Distributors who want to penetrate college accounts say it's impossible to avoid bid lists altogether. But those like Seei, who are interested in learning the needs of various departments, find ways around the bidding process. Some departments have their own budgets and aren't required to adhere to bid lists. Others are supposed to bid items out, but break the rules once they find dependable suppliers. The more complicated the item, distributors say, the less likely it will be bid out, especially if a department succeeds in naming a company as the sole-source vendor.
Today, Seei sells more than 1 million pieces of letterhead, note cards and various envelopes annually to the university. In the first year, his plan saved the client $40,000 in printing costs alone. Additionally, it precipitated the closing of the print shop (employees were reassigned), saving labor costs and space. The project has been bid out annually, but CMFI continues to handle the large job, partly because of the costly charges involved in setting up the project, Seei says.
The Need for Several Products
Certainly not all universities have closed their print shops. In fact, John Reich, CFC, owner of distributorship APTCO in Mebane, N.C., says his two university clients now rely more on their print shops to save money. Despite the challenges of in-plants and bid lists, Reich says he enjoys serving the education market because of the variety of products used. His successful applications range from traditional forms used by traffic departments to sophisticated labels used in clinical research.
Universities are small cities unto themselves, so some of their needs are similar to those of municipalities. They use parking tickets, parking decals and library-fine notices in large quantities. Reich sells both traditional parking tickets (25 to a book with a reply envelope) and thermal rolls, preprinted with the university logo, for handheld terminals.
At the same time, universities need solutions specific to their unique environments. Laura Matlock, CFC, a sales representative with distributorship Riley Barnard & O'Connell in St. Louis, sells a multipurpose plastic card to a local university. Several years ago, she learned that magnetic stripes on student/faculty ID cards were sometimes unreadable. Since solving the problem, she has been selling the cards, which have undergone several design changes.
Matlock's client has followed a nationwide trend of combining several functions into one plastic card. Today, the 4-color card serves as a student/ faculty ID; a debit card for food service, laundry and other areas; and an ATM card. The front of the 4-color card displays a photo of the campus, along with a digital photo of the card holder. The back resembles a typical ATM card with a mag stripe, a bank logo and user information.
"I think it's a good product [for the university] because they put so many applications in the card," Matlock says. Multipurpose cards are more economical for universities, and it's easier for students to keep track of just one card, she says. Matlock's client is considering adding building and parking lot access capabilities to the card.
Joe Roncone Sr. has carved out a niche supplying E-Z Pay Coupons used by college financial aid offices. Roncone, president of Century Business Forms & Supplies Inc., a distributorship in Buffalo, N.Y., supplies the product in an 8 1/2 x 11-inch format. It's preprinted with the college's name and logo. Each sheet contains four payment coupons, as well as corresponding return address labels with rewettable glue. The back of each sheet is preprinted with information about the loan.
Universities personalize each sheet with the student's name, ID number and loan information. The forms are compatible with a software program used by universities nationwide, and Roncone has worked with the software vendor to receive referrals. Universities also rely on Century Business Forms to print and mail student bills and grade reports. Roncone believes universities increasingly want to outsource such projects because administrators realize it's more efficient than shutting down a department for a few days to get a mailing out.
Some of Reich's success in the market stems from specialty labels. Reich once sold a complex label printed on opaque stock, which was used to track drugs and placebos used in a blind clinical study. With the help of manufacturer Major Business Systems, Hillsborough, N.C., Reich designed a 53Ž4 x 21Ž4-inch label with permanent adhesive. A horizontal perf separated a small removable label (approximately 13Ž4 x 21Ž4 inches) on the left from a larger label with a tamper-evident patch.
The fanfolded products were color-coded in the line hole margin so that researchers in North Carolina could place appropriate labels on vials being sent to institutions nationwide. At the study site, workers removed the label on the left and placed it on a patient's case report. At the conclusion of the study, the label with the patch was removed, as was the patch itself. Since both labels had identifying numbers on them, researchers could match case reports--and results--to the type of medicine administered.
Presenting the Right Image
Anyone who has walked around a university campus lately has seen every imaginable promotional product emblazoned with the school logo. Distributors say it's tough to place products inside the campus bookstore, which sells many promotional products. But companies have many other opportunities to sell ad specialties, as well as commercial printing.
Mike O'Brien, who, like Seei, is a sales rep for CMFI Group, has sold pens and note pads, which admissions offices give to prospective students and high school counselors. In addition, some colleges order shirts for guides who give campus tours.
Choosing an inexpensive promotional product that a client is likely to reorder can be challenging, but Seei found one for an alumni association. He supplies small felt pennants that include the university's logo. The pennants are stuffed with a folded letter into a No. 11 envelope and sent to alumni celebrating the arrival of a baby. Seei also has sold post card decals to an athletics department, which mailed them to fans.
The market for view books--probably the best-known type of commercial printing used by universities--is evolving. View books are glossy, high-end booklets sent to potential students. Seei and O'Brien have sold a view book to a private college for 10 years. As part of the process, CMFI hires a photographer and a copywriter to create the right image for the admissions department. The distributorship also sells accompanying applications and outgoing envelopes.
Many high school students now choose to get information via the internet. As a result, the college has reduced the size of its view book and updates it every two years rather than every three, O'Brien says. Some distributors produce view books digitally, printing variable information that's relevant to each prospective student. (To read an example, visit this story on Print Solutions' award-winning web site:www.PSDA.org/documents/may02/efiles.html.)
Colleges are concerned with more than their reputation among high school students. They also want to present an image that resonates with would-be donors. For that reason, passengers arriving at airports in Bloomington, Ill., and Peoria, Ill., see a lighted sign for a small college in the state. O'Brien supplied the signs to a struggling private college that wants to upgrade its image locally. The signs feature the same look as a kiosk CMFI is designing to be displayed at a local mall. O'Brien hopes CMFI also will land some related brochure business. Just as other clients do, the college is relying on CMFI to help it tackle a tough business problem. If the distributorship succeeds, O'Brien may gain more interesting projects in the future.
Katherine House, a freelance writer based in Iowa City, Iowa, is a frequent contributor to Print Solutions. Email us your comments at bholt@printsolutionsmag.com.
Thanks to Applied Business Systems Inc., Batavia, N.Y.; APTCO, Durham, N.C.; and Kelty-Best Inc., Madison, Wis., for assistance.
GPOs: Not Just for Hospitals Anymore
Todd Abner notices striking similarities between higher education today and the health care industry 20 years ago. Two decades ago, health care reimbursements were falling. Today, universities have been hit hard by declining endowments and reduced funding from state legislatures.
Abner believes cash-strapped universities can save money by consolidating purchasing efforts. As a result, Abner helped found Horizon Resource Group (HRG), a for-profit group purchasing organization based on the business model used in the health care industry. The company (www.horizonrg.com), founded in late 2001, is based in the Nashville, Tenn., suburb of Brentwood.
It's no coincidence that Horizon Resource Group is located in the same area as HealthTrust Purchasing Group, a medical GPO established by Hospital Corporation of America Inc. (HCA). Abner previously served as CFO for HealthTrust and held several management positions within HCA. Horizon's COO Ward Brown also worked for HCA, and, at one point, oversaw HCA's supply chain operations. Both men helped to found empactHealth.com, a provider of business-to-business e-procurement solutions for the health care industry.
HRG works with colleges and universities in 20 states and is expanding rapidly, according to Andrea Scobie, director of marketing. Member names and volume information are confidential, she says. Currently, the company doesn't offer contracts for printing services or promotional products, but Scobie emphasizes that could change based on feedback from member institutions. HRG has contracts with Boise Office Solutions and Corporate Express for office products, she says.
HRG primarily offers contracts for commodity products and some services, Scobie says. The firm signs 3- to 5-year contracts with vendors, according to its web site, and rarely offers sole-source contracts because "flexibility of purchasing is often jeopardized." The group's existing contracts aren't based on tiered pricing, but instead offer discounts off list prices, Scobie says.
HRG's chief national competitor is Educational & Institutional Cooperative Service Inc. (www.eandi.org), a not-for-profit organization in Happauge, N.Y. The 70-year-old group is a sister organization of the National Association of Educational Buyers (www.naeb.org). To participate in E&I, institutions must be members of NAEB and pay a one-time $5 fee. Membership dues in NAEB range from $225 to $800 and are based on an institution's enrollment. E&I has 1,900 member institutions in North America and expanded significantly in Canada earlier this year, according to Christine Barraco, who works in marketing for E&I.
E&I was founded as a cooperative, and for several decades took orders in house and processed them for members, Barraco says. E&I then billed its members accordingly. In December 2000, the firm changed its business model to operate more like a GPO. Now universities work directly with vendors, and E&I is out of the order-processing business, she says.
The group doesn't currently offer contracts for printing services or promotional products. Effective Jan. 1, Boise Office Solutions took over the office supplies contract from Office Depot Inc. E&I has a contract with Xerox Corp. for equipment and supplies, as well as contracts with various office furniture suppliers.
Many smaller regional buying groups and cooperatives exist in the higher education market, too, including the Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium (www.mhec.net) and the Philadelphia Area Collegiate Cooperative. Membership in such groups may be limited to institutions in certain geographic areas and typically requires an up-front fee.
