Turn your hand over, so your palm is facing you. Look at your fingers, and make sure there's space between each one. This is the document management industry without togetherness.
Keep your hand there. Now, instead of leaving space between your fingers, make a tight fist. Squeeze as hard as you can.
That's how strong we could be.
DMIA members recently voted for an important change: movement into one association membership classification. Distributors and manufacturers, who partner and unite every day to meet end user needs, will soon be categorized as equals. This was an extremely positive move, one that shows that document pros are embracing the important (and fortunate) reality that we're in this business together.
We have a common goal, but singular strengths. Each company delivers value to customers a little differently. Our product and service offerings are wide-ranging, and each of us brings something new--something valuable--to the table. When we break bread, so to speak, with folks who face familiar challenges and goals, we become enriched and energized. We ought to give--and we ought to take--that kind of experience more often.
To that end, DMIA is creating special-interest groups ("SIGs" for short). Association members will join these groups to share focused information and help one another grow. Final details about the SIGs haven't been finalized, but DMIA's Board of Directors and staff gained valuable insight (and energetic endorsements) in May during the association's Spring Management Conference in San Juan. During one meeting there, distributors around the room excitedly described how they could share online document libraries and find other creative ways to become more efficient. DMIA received additional, positive feedback about SIGs from a recent email survey.
DMIA plans to roll out SIGs in October. Possible ones on the "short list" include forms and labels, manufacturing and production processes, promotional products, customer service, and small distributors. Membership in each one will cost an annual fee (undetermined right now) that will be miniscule compared with the value the groups will provide. Companies with a breadth of products, services and skill sets would benefit from joining multiple SIGs.
The potential benefits of SIGs are sky-high. Each one's ultimate success, though, will be predicated on our participation. In essence, they'll be whatever we make them. They'll begin as small organizations, entailing services and events such as special web pages, online discussion boards and meetings, but will only blossom and flourish with our energy and ideas.
I encourage each DMIA member to join a SIG. If you don't, you won't lose any of the valuable services the association currently offers. But you'll definitely miss a great chance to be part of a difference-making group that's committed to success. You'll miss an excellent opportunity to communicate with and learn from peers who face similar challenges.
Let's make our industry stronger. Let's boost our growth. Let's make that fist.
Mark Trumper is CEO of Maverick Label, Edmonds, Wash., and president of DMIA.
