* Email marketing. Epsilon's
full-service approach to database marketing is undermined by its limited
experience with email marketing, according to an otherwise positive review from
Forrester Research earlier this year. "This shortcoming will disappoint buyers
who are looking for strategic guidance around how to integrate online and
offline campaigns," the study said.
* Forming alliances with other technology providers. According to The Outsourcing Institute, 36 percent of corporations with sales of $50 million or more use outsourcing providers, up from 29 percent in 1996. The strategy is important to Relizon. "We constantly look at the portfolio of services we provide, and actively search for partners who are the best in their fields so we can be a strategic source," Howe says. In July 2001, Relizon partnered with FormScape Inc., a South Morrisville, N.C.-based provider of output management software. In June 2003, Relizon's internet portal, Relizonline, received Ariba®-ready status, a designation for suppliers who demonstrate the ability to transact with and provide content to organizations using the Ariba® Buyer™ procurement solution.
* Expanding billing solutions. Relizon expects its billing capabilities to grow significantly during the next few years. It now offers a range of billing services, including printing and mailing of printed invoices as well as online bill presentment and payment. It tracks and segments customer behavior to determine the most effective billing methods and cycles. The company is working with the U.S. Postal Service's Planet code, which lets clients know when a customer's check enters the mail system, and recently partnered with Lincolnwood, Ill.-based Bowe Bell+Howell to improve job tracking and control for billing customers.
* Combining capabilities for end-to-end value. "We see a tremendous upside in integrating the capabilities we have, especially combining inventory management, distribution and printing with our marketing services," Howe says. Relizon manages more than 850 business and commercial documents for 225 branches of Terminix, the pest-control subsidiary of Downers Grove, Ill.-based ServiceMaster. Relizon combined its billing services, which it has provided to the client since 1994, with its marketing abilities through Epsilon. The result: Terminix identified 10 million prospects for direct mail and acquired new customers for its termite-baiting program.
* Losing the Novation contract. Novation is the largest medical GPO in the country, based on annual purchasing volume ($19 billion). The GPO has printing/forms management contracts with Relizon and Moore Wallace that are up for renewal on Jan. 1, 2005. Novation has begun the contracting process, according to Barry Campbell, senior product manager of business products for Novation. He says he plans to pay more attention to suppliers of high-end commercial printing (what he calls "marketing printing"), including brochures and annual reports. "Health care is slowly moving away from multipart forms with more emphasis on printing than forms," Campbell says. As that happens, "there will be less emphasis on [the majors]," he says.
* Uncertainty associated with The Carlyle Group. The worldwide private equity firm is adept at generating returns for its investors. Since its founding in 1987, the firm has invested $9.2 billion in more than 290 transactions. The Carlyle Group originates, structures and acts as lead equity investor in management-led buyouts, strategic minority equity investments, equity private placements, consolidations and buildups, and growth capital financing. Does the company's investment goals coincide with Relizon's vision?
Darin Painter is managing editor of Print Solutions. Email him your comments at dpainter@PSDA.org.
