“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.

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.

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.

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

"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

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.”

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.”