agencies over the past year, said Jeff Rogers, CCI Sourcing’s vice president of North American sales.

Now, with the hiring of newspaper veteran Bradley C. Dinkmeyer as vice president of strategic accounts and the expected signing of its first U.S. customer, the company is poised to aggressively compete for additional business.

The calculated rollout netted CCI Sourcing 17 European clients, including an Austrian newspaper, which now uses the firm to handle ad production.

Market growing

CCI Sourcing’s move to focus on North America comes as the outsourcing market continues to heat up. Dozens of U.S. newspapers, ranging from the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News to the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch are now outsourcing their ad production work, and interest in the approach remains high.

“I think this is the year where (outsourcing) really takes off,” Rogers said. “Last year papers were studying it, but with revenues continuing to be under pressure, interest is growing.”

Rogers said CCI Sourcing will differ from its global competitors — which include Express KCS, 2AdPro and Affinity Express — by using a flexible pricing model and technology that permits its Bangalore and Chennai, India-based production workers to access ad files without requiring newspaper clients to transmit the materials overseas.

That’s done with software from Citrix Systems, whose apps allow users remote access to files via virtual private networks and specialized high-speed connections. The software lets CCI Sourcing keep control of the files at its U.S. data center.

(Editor’s note: American Outsourcing Solutions, another outsourcing vendor, performs its work at a facility in Dallas, Pa., near Scranton.)

Software foundation

CCI Sourcing uses Database Publishing Systems’ AdTracker to synchronize and track ad production work. The software can either be hosted by CCI Sourcing or installed onsite, another differentiator, Rogers said.

Additionally, CCI Sourcing has developed its own online ad banner development software, which will enable its production workers to create Flash animations within a short period of time. “We’ll be able to preview the ads and track production of them.

“We’re trying to be flexible in the technology and also flexible in our approach,” Rogers said, adding that newspapers can either use CCI Sourcing on a per-transaction basis or tap the company to perform the majority of its ad production.

“The goal is rightsourcing,” he said. “We don’t want to come in and replace (all) existing personnel. We think that’s arrogant for us to come in and do that. Newspapers need to retain (some) staff for last-minute changes and to work with important clients.”

Instead, he said, “We try to sit down and study what areas do need to be outsourced.”