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DMIA Announces Name Change at Print Solutions 2007
The Print Solutions 2007 Conference & Expo in Las Vegas opened Oct. 17 with a stimulating surprise: Document Management Industries Association (DMIA) is now Print Services & Distribution Association.

DMIA’s leaders made the change to more effectively describe and serve its membership, which includes solutions-driven distributors, their diverse network of trade printers and suppliers to those printers. In conjunction with the name-change announcement, PSDA redesigned and relaunched its website.

“A fresh start deserves a fresh face,” said PSDA President Bob O’Connell, president of Vanguard Direct, a distributorship based in New York City. “It’s no longer enough to simply print and ship, and if we’re going to continue to help customers on deeper levels of their businesses, we need a new brand message. Starting now, we no longer have a brand with an underground name, which will help us gain much needed awareness and acceptance. I’m excited that we have a name that accurately identifies who we are, what we do and why it matters.”

“We’re not an industry of order-takers and commodity brokers,” said Peter Colaianni, CAE, PSDA’s executive vice president, during a speech after the name change announcement. He talked about the importance of each word in the association’s new moniker. “We’re dedicated to coupling services with print, with the goal of improved effectiveness and profitability of every end user customer.”

Print Solutions magazine is published by PSDA.

Demand for Tamper-Resistant Pads Remains Steady
Although the deadline for prescriptions for millions of Medicaid patients to be written on tamper-resistant pads has been extended to April 1, 2008, the demand for security paper remains steady.

“Hospitals, doctors and providers were caught unprepared with the initial deadline,” says Joe Massucci, commercial marketing manager at Paris Business Products, Westhampton, N.J. “They want to make sure they are compliant by the new deadline. They want to be ready for the expected surge in demand again in 2008.”

President George W. Bush signed legislation passed by Congress (H.R. 3647) to delay by six months the mandatory use of tamper-resistant prescription pads in state Medicaid programs. Under the requirement, which was to go into effect Oct. 1, all hand-written prescriptions for Medicaid beneficiaries—330 million prescriptions last year—were to be written on special tamper-resistant pads. April 1 is the new date to comply with the law passed in late July as part of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act of 2007.

Standard Register to Offer Print Management Services to Auto Dealership
Standard Register and ADP Dealer Services said that Sonic Automotive Inc., a large dealership group with more than 170 locations in 15 states, has selected Dealer Office Xpress (DOX) for the group’s document and print management needs. Standard Register will provide Sonic with enterprise document management services spearheaded by the DOX program. Developed as part of an alliance with ADP Dealer Services, DOX is a single-source for forms, office supplies and document management tools and services for automotive and truck dealers.

Standard Register also signed a 3-year agreement with HealthTrust Purchasing Group. The agreement gives HealthTrust’s 2,000 facilities access to Standard Register’s portfolio of enterprise document solutions and services, including health care documents, SMARTworks Clinical Enterprise for automating document workflow, digital and offset printing, and fulfillment services.

VistaPrint Expands CityVoter Deal
VistaPrint Ltd. said that CityVoter Inc., a provider of metro guides for media companies, has expanded its relationship with the company. Under the agreement, CityVoter will offer specially designed marketing materials through VistaPrint that enable local businesses to raise awareness and gather votes for annual “best of” award programs run by CityVoter in more than 14 cities with 25 more planned by the end of 2008. The materials include full-color point of sale counter cards, postcards, calendar magnets and fliers displaying the award program logo, which can be customized with business information and voting links. CityVoter local businesses also will have access to special offers from VistaPrint on marketing materials and services.

Transcontinental Adds Digital Printing Capabilities
Transcontinental Direct, a direct marketing service provider, added digital printing capabilities to support its direct mail and fulfillment services. The company installed a Xerox iGen3 digital press featuring automatic makeready and collation, the ability to mix stocks within a run and combine color with black-and-white, and variable data printing.

Mimeo Named 76th Fastest Growing Business Services Firm
Inc. magazine recently ranked Mimeo.com as one of the fastest growing privately owned companies in the first-ever Inc. 5,000. Mimeo.com was ranked No. 1,320 out of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the country with a growth rate of 270.6 percent. The company was also recognized as the 76th fastest growing business services company in the country.

Innerworkings Acquires Two Companies
Innerworkings Inc., Chicago, acquired Data Flow Media Systems in Dallas and Graphic Resource Group in Minneapolis, both distributorships. Combined, the two companies have 10 sales reps and generated $14 million in revenue last year, Innerworkings said. “We have been seeking to establish a strategic presence in Dallas and Minneapolis,” said Steven Zuccarini, CEO.

HP Strengthens Presence in Wide-Format Printing
HP signed an agreement to acquire MacDermid ColorSpan Inc., a manufacturer of wide-format digital inkjet printers, from MacDermid Printing Solutions LLC. Based in Minnetonka, Minn., MacDermid ColorSpan is a leading supplier of UV-curable inkjet printers for display graphics and a key supplier to sign shop franchises, quick printers and other small to medium-sized sign-making and screen-printing businesses. The acquisition extends HP’s presence into the sign shop and quick-printing market. It furthers HP’s Print 2.0 strategy to digitize analog prints by extending its overall digital content creation and publishing platform.

UPS Rates Going Up
UPS, Atlanta, will increase shipping rates for 2008 beginning Dec. 31. The increase includes an average 4.9 percent increase for Ground and Ground Hundredweight shipments, and a net average increase of 4.9 percent on all air express and U.S. origin shipments internationally. The rate hike is in response to a similar move by competitor FedEx earlier this year. Customers can download the 2008 Rate Guide on Dec. 31.

Customers Respond to Direct Mail
Vertis Communications, Baltimore, released the results of its Customer Focus Tech Savvy Study, which found that responsiveness to direct mail via the internet has increased over the past four years for nearly all demographic categories. Twenty-one percent of adults responded to direct mail advertising in the past year by visiting a website, up from 14 percent from 2003. Older men were the most responsive, with 28 percent of men ages 55-64 logging on, up from 10 percent in the previous study. Fifty-five percent of all adults prefer some interactive follow-up from a company they are interested in, including emails or text message. Women age 65 or older are the least interested in follow-up emails, and men ages 18-24 are the most interested in the same contact.