Cross-Wind® uses Flex to manage the project list

Good Morning,
Often times users are not really concerned with what technology or programming language is being used on their system as long as it works. Well sometimes your computer is not "up" on the latest technology and so sometimes your system is working but your computer isn't working with the system. We have had a few calls in recent days saying that when a user logs into Cross-Wind they can see the header of the page and then a blank page below. The reason for this is that Cross-Wind uses a technology called "Flex" and in order to use this you need to do a minor download that you have probably down a few times before but never realized it. Flex requires that your computer has flash player 9 installed in order to view the project list page. So if your a user and login to see a "Blank" page, go to: http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash
And download the latest version of flash player 9.

Fuel prices impacting print spend?

Appended:
I apparently wrote this before the DOE announced the National average of $3.39 per gallon yesterday afternoon so the news gets better and better! The message is still the same just even more urgent than last week.

According to the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration, Fuel prices are up 32% over this time last year. From an April 2007 average price of $2.36 per gallon to $3.11 per gallon this week. Diesel Prices currently average $3.95 per gallon up 111 cents since this time last year. Cost of shipping is definitely on the rise, paper is heavy and costly to ship, both to the printer and to the consumer. At the same time personal income has only rose 0.9% in the same period. Companies are taking a hard look at how to cut costs and anything involving freight charges will be scrutinized heavily.

Now is the time to be evaluating print production costs and focus heavily on freight charges.
What is freight costing?
Can I get a better freight cost at the expense of production costs?
Am I better served producing a job closer to the delivery destination?

If you don't have strategic suppliers providing you with cost effective print; YOU ARE LOSING MONEY. No question about it at this point. I would also heavily consider which jobs can be split to make production closer to destination so if you are split shipping consider split production. Ask your suppliers where they are producing if they have multiple facilities and challenge them if they are producing in a plant further from the destination than another plant. Now is not the time to let your suppliers dictate. I believe that the breaking point is very close. The word "Recession" is getting used daily on the news. I heard from a colleague today that his company is now on a hiring freeze. Companies are looking for cost effective ways to measure and source print spend consider looking at sourcing solutions that can help you evaluate based on these and other criteria.

Change is a GOOD thing?

Change
The seasons change, styles change, presidents change, companies change, processes change. Everything changes, it is how we handle change that makes or breaks us. If you do not handle change well the the print industry is probably NOT the place for you. Changes have been occurring since the first printing press. Almost immediately people started to recognize the value and how they could improve upon it. Of course print buying is much the same in that things are constantly changing. In a pre-recessionary environment companies are looking hard at being efficient and saving money where they can sometimes spending money will make you more efficient and that is a hard concept to grasp. More and more companies are looking these days at how technology and systems in general can help improve efficiency and what it will save them.

We are making changes as well to make our technology more efficient to help print buyers be even more efficient. We have made changes to our project list page to allow users to drag and drop projects and to view pertinent information without having to open the project, giving the print buyer the ability to quickly scan a project and be more up to date. In the coming months we are adding reminder and messaging capabilities to allow the buyer to communicate more directly and quicker with their suppliers. We have even made changes to our website; www.cross-wind.com and we will continue to make changes because our customer base demands that we improve. If you are not riding the wave of change you will certainly find yourself under it. So let's go Surfin!!