For more Information please visit our web portal.

Monday, December 29, 2008

PEiR Group Member "In The News"



We were really pleased to hear that Kevin O'Hea and our friends at Academy Reprographics in New Mexico have been selected as one of the "Best Places to Work" in "The Land of Enchantment!"

Academy was honored in a contest sponsored by the New Mexico Business Weekly Magazine, in which nominated companies were judged by their employee policies, culture, and compensation.

Academy was ranked No. 7 of what turned out to be thousands of applicant companies, scoring 93.79 out of a possible 100 points. Academy has 16 employees in its two Albuquerque stores.

"There are many great companies in the New Mexico, but this award speaks volumes about the caliber of our employees who thrive on the value of teamwork," Academy President and CEO Kevin O'Hea told Wide Format Imaging Magazine. "We work hard, play hard and have a passion for what is important to our customers."

The Best Places to Work in New Mexico is an annual awards program that pinpoints the top 40 companies in the state. The ranking was based entirely on the anonymous responses of company employees, who must have completed an online, multiple choice questionnaires that tabulated their level of satisfaction with their jobs, their confidence in the future prospects of the company, trust in co-workers, manager effectiveness, work engagement, compensation and whether they felt valued in the company.

Here's a PEiR Group "Congratulations!" to Kevin and his team for this very much deserved recognition.

The PEiR Group

Monday, December 22, 2008

The PEiR Group Team


Happy Holidays from your friends at the PEiR Group

PEiR Makes A Resolution For The New Year...

By Shaun Meany
The PEiR Group

It has been some year, hasn’t it? Peaks and valleys, twists and turns, and crocodiles waiting at every bend in the river for someone to make that one, critical misstep!

Many of you are actively looking for ways to reduce your costs in order to meet next year’s expected revenues and profits. This is a necessary exercise that every business owner (manager) needs to do if she/he hopes to survive. However, it is extremely important that you evaluate each area of cuts and to be sure that the cuts you make do not jeopardize your opportunities for the future; when the economy begins to climb out from the bottom of the economic cycle.

One obvious case in point where making cuts might actually backfire is your investment in technologies. More often than not investments in proven technologies can actually help you reduce costs and at the same time create opportunities for generating new revenues. An example of these technologies might be new printers like the KIP 80 or Océ Arizona 350 GT or the Colorwave 600. Another proven technology investment that can cut costs and grow revenues would be a web based document management solution – like PlanWell.

But technology is not the only area where prudent investments will turn to benefits in these challenging economic times. Take your investment in the PEiR Group. Every member has access to a host of valuable resources to help them manage their business for maximum profitability. Our vendor programs (over 44 vendors) are here to help you reduce costs in new equipment, supplies, freight and other reprographics items.

Our growing “best practices” library has information on how to charge for digital services, strategies for managing your business in a recession, how to sell digital services, develop an FM strategy, HR and Employee Benefits services, safety programs, and more. Of course, you have to participate and use these services. But if you do, you will actually cuts costs and, at the same time, keep up with the trends and practices that your peers are using to gain market share, and revenues, and ultimately reasonable profits – even in an economy like this one.

The PEiR Group is committed to helping our members succeed in the both the best and in the worst of times! A new service we began offering in 2008 was our one-on-one coaching. This personalized program allows you to work directly with our staff to discuss your particular company’s needs. Whether it is PlanWell training, Finance, HR, Sales training, Sales and Marketing strategies we will work to transfer our best practices to your company and its employees. Many of our members have already been the recipients of this new service – and it is paying off.

Think about it. Wouldn’t you think your architects, engineers and contractors are looking for ways to reduce costs and to do things more efficiently and effectively? Don’t you think they are looking at reprographic costs? Don’t you think they are trying to look at ways to reduce those expenses? I can assure you they are.

So what can you do now to position your company for the new environment that we can expect to unfold in the near future?

Your customers need to be reminded of the services you offer. They need to be shown the advantages of proven technologies and how these technologies can be applied to lower operating costs and at the same time offer opportunities to grow revenues and profits.

As the new year approaches and the crocodiles appear to be getting nastier – and hungrier – allow me to offer this personal commitment to all of our member in 2009: The PEiR Group promises to bring all of the considerable resources we have to offer to help its members meet the challenges of this new economy head-on, and to show you strategies that will not only help you survive but to actually thrive.

That’s my promise. My resolution for the New Year.

By the time we’re done with them those crocodiles will be running for cover, we’ll be stronger for coming through tough times together, and we’ll all be able to look at the future squarely in the eye and say: “We’re ready for you.”


With best wishes for 2009,


Shaun

Sunday, December 21, 2008

PEiR Group Webinars...










Sign-up for Educational Webinar’s

In an effort to bring maximum value to our members, the PEiR Group will be hosting a minimum of one Webinar each month on issues pertaining to the reprographic industry. To kick off this campaign, The PEiR Group will present two Webinar’s in January 2009.

Sign-up for the Webinar’s are below:

Document Management Webinar
Date: Thursday Jan 8, 2009
Time: 10am Pacific Time

Click HERE to sign-up:

Agenda:

• What is Document Management?
• EDMS (Electronic Document Management System)
–Components and Features
–Benefits
• How to Position Your Company as a Document Management Solutions Company
• Target Industries and Applications
• Q&A



Financial Management Webinar
Date: Thursday Jan 22, 2009
Time: 10am Pacific Time


Click HERE to sign-up:


Thank You!

Shaun Meany
PlanWell and The PEiR Group
shaunm@planwell.com
925-658-0215

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Calling all PEiR Members!

PEiR Group Note: Great response, folks, thanks! So many of you have gotten back to us we overloaded the survey function! We appreciate your time and will be adjusting this so we can continue to hear your thoughts. Thank YOU!

In an effort to make the upcoming Executive Conference in March even more valuable to our members, we’d like all PEiR Group people to participate in a short, 10 question survey.

And, just to show you we know your time is valuable, we're giving everyone who responds a $10 Starbucks Gift Card.

You can find the survey HERE.

Many of you have already taken the time to respond to us and we’re grateful for that - we look forward to hearing from the rest of you… and seeing you all in March!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

"Oh, The Weather Outside is Frightful..."




By The PEiR Group

Tough winter weather conditions made life miserable for delivery people and shop owners this week as a pre-Christmas blitz of icy cold and snow blasted the Northwest, Midwest, and north-eastern portions of the nation.

A blustery winter storm front left a trail of slickened roads, darkened power grids and downed trees as it moved from Seattle into Maine.

Reprographers in the affected area kept generators close at hand, cautioned their drivers to be extra careful while on the road and did everything they could to make it “business as usual” for their customers. Two feet of snow fell in the Northwest, with Boston seeing similar amounts and a second front bringing more snow early this week.

Hard-hit towns from Ohio to Michigan took unusual steps to keep their roads open, in one case using a donated shipment of garlic salt donated by a local pizza manufacturer to extend dwindling reserves of road salt.

Apparently, the “garlic combo,” worked just fine.

If your shop was affected by this sub-zero cold snap, drop in a “comment” below and tell us how you fared.

Charles D. "Chuck" Hayes, 1956-2008


Point of View and the PEiR Group would like to extend their deepest sympathies to the family of Chuck Hayes, a leader in our chosen industry and the sort of man who left an indelible impression on you if you were lucky enough to meet.


PEiR Group President Shaun Meany said Chuck "was the guy I went to to learn about FMs" and Chuck was lecturing on that very subject as recently as last year, when he spoke at a PEiR Group conference.


Chuck will be missed. We join countless others around our industry in sending our best wishes to his family.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

First "PlanWell U" Gets An "A" From Attendees...















By Shaun Meany
The PEiR Group

Last week we had the pleasure of hosting the first-ever PlanWell University for PEiR Group Members.

Members flew in from all corners of the country to attend this intense two day, hands-on school. Joining me as instructors for what we quickly dubbed "PlanWell U" was veteran mentor Dan Davis, PlanWell Trainer Ross Gage, PlanWell Manager and Director of Technical Support Arvind Saxena and Demetrius Wallace respectively, as well as PlanWell Training Consultant, Roberto Roque.














We used a combination of lecture and hands-on assignments to deliver the training and there was a definite buzz as "students" grouped into project teams to tackle their assignments. We centered on a fictitious civic center project that was going out to bid. It required that each team post the project’s bid documents to a separate GC’s planroom. Students learned how to create their own projects and add drawings, specs and project users. After completing the project set-up they were required to send project notifications to subs using both the package notification and BidCaster features. Many of the students commented that they had never seen the full workflow before - creation of the project at the shop level, logging in as a project user and performing the various PlanWell functions (placing orders, updating the project address book, creating packages and sending notifications).

In our planning we knew we would have students with various levels of PlanWell experience. In order to ensure that each team would be successful, we were careful to assign both experienced and inexperienced users to each team.

Feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Many wanted more hands-on time but also were mindful that the school was developed to cover the complete project workflow and that we had to move along pretty fast to cover all of the material.

In addition to learning how to use PlanWell in the production and users environment we had a chance to take the students over to the PlanWell Data Center and show them the resources behind the PlanWell product.

When the "teachers" can say they had a good time you know you've had a successful session, and we heard just that from trainers and students alike. We'll be adding comments from class evaluations taken after the session, look for them in the "comments" section we'll post at right and find out what your colleagues are saying.

All in all, we enjoyed the experience, felt that everyone benefited from the experience and saw the glow of appreciation and greater understanding on the faces of those who attended.

It was great for us, too. We're so glad you were all able to join us!

Looking forward to more of the same,


Shaun Meany
The PEiR Group

Monday, December 15, 2008

Scholarships for "Children of the Industry"











By The PEiR Group

After an awful lot of hard work, too many phone calls to count and the generosity of several of the biggest names in our industry, the CREST Foundation is set to announce 10 recipients of its first scholarship awards later this month.

In all, the Foundation will award $100,000 to assist qualified, deserving students across the country.

More than 50 applications for the 2008/2009 academic year were received from every region of the United States following the launch of the Foundation earlier this year. The applications represent the children of employees from firms belonging to the IRgA, as well as the WRA, CRA, ERRA/SRA, ReproMax, PEiR Group, and RSA.

Applicants were ranked and scored based on academic achievements, financial need, extra awards, honors, work, relevant experiences, a personal essay, and references.

CREST Foundation (Children of Reprographics Employees Scholarship Trust) awards are funded by the generous donations of individuals, reprographic companies, industry vendors and financial institutions. This year’s recipients were chosen by the CREST Foundation’s Selection Committee whose members include industry veterans Bill Thomas, Mike Carter, Cathleen Cushing Duff, John Deermount, and Miguel Garcia.

Announcements for the 2009/2010 application process will be made in January 2009.

For more information, visit the CREST Foundation website at www.crestfoundation.org, or contact the Foundation by clicking HERE.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Océ Fast-Tracks Aspiring Authors










By The PEiR Group

Who hasn't harbored the fantasy of holing up in their office with a great idea, a pot of strong coffee, and a desire to see their name in print?

Getting published is tougher than ever, these days, but a bit easier for 45 middle and high school students from 15 different School District of Palm Beach County schools - thanks to Océ.

The students participated in the third annual Océ Future Authors Project summer writing workshop, where they compiled poetry, short stories and essays into a book they named, "Confessions of a Teenage Author."

Océ used their VarioStreama 8000 printers and PRISMAa workflow software to print the book.

Océ created the program in partnership with the Palm Beach County school district and with support from local backers. During the eight-day workshop, the students learned about writing, editing, and digital book publishing. Certified teachers provided instruction, with additional insight provided by Océ executives and published authors, Margaret Ahnert, James O. Born, Jonathon King, Ray Gosa, Sally Ling and Dr. Laurence Miller.

Océ executives predict that digital book printing and publishing technology will open up more opportunities for aspiring writers. "Digital printing technology for books is revolutionizing the industry and fueling trends like self-publishing, creating exciting opportunities for new talent - like these young, aspiring authors -to pursue their dreams," says Océ Vice President of Marketing Services Sheryl Pattek.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Canon Golden Eagle Spiffs Increase for December 2009

Member Alert from The PEiR Group:


Canon has increased the Golden Eagle spiff amounts for all 36" and larger model printers for the month of December.

October and November sales will receive the original point values.

There are some great deals to be had out there right now and we'll do our best to bring them all to your attention. Let us know if we can help in any way.

Otherwise, give Frank DeMartino at Canon a call at (847)571.0005.

PlanWell University Draws A Crowd















Early photos of last week's "PlanWell University" in Fremont, CA.

If you've called The PEiR Group about PlanWell recently, you've probably talked to one or more of these "PEiR Pros."

From Left: Nicole Sisneros, John Bidwell, and PlanWell training consultant Roberto Roque.

Look for our story, and more photos of the gathering in Fremont, on these pages. And thanks for coming!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Lone Star Repro Wins "Service Provider of the Year" Honors



The PEiR Group sends its heartiest congratulations to Bob Mockert, Jr. and the team at Lone Star Reprographics in San Antonio, honored as "Service Provider of the Year" for the third year in a row by the local chapter of Associated General Contractors.

Lone Star Reprographics, Inc. has been in operation since 1986 and attributes its success to the firm's commitment to customer service and satisfaction.

The San Antonio chapter of the Associated General Contractors honored Lone Star Repro and other recipients of its annual construction awards during an AGC gathering early last month.

Jay Young, Lone Star's "One Man Marketing Division," says business continues to roll along in their part of South Texas, despite the market downturn.

"There's no secret recipe to it," he says. "We work hard to serve our customers and they appreciate what we bring to the table. Relationships are key to what we do. We've been at this for 22 years, we're a small shop, but our approach to the business works for us."

Monday, December 1, 2008

The Holidays: A Good Time To Say “Enough”


By Shaun Meany, The PEiR Group

Put down the newspapers for a bit. Rise above the Doom and Gloom. We’re in a new market environment, guys, without a doubt, but good things are happening within the industry and hope for better times looms on many fronts.

I’m a realist, but enough is enough. The Holidays may be a good time to put our collective foot down and say – loud and clear – that while times are indeed tough, the era will belong to those among us who plan accordingly and continue to come up with the innovations and business practices it will take to see us through.

This “mentalidad,” or committed way of thinking, has taken root. I’ve seen it as I travel across the country, talking with business leaders and those in the trenches.

The presidential election is over and the country holds its collective finger in the air, waiting to see which way the wind blows. I say, let’s grab the bull by the horns and push forward, as a nation, just as we have done successfully for decades.

Everywhere we look we see projections of where our business is going, not many of them positive, and that tone is reflected during conversations with some among us. But I don’t want to talk about that anymore. I want to change perception and start talking positively as America calls upon the “best of the best” to help lead this country and alter its policies for the better.

You can accept the negative spin to what’s happening or reposition your thinking and take a more positive approach. And many of you are doing that this Holiday Season, taking a proactive stance and preparing your company to meet what’s ahead of us in the coming year.

The key right now: ratchet down expenses, get rid of deadwood, reduce inventory, cut your maintenance costs and find ways to bill for services you may have been giving away.

Success outside of AEC is rampant, and it is coming to those who look for it. The goal is to stay close to the customer, find new ways to market ourselves to meet the customer’s needs. At the end of the day there’s still a trillion dollar industry out there, those of us bent on getting our fair share of it will take the necessary steps to do so.

Along with my best wishes for this Holiday Season please accept my pledge for a renewed relationship between The PEiR Group and your business. We’re starting a number of new services we know will be of value to you in the weeks to come and will give you more details on these pages as we move ahead.

Best wishes to you and to your businesses and families this Holiday,


Regards,

Shaun Meany

Industry Self-Analysis From The UK





By The PEiR Group




British printers believe that attracting more business in the coming year will be the key challenge for the reprographics industry.

Results of a British Association for Print & Communication (BAPC) association survey won’t come as much of a news flash for U.S. counterparts, but it does demonstrate that our colleagues overseas are looking for ways to identify and overcome challenges for the looming New Year.

The “attract more business” finding echoed the results of a similar sampling conducted last year, but the perceived remedies jumped dramatically in importance as UK printers are driven to find immediate solutions to a drop in their business.

Improving staff performance, reducing operating costs, and boosting productivity and efficiency all shot up the BAPC list this year as printers struggled to match output and input costs in 2009.

Last year's number two, retaining existing business, dropped to number 10 in the list while last year's number three, fighting falling margins, fell to seventh place on the list of top concerns.

"This survey shows that printers are worried about the economic climate in 2009," Sidney Bobb, BAPC chairman, told PrintWeek. "It is interesting that improving staff performance is so high this year - to do this, printers will need to invest in training."

Monday, November 24, 2008

Stone-Tapert Introduces “MyWave HR”


By John Bidwell, The PEiR Group

PEiR Group vendor Stone-Tapert is always looking for innovative products and value-added services to ensure PEiR Group members satisfaction. As a result, Stone-Tapert is excited to introduce to you MyWave HR, a Web combining efficiency with user-friendly tools we think will streamline your everyday work tasks.

This service is designed with you in mind, offering the benefits and HR content and functionality you need. With this new tool you can:

 Access an exclusive set of comprehensive guides full of federal legislation including COBRA, HIPAA, HIPAA Privacy, Section 125, and FMLA.

 Download materials including articles, brochures, forms, and charts covering a variety of industry-specific topics that can be sourced when you need them.

 Share resources and information with thousands of industry peers.

 Receive, download, and collaborate on documents with our agency.

 Access hundreds of insurance, human resource, and wellness Web sites, all from the convenience of your MyWave HR home page.

 Provide comprehensive, health-related information, in ready-to-print newsletters to your employees helping them make smart and informed healthcare, consumer-related decisions.

This service is offered by Stone-Tapert at no charge to PEiR Group members. I encourage you to review the program overview on the PEiR Group Web site. Please contact the PEiR Group (925-658-0200) to receive your login information, so you can begin using it immediately! And be sure to contact me with any questions you may have or if you would like to set up a one on one presentation. As always, thank you for your continued business!

Sincerely,

John Bidwell
PlanWell and The PEiR Group
johnb@planwell.com
925-658-0215

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

PEiR Member In the News: Brentwood Repro


Roger Strauss, owner of Brentwood Repro in Brentwood, CA, was looking for a good way to show his support for Americans serving in combat theaters overseas when he found an organization with a very direct link to the troops - Blue Star Moms.

Taking their name from the pennants that used to hang (and still do hang in some cases) in the windows of families with sons or daughters in uniform, the Blue Star Moms needed places people could drop off necessities our troops have requested for use in the field.

Roger stepped up with other local business leaders and volunteered the use of his Walnut Boulevard location, also volunteering to print the posters for the drive. Dropoffs have been "brisk" since word got out, with supporters coming by with everything a lonely soldier might need. And Roger has insight into that, having served as a career Marine Corps officer with a tour of duty in Iraq in 2004-05 under his belt.

"I remember all the support people at home showed us back then," he says. "It's a very quiet way of saying 'we're with you' and it meant a lot to us. We're very happy to be able to participate in this current effort... knowing what it will mean to someone on the receiving end."

The drive runs through Dec. 6, when all donations are collected and sent overseas in time for the Holidays. Most requested items? DVDs (new or used, apparently it doesn't matter), drink mixes, beef or turkey jerky, coffee, batteries, duct tape... and mail. Lots of mail.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Guest Speaking Gigs, Are You Missing an Opportunity?



By The PEiR Group

Not long ago we had occasion to attend an evening seminar hosted by our local chamber of commerce. The speaker for the evening was billed as an “expert in his field” and as a “widely respected speaker.”

The upshot? He was awful, but we couldn’t help but notice how he commanded the attention of a rather large crowd who apparently believed in his accolades enough to seek him out afterwards, exchanging business cards and pleasantries.

What, I thought, could a real speaker do with such an audience? While many of our members have accepted an invitation to speak before friendly, hometown crowds – we couldn't help but think that an opportunity may exist for trained speakers to spread the word about their shop to non-AEC audiences.

Getting the right people in the room is often the problem, as anyone who has tried to do it knows. But local groups are constantly seeking speakers for their programs, and many – from church groups to local chamber of commerce luncheons – include audience members with impressive résumés who are there to be impressed themselves.

There are many stories of long-term business relationships being forged after chance encounters at a local Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

As one of our members puts it: "I don't have as much time to commit to public speaking as I used to, but I believe those early engagements were a big part of how I grew my business in its early years.”

What if you're just getting started or looking for a fresh approach? Companies all over your town are looking for speakers, especially during tough economic times when their budgets – and speaker availability – is low.
Potential topics include your shop's use of technology; your “Green Program;” or how the use of technology can make business more efficient – and profitable. Keep your talk broad and do not preach about your business or its core competencies. Be professional, but friendly and approachable.

Ask your host if you can leave a few business cards behind. You’d be surprised how often someone has given a talk and gotten a call from someone two, three… five weeks later. Very often they say: "you may not remember me, but you talked to our group about remote printing. My company has this project we think you can help us with…”

Friday, November 14, 2008

Signups Almost Over for PlanWell University...


You've only a few days left to sign up for PlanWell University... don't get left out in the cold!

Date: Dec 4-5, 2000
Place: Fremont (cal) Marriott
Start Time: 9:30am

PlanWell University is an intensive two day, hands-on class dedicated to instruction on the operation and functions of PlanWell Enterprise, BidCaster and EWO. When this class is completed, you will be able to easily obtain certification on the PlanWell Enterprise system. This class will be tailored to each individual.

To sign-up, please click the link at right to complete the registration form and Attendee Profile Sheet.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Good Stories Need To Be Told - Tell Yours!




Some Tips from The PEiR Group



A lot of people see reporters as scheming, conniving members of a slavering wolfpack who would do anything for story.

And you'd be partly right. Most self-respecting reporters
would do anything for a story. If you're smart - you'll
give them one. Yours.

We frequently talk with members frustrated by their seeming inability to get "the word" out about their business, about how it works and about how the industry works as a whole.

The right exposure may lead to new business, contact from prospective customers, and leads. Sitting on your hands gets you nothing. You're going to have to reach out... you may not always succeed, but eventually an editor is going to spot what you have to say and assign a reporter to help tell it.

Many people we speak with el feel they have no story to tell, don't know how
to get it out there, and don't want to pander to what they suspect may be a hostile press. To this we say - "hogwash."

We’ll be getting into this more deeply in the weeks ahead but if you feel some press coverage could benefit your shop, try this approach first:

Put yourself in the reporter’s position. The story you may want to tell may not be the one they want to hear. What’s big right now and working? Your Green Program. The press is interested in how old-school business is using new technologies to “go green.”
Here's how to "pitch" your story:

1. Prepare a list of your shop’s best practices. Detail how your green effort (or any other successful effort you have mounted lately) works.

2. Prepare a fact list of measurable data you can give the reporter, TV crew. Show them how your green plan, for example, lessens your shop’s impact on the environment in quantifiable terms they can understand. Use a "Green Calculator" to determine how many trees you were able to save using
recycled paper or how many tons of carbon emissions you kept out of the atmosphere with your recycling or hybrid programs.

3. Don’t be afraid to pitch them. We are finding that many traditional newspaper and television outlets are looking for businesses to profile. Be subtle and don’t oversell yourself. Make sure the guts of the story are there and waiting before you pitch it.

4. Online submissions. Newspapers and television stations are like any other business; they’ve had to scale back their staffs. Once verboten, online submissions are now an acceptable way of reaching reporters and editors with little time. Often, you can find email addresses for the entire staff on the company web site. Pitch the assignment editor or individual reporter.
5. Keep it short, Mac. Reporters are looking for an angle, something different to report. Give it to them.

6. Relax. A lot of people get nervous when the cameras and notepads come out. Don’t worry. Have your facts straight and offer to show the crew around (to they extent you are comfortable, of course). Remember, photographers love interesting subject matter – give it to them. Action and faces, action and faces. That’s what photographers are looking for.

Okay? Good luck and let us know when news of your shop hits the streets!

Friday, October 31, 2008

PEiR Group Takes It “On The Road,” Holds Its Own “Town Hall” Meetings




By Shaun Meany
President, The PEiR Group


Last week I traveled to Atlanta and Dallas to host a couple of best practices workshops and to learn first-hand about the challenges – and opportunities – that the reprographics community is facing in the South and Southeastern parts of the United States.

We’ve built these workshops around the “Town Hall Meeting” format we’re seeing so much of during this election year, and bring in competing reprographers to discuss business issues and concerns about the future of their reprographics marketplace and their part in it.

It was surprising to learn how seldom (if ever) competing reprographers come together to exchange ideas. While I understand that organizing meetings of die-hard competitors may appear counterintuitive to some – I believe many attendees who met in Atlanta and Dallas saw the light.

Feedback from the 20 or so reprographers who attended our two workshop sessions indicated that the Economic Slowdown is beginning to take its toll in both design and construction sectors of the AEC marketplace.

Subsequent open-forum discussions pinpointed a common theme among reprographers today: the realization that they need to be charging for digital services and that everyone needs to be prepared to explain the value of these services to customers wary of the offering.

Can this be done? You bet it can… and it is being done, by shops who understand the power behind the offering and the needs of potential clients who stand to benefit from its use.

Our “Town Hall” discussions also determined that many reprographers are still not offering FM services. I’ll confess to being both amazed and a little perplexed by this. It is imperative that on-site services become an integral part of our offering. Why? Because if we don’t someone else will, to their benefit and to the ultimate regret of the reprographer.

And for a uniformly smart and I think tough group of business people, I was a little taken back when one of our attendees commented that he really does not like to look at the economic indicators getting so much press today because there is little that he can do to influence their impact on his business.

Sorry, but this struck me as a sort of “head in the sand” approach to the world around us, which is unforgiving at present, to be sure, but which needs to be analyzed and understood in order for us to survive.

Rather than ignore current market conditions, we need to understand why they are happening and look for the opportunities that – while few and far between – do exist out there.

This point was driven home to me recently by one of our colleagues, a man whose business has been drastically impacted by the current downturn in the AEC market. This individual realized that he needed to make up that lost revenue and set out to find markets that were underserved – finding a need in the Legal Documents sector in his area and marketing directly to local law firms.

After awhile his persistence was rewarded by a contract with a firm busy with litigation overseas, and he was engaged to support those efforts.

That’s the approach we all need to take to carry us through difficult times.

If The PEiR Group can help you with this, please let us know.


Best regards,

Shaun

Monday, October 27, 2008

Spiral Provides Southeast With Faster Service



News From: The PEiR Group

As of October 1, 2008 Spiral has a new Atlanta Distribution Center to better serve its customers in the Southeast United States.

The Atlanta Distribution Center was developed to better meet the needs of Spiral customers in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama. Now, in-stock items placed by 4 pm EST will be shipped out from the Atlanta location instead of the New Jersey headquarters. This will save customers in these states one to two days in shipping turnaround time.

More information is available at www.spiralbinding.com. For additional information, contact Jodi Lozauskas at jlozauskas@spiralbinding.com or 800-631-35721, x 1278.

PlanWell Goes Global


By The PEiR Group

As global markets change and The PEiR Group expands its offerings to meet new demand, we can't help but notice the mission of late has been to “spread the Word of PlanWell™.” New numbers indicate a global acceptance of our chief offering.

“With sales of US$11 million, 180 PlanWell systems (both PDS and Enterprise), and 74 MetaPrint licenses since Q4 2002, PlanWell has become the industry standard for independent reprographic companies,” Shaun notes.

Widely embraced by independent reprographers in Australia, the U.K., and Canada as well as in the U.S., PlanWell has been on a roll, but in March of this year, global demand ramped up even more as several new international channels opened to expand our reach.

KIP Channel, Lewan Enterprises (a subsidiary of Xerox), and Catalyst Business Partners are re-selling the technology in India, the Gulf region, and France. KIP UK is offering PlanWell in Great Britain, and Australian reprographics giant Tecnoprint is re-selling it Down Under.

Despite widespread attention to a down-trending market in the U.S., new sales continue to come in.

If you've heard about PlanWell but are not sure of what it can do for your shop, you may want to check out the demo on the upper right portion of Point of View. Click the link and it will take you to an excellent flash demonstration of the offering.

Thanks for all your feedback!


Shaun

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Océ Makes Its Own Waves...


No Risk, All Reward with the Océ ColorWave 600...
The Océ ColorWave 600 will help you make $30,000 or more per month in revenue - with a mere $99-per-month investment*.

The Océ ColorWave 600 is currently shipping and being installed around the country in reprographic shops like yours - shop interested in increasing their color production and diversifying their business.





This machine will revolutionize your color production. And through the month of November, there is no risk to you.

*$99 per month for the first six months with an OFSI lease

2,000 FREE SmartClicks per month for six months with an Océ OPTIMIZE.IT or Océ EasyPACII contract. (This represents just under $10,000 in free operating costs! You can grow your color production volume with absolutely no risk! The PEiR Group)

This PEiR Group offer is only available for orders signed between now and November 30, 2008. Océ ColorWave 600's must be installed prior to January 30, 2009.

If you have any additional questions please contact Barry Foust at (412)475-1792 or got to the PEiR Group Website under "Partner Pricing".

For more info, click HERE.


Thursday, October 23, 2008

The New Breed – Waiting In The Wings?


We’ve been on the phone with dozens of general contractors over the last few months, getting their take on PlanWell® and our other product offerings, but also putting our ear to the ground, so to speak, in order to better gauge the future.

We can’t help but notice a growing sense of technological urgency, a feeling that change is afoot and that it will come within the next decade.

“It’s interesting how it works,” says Brendan Keating, who inherited responsibility for developing and maintaining the computer systems at Artco Contracting and Development in Newark, NJ. “Technical things that come more easily to people of my generation seem to confuse the older guys. I guess it’s because computers have always been a part of my life. It’s easier. The older guys have to learn it.”

It’s no secret that a number of top construction executives are ready to retire, turning their decision-making responsibilities over to younger executives who, it seems, believe technology is the key to our respective future – as The PEiR Group does.

“Take Sub-Hub,” Brendan says. “The younger guys are relatively excited about it, think its neat they can go online and view the plans… that sort of stuff. It works for them. The older guys just refuse to go online. Period.”

Industry watchers say that with the previous decade’s wide profit margins and increased stock values, retiring executives do not want to invest their millions into solutions that they are uncomfortable with or deem too expensive. But as younger executives assume control of the larger companies, they will bring dramatic new perspectives in technology application with them.

“I’m not saying it’s the same across the board,” Keating says. “Technology doesn’t work the same for everyone. Some people, it doesn’t matter what age they are, can use a computer and can make PlanWell and Sub-Hub work for them. But others just don’t want to bother.”

The reprographics industry stands to benefit greatly from this shift, a move to technology we've been been predicting for some time. Our goal has always been to be viewed as a partner to our members, but the ability to bring solutions to the table our members can use will set us apart from those companies who don’t adopt.


Editor: Have you noticed a “technology divide” among clients in your region? Have you encountered any classic examples of this syndrome? How did you overcome it?

Monday, October 13, 2008

Puerto Vallarta Hosts WRA, Industry Leaders Brainstorm


By The PEiR Group

As we’ve mentioned here the past few days, I had the pleasure of attending the Western Reprographics Associations’ (WRA) Regional Conference in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico last week.

Great time, great location, and nice to see everyone. The Westin was the perfect venue, with beautiful pools, super food, and nice, big rooms. Beyond that, I thought I’d share some of my observations and experiences at this year’s WRA with you.

The conference was rather light on attendance this year, no doubt due to the international location and the state of the economy. Historically, the WRA is a largely social function where members and their spouses get together to share stories and common interests. Unfortunately this year, my wife was unable to attend so I ended up going alone.

There were several entertaining, informative and inspirational speakers this year and I ended up taking their lessons home with me. I was struck by Brian Shul’s presentation on Overcoming Adversity. Brian shared his story of perseverance and triumph over his own personal tragedy – being severely burned when his U.S. Air force jet crashed in Cambodia. Brian fought through his pain and months of rehabilitation to regain his place as a top Air Force pilot flying spy planes during the cold war period.

And then there was Suri Suriyakumar, Chairman, President and CEO of ARC, who shared his thoughts on The State of the Reprographics Industry and Where It’s Heading and how he positions ARC and the reprographics industry to investors and stock analysts he meets with around the country.

Suri’s presentation suggested that the future would be a rosy one for those reprographers who focus on technology and the transfer of technology to the design and construction community and non-AEC markets.

Suri emphasized the importance of staying close to your customers and learning their document processes. The key, he says, is to work closely with your customers to find ways you can offer improved efficiencies in their document management and document distribution processes.

Suri emphasized ways to leverage your existing technologies in Non-AEC markets. Identify markets that can benefit from the same services that you offer your architects, engineers and contractors. For example: Large Format Color Printing can be offered to retailers and fast food chains, scanning and document management services to governments and fortune 1000 companies, copying and printing services to hospitals, schools, lawyers, realtors and others.

It was a great way to spend a few days with friends and industry professionals who spend most of their time thinking about our industry’s future. I was pleased to have the opportunity to attend and, yes, I did manage to squeeze in a round of golf with colleagues and friends.

No, I won’t tell you who won the round!

Have a question about the WRA or the industry in general? Drop your comment in the “comments” section below and we’ll talk about it!


Shaun

Friday, October 10, 2008

PEiR Group Member Learns That, Sometimes, It Really DOES Take A Village


By The PEiR Group

About a year ago, longtime PEiR Group member Al Rank, CEO of Precision Blue in Chicago, chafed at the data processing delays and labor costs his firm was experiencing when loading jobs into PlanWell®.

“Renaming and indexing files with sheet number and description for entry into PlanWell was taking far too long,” Al says. “It wasn’t about the application, it’s great. But we’re always under a time constraint, it seems, and we needed a way to expedite the data entry process.”

Al’s search for a solution would take him nine thousand miles away – to the Philippine Islands. At the time, he had no way of knowing that his approach to the problem would ultimately streamline his job intake, benefit several impoverished Filipinos, and improve the future outlook of an entire town.

Renaming files is probably not the best use of anybody’s talents, as you know. It’s a menial task but an extremely important one. Ultimately, Al connected with Cliff Parrish, a neighbor and CEO of RemoteLink – a Naperville, IL-based company specializing in enhanced telecommunications and Web services.

“I’ve known Cliff for a couple of years now,” Al says. “He told me about their wholly owned subsidiary in the Philippines that provides data entry jobs and education to the impoverished people there. We make our files available to them before we leave at night, they rename everything, enter it into PlanWell® and our team walks in the next morning and it’s done. It was perfect.”

In place for more than a year now, the partnership gives Al’s team at Precision Blue a head-start on their PlanWell jobs for the day and provides jobs and education for residents of San Pablo City – a tin roof “barangay,” or neighborhood, about 65 miles southeast of Manila.

“We train people to do software programming and data entry work providing them the opportunity to rise above what could be viewed as a hopeless, certainly impoverished existence,” Cliff says. “When we first started we held a workshop for people to learn new tech skills and when it was over we ended up hiring four of them. Now we have eight full-time employees with high expectations of future growth.”

A relationship with a local college provides a steady stream of applicants; however their goal is to provide educational opportunities to those who cannot afford higher education. To establish this goal, RemoteLink Philippines, Inc. also provides for a K-12 school to operate within their facility. Although the school is run by another Filipino organization; RemoteLink Philippines employs some of their teachers to teach computer skills in the specially designed computer lab.

“Education was an important aspect of this idea,” Cliff says. “We asked: ‘How do we educate and elevate the next generation of leaders?’ The entire program is ‘ground up,’ with no government assistance.”

As for Al, making the connection with RemoteLink and the Philippines was a definite “win-win.”

"This has worked out absolutely great for us, giving us more time to bid on more jobs, and benefitting others in the process," he says. "What used to be an annoying part of our intake process is now being accomplished, literally, overnight."

Note: Al always tells it like it is, has a taste for innovation and gives something back when he can. This idea may work for others. If so, you might contact Cliff Parrish at RemoteLink. You can reach Cliff at: 800 362-9446 x127.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

“Get Your Plans From PlanWell:” Ascension of an Online Planroom to a New Role as Industry Standard



By The PEiR Group

Phone calls from sub-contractors looking for construction jobs committed to the centralized planroom known as “PlanWell®” dial into The PEiR Group offices at the rate of ten to 20 a day.

Nine times out of ten they all say the same thing: “My General Contractor told me to get my plans from PlanWell®. How do I get PlanWell®?’”

For many sub-contractors PlanWell® has become a place – a vast, secretive repository of drawings, documents, and sets. Few realize PlanWell® is the brand name for a powerful, Web-based application and product suite built to organize and archive the drawings needed to construct a project from foundation to capstone. Fewer know that PlanWell® has become the source of designs and drawings for projects the world over, and has quietly ascended to a role as industry standard for the organization, distribution, and tracking of construction plans and their network of users.

(To find out more about PlanWell® and what it can do for you, click HERE and run through the tutorials.)

PEiR Group representative John Bidwell says the number of daily calls from inquiring contractors spikes significantly when bids go out through PlanWell®, evidence of the extent to which the industry is tied to the PlanWell® product offering.

“What we’re seeing is that when ‘Bob’ from Al’s Roofing calls in to access a job his GC has told him to go to ‘PlanWell®’ and that’s when he calls us,” Bidwell says. “They’re not being told they can access the planroom through their local reprographer – which is the optimal process for both the sub and the printer.”

The PEiR Group has embarked on a comprehensive “Powered by PlanWell®” campaign aimed at teaching sub contractors that the product is not a brick and mortar print shop, but an easily obtained offering available at any of our locations.

“They’re being told by their general: ‘Get your plans from PlanWell®,’” Bidwell says. “And we’re saying that contacting your shop is the best way to do that.”

PEiR Group analysis of the PlanWell® product suite reveals what our customer service people already know: that employing PlanWell® systems makes the process of managing construction plans on the Web easier, faster and more efficient.

The growing number of tech-wary subs pushing through their hesitance to use an online planroom are finding that doing so gives them access to a powerful new tool. PlanWell® allows them to manage all project plans and specs; track users so they know who got what and when; compile a historical record of changes made to the document as it proceeds through all phases of construction, and provides for the safe archiving and file storage of a project once completed.

“Initially, they’re apprehensive of the technology,” PEiR Group President Shaun Meany says. “But once they find out what PlanWell® is and what it can do, they’re converted.”


PlanWell Training and Certification
The PEiR Group has recently streamlined its PlanWell Certification Program.

To get more details, please logon to the PEiR Group Intranet by clicking HERE. In the library section, you will find program details under the PlanWell Certification category.

If you have any questions, please contact PEiR Group Customer Service at 925 658-0200 for immediate assistance.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Shop Safety Won’t Cost You An Arm And A Leg

By The PEiR Group

Those of you who have attended any of our Executive Conference and/or operational conferences have heard us touting the advantages of having a safety program in place.

A solid safety program can reduce your insurance premiums, reduce the number of accidents in your workplace, create a culture of safety vigilance and – over time – save your company thousands of dollars in litigation costs.

We post a new “safety article” on the PEiR Group Intranet site every month, under the “recent documents for download” section.

Check it out so you can start a safety program of your own. Should you have any questions or need help getting started, just let us know!

Canon Introduces imagePROGRAF iPF820/iPF820 PRO and iPF810/iPF810 PRO Large Format Printers


A Special Notice From, The PEiR Group

The Large Format Printer Division is pleased to introduce the new 44-inch imagePROGRAF iPF820/iPF820 PRO and iPF810/iPF810 PRO large format printers, developed specifically to meet the production demands of the technical documents market.

These four new printers help round out the imagePROGRAF technical document and general use line-up with their 44 inch printing width and production features. Here is a look at some of the main highlights of these new printers:
• 5 Color Dye/Pigment Reactive Ink Set – 330ml & 700ml ink tanks available
• Sub ink tank system for continuous printing
• Automatically Switching Dual Media Rolls for iPF820 and iPF820 PRO
• New 80GB Hard Drive w/advanced security features
DOD compliant - DoD5220.00-M
• Newly redesigned HDI Driver for quicker spooling time
• Fastest iPF Printers at 2 D-size prints a minute
• Economy Print Mode
• Independent Rotary Cutter for faster throughput on multiple page documents
• A high-capacity media basket comes standard on both the iPF820 and the iPF810 for long, unattended print runs
• Optional 300 sheet capacity plain paper stacker (available 4th Quarter 2008)
• New PRO Models with CADlSTATION PS+
Genuine Adobe Postscript® workflow
Client – Server architecture with unlimited number of clients
Web job submission functionality
Drag and Drop – hot folder feature
Accounting functionality tracks output activity
The iPF820/iPF820 PRO and iPF810/iPF810 PRO are available for order immediately and will begin shipping around October 1st.
Item number and pricing information (pricing located on the PEiR Group website) is as follows:

Item No. Description
3116B002AA imagePROGRAF iPF820
3116B007AA imagePROGRAF iPF820 PRO
2982B002AA imagePROGRAF iPF810
2982B007AA imagePROGRAF iPF810 PRO
1465B012AA Roll Holder Set RH2-44 (2”core w/3”adaptor)
1320B012AA Maintenance Cartridge
1709B001AA Media Take-up-unit TU-06 (iPF810/810 PRO only)
1317B001AA IEEE1394 Expansion Board EB-05
7025A020AA PosterArtist 2008
Marketing Tools and Premier Partner Programs are available for download HERE.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

The 2008 PlanWell/PEiR Conference Tour


Coming to Atlanta, GA Oct. 21, 2008 and
Dallas, TX, Oct. 22, 2008


Find out how two of the biggest names in reprographics can help you meet the demands of your market and grow your business towards a profitable future.

Join us for an intensive one-day look at how proven best practices coupled with innovative technologies can position your company as a leader in today's highly competitive reprographics marketplace. There is no cost for these events.

Lunch: Included

Agenda:
 Introductions
 Industry Update
 Managing for Profit in a Recession
 Selling to the Construction Market
 Digital Services (Billing Codes & Charges)
 Developing Incentive Programs for Customers & Employees
 Expanding Sales Outside of AEC
 Update on Technology
 Equipment Vendor Update (Year End Promotions)

To reserve your seat today, call 925-658-0200.

or click either of the links below for the conference you would like to attend.

Atlanta sign-up link: Click HERE. (October 21st)

Dallas sign-up link: Click HERE. (October 22nd)

SPECIAL NOTICE: By attending the conference you will be eligible to win a free license of MetaPrint ($6995.00 retail value) quickly becoming the standard print management tool in the reprographics industry.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Sub-Hub: A Solution for Your ITB Needs

Fellow Reprographers:

We are all aware that the reprographics industry is experiencing change at an unprecedented rate. One area of significant change is the information needs of your General and Sub-Contractors. Are you getting more and more requests like any of the following:

• I Want to Create Bid Sets on CD-ROM and Duplicates for my Subs
• Can You Post Drawings/Specs to our FTP Site?
• Do You Offer Invitation to Bid Software Tools (ITB)?
• Can You Post our Drawings/Specs to ISqft or other ITB Solutions?
• Do You Offer Free Downloads or Access to Files for Printing on My Printers from Your Plan Room?
• Do You Offer On-Screen Take-Off Capabilities?
• Can You Help Me Reduce My Printing Costs?


If you answered YES to any of the requests above you may be interested in joining us for a webinar on a new reprographic solution for General Contractor’s and their subs called Sub-Hub.

Please click on the link below to sign-up for a Webinar and learn how you can turn these challenges into opportunities and new sources of revenue for your business.

Time:Thursday September 25th, 2008 10am Pacific Time

Sign up HERE.

For a high-speed demo of the application, click HERE.

Enjoy! More GC's and subs are signing up every day!


Shaun Meany
President
The PEiR Group
1981 North Broadway, Suite 360
Walnut Creek, CA 94596

925.658.0200 tel
925.658.0201 fax
925-658-0212 direct
shaunm@planwell.com

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

"Negotiating the Curves" at CRA



By Shaun Meany, The PEiR Group

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in the Central Reprographics Association’s (CRA) annual convention and trade show in St. Louis, Missouri. The theme of this year’s event: “Negotiating the Curves” focused on helping reprographers predict and plan for the inevitable twists and turns that lie ahead for our industry.

While talking with many of the reprographers in attendance I made note of their assessments of our current market condition and came up with the following observations:

 Sales were down from previous years but not as bad as some have predicted.
 We have seen more acceptance of our digital service offerings.
 Large format solvent printers can offer significant return on investment to reprographers.
 I think we need to get more involved with FM’s.
 Software vendors like: ISqft, Blue Book Bid, Bid Mail and others, continue to intrude on the reprographics market.
 Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a disruptive technology that will change the AEC workflow forever.
 Reprographers need to better understand the intricacies of the design and construction workflow and learn to exploit the opportunities that our technologies and services can offer.
 Success and ROI from new technology requires our sales people to focus on discovering the customer's realized and unrealized needs and offering solutions to those needs.

Opportunities to grow sales are available in every market. It will require a bit more creativity to navigate around these curves but the rewards can be worth it!

It was an interesting show. While I have you, if you're planning to attend either the WRA in Puerto Vallarta (October 2-4) or the ERRA/SRA in Daytona (November 12-14) please drop me a note (shaunm@planwell.com) and lets share the experience together.

Sincerely

Shaun

Sunday, September 14, 2008

To Russia... And Just About Anywhere Else, With Love


By The PEiR Group

It's a Digital World, folks. How do we know that? Well, take the story of an Illinois reprographer who encountered a new type of customer and put on her thinking cap to solve his printing needs recently.

“He had a print with him, eight folds, in A4. He was spending a lot of time working on it in-house, and it was tying up his resources,” she says. “We looked at it together and it turned out it was for a job he’s doing in Russia. He said: ‘Can you help me with this?” I looked at him and said: ‘sure.’”

Now, some might call that a brave statement from someone who has been in the reprographics business only since January and who has never attempted a Remote Print job before. But this stalwart businesswoman says it never entered her head to say “no.”

A lot of things did run through her head: the precise location of “Sochi” in the Russian Federation (three hours outside Moscow and the site of her client’s dual-tower project), the fact that she doesn’t speak a word of Russian, and the vague knowledge that Russian tanks had just entered neighboring Georgia.

“I had no idea how any of that would affect the job,” our fearless heroine says. “When I told the customer that I could help him I don’t know if he quite believed me.”

Swinging into action, she discussed the job with her PlanWell Administrator and put the entire package together really quickly -- then ran the whole thing by her client. He agreed to everything she quoted.

We’re not sure how to say “went off without a hitch” in Russian, but that’s what happened. Once the initial test run was over I said to myself ‘Oh, my gosh, we’ve made contact with Russia,’” this reprographer says. “Now that we’ve proved we can do it, we’ll be doing a lot more of it. When I go out to sell our PlanWell and Remote Print offering in the future I know my excitement will come across… it’s an amazing solution.”

Friday, September 12, 2008

Sub-Hub Gains Traction – A Case Study

Can Sub-Hub work for you? More shop owners are finding that it can. Here's a recent case study involving a California reprographer and details of a call for assistance he made to Sub-Hub Director of Business Development David Swider.

The reprographer was investigating a drop in revenue from three key clients recently when he began to note similarities within the accounts.

All were General Contractors, each had set a goal to reduce printing and each was using either an FTP site or a non-PlanWell® site offering free downloads. Two of the GC’s were using current ITB competitors, Bid Mail and iSqft, and the other was using Bid Fax and manually tracking the bid process. All three had dramatically increased the number of CD’s that they distribute.

“We were watching printing revenues from each of these companies drop as they turned to other technology-based services supplied by competing vendors,” the reprographer says. “An associate suggested I work directly with David to see if we could counter the trend.”

The reprographer assumed an aggressive “top down” approach to correcting the problem, assuming the role of sales lead and setting out to integrate Sub-Hub into his internal workflow, calling on David to lend a hand with strategy.

“David has a tremendous amount of industry knowledge, not only of the practice of GC’s bidding projects and the construction industry, but also of the competition,” he says. “After several discussions with him, my team and I were able to secure appointments with the three companies we’d identified.”

Working through a very concise list of base questions designed to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of the customer’s current workflow, David made it clear to the customer that he understood their bidding process and could help.

“I believe that the discovery portion of our presentation was where the sales were made,” the reprographer said later. “Two of the GC's signed on almost immediately.”

The reprographer ended by saying: “Sub-Hub gave me the ability to compete with any other ITB tool on the market. It also gives you the ability to give the customer what they want. When a customer states that they want to reduce printing, put the cost of printing onto the subs, use a FTP site to offer free downloads and wants to produce CD’s for distribution, we have a better alternative for them.”

Friday, August 29, 2008

The future of Printing in Construction



By Shaun Meany

I have always been interested in printing and copying (output technologies) and have been keeping a keen eye on the development of output devices since the early 1980’s. I guess now I am showing my age.

Photo Credit: USC Viterbi School of Engineering

Since my early years in business I have watched output technologies evolve from analog devices like the mimeograph machine, the electric typewriter, the 2-4 color offset printing press, and the thermal and electrophotographic (Xerox) copiers, to digital devices like: impact printers such as dot matrix and band printers, thermal, piezoelectric and continuous inkjet, digital-electrophotographic (i.e. laser/led) and now 3D rapid prototyping printers.

I was reading an article recently about a new printing technology that is taking 3D rapid prototyping technology to a whole new level. Apparently a scientist at Caterpillar, the world’s largest manufacturer of construction equipment, is starting to support research on “Contour Crafting,” an automated construction printing system that its creator believes will one day be able to build (print) full-scale houses in hours.

Basically, the system is a scaled-up version of the rapid prototyping machines now widely used in manufacturing and in some cases architecture to “print out” three-dimensional objects designed with CAD/CAM software, usually by building up successive layers of plastic. Instead of plastic, Contour Crafting will use concrete.

So if you think the future of the printing industry is at its twilight as some have suggested, you might want to take a step back and look at where printing is going into the future. And you had better hang on – it will be quite an exciting ride.

Source of this information can be located at: Caterpillar Inc. Funds USC 'Print-a-House' Construction Technology

PlanWell Instant Desktop Services Webinar, Thursday Sept. 4, 2008 10AM PT

The PlanWell Instant Desktop Services Webinar was so well received we are doing an encore Webinar, this time on Thursday September 4, 2008 10 a.m. Pacific Time.

Click on the link to sign-up: http://planwell.com/pwcal_signup.php?ts=d&sessionId=3249&t=PST

Here are a few comments from PEiR Members who took time to write us after our last Webinar:

I think that was great Webinar yesterday, I found it insightful to see how an end user can use Instant Download in a collaboration workflow.

John Lipari (Plan & Print Syracuse, NY)



Hi Shaun,
Great WebEx presentation today. I sat in with several of our associates and we will be implementing the Instant Download/Printing. The management staff here is currently working on making our services better and I may have some more questions next week.

Reg Garner
Triangle Reprographics
Orlando, Florida



Do you want to take advantage of the latest high margin digital services available in PlanWell Enterprise? If you do, please join me for a training session on PlanWell's Instant Download, HP Instant Print and PlanWell Easy Print for KIP features.

In this Webinar session I will review the following:

1) What will your network need to make it technically accessible?
2) What do you have to do in PlanWell to make these features work for your customers?
3) Live Demonstrations of these new services.

Who should attend: Owners, production and salespeople.

Date: Thursday Sept 4, 2008
Time: 10:00am Pacific Time.

Shaun Meany
President
The PEiR Group
1981 North Broadway, Suite 360
Walnut Creek, CA 94549
925-658-0212
shaunm@planwell.com

Oce’ GT 250 Webinar, Friday Sept. 5, 2008 10AM PT


On Friday September 5, 2008 10 a.m. PT, Oce’ will be presenting a webinar on the Oce’ GT 250. This event will be for PEiR Members Only!

The Océ Arizona 250 GT printer is quite simply a technology disruption: a UV-curable flatbed and roll-to-roll inkjet printer that delivers exceptional image quality to take display graphics to the next level.

Use it to add new services by printing photo-quality images on virtually any media imaginable. Take on work that was never before possible with lesser quality printing systems. The Océ Arizona 250 GT printer gives you endless opportunities to increase your display graphics revenue.

With Océ, you know you can grow your display graphics business — securely and profitably. We are the only company that offers a total solution for the large format visual communications market, including hardware, software, consumables, training, service and financing. Our mission is to help you reach your business goals for years to come.

Please click on the link provided below to sign-up. To sign up now click here: