Print
Solutions April 2006
Mailbag
Web-to-Print
Coverage was Extensive, Informative
Thank
you for including my company in
the March issue of Print Solutions
magazine on web-to-print solutions.
My company has been providing
web-to-print solutions for several
years and we’ve found ourselves
having to educate the marketplace
on the many benefits of the solution.
This issue will become a valuable
handout for my company to use
since it will provide excellent
third-party best practices for
our clients and prospects.
I
may be a little biased because
my company is in the issue, but
you all did a fantastic job of
covering the entire web-to-print
industry and a one-stop resource
for those who are new or just
starting the venture. Great job!
Thank you!
Willie
Brennan
President
Custom
Print Now Solutions
Columbia,
Md.
Editor’s
note: The following letter
was part of a discussion among
distributors and manufacturers
that took place on DMIA’s
members-only broadcast email system.
The discussion centered on competing
against direct selling manufacturers.
Don’t
Bid Against the Big Guys
Going
direct against a manufacturer
in a print niche where margins
become compressed is one of the
most difficult print areas for
distributors to sell in. The key
word is “expensive.”
As print projects become more
complicated and print runs longer,
the margins on those jobs begin
to shrink. In an open bid environment,
direct printers looking for work
have the ability to slash margins
in order to generate needed cylinder
turns. In the long run in commercial
web markets, margins can shrink
to single digits. Given the manufacturer’s
purchasing power in the paper
market and ability to add value
to a job by doing a large percentage
of the work in-house, competing
against them becomes a challenge
for distributors. I’m not
saying abandon it, but getting
away from participating in a “bidding”
contest with them is advisable.
Mark
Cupach
National
Sales Director
Business
Stationery Inc.
Cleveland,
Ohio
Editor’s
note: The following letter
was part of another discussion
among distributors and manufacturers
that took place on DMIA’s
members-only broadcast email system.
The discussion centered on having
backup systems available when
computer network servers fail.
Always
Have a ‘Plan B’
This
is to all my counterparts within
our organization— a ‘heads
up’ to something that could
happen to all of us and was a
nightmare for me, so hopefully
this information will be of some
use.
I
have an excellent ‘not
quite 2-year-old server’
on my network that required a
hard drive upgrade, something
which is fairly common and a routine
procedure. I ordered the bigger
hard drives through the company
that made the computer and scheduled
the procedure with an IT company
I use frequently. To ensure
minimal downtime and business
disruption, I scheduled the ‘changeover’
for Saturday so I dropped it off
at their facility on Friday right
at the close of the business day
and they assured me they’d
give me a call on my cell on Saturday
when it was complete. Without
going into all the unpleasant
details, I did not receive my
server back until this morning,
one week later. During this past
ugly week, I discovered how reliant
we’ve become on computers.
I was unable to generate bills,
pay them (there was no accurate
way to see what was in our checking
account), or prepare artwork for
clients. Everything was on the
server! This company required
all of my backup tapes so I knew
things weren’t going well.
To
make the long story short, I was
forced to figure out how to get
stuff done manually. I dug up
some old purchase orders we used
‘back in the day’
and hand-wrote them and faxed
them to clients. I created a big
pile of manual, ‘unrecorded’
transactions so when the server
was back at our office; I had
a trail of breadcrumbs. I also
figured that if I had burned disks
of my entire customers’
art and images (although it would
be a lot of disks), I would have
had that ‘Plan B’
in place and would be able to
still get the work done.
So
for all of you that ‘only
have one server’, please
take this into consideration:
Take the time to periodically
burn disks of art/documents and
put them in a safe place. Have
your manual purchase orders and
a typewriter from the 21st century.
(Ours actually made us laugh –
World War II type font and all.)
But the most important piece of
advice I’d like to share
is have any work on your server
(your business lifeblood) done
on site! Most business policies
will cover the loss of business
and disruption, etc.
Carrie
Fireoved
Owner
Print
Solutions Plus Inc.
Vineland,
N.J.
Editor’s
note: The following letter
was part of another discussion
among distributors and manufacturers
that took place on DMIA’s
members-only broadcast email system.
The discussion centered on the
pricing of fulfillment projects.
Remember
the Basics when Pricing Fulfillment
Be
careful of focusing too heavily
on the hourly wage and time numbers
because they tell only a small
part of the story. The things
you should focus on, in my opinion,
are accuracy of packaging (we
use sensitive scales that measure
weight down to one sheet of paper);
cost of idle labor (What are your
customer’s employees doing
when not fulfilling these orders?),
freight discounts (Does your customer
ship enough to get the 60 percent
rate reductions we and other shippers
receive?). Is the packaging professional?
Is every shipment well documented
and accountable? Does billing
get distributed to multiple branches?
If so, how is tax for those different
locations accounted for?
These
are just some quick thoughts.
Some fulfillment houses handle
a wide variety of projects. At
AccuLink we provide fulfillment
services on items we produce in-house
and pricing tends to relate to
the total scope of the project.
Lindsay
G. Gray
CEO
AccuLink
Greenville,
N.C.
Talk
Back
Correction
Degrava
Systems, Roswell, Ga., was incorrectly
listed as Xxion Technologies in
the March issue. Contact person
is now Kateryne Cribbs, sales
and marketing coordinator. She
can be reached at (678) 323-0340.
