New Customer Implementation

I am doing a new customer implementation in December so I thought I would touch on some of the things that are involved with implementation of Cross-Wind. One of the very first questions I get asked is;
"How long is this going to take?" knowing that everyone's time is extremely valuable a standard implementation of Cross-Wind takes only 5 days (Technically 4 and a half but who's counting?)
"Is there work I need to do before the implementation?" Yes, typically we send a spreadsheet prior to implementation asking for user information to upload to the customers site prior to implementation. This information is typically Buyers, Suppliers, and Customers that will be accessing the system. If the customer already has this information contained in a database or spreadsheet we will clean the information for them and help to fill-in the blanks. One of the other things we ask customers to consider is what products do they associate to which suppliers. This helps us in the building of there custom product templates to know which templates are associated to which suppliers. We also ask our customers to supply us with copies of any forms that they are currently using to spec print so we can develop the product templates to meet their current processes.
"What is the agenda for implementation week?" I won't get into specific detail here but typical implementation consists of understanding the customers current buying process. If the customer has there process clearly defined then this goes very fast. I have spent time in advance of an implementation sitting with the customers buyers to watch how they quote print and to produce a map of the process. This helps in understanding which pieces of Cross-Wind will be needed in the development of the customers application. During implementation week we cover the basic set-up of the site and administration, how to add modules, users, templates, modify existing templates, supplier associations, buyer training, and supplier training.
"How long will it take to do the training?" Buyer training will usually take 4 to 8 hours depending on how quickly and how knowledgeable the buyers are of their processes. Supplier training typically lasts 45 minutes to an hour and a half. Supplier access to the system is very straightforward and easy to use so the suppliers can usually start processing quotes with only an hour of training. The buyer side of the system is more complex because of all of the capabilities the buyer has to specify and request print.
I typically try to schedule implementation to start on Monday morning and will try to get out of the customers office by Friday noon. The customer then has access to myself and our client services staff at no additional charge to ask any questions or walk through any issues they may have. The Call period usually only lasts about two weeks after implementation and the customer is usually very comfortable with using Cross-Wind after that. We also provide user guides and online help to our customers and their suppliers.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and if you have questions please contact me.

Cross-Wind® Supplier Training Session - November

The Monthly supplier training session is upon us. If you are a supplier to a Cross-Wind customer. you should have received your monthly notification of training this morning. The session lasts 1 hour and is a Live Meeting session combined with a conference call for the audio portion of the meeting. If you have difficulty getting into the meeting please contact me. We offer Free supplier training sessions to Cross-Wind users on a monthly basis. No cost to the suppliers or to our customers. This is part of our services and we have been doing these sessions for the last two years. If you have questions you can always contact myself or client services at James Tower and we would be happy to answer them. The session information is below along with upcoming training sessions. Have a Great Day!
John

December Training - Dec. 13, 2007 2:30 PM CST
January Training - Jan. 10, 2008 2:30 PM CST

Good Morning from DMIA 2007

Good Morning from DMIA 2007 in Las Vegas!
The exhibitor show starts tomorrow with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 12:15 PM The educational sessions begin today at noon. So far it is sunny and 75 in the valley. I will be setting up our booth this morning and preparing for an interview with one of the attendees this afternoon. Stay tuned and hope to see you on the exhibit floor.
John

CEO Confidence Declines Further

Oct. 5, 2007 -- The Conference Board Measure of CEO Confidence, which had declined to 45 in the second quarter of 2007, edged down to 44 in the third quarter. A reading of more than 50 points reflects more positive than negative responses. The survey includes about 100 business leaders in a wide range of industries.

"Despite the rather bleak assessment of current conditions, CEOs are not as pessimistic in their short-term outlook," says Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center. "But although the outlook is somewhat brighter than last quarter, the pace of growth is likely to remain moderate in the months ahead."

CEOs' assessment of current economic conditions was less favorable, with 14 percent claiming economic conditions had improved, down from 23 percent last quarter. In assessing their own industries, business leaders were also less optimistic. Approximately 17 percent claim conditions are better, down from approximately 23 percent in the first quarter.

CEOs, however, are moderately more optimistic about the short-term outlook than last quarter. Now, approximately 20 percent of business leaders expect economic conditions to improve in the next six months, up from 17 percent last quarter. Expectations for their own industries are also more upbeat, with 27 percent anticipating an improvement, up from 17 percent last quarter.

Capital Spending Plans Decline

Some 24 percent of business executives report increases in their companies' capital spending plans since January of this year, while 13 percent have scaled plans back, based on a supplementary question asked each year in the third quarter. This is a moderate change from the 2006 survey, when 28 percent of respondents had increased their capital spending plans and 9 percent had made cuts. Among the reasons given for increasing capital investment plans, the most common was an increase in sales volume. A decline in sales volume was the most cited reason for a decrease in spending plans.

Related Tables are attached. (You will need Adobe Acrobat to view)

Source: CEO Confidence 3rd Quarter 2007
The Conference Board

Are Reverse Auctions good for the Print Industry?

So the question has come up again; "does Cross-Wind do Reverse Auctions?" My biggest concern is why are buyers so infatuated with reverse auctions? I find it hard to believe that anyone in the print industry would even consider these. Have the lessons not been learned? I really would like further feedback on this from the print supplier/printers perspective.

I can tell you that I have personally sat in on reverse auctions with a printer, as an observer and I can tell you it was quite painful for the print supplier. The auction was a long duration auction lasting 3 days. The supplier reviewed the specifications and had questions as did other suppliers apparently by the feedback response that was given to the questions. Of course no one really wants to ask a question about the specs on an open forum as that may give away something none of the other bidders had considered and if the customer is not accepting questions any other way then the questions often go unanswered. The specifications in the suppliers eyes were not complete so therefore they felt they were unable to provide the best pricing and without being able to consult directly with the customer the price would not be complete. Also pricing did not start coming in to the auction site until the last 3 or 4 hours and then got really heated in the last few minutes which by looking at the price differences that printers were providing there was margin the whole time. In addition, the customer was fairly savy in that they were using a ringer. They had a supplier that truly had no intention of doing the job but was there strictly to drive the price as low as possible. Every time pricing was submitted the ringer would respond within a minute or two and counter the price by a percentage point. So if a print supplier was truly interested in the job they were forced to drop the price even further if they wanted it. The print supplier I was working with had decided early on that they were not going to get the work and that this was a waste of their time. The supplier estimated the job with their standard markup, a discounted price, and with their cost. When the auction started he offered up his discount price immediately which was a 0.5% profit margin. Within an hour he countered with his cost price which meant no profit on the job. One minute later the ringer countered that price which would have put the print supplier at a 1% loss. The right thing to do for the printer would have been to walk away at that point. However the printer knew e needed to fill the press and chose to go .5% lower (now at a 1.5% loss.) With a half hour left in the auction another supplier countered his offer. The printer while frustrated chose at this point to walk away from the job. Now once the price went below cost the printer spent most of his time that afternoon trying to run different scenarios as to how they could cut cost on the project to win the bid. This was a very painful experience for the supplier as they met and engaged the production department and pre-press in devising ways that cost could be trimmed, but without the answers or the ability to ask questions of the customer their was no way to respond without taking a complete loss on the project. The supplier walked away frustrated and realized later how much time was truly wasted in trying to respond blindly to the auction. This supplier politely turned down the next invitation to a reverse auction for this customer, and when the customer called to ask why, they politely told them that if this was the way they intended to do business from now on that they were not interested in being a supplier for them.

The customer lost out on having a consultative resource available to them. The bottom line for the supplier was that if doing business meant doing it at a loss they were not willing to risk losing their company to satisfy a customers need to save money. There is a balance and companies are in business to make money.

What are your thoughts? I am interested in hearing what Printers and Print Buyers think regarding using and completing Reverse Auctions. Post your comments! All will be posted. Thanks!

Print Buyers International Announces Speaker Line-up for 2nd Annual Print Buyers Conference

Print Buyers International Press Release

Print Buyers International today announced their speaker line-up for the upcoming 2nd Annual Print Buyers Conference on November 7th and 8th at the Westford Regency Inn & Conference Center in Westford, Massachusetts. Headlined by keynoters Frank Romano and Dr. Joe Webb, the conference will offers attendees the expert input of 22 different renowned industry authorities. For complete conference details, including session descriptions, speaker bios, and program logistics, go to http://www.printbuyersinternational.com.

In an unsolicited email, Joan Grace, Chief Executive, PrintNZ (New Zealand) stated, “Having seen the proceedings from last year’s 1st Annual Boston Print Buyers conference and then looking at who Margie had attracted to speak this year, I decided this was a ‘must do’ in terms of my own professional development. I am looking forward immensely to meeting Frank Romano, who continues to challenge the industry to consider its future. Likewise, the session with Don Carli, Institute of Sustainable Communication, is important to me. In a small country like New Zealand, it will be helpful for me to see how the printing industry in a much larger economy is addressing environmental sustainability. I am also looking forward to meeting with the print buyer delegates – what do they want from our industry? – are we delivering it? Finally, with such a great line-up, I would like some advice from Margie on how I can attend more than one session at a time!”

Speaker Line-Up

This international print buyers conference offers a rich and comprehensive educational program. This year, there will be 21 educational sessions, held over two days, dedicated to the enhanced understanding of professional print and media buyers. In addition to a buyers’ panel moderated by PBI founder Margie Dana, the conference will offer the expert opinion of several of the industry’s leading authorities:

Frank Romano, Professor Emeritus, RIT;
Dr. Joe Webb, Director, WhatTheyThink.com's Economics and Research Center;
Derek Awalt, Global Product Manager, Halftone Proofing, Kodak Graphic Communications Group;
Don Carli, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Sustainable Communication;
Daniel Dejan, National Print & Creative Specialist, Sappi Fine Paper;
Diane Dragoff, Purchasing Manager, United Way of Massachusetts Bay;
Christine Erna, Executive Vice President, Mailing/Fulfillment Services, Vermillion, Inc.;
Cheryl Kahanec, Vice President and Director, Digital Solutions, Sandy Alexander, Inc.;
Sabine Lenz, Founder, PaperSpecs.com;
Rick Littrell, President/CMO, Magicomm, LLC;
James Lockman, Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) Print Specialist and Owner of Working Words & Graphics;
Robert McClements, Managing Director, Grange Consulting, and founding Senior Executive of PrintYorkshire;
Jack Miller, Senior Consultant, North America, Pira International;
Nick Patrissi, Senior Marketing Manager, Kodak Graphic Communications Group;
Sandi Peterson, President, Berthelot Marketing Services;
Michael Riordan, Assistant Professor at RIT's School of Print Media;
Brian Rooney, Chief Technology Officer, Pantone, Inc.;
Bob Wagner, Vice President, Xerox Creative Services Business and Premier Partners Program.

Dinner Keynote by Frank Romano and Dr. Joe Webb

A special highlight of this year's conference will be the November 7th keynote dinner address, to be co-delivered by industry giants Frank Romano and Dr. Joe Webb. Romano is the well-known author, educator, industry guru, world-class speaker, and friend to every print customer. He delivered the keynote address at the first annual print buyer's conference held in November 2006. Webb, affectionately known as "Dr. Doom," is one of the printing industry's most highly regarded economists, consultants, forecasters, and commentators.

"We’ve built this program to bring attendees not only the hottest topics, but also sought to find the best-in-field speakers for each," noted PBI founder Margie Dana. “With Frank and Joe co-keynoting, I know the dinner session will be entertaining and information-packed. But just as valuable, Frank and Joe tell it like it is. There’s no sugar-coating. Today’s print and media buyers need to understand what’s happening and how it’s getting done. I know our hand-picked roster of speakers will tackle each topic with this same hard-hitting approach.”

For additional information, please visit http://www.printbuyersinternational.com or send your inquiries to info@bostonprintbuyers.com.

How Print Sales Reps Really Think

I read this post on another blog and was SHOCKED by the comments made. I cannot believe a Sales Rep would really think this way! I am going to break this down by paragragh to respond and the whole post can be found at: http://www.graphicartsonline.com/blog/1850000385/post/1790014779.html

I received a phone call this morning from a client who had an interesting scenario: "My long time client (worth $50K a year) has started asking suspicious questions regarding pricing. When I press her on it, she admits that they need to save money and printing is one of the areas targeted for savings. What do I do?"

"Suspicious Questions" I certainly hope that EVERY Print Buyer, whether they are full print buyers or occasional print buyers are asking questions about pricing. And in case you haven't figured it out yet with prices on the rise everywhere, good buyers are going to ask questions about pricing, both upfront AND when the invoice comes, that buyer should be reviewing it with a fine tooth comb and questioning anything they do not understand. I also certainly hope that the buyer was "shopping" for print. Buyers, shopping is a VERY good thing in the print industry. Their are sometimes suppliers that are sitting with open capacity on a press and your job might just be the perfect fit in their schedule and they are willing to "shave" the price to fill that press. Companies are learning that when things get tight you don't fire the marketing staff to save costs, you increase the marketing budget to get your name and product out to more people. So you still have to save somewhere. Corporations look at their non-core competencies first. Most corporations are NOT in the business of buying print so they are going to look at where they can save. I worked with a company a few years back that went through this very exercise, they analyzed where they were spending money and where they could get their biggest bang for the buck! Print happened to be it! It was not a core-competency, it was in their eyes an evil necessity of doing business. (it also happened to be 100 million worth of necessity) So they learned to get smart about that business and came up with ways of reducing that cost like volume purchasing, sole provider contracts, process improvement, etc.

This phenomena is all too common these days and there is no question that she is in trouble. After giving her my answer, I pointed out that she is at fault for the client even having that thought! It is up to the sales person to remind the customer on a consistent basis why they do business with them. I don't care how good you are or how great your service level is, if the customer doesn't know (because you haven't told them), it won't be remembered and you are at risk. Get it?

Ah yes! The old customer loyalty gig...My advice (for what it's worth) Hit the problem head on...ask what you can do to help cut costs. The Sales Rep should go back to their boss and say something like; that $50,000 annual business is going to become NO BUSINESS if we cannot find a way to help our customer save money on their jobs. Bottom Line, is $40K better than $0K? If the answer is yes...then help cut the costs for the customer. Also, ask the customer if they need help finding a cost effective printer for the work your company does not do. Be consultative, be sincere, be caring, and really be helpful. Now that is customer service! Be loyal to them first and then you have a right to expect loyalty in return.

If you rush an order, send the client an email that says, “Thank you for letting us deliver on our promise of service” AND CC EVERYONE ON THE PLANET. That way, when a pencil pushing accountant says, “Save money on printing” the Buyer can push back and protect you. However in order to do this, they need to know your value. If you don’t tell them, they will have short memories.

Your right, they do need to know your value and the "Pencil Pushing Accountant" (or better known as CFO) will see NO value in receiving unsolicited AND unwanted emails from a sales person who has just added their email address into their CRM system and is now getting copied on every campaign your company offers. They get VALUE from seeing the books balance and seeing cost savings in areas they think can be leaned down. Your best bet with the accountant is show them savings and show them WHY costs are what they are. CFO's are usually accountants that got A's in economics while in college they will respond better to an economics lesson than shouts of how great we are.

Providing good service and being consultative to a company is more valuable than anything you can provide. Helping the customer to realize savings should be every sales persons first and primary goal. Help that buyer do their job better and it does pay dividends. Customer loyalty is EXTREMELY rare in today's market.

Why professional print buyers are a needed commodity

So I started to read a blog article about how printing is priced, and without even looking at the authors profile I instantly knew within the first paragraph that this was written by a designer. How did I know? The first paragraph immediately pointed out that it should never be about the cost to produce the job but about the quality of the final piece. And budget should be a secondary concern. Statements like these are exactly why a professional print buyer should be quoting and selecting the printers.

The need for balance
Designers are very talented and creative people and can put things in designs that can wow the senses. But they are also very close to the piece and they take great pride and ownership in their designs. So it is important for them to know what will make a piece POP to the end user. However, the cost of the final product is always of great concern and while designers will almost always tell you cost is secondary. The bottom line comes down to; can the piece be produced within the designer's specifications AND on budget? If the answer is No, then alternatives must be sought to still produce the piece and keep it in budget. A professional print buyer can provide an objective eye on the project and help keep the project grounded. I have worked with designers who upon hearing that the piece they want produced is out of budget instantly react with; "increase the budget then because it cannot be done any other way." A print buyer can look at the various aspects of a job and recognize alternatives to the job that will produce a quality piece at the right price. Print buyers provide a needed balance to the order of printed pieces, without them, designer's will pretty much have carte blanc. Printers love the idea of no controls to the price. They can produce the PERFECT print piece, but perfection comes with a cost, and most companies in today's market do not have unlimited print budgets.

Designers should continue to design the most creative pieces they can for their customer. But print buyers should recognize production issues and be able to adjust the specification's of a piece to produce a high quality piece at the best possible price.

DMIA Print Solutions Conference and Expo

The DMIA Print Solutions Expo is just around the corner. This year the Conference and Expo are being held in glamorous Las Vegas on October 17 - 19. At the Las Vegas Convention Center. This is a great opportunity for print distributors and buyers to hear the latest about technologies and processes in the print industry. I was at last years event in Chicago and was just overwhelmed with all of the exhibits and opportunities to hear some great insights. This year I am going to put a little different twist in my attendance, I am planning to blog right from the floor of the exhibition center. You got it live and on the scenes coverage of the conference sessions, and the exhibit hall. I plan to blog about the sights and sounds and the insights from the attendees.

I would like to know; What sessions you think I should attend, what exhibitors should I talk to and discuss in my blog, and what questions should I ask. Here's how you can help? If you click on the questions link you can fill out the form and I will ask the questions of the suppliers or attendees and post responses back here. You can find all of the information including exhibitors and sessions at: www.printsolutionsshow.com. If you are attending the show stop by at booth 1012 and say hi! I love to hear readers thoughts and would love to discuss them with you. I will post more information as we get closer to the show.

I encourage anyone that has the opportunity to take advantage of attending this show. There are always a lot of great suppliers and a great opportunity to learn more about the print and print services industries. It is a great opportunity to go to these shows for me and discuss procurement and sometimes show Cross-Wind. I hope to see you all there!

Cross-Wind® Project List Management

Making projects inactive in the project list.

Ever have problems or delays logging in to Cross-Wind? If you do then take a look at your project list. The first thing that can improve system responsiveness is to make those projects that are no longer being worked on inactive. The way to do this is to un-check the box to the right of the projects that you would like to make inactive. Once you have deselected the projects then scroll to the bottom of the list and click on the "Save" button. The page will refresh and the jobs deselected will be placed in the inactive list. If you need to retrieve an inactive job simply select "Inactive" in the search pane and click the "Search" button. Your list will now display all of the inactive jobs in your system.
Questions please feel free to comment or contact me.

Contracts for Procurement Systems

I am working on revamped pricing for our estimating and procurement system and was having a discussion about terms. The question of contract terms and the length of the contract came up. There are some that will use a one year agreement as a selling point. However is that really good for the print buyer in the long run? Has our society become so bent on instant gratification that we can see the trees through the forest? Buyers need to be able to evaluate system needs up front before entering into a system without knowing what they are getting. So the up side to a short term agreement is "Well I only have to use this for a year then I can get out and start looking all over again" or as a buyer you will get a sour taste in your mouth and the common statement then is "well all of these systems are the same and this one didn't work for me so none of the others out there will...it's just easier to do this manually anyway." I think what you miss by taking that kind of approach is that you do not see the long term benefit an estimating and procurement system can provide.

Now as a buyer I believe that a long term of 3 years is the optimal length of an agreement because it gives me the ability to gather data and to analyze my spend for at least two years of the term and then gives me an ability to at least start practicing forecasting in the third year of the term. By mid-year of the third year I should have enough data gathered to prove or disprove my forecasts. You see I believe that a system is not just purchased for the ability to improve you effieciency but also to capture and analyze the data from your purchasing to be able to better predict spending cycles. So a system is not just to make your job easier from day to day but it is also to gather information to help you make more informed purchasing decisions. So is it really worth your while as a print buyer to be using a system for a year to "evaluate" whether it is right for you up front? OR, is it better to know exactly what you want from a system and sign a long term agreement to get that information that will help you do a better job down the road?

What are your thoughts? Post your comments.

Have a great weekend!
John

Does the price of Fuel impact Print Production costs?

The national average for the price of gasoline today is $2.81 per gallon. But the price of gasoline has nothing to do with the equation. It is the price of diesel fuel that has an impact on print production costs. The average price per gallon of diesel fuel is $2.92, an $0.11 per gallon difference. And the price is higher today than it was a year ago by $0.067. Now that doesn't seem like much but it is significant because prices are on the rise and winter is coming.

Economics 101
Sorry for the economics lesson but in order to understand the significance let's consider just a couple of factors. Fuel Prices are already high in the mid-west and IF we have a bad winter (meaning lot's of cold and snow) combined with a shortage of refineries and lot's of competition from overseas markets for fuel oil (Asia and Europe) the price of diesel fuel will continue to rise to all time highs. Now throw in just one hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico (that shuts down production and refineries) and we will be toast. Here endth the lesson.

OK so why is diesel higher than gasoline it didn't used to be?
That's very true diesel prices before 2004 were always lower than gas. For this I will give you the Department of Energy's explanation;
Until several years ago, the average price of diesel fuel was usually lower than the average price of gasoline. In some winters when the demand for distillate heating oil was high, the price of diesel fuel rose above the gasoline price. Since September 2004, the price of diesel fuel has been generally higher than the price of regular gasoline all year round for several reasons. Worldwide demand for diesel fuel and other distillate fuel oils has been increasing steadily, with strong demand in China, Europe, and the U.S., putting more pressure on the tight global refining capacity. In the U.S., the transition to low-sulfur diesel fuel has affected diesel fuel production and distribution costs. Also, the Federal excise tax on diesel fuel is 6 cents higher per gallon (24.4 cents per gallon) than the tax on gasoline.

Alright so let's put it all together...
The cost of fuel is high, it is going to remain high, and if foreign competition is will to pay more per barrel for oil, then we are going to lose out.

So what if I buy my print in Asia?
Cost of fuel is still high, but labor and living conditions are low so it balances out you can only work a human for low pay for so long...ever here of sweat shops? I don't think it is a win to print in Asia, and with all of the substandard products coming out of that part of the world are you really willing to sacrifice cost for potential hazardous chemicals?

What can I do?
The best thing to do in today's market is to look at suppliers that can produce your job close to the destination thereby reducing freight costs. If the job is shipping to two locations seriously look for split production not split shipping. The cost of production may be higher BUT you may save overall, by reduced freight. Print Buyers should seriously evaluate freight cost first when determining production then look at the total cost for the job not just production price not just freight but the total. In today's market it is extremely important to consider freight. I have stated in an earlier post that I had a customer that routinely evaluated freight and made production decisions based on that. Now if you are using a procurement system it should have the ability to break freight out as a separate line item in pricing and to go one step further it should also be able to sub-total your production costs and your freight costs. If your procurement system doesn't allow for freight as a line item then get a new system! I am betting the cost savings in freight alone will pay for a GOOD procurement system. If your suppliers are not breaking freight out then ask them too. Don't let them give you excuses either because if they think they might lose the job because of their freight price they will hesitate to provide it. Also, now is the time to be supplier shopping. Look at your shipping destinations closely and then start looking for suppliers that are in those areas that can provide the same services that Charlie down the street is providing, just at $250.00 per shipment more. A little trick that the big boys have learned is...When a large print supplier is involved and you know the companies I am talking about, they have figured out that, if you have a job that is shipping to Cleveland and your quoting with the plant in Dallas they will get the quote from the Dayton plant and then estimate freight from Dallas for the quote. Then when you order they will produce in Dayton and charge you for shipping from Dallas. So another question I would be asking your suppliers in the quote is; where is the producing facility located? If you ask that question and get a response of; "Why is that important? OR it doesn't matter! OR my favorite...we haven't determined that yet. (Yeah right) They knew EXACTLY where they were going to produce this the minute that quote came in the door!! With the press operating systems that these major printers have they know when the pressman is on coffee break and when he will return to the press halfway across the world.

Summary
There are lot's of options available to help you cut freight costs and you need to be taking advantage of each and every available option. I also encourage you to share those little tips and tricks with your peers. If you have an idea as to haw to save money or save on freight costs post a comment to my blog. I will share all ideas with the rest of the readers. If you want to know more about diesel fuel costs go to the DOE website located here.

Print Supplier Loyalty - Is it that important?

When I was a buyer the most common theme I heard from my suppliers and my potential suppliers was always about customer loyalty. Suppliers actually measure customer loyalty as an indicator in their business models. But how important is customer loyalty really? From a buyers perspective, suppliers are coming in the office constantly trying to find a way to get their foot in the door. They often times will try just about anything to get just one sale from a new customer.
As sales people, they are being measured on not just the usual volume of sales but also on the number of new customers that are brought in the door. It's called building a book of business and sales people will carry that book of business with them when they go to work for the competition. That is often times why another company hires or recruits sales people from other companies because they are often counting on that book of business. Sales people are always looking for the next opportunity too, so they can increase their salary or commission rate. So when that sales person walks in the door they are trying to build a relationship with you. They would like to be that friend for as long as you are with that company because they are counting on one of two things happening; A) They leave XYZ printers and go to ABC printer, they are counting on the fact that the relationship they have built with you over the years is going to get them a notch on their sales belt under the NEW sales column. B) When you leave ABC marketing company and go to work at XYZ marketing they are hoping that...You guessed it...the relationship they have built with you over the years is going to get them a notch on their sales belt under the NEW sales column.

So I ask...who is the loyalty really with? Often times it is not with the company unless it is niche printing and there are not many companies who can do that work. By the way we are talking about small to medium companies that are the sales reps perfect target. Why? Because they are the ones that are doing business based on relationships. They are single or two and three buyer organizations that do 1 to 2 million in print annually and print is not a core function but an ancillary function.

Keep in mind that I am not talking about the large buying companies because most of the time those relationships are based on analytics there is a director of print that is usually being held to statistical analysis of their print spend and they are always negotiating based on their volumes of print.

So is it about loyalty? To a certain degree it is about loyalty but not to who you think it might be. It is certainly not as much about the printing company as it is about the sales person. So next time that sales person walks in your door and starts talking about loyalty consider who your loyalty is with.

Working on a project with a team in Cross-Wind®

Sometimes projects are big enough that it requires two or more of your teams buyers to work up the specifications. So how do you keep all of the information in one project for tracking and reporting purposes and share that project workload among the rest of the team? In Cross-Wind you can share the project with other team members. Those team members can receive the RFQ response emails as well as the Owner of the project. Ownership of the project can also be reassigned from the Owner list so that a project can be transfered from one Print Buyer to another within the group. To reassign project ownership:
1. From the Project List, locate the project for which you will edit ownership or share with other co-workers.

2. Click the Buyer name listed in the Current Owner column. A pop-up window appears with all
Buyers in the existing group.

3. Attach the Buyer to the project by clicking the check box next to the Buyers name. If you want to transfer ownership of the project, click the radio button next to the Buyer who will become the new project owner. If you reassign ownership of a project, the new owner must also be attached to the project.

4. Click Save. A message appears indicating that your selection was saved.

5. Click Close to return to the project list.

Attaching a Buyer to a project allows the attached Buyer to view and edit the project.
1. From the Project List, locate the project for which you will edit attachment.

2. Click the Buyer name listed in the Current Owner column. A pop-up window appears with all
Buyers in the existing group.

3. Click the check box next to the Buyer who will be attached to the project.

4. Click Save. The project will now appear in the project list of all Buyers who are attached to the
project.

Print Oasis 2008 Exhibitor Opportunities Now Available

Print Oasis 2008 Print Buyers Conference & Exhibit will be held February 9-12, 2008 at the Amelia Island Plantation in Amelia Island, Florida near Jacksonville.

ARLINGTON, VA, September 5, 2007 — Print Buyers Online.com, a free, educational e-community for print buyers, print communications professionals and their suppliers in partnership with Print Communications Professionals International (PCPI), the premier association dedicated to print buyers, will host their annual Print Oasis Print Buyers Conference & Exhibit (www.printoasis.com) on February 9-12, 2008 at the Amelia Island Plantation in Amelia Island, Florida near Jacksonville.

The Print Oasis 2008 Print Buyers Conference & Exhibit is the premier independent conference focused on the needs and challenges of print buyers, specifiers and production professionals. Previous exhibitors have included printers, proofing companies, major technology firms and paper manufacturers.

Extended Exhibit Times
Print Oasis 2008 exhibit times will be extended from Sunday afternoon and evening to all day Monday, concluding with the Paper Show on Monday night. Back by popular demand, compelling mini-educational sessions will be conducted in the Exhibit Hall providing attendees with a fun way to quickly learn the tricks of the trade while promoting traffic on the exhibitor floor.

“We are thrilled to bring our annual conference to the exotic ocean-front destination of Amelia Island Plantation Resort. We are confident that conference attendees and exhibitors will enjoy this exciting locale,” said Suzanne Morgan. The Amelia Island Plantation is Florida's premier AAA-Four Diamond destination island resort. The 1,350 acre property overlooks the blue water of the Atlantic on the east and the green marshland and Intracoastal Waterway on the west. This resort is family friendly and offers many exciting amenities including four championship golf courses, tennis courts, 25 swimming pools, bicycling, fishing, beach rentals, chartered fishing boats, award-winning Youth Programs, nature tours and programs, Health & Fitness Center, aquatic sports, boat tours and The Spa & Shops. Amelia Island Plantation offers beautiful hospitality suites with ocean-views. From fine dining to casual elegance, Amelia’s restaurants offer the finest foods in a variety of atmospheres.

Exhibitors are encouraged to stay for the full conference, as the program allows plenty of opportunities to spend quality time with prospective clients. Exhibitors are invited to develop meaningful relationships by hosting a golf outing, a boat tour, a scavenger hunt, a beach bon-fire or pool party. They can also demonstrate their expertise by presenting a mini-educational seminar in the Exhibit Hall.

Exhibitor Fees
Early-bird exhibit fees start at $3,000 for a standard 10’ x 10’ booth (ending October 31, 2007) or $3,500 thereafter. Table-top exhibits for the popular Monday night Paper show, available to manufacturers and distributors of paper products only, will be $750 for early-bird registration (ending October 31, 2007) or $850 thereafter.

Print Buyers Online.com is also offering its exhibitors the opportunity for year-round promotion by combining online sponsorship of its over 12,000 member e-community or its "Think Fresh" educational web content package with a Print Oasis exhibit. Savvy print suppliers can drive more traffic and repeat visits to their websites by using this innovative web interface tool to educate buyers. Print Buyers Online.com also provides its online sponsors with tremendous exposure and a proven lead generation program. Details are available in the Print Oasis 2008 Exhibitors Prospectus.

Print Oasis 2007 exhibitor, Dan Freedland, V.P. Business Development of Primary Color, Inc. shared his experience at last year’s conference, “Print Oasis is an excellent venue for those wishing to interface with a significant community of qualified print professionals in a condensed time period.”

Booth location and event sponsorship opportunities are all determined on a first-come, first serve basis. Interested exhibitors are encouraged to contact Kimberlee Sautter, Conference Manager, today to guarantee the best spot at (703) 534-9305 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST or via email to ksautter@e-pbo.com. For more information about the conference, please visit www.printoasis.com.

With more than 12,000 members, who purchase over $14.1 billion in printing each year, Print Buyers Online.com is the premiere place for education and information for print buyers. A free, educational e-community, PBO provides tips, articles, Q&As, tools and resources to help print buyers learn new and existing technologies and best practices for the business of working with print suppliers. In addition to providing valuable information, Print Buyers Online.com conducts research to understand the needs and challenges of the print buying community. For a free membership to Print Buyers Online.com, please visit the PBO website.

Print Communications Professionals International (PCPI) - Created by Print Buyers Online.com, PCPI expands the services of PBO by offering robust education, resources and networking opportunities to help professionals who purchase print media provide greater value to their organizations. PCPI encourages best practices to enhance the buying and selling experience and promotes the exchange of information in a non-sales environment. The association also offers advanced certification for print communications professionals. For additional information about PCPI membership, please visit the organization's website.

Cross-Wind® Supplier Training Session

The monthly print supplier training session is scheduled for Thursday September 13, 2007 at 2:30 PM Central Time. This is the regular monthly webinar through LiveMeeting. This session is for Cross-Wind print suppliers to learn new tips and tricks when submitting an RFQ response to your Cross-Wind customers. Qualified suppliers will be receiving their monthly email notification this afternoon containing the link to the LiveMeeting session. If you are a Cross-Wind print supplier and do not receive your email notification check you spam filter or box to make sure the email is there. If it is be sure to white list the sender email address so you will receive these regularly. If you did not receive your email contact me though the email link on this blog and I will be happy to forward the information on to you.

The rest of the years supplier training schedule looks like this:
October - Thursday Oct. 11, 2007 - 2:30 PM Central Time
November - Thursday Nov. 8, 2007 - 2:30 PM Central Time
December - Thursday Dec. 13, 2007 - 2:30 PM Central Time

Editing Supplier Information in Cross-Wind

I got a call tonight from a supplier and I thought this is probably a good time to address this issue. While it is not the most Frequently Asked Question it is up on the list of questions that I get from print suppliers so I will try to explain the edit features for suppliers here.

When a supplier logs into Cross-Wind, they can access their company information by clicking on the "Administration" section in the top navigation bar.

In the Administration section you can edit your company information in the default page. You can edit ALL of the information here and then click the Save button. If you would like to edit the USER information, click on "User Info" in the secondary navigation bar. You can change all of the information in the User Info section and click Save to update the information. This information is used in the RFQ page for contact information for the print buyer and in the supplier address book of the "Resources" section also for the print buyer.

It is a good idea for the print supplier to keep this information up to date for the print buyer so they know who and how to contact your company. This whole process should only take you about 5 minutes. If you have further questions please let me know.

Submitting Print Samples to your Printer

Everybody hates chicken scratch! So why torture your printers with it? Sometimes samples are a necessity when specifying print jobs but take the time to mark up your samples cleanly. The cleaner your samples are the easier it will be for your suppliers to review and provide accurate quotes. I suggest digitizing your samples if at all possible. The price of a cheap scanner is less than the price of a mistake in production because of miscommunication on the sample. If stock or matching ink color is the issue then obviously you need to send a sample but if your concern is the attributes then digitize that sucker and send it out via email, ftp, disk or whatever! Below are examples of a poor sample and a good sample. Put your chicken scratch on a separate sheet of paper and reference the attributes by number or letter. It makes life a lot easier for your printer and for you when referencing. Now obviously there are more sophisticated ways of doing this but if this is all you got then at least make it organized!

Revising Projects in Cross-Wind®

Print Buyers create projects in Cross-Wind. So when a change to a specification is made to a product template AFTER the project has been submitted for RFQ, or another Supplier needs to be added to the quote, the buyer has two options for revision:
1) Revise the RFQ; If the buyer revises the RFQ any responses that have been submitted by suppliers could be lost if those Suppliers are still selected in the list and the "Resend" button is clicked.
2) Revise Project (recommended); If the buyer clicks the "Revise" button on the Project Details page, the entire project is revised allowing the buyer to change specs, add product templates, and add suppliers or resend to suppliers for new pricing. The revise project option allows the buyer to have the original responses and the new responses in separate project to review them separately. This also allows the administrator to have accurate response time tracking for suppliers responses in the Vendor Response Report.

Ink Prices on the Rise

Today the Flint Group North America announced an increase in Ink prices. Flint cited the continuing and unprecedented rise in raw materials, transportation and energy costs as the reason for the increase.
The following inks are affected:
Publication Gravure - 10%
Publication Heatset - 8%
News Ink - 6%
Sheetfed - 5% to 7% depending on product technology and color.
Packaging – up to 12% depending on product technology and color.

Sheetfed buyers...expect these costs to be passed on to you. The increases are set to become effective October 1, 2007.

Flint Group is citing that "the increased global consumption of petroleum and petroleum derivatives, along with limited refinery capacity, continue to be the key drivers in the cost of raw materials" according to Bill Miller, President Flint Group North America.

Link to Press release: http://www.flintgrp.com/FlintGroupPressRelease.nsf/PressRelease/C9544A35B6F7ACA3852573440070F815?OpenDocument

Will XPS replace the PDF?

XPS stands for "XML Paper Specification." XPS is available in Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 07 which is available for Windows XP. XPS architecture is built specifically for the Windows Vista environment but there is a free download available from microsoft called: "Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Redistributable Package" If you are running Office 07 on a Windows XP machine you will want this download to use XPS. You can get the XPS viewer here: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/viewxps.mspx

XPS is designed for use three ways;
As a spool file format the format which documents are submitted to the printer drivers for conversion to PDL.

As a printer command language. Newer printer are being released that support XPS just like PCL or PostScript(r) Language

As a document sharing format; allowing a static, electronic representation of the document to be shared for viewing, collaborative development, proofing, or remote printing.

Advantages and Disadvantages
There are not a whole lot of advantages of XPS as yet as it is new. There are not any disadvantages to it over PDF either. I can say that of course PDF has had ten years of maturity over XPS and is a widely accepted format for both printers and the legal profession. However, if adobe attempts to go down another road like the FedEX/Kinko's fiasco...I would say XPS will at least have the advantage. (and don't think this is the last attempt Adobe will make at this kind of venture) I would guess they are plotting right now as to how they can pull this sort of thing off again. I think at this point PDF has a pretty firm hold on the market. But, don't hold your breath! I think there are some pretty cool things in XPS and based on what I read by Global Graphics I think there may be some cool things to come!

For Printing Companies:
I would start asking your IT departments to look at XPS format and what it will take to start accepting XPS files from your customers. It is coming and I think you should get ahead of this one.

Information regarding XPS: http://www.globalgraphics.com/xps/more.html
XPS downloads: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Redistributable Package for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003
XPS Viewer: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/viewxps.mspx



Sources: American Printer July 07
www.globalgraphics.com
www.microsoft.com

Printers Tag-line

“expert solutions to the publishing world”

"To many of our customers we are more than a print vendor, we are an extension of their print purchasing departments because of our consultative approach to selling and customer service. We don’t just take orders, we help our customers by looking for ways to save them time and money, we remind them when they should be ordering so they don’t miss their mail dates and we help educate them on the most efficient ways to print their materials."


This printer is looking for a new tag-line to describe themselves their tag-line is this...“expert solutions to the publishing world”. Now here is my dilemma in all of this. How many of your printers describe themselves as above? Probably ALL of them "we're more that just a print vendor.....Yada, Yada, Yada!! How many print buyers have heard this? Almost every company in the U.S. says something like this "[puking], [puking]. Print Buyers, just once wouldn't it be refreshing to have a sales rep come into your office and say something like this: "We print [insert item here] and [insert other item here] we try to do our best to deliver your products on schedule and on budget. Sometimes we don't! and when we don't we will try to make it up to you the best way we can. We are humans and sometimes humans mess up! We will try to help you with anything we can but we don't do everything!" I am not saying this printer doesn't deliver what they say...I am saying actions speak louder than words! You shouldn't have to advertise your abilities you should be able to show your abilities. If your that good word will spread Print Buyers are a small but close knit community they know which printers are good and which aren't and if your that good print buyers are not afraid to make recommendations for you.

[rant]I had a supplier that I worked with in the medical field and they would come into my office and instead of trying to give me a bunch of fluff they would say "this is what we can offer you it's the best I can do. If you can find it cheaper somewhere else then buy it from them!" Sometimes they would even come in my office and say; "Here's the price of [product] but I know you can get it from [XYZ Vendor] for cheaper here's the sales reps number give him a call and he will help you out" [end rant]

Now guess who got my business 95% of the time? You got it they did! Why? Because there was no bull about how we are going to help you they actually HELPED me!! It wasn't in a tag-line or mission statement. It was what THEY did for the customer they were trained to provide WOW service to their customers. They were also the ONLY vendor that could come to my office without an appointment. They would just show up and most times they would walk out of my office without a sale in their pocket but if I needed something fast or I needed anything they were the one I called first and always. Bottom line: Cut the crap and treat your customers like they are your friend, neighbor, brother, or sister.

So this company needs a new tag-line how about this; "We will do the best job we can."

This post is dedicated to Zane and Brianna hope things are going well for you!


Excerpt from http://printceoblog.com/2007/08/printing-company-tagline

Print Procurement Questions

I am not going to say that "I am the leading authority on print procurement and print buying." But I will say that If I am asked a question I will find an answer. It may not always be the answer your looking for but I will get an answer. I have had extensive experience in purchasing and as I stated in a previous post the process of purchasing is really not much different between print or an other commodity. Now I said that word, "Commodity". Believe what you will, and I plan to address this further in a later post, print is a commodity. My background in working with both printers and print buyers gives me a unique perspective of hearing both sides objectively as compared to other pundits in the business who have an "either...or" background. I encourage, you to ask me questions. I am not going to give fluffy answers. I will tell you the way I see it or as I have heard it said. If you have a question related to print or print procurement send me an email at: jgangerjt@gmail.com

Buyer VS Print Buyer

When we started designing a web-based print procurement system, I drew from my background as a Purchasing Manager as my knowledge base for design. Now as a good Product Manager I spent time with Print Buyers from all across the country to get an understanding of what print buying was about. Now, after lots of years in purchasing I had a preconceived opinion that print buyers had basically created an aura of mystic around print purchasing, so others in the company would not question what they did and that way their job was secure from other purchasing agents taking it. I must admit today and after countless conversations and interviews with print buyers that theirs is much more specialized than most purchasing agents.
Nevertheless, print buyers can learn a few things from their counterparts in purchasing.

Keep an open mind and look at the purchasing departments process from the 50,000 foot level.
Look at what things look similar to what you are currently doing and then take a hard detailed look at those things they do differently.
Analyze how they would fit into your current process, will they trim time from an already long process?
Experiment, try these things that you think might be of value, and measure the results, (if you need to time the process then do it.)

I had a customer a few years back that the print buyers swore up and down that the way they were buying print WITHOUT a system was faster than with their new system. Management brought in a team of time keepers to sit with the buyers and measure. They would do the project the way they were used to doing it, then they would do the EXACT same job in Cross-Wind. The results even surprised them, they were actually doing the jobs in HALF the time in Cross-Wind versus the OLD way (and it quickly became the OLD way!) The problem was open mindedness, and they readily admitted that they thought it was more complicated doing it through a system rather than filling out the form and faxing or emailing. They also thought it was taking longer to get vendor responses back when really it also was taking less time.
The moral to this little story...Keep an open mind.

If something doesn't work, increases workload or time, then stop doing it! Take the good things from the procurement departments process and toss the rest out with the bath water. In addition, your purchasing manager might find out in the process that print procurement IS different than other types of purchasing and they might even get a deeper respect for your talents! I sure did!

Reverse Auctions the Gold Rush is Over!

Is anybody still using these things? If they are and you are reading this then I guess I am about to stir a hornets nest!

I read probably the best article ever on reverse auctions a couple of months ago By Mohanbir Sawhney at CIO.com called: Reverse Auctions Cutting Costs. In the article he points out the historical facts that the biggest reason these became popular is because GE claimed huge savings by doing them. Mohanbir also points out that Reverse Auctions can be damaging to supplier relationships. I believe most are finding out that this statement is quite true. I have talked with several suppliers who have out and out refused to do reverse auctions and have told even valued, long time customers that they would rather lose the business than participate in a reverse auction. Suppliers are revolting because of the consumption of time involved in responding to a reverse auction. Often times these auctions are open for hours and usually tie up an estimator and a production manager during the entire auction attempting to shave pennies off an already profitless project. Reverse auctions may serve a purpose in industries where there are bloated profit margins. But in the print industry where the profit leaders are netting between 2 and 3 per cent and the rest are lucky to net .5% profits, reverse auctions can be detrimental to a printers business. I know someone will claim they are saving 20% or better on jobs they have quoted using a reverse auction but I would counter that they were probably using the wrong supplier in the first place. The bottom line is you could probably research suppliers, submit and receive well priced quotes in less time than it takes to conduct a reverse auction. I would also venture to guess that you will get comparable pricing with less work on every one's part.

Reverse auctions are a fad in the print industry and fads usually last about 18 months. Is anyone even doing reverse auctions anymore? If you are maybe you should seriously take a look at the time involved in conducting a reverse auction and what suppliers you are quoting with. As a wise man said at Print Oasis in 2005 "Reverse Auctions, I wouldn't do'em"

Selecting Printers - Distance is not Dead

I read an article today by Jim Van Natter saying that "You can find exactly the right printer with the right combination of equipment and services at the right price anywhere in the world. And because the Internet allows instant communication, you can transfer files, view and approve PDF proofs, and place orders without having to actually go to “your printer’s shop.”"*

Now no doubt, the age of the Internet and portable document files and vendor management tools has made it easier to quote and purchase from a wider variety of print suppliers, and making it faster and easier to quote and purchase. However, the cost of freight and the cost of moving that product is still a great concern. If nothing else it makes it easier to have your print buyers located in one office or part of the country and allow them to make print purchasing decisions for another office halfway around the world. So making the statement "Distance is Dead" is not true. With the price of fuel and shipping on the rise print buyers should be focusing on the freight charges from the print supplier to their destinations. Instead of splitting shipping as buyers have done in the past consider splitting production. Can you get smaller amounts of print done by two suppliers for the same amount you could get the whole job done at one supplier. This is where digital print can play a key role. I suggest making freight a primary consideration when looking at how you can cut costs. Do you ask your printer for freight costs? and do you ask them to break out based on split shipments? If you do wonderful! If not start! Looking for an area to cut costs? This is it!

One of my customers came to me several years ago asking that they be able to move the freight charge to the top of their comparison sheet. I was a little confused until they explained that the first thing they consider in purchasing print is the freight charge. Often times they would go with a higher production cost, as long as their freight charges were cheaper. They would then compare that with a contract rate and go with the cheaper shipper. They could then specify to their supplier whether the supplier would pay for shipping or, they would issue a shipping number to them and pay for the shipping themselves. Putting extra attention on the shipping charges actually saved them money in the long run. Much more than it cost to do the extra work. So I conclude that Distance is NOT dead it has shifted from one end of the process to the other.

*Excerpt from Graphic Arts Monthly Blogs - How do prospects choose printers (part-2) By Jim Van Natter

Print Procurement Outsourcing is it all it is cracked up to be?

There are companies that will tell you that print is not your core competency so why are you spending money to procure print when you will save money outsourcing that function. Well with that mentality why just stop at print why not outsource ALL of your procurement? What these companies are telling you is that they know how to spend your money better than you do so let them spend it for you. I want you to know that these companies are feeding you a great line. Never the less, a line. You may even hear that outsourcing is the trend. But for every company that you can name that is moving to outsourcing I can name a company that is pulling sourcing back in house. I talked to another company today in the wireless industry that has just terminated an outsource contract and is pulling print procurement back in-house. Why? because the promises of saving big dollars are unfulfilled promises. The key to sourcing either out or in, is about process, efficiencies, and compliance. The reason these companies think they can do better is because they have focused on the process to improve the efficiencies. It is about working smarter not harder! In some cases it is about paying substandard wages to inexperienced buyers and giving them a tool to do the job of two experienced buyers. Their training consists of take the request, enter the data, and the machine will spit out three prices, give the customer the lowest price, don't worry about who is printing the job or the quality just send the job to them when you get the approval. Heck if all your looking for is bottom line price on every job Hire Me! I will even give you a guarantee that I WILL save you money don't ask about the quality and don't ask about delivery. Let's talk about a Pyramid commonly used in business and let's put a twist to it.
Let's call it the outsource triangle:

Now the game is you pick one and I get to pick two...Oh you want to pick two OK pick two...I pick one! Either way this is a losing proposition, You pick Price and Delivery, that means I get to choose Quality. Oh you want Quality and Delivery, That's fine...I get Price and you will pay for it. You want ALL THREE? Sorry it doesn't work that way in outsourcing! It doesn't work that way with in-sourcing either the difference is YOU KNOW what you are getting, how much it will cost to get, when you want it, and the way you want it. The difference is in-sourcing YOU make the decision, and it has to be a conscious one. Business owners and CEO's are entrepreneur's, they are constantly thinking about and making decisions that will impact their bottom line. And, if they make poor decisions their business will fail. I challenge you as a print buyer or print director to think like an entrepreneur, think about that buy decision as if YOU owned the company. Is the decision I am making the best decision I can make for my company? Will I get a paycheck at the end of the week if I go with company A over company B because I like the sales rep? Yeah, his price is higher but at lunch yesterday he told me how his kid needs braces and poor Junior may not be popular without straight teeth. Stop worrying about their business, worry about yours! They won't care when your CEO comes in and tells all of you that they are moving to an outsource company and that you will have to apply for a job with them or go do a job in the mail room that you left 15 years ago when you were an intern and oh yeah that comes with a pay cut! Is that Sales Rep going to be knocking on your door offering to share his commission check with you? You'll be lucky if you can get him to answer your voice mails. If you treat your job like your an owner of the company and make decisions like a responsible owner would I think you would find that your job will be just fine and your boss will even be able to give you a raise because they will see the value you can bring to the company.

OK, now some outsourcing company is going to tell you; YOU CAN HAVE ALL THREE! Well what they are doing is not rocket science and they are thinking like a business owner that needs to make good business decisions. They will balance the triangle on one of it's points and they will make trade offs where they can. Some jobs will come in with poor quality, but not enough that will make you complain. Some jobs will come in higher priced than you expected but not enough to make you complain. Other jobs will come in late delivery, but not enough that you complain. Seeing the pattern? Most outsourcing companies can be successful because they have put process efficiencies in place such as sourcing and vendor management systems that reduce the time to production, they also have vendor agreements that they fall back on that they guarantee certain volumes of print to certain suppliers in exchange for "Rebates" or some like to call these kickback's (but that's such a dirty word).

The best recommendation I can give any company is take a long hard look at your vendor base.
Who are you doing business with?
Are there companies that can do more of the jobs thereby eliminating a vendor or two?
If I offer them a guarantee of work can I get better pricing?
Can I get "Rebates"?

The right suppliers are willing to give rebates or even price reductions because they now know where their next job is going to come from and they know that you are guaranteeing work to them so that now they are going to be able to make payroll. See, they are in the same boat as you and they know you need to spend money and they need to spend money as well, it's just nicer knowing up front how much you are going to make in the next year before you need to budget.

The biggest thing to remember as a company is that either way you are paying money, so why do you want to pay an outsource provider to do exactly what you can do and probably cheaper than the outsource provider? If the outsource provider wasn't making money do you really think they would offer a service like this? You can do this yourself it is not that hard if you have the print buyers in place now you really need to pay attention to the process and how to make the print buyer more efficient. Give them the tools to do what an outsource provider does and you will make them more efficient.

Offset Printing for the Print Buyer

I found this video on YouTube and thought it worthwhile to share. It is more informative and knowledge based than an advertisement for the company. Never the Less I think they did a pretty good job of explaining the basics from a printer perspective. Good Job!!

The Greening of Print Buying

As with all things print buyers should be conscientious of the environment and the impact print products have on the environment. Here is a resource to help print buyers in making more "Green" decisions. http://www.mn-ei.org/policy/printbuyer.html

The topics in this guide include:
Design for Environment and Pre-press Technologies
Paper Issues
Ink Composition
Overprint Coatings
The Finishing Touches
Choosing a Printer
The Blue Ribbon Task Force on Print Buying

This guide comes from the Minnesota Environmental Initiative.

Marketing Materials Spend Survey

Aberdeen Group is conducting a survey for an upcoming report based on marketing material spends and are asking for corporate respondents. By participating, they are offering a complimentary copy of the report. This is a great opportunity to get an understanding of your spend against other companies. I believe it is worth the extra 15 minutes of your day.

The survey is located here: http://www.aberdeen.com/survey/pm/

According to their site:
This survey covers corporate spend on marketing with a focus on marketing materials and related services. The purpose of this survey is to better understand procurement's involvement in this category of spend.

All survey participants will receive a complimentary copy of the resulting benchmark report on September 4, 2007.

Specification Gathering in Print Procurement

When purchasing print the key to getting what is desired is the specifications that are provided to the supplier. I will try to walk through the specification process. When specifying a print job two key elements can make the Quoting process go smoothly, Good Specifications, and Samples. (we will discuss samples in another post) Specifying the job is usually done through some sort of interview process. This process can be a formal or informal interview.

Formal Interview

The formal interview is conducted by asking a series of questions designed to get the job specs. This is usually performed as a meeting or phone interview in which the print buyer gleans the specification for the job from the requester (customer). A series of questions is usually on some sort of formal document or an experienced buyer may know the questions that need to be asked. I caution even the most veteran of buyers that "off the top of the head" is not the wisest way to gather specifications from a customer. Most of the time this can make a customer quite nervous about the overall outcome of the job being produced. If this is an external customer they may lose confidence and will walk away unsure if all of the information was gathered no matter how confident you may appear. I recommend using or at least have a form in front of you during the interview process. Whether you actually use it or not, having it out on the table will give the customer more confidence in your ability. It often times can be used as a prompt for your questions or to at least ensure that you have gathered all of the pertinent information. The drawback to a formal interview is that they can be time consuming and if you are like most buyers your days are pretty full already and it may be a couple of days to schedule and complete the interview. Often times the customer either perceives they do not have time or they REALLY don't have time before they need the job completed. A personal side note; I found blocking an hour per day off on my calendar will allow me time to do those urgent interviews and still get my work done for the day. The formal interview can also be conducted as a survey form that is submitted to the customer. I highly recommend this form either as a complete or as a preliminary to a meeting. This will give the customer an opportunity to answer at least the questions that they know and will expedite your meeting. In the formal meeting you simply need to review the answered questions and help the requester understand the unanswered ones.

Informal Interview

The informal interview is usually conducted by way of email, phone, fax, or sending a sample with chicken scratch all over it and your expected to interpret (my favorite). Any way you get these requests they can be time consuming and often key items can be missed. The buyer and customer usually go back and forth either by email or phone calls over and over. Usually, additional questions are prompted by suppliers after the buyer has submitted the RFQ and then you're putting undue delay on the project because you either have to guess at what the answers are or go back to the customer again and ask. This also does not give your customer a warm fuzzy feeling that they are going to get what they want.

I am a firm believer in the formal interview process and have found that it can be used in almost any industry. When I worked in the medical field I would use this strategy when working with a team of medical specialists wanting the latest and greatest medical device. Whether I knew how the piece of equipment worked or not was beside the point I could usually go to a potential suppliers web site and at least get the pertinent questions from the listed product specification information or from their marketing information. An hour of reading often times saved me three or four hours of back and forth questioning.

Building the interview form

When building an interview form I suggest creating one for each of the specific types of items you may purchase and to use them as templates. The reason for separate templates is because the questions you ask for an envelope job are going to be different than questions for a continuous form. No reason to know number of pages on an envelope! I challenge those buyers not using a template when interviewing to try it and see if the reaction you get from your customer changes. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the reaction of your customers.

Was this helpful? I am always open for recommendations as to how to make this better and I invite those of you using a formal interview process to post your thoughts.

Daily Data Back-ups?

Reading a press release this morning regarding a companies "net" version application, the highlight of their release was "Data backed-up daily." Which quite frankly concerned me. When working with any software application most users are accustomed to an auto save feature which in essence is just like a back-up for an unsaved document. If I am working on a document and something happens like a power failure I usually get a recovered document, which picked up everything from the last auto save. Data servers can be configured similarly providing a back up to the last auto save. For instance, our data servers are configured to auto save to the last 9 minutes 59 seconds which means any data published 10 minutes ago will be backed-up. Now some would argue that even a ten minute back-up is too long so you have to consider what is best for your data. When making that consideration while all of us think that our data is extremely vital you need to consider what would happen to your business if you lost the last ten minutes worth of data or the last days worth of data. Data recovery is huge as well so off site storage is always a factor to consider...after the data is backed up where are the back-ups being stored? Believe me this as well can be an entire volume of questions and processes to consider as well however, a good rule of thumb, (I believe) is to make sure the data is being stored off site in a secure environment. Usually a specialized data vault of some sort built in a hardened environment to withstand severe weather is adequate. The biggest consideration should be; off-site, secured, hardened, and proper storage conditions. Any reputable hosting facility should have these kinds of storage available and be sure to ask.
Data recovery is also an issue so be sure to ask how long after a catastrophe will the application and the data be back in operation?
In my humble opinion, a daily back-up in today's environment is frankly not a strong selling point to me. I think most company's are looking for their data to be backed up more regularly than daily and they are looking for quick recovery times.

My First Blog

Hello,

This is my first blog so forgive me if my first posts are not quite up to par. I am a Product Manager at James Tower. We are a web development and hosting company located in North Mankato, Minnesota. I am not a marketing manager or sales person so I will in no way try in this blog to give you anything more than what I believe in. Hopefully I can provide some insight into print procurement for print buyers. A little of my background...I was a purchasing manager at a large clinic facility and a materials management specialist for a large emergency services company. Both companies had operations throughout the United States. Prior to that I was a Fire Captain and Paramedic in a large metropolitan area in Arizona (Past Life). As I go along with this blog I will try to provide some insight into print buying and procurement as well as information that may help Cross-Wind users. If you have questions I encourage you to contact me either via email or post a comment.

John