Print Solutions Magazine, July 2002 -- Spotlight

Judging by Breece's attitude, the distributorship's approach is working: "They are more than just a vendor to me," she says. That's music to the ears of Steve Visio, vice president and COO of Executive Data Control.

Prelude to a Noteworthy Career

Today, Visio conducts a group of 16 players at his family business, but it wasn't too long ago that he marched to a different beat. While earning a marketing degree in college, Visio worked at Executive Data Control, then run by his father Hank Visio, CFC. (Hank, DMIA's 1993-94 president, remains president of the distributorship but leaves day-to-day management to Steve.) Despite taking business classes, Visio's true passion was music. Upon graduation, he received a job with MCI in telephone sales. "MCI was a 5 [p.m.] to 9 p.m. job," Visio says. He played music on the weekends and took jazz band and music theory classes during the week at Southwest Missouri State University.

For a short time, Visio says he "grew long hair, played the guitar and made a go of the Branson [Mo.] music scene." But after he met and married Nancy Ewen, Visio decided the life of a musician wasn't family-friendly. So what better place to turn for employment than his family's business?

Executive Data Control epitomizes family business. Visio's uncle, Jim Abernathy, founded the firm in 1967 and hired Hank Visio as a sales rep. In 1970, Abernathy sold the distributorship to him. In the past 32 years, seven of Hank's nine children have worked at Executive Data Control. Today, four of them are still with the company full time: Steve; Hank Jr., print shop manager; Carol Kidwell, office manager; and Charles Visio, who works in the firm's information services department. Michelle Visio, who teaches statistics in the I/O Psychology department at Southwest Missouri State University, also works part time for the distributorship, helping customers draft, send and compile surveys. Steve's nephew, Marc Visio, is the firm's warehouse manager.

Although Steve began his full-time stint with Executive Data Control in customer service, he eventually moved into outside sales--the only one of his siblings to do so. Visio believes this move was paramount to his taking control of the company five years ago: It gave him experience in the distributorship's main function, garnered him the respect of other employees and boosted the company's bottom line.

For instance, when Visio took over the company's largest client from his father, the account generated $250,000 a year in sales. Eight months later, Visio convinced the customer--a national sporting-goods retailer--to close its in-house print shop and rely on Executive Data Control for all of its forms, labels and copy services. Last year, sales to the retailer were $1 million.

Orchestrating 3-Part Harmony

Like all distributorships, Executive Data Control has changed over the years as technology altered the forms industry. What once was a simple melody became a complex symphony as the distributorship added products and services. It has branched into many directions, but three in particular set the cadence for the company's future: opening an in-house print shop, embracing the desktop revolution and launching e-commerce services.

In 1985, Executive Data Control bought an A.B. Dick offset press and opened an in-house print shop because it wasn't finding good sources for quick printing. The print shop produced mostly short runs of letterhead, business cards and cut sheets. In 1994, when the sporting-goods retailer closed its print shop and turned to the distributorship as a single-source vendor, Executive Data Control used its print shop for a new offering--copy services. Among the equipment it added were two Xerox 1090 copiers.

In addition to closing the retailer's print shop, the distributorship has closed two other clients' print shops, largely because of its in-house capabilities. One client is a hospital. Executive Data Control provides it with approximately 400 products, including continuous forms, labels, signs, cards and ad specialties. The other client is Aaron's Automotive Products, to which the distributorship provides about 300 products. Executive Data Control outsources most of the printing for both of these--and all other--customers.

Since Executive Data Control opened its print shop, the shop consistently has generated approximately $420,000 a year in sales. "We treat our print shop as another vendor," Visio says. "It has to bid against other vendors. If our shop isn't the best fit, then we don't do the job there." For example, the distributorship's print shop can produce products with stubs, but isn't the cost-effective choice for runs larger than 2,500.

Visio says he would prefer to outsource all production needs, but he hasn't found a reliable, competitive source for copy services. "In the document management mix, photocopies aren't being addressed by the industry," he says. "We'd [have to] give up the whole [retailer] account--all the custom products--if we didn't offer copies."

Copy services make up the majority of the distributorship's in-house work--roughly twice the impressions of offset. The company upgraded its two Xerox 1090s to two Xerox DC 265 digital copiers. "The downside of a print shop is that you have to continually invest in technology," Visio says. In the future, he would like to transition to a copy center rather than a print shop.

The second decision that helped build the distributorship's business to a crescendo was embracing the desktop revolution. While Visio worked in customer service, he says, "I became the de facto [information systems] guy. I read all the manuals on computers and software." Visio drove the company to become experts in desktop and graphic design services. Employees mastered programs such as QuarkXPress™, Adobe® Illustrator™ and Adobe Photoshop™. In addition, the company archived all its customers' art files digitally.

It didn't take long for Visio's enthusiasm for desktop technology to turn into profits. Executive Data Control began offering desktop training to customers. For instance, the distributorship trained a local medical society, then began supplying the client's monthly magazine. "After two years, the person we trained left, and the medical society gave the art-setup portion of the business to us," Visio says. Offering graphic design services has several advantages, he adds, and "developing and controlling the art gives us more flexibility to find better solutions for customers." Visio says creating art for a job helps the firm improve its margins--especially for commercial work. "You can charge more for concept and design than for the printing alone," he says.

The latest addition to Executive Data Control's ensemble is e-commerce capabilities. In 2000, the distributorship launched its web site (www.executivedatacontrol.com). The company relies on the e-commerce catalog and requisitioning module of Kramer Smilko's MANAGER industry-specific software package. The module is linked to Executive Data Control's operations software, so when an order is placed electronically, a delivery ticket is automatically created. The order is processed in the distributorship's accounting system. Kramer-Smilko provided the software, and Executive Data Control developed its own web site and clients' electronic catalogs.

Three employees design the custom electronic catalogs. Some catalogs contain as few as two items that only one person at a client site is permitted to order, while others include hundreds of products ordered by several people. For example, the national sporting-goods retailer requires 30 different catalogs, and Executive Data Control ships to 350 of its locations. Currently, the distributorship's e-commerce offering is used by more than 230 users at 70 companies. Executive Data Control processes between 150 and 180 orders weekly via the internet. "It's growing like crazy," Visio says. "We see a snowball effect happening with the internet."

The Ultimate Encore

So what does Executive Data Control do for a standing ovation? It combines its offerings, striving to provide the ideal document management program for each of its customers. One such client is a regional hospital in southwest Missouri.

The hospital hired a new CFO, who called Executive Data Control when he discovered the medical facility's in-house print shop was "a nightmare," Visio says. "The hospital didn't track [the print shop's] expenses and didn't know its costs." The CFO decided to close the print shop and outsource printing to Executive Data Control.

First, the distributorship collected one copy of every document produced by the print shop. Then, it digitized all the artwork and archived it on CDs. Rather than supply large quantities, which the hospital would have to store, Executive Data Control suggested the hospital order smaller quantities as needed.

In addition, the distributorship set up an electronic catalog so the materials management department could order printing online. Previously, when anyone in the hospital requested printing from materials management, an employee would travel to a storeroom on the fifth floor, search for the item, then deliver it. Now, the employee goes online and requisitions items. Executive Data Control warehouses printed pieces and runs a pick-and-pack operation, offering the hospital quick delivery.

Previously, the hospital was unsure of its usage and costs. Now, Executive Data Control provides detailed monthly reports tracking this information. Hospital employees also can print out numerous real-time reports as needed from their electronic catalog. The distributorship has made it easier and cheaper for the hospital to order approximately 400 products, including continuous forms, labels, signs, cards and advertising specialties.

Executive Data Control has a good gig going, for itself and customers. Part of its success can be attributed to the quality products and services the distributorship provides. But equally important is the company's customer-centric approach. "Talk about anything at our company, and the first question is always, 'How will that affect the customer?'" Visio says.

Visio isn't just paying lip service to this philosophy. Just ask a customer: Breece of Aaron's Automotive Products practically gives the distributorship a standing ovation. "I wish everybody I worked with were like the people at Executive Data Control," she says.

Susan Keen Flynn, a freelance writer based in Cleveland, is a frequent contributor to Print Solutions. Email us your comments at bholt@printsolutionsmag.com.

Working in Concert with an Automotive Firm

Customer: Aaron's Automotive Products Inc., Springfield, Mo., remanufactures engines and transmissions.

Printed Products: Aaron's orders a variety of products from Executive Data Control, including brochures, price lists, notice and warning labels, installation leaflets, customer comment cards and process verification sheets that accompany auto parts during assembly.

Services: Executive Data Control provides Aaron's with online ordering and order tracking capabilities, warehousing, monthly pricing and usage reporting, and more.

A Great Save: The automotive products company recently implemented an environmental management system. As part of the program's kick-off, Aaron's ordered 1,100 22-ounce insulated mugs for its employees. The mugs were imprinted with the company's environmental policy and one of its logos. Executive Data Control offered the mugs to Aaron's at a special price as part of a limited-time promotion by an ad specialty vendor. Michele Breece, QS 9000 manager for the Transmission Division at Aaron's, provided the specifications and artwork to the distributorship on the last day of the promotion. She says the next day her boss informed her the company sent in the wrong logo for the mugs. Breece called Stacey Delcour, a customer service rep at Executive Data Control, in a panic. Delcour told Breece the mugs were scheduled for production that day, but she would do her best to remedy the situation. "[Delcour] pulled the artwork, redid the logo and still got the mugs delivered to us on time--at the discounted price," Breece says. "She's my hero."

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