Bid Communications

By David Swider/Sub-Hub

Who would have guessed that reprographers were looking for additional ways to generate revenue?

We received several inquiries about Sub-Hub after our last article in POV, with many people asking how an independent reprographer could create multiple digital revenue streams by providing Sub-Hub to their General Contractors. We reviewed what the competitors are up to last week. This week we will review where a reprographer can capture digital revenue using Sub-Hub.

Currently, reprographers are generating revenue with Sub-Hub in some of the following ways:

Providing Sub-Hub to their General Contractor – Once the reprographer has purchased the master license to Sub-Hub (PEiR discounts apply), they may provide Sub-Hub to every GC looking for a digital plan room combined with a powerful bid communication tool. The reprographer sets the market price for Sub-Hub (Suggested retail value: $4,500 or more per GC) giving the reprographer flexibility to custom create an offer that meets their client’s needs.
Fax Fees – The Sub-Hub offering includes 10,000 faxes per month for the reprographer providing Sub-Hub. Here is an example of the return on the faxes:

1 General Contractor doing 1 project per month:
# of Subs. in the GC database (1000)
# of Transmissions
Original Invitation to Bid 1 x 1000 1000
Addendum (many times there are multiple) 1 x 1000 1000
Final notification 1 x 1000 1000
Total number of potential transmissions on 1 project 3000
@ a discounted rate of $.08 / transmission x.08
Total revenue to the reprographer $240

What if this GC did 3 projects? $720
What if 5 GC’s did 3 projects? $3,600/ month

It adds up quickly, and this is just the fax revenue bucket…

Document Management Scanning/Uploading – Did you know the average document management fee in the market is anywhere from $1.25 -$2.00 per page? This is another potential revenue bucket.

Additional Print Orders – With Sub-Hub you will be the only reprographer listed in the drop when GC’s and Subs click to buy hardcopy plans. Are you providing a tool to help lock out your competitors now?

Archiving – In today’s litigious world, GC’s are asking for document archiving and they are looking for more than a CD of large format prints. The small format prints are of equal importance, not to mention the dates and times they were transmitted. Is there any reason you shouldn’t capture that revenue?

Last week’s meetings were full and many reprographers are beginning to offer Sub-Hub to their local GC’s. Why not see for yourself by typing: sub-hub.webex.com and browse meetings to see how you may succeed with this offering. Meetings are held every Tues. and Thurs. at 8:30am – 10:00am PST.

Editor’s Note: For direct questions please contact David Swider at dswider@sub-hub.com or (925) 658-9025. The “Bid Communications feature” will become a regular feature of Point of View.