Let’s
Talk About Tech
Manufacturers
ranked in this year’s Top
100 list recognize that technology
drives growth. Equipment and software
impact every aspect of business,
from production to customer service
to marketing and sales. Last year,
several manufacturers introduced
or improved their e-commerce systems
and other technologies. Here’s
what some printing pros wrote
on their Top 100 listing forms:
“
Our
best decision was to invest in
the integration of our CRM, shop
floor management and accounting
software, with a primary focus
on the customer and the speed
in which the customer can get
information and history. This
isn’t an original idea,
but as a printer, we sometimes
look only at the final printed
product as our success and not
the entire customer experience.”
Dwane
L.W. Wall, President
Creative
Labels of Vermont, Winsooki, Vt.
“We
created an electronic stationery
program that involved 28 different
masters and nine different products.
The site enabled us to take an
additional 200 orders per day
without adding manpower. Our plan
is to convert as much business
as possible to electronic solutions.
Electronic solutions speed up
the process and help reduce errors.”
Dawn
Henle, Marketing Manager
C.E.
Printed Products, Carol Stream,
Ill.
“In
2004, our continued commitment
to corporate technology improvements
has enriched the resources available
to our customer care staff. Our
staff is able to react more quickly
to our customers’ needs.
The decision to invest in our
own infrastructure continues to
convey to our employees that they’re
important to the success of the
company. Giving them the best
tools to do their job translates
into better service and satisfied
customers.”
Joe
Tardie, President
Presentation
Folder Inc., Orange, Calif.
“
Continued
investments in equipment upgrades,
direct-to-plate digital workflow
and e-commerce are positioning
Business Stationery Inc. to assist
distributors in capturing more
of the identity solutions market.
Flat and thermography printing,
foil stamping, embossing and die
cutting are all in-house operations
that ensure consistent color and
high-quality products for the
distributor market.”
Mark
Cupach, Director of National Sales
Business
Stationery Inc., Cleveland
“The company expanded its
production capacity by investing
in new equipment even though the
market was still down and material
costs were rising.”
William
Stelzer, Vice President
Delta
Printing Solutions, Valencia,
Calif.
“Our company culture is
defined by innovation—developing
web-to-print web sites that drive
digital color printing sales and
developing e-commerce for our
distributor customers.”
Jeff
Prettyman, Executive Vice President
Wise
Business Forms, Alpharetta, Ga.
“
Our
investment in digital workflow
solutions will speed turnaround
times for PDF proofs and digital
color proofs. It will allow Datatel
to service the digital file requirements
of our customers beyond expectations.”
Allen
J. Simon, President
Datatel
Resources Corporation, Monaca,
Pa.
“Our goal and challenge
in 2005 and over the next few
years is for our manufacturing
and order processing systems to
become interoperable with our
distributor partners’ systems.
By allowing information to flow
electronically between our systems
and our distributors’ systems,
we can help drive down costs and
increase the ease of doing business
with Printegra.”
Bill
Reid, Director of Marketing
Printegra,
Peachtree City, Ga.
“While
facing much competition in screenprinting,
we fought back by adding newer
and better equipment to make us
more competitive.”
Rick
Heinl, President
Repacorp
Label Products, Tipp City, Ohio
“We
successfully launched our 40th
corporate web-to-print site and
added our 40,000th end user. We
believe that the full client/print
service provider integrated system
is what corporations are looking
for to reduce inventory, eliminate
obsolescence and increase ROI
on marketing collateral.”
Christopher
D. Wells, President and CEO
LaVigne
Inc., Worcester, Mass.
“The best decision we made
in 2004 was to purchase a 5-color
UV press. This new equipment has
opened up many new product lines
for us.”
Krista
L. Ray, Marketing Coordinator
Phoenix
Data Inc., Montgomery, Pa.
—Compiled
by Andrew Brown
