Back To Work Amid New Hope for Better Times

By Shaun Meany
The PEiR Group

It has been a busy couple of weeks since returning from the PEiR Group’s Executive Conference in Las Vegas. The economic slowdown seems to be continuing but there are growing signs of optimism out there. Some reprographers are reporting that projects temporarily placed on hold are becoming active again.

Much of the anticipated stimulus money for infrastructure improvements and the like have yet to materialize. Despite these delays there was still some good news on new housing starts.

Economic Report: February Housing Starts Jump 22 Percent - 03/18/09
The construction industry received some good news on Tuesday as numbers for construction starts were released. The numbers showed housing starts increasing in February by 22 percent, that number was bolstered by an 82 percent increase in apartment building construction and is the largest single month gain in 19 years. Also receiving a solid boost was the permitting for the construction of single family homes. That number had a significant increase of 11 percent.

Earlier this year the PEiR Group made a commitment to offer monthly educational webinars and it appears they have been a hit among our members.

Webinar’s Held In 2009:


For those members who missed these webinar’s all of the presentation material is posted on the PEiR intranet library under the category: Webinars

IRgA is Coming:

The IRgA annual convention is quickly approaching and The PEiR Group is preparing to announce and demonstrate several new technologies along with our existing family of software products which include:

• PlanWell Enterprise
• PlanWell BidCaster (new release)
• PlanWell PDS
• EWO
• PlanWell Easy Print for KIP and HP
• MetaPrint
• SubHub

New Products to be introduced at the IRgA include:

• iShipdocs
• MetaPrint Abacus
• PlanWell EasyPrint for Océ
• PlanWell Bridge to Prolog

If you have not made your reservations to attend the conference in Pittsburg, there is still time to register. I know everyone is trying to cut costs but I believe it may be more important than ever before to invest in the reprographic industry by joining with your peers for networking, education and good fellowship.

Last but not least, if you do decide to attend, you will learn first hand how the PEiR Group is preparing the reprographics industry with best practices and new purposeful technologies that meet the needs of today designers, contractors and owner/developers.

I hope to see you in Pittsburg!

Shaun

Océ Open House

Océ and Barry Foust would like to welcome PEiR Group members interested in diversifying their business by growth into display graphics to an open house in Vancouver, Canada.

The Océ Arizona series of UV curable printers and the Oce ProCut cutting solution have already proven to be valuable additions to a reprographers business by allowing them to develop totally new business while increasing profitability. Oce feels it very important that we share with PEiR this roadmap to success.

Océ will host 6-10 company representatives based on one person per company attending. Airfare, hotel and meals would be covered by Oce and the trip would span three days; the first afternoon the select PEiR members arrive in Vancouver, Canada, check in to the hotel and join us for dinner. The second day would be the formal presentations, factory tour and demo session followed by a dinner. The following morning guests would depart for home.

Please click HERE and let me know if the week of June 15th will work for you and if so which companies would be most interested in attending. A formal invitation will then be sent with additional details.

Regards,

John Bidwell


Notice: Please be aware that US citizens flying into Canada must possess a current US Passport.

Vendor Update from Spiral Binding:

EXP 42 Pouch Laminator

The D&K EXP 42” is simple and easy to operate with very low maintenance required.
The perfect fit for start-up finishing ventures, corporate
in-house facilities, framing shops and service bureaus. It is a state-of-the-art print finishing system that allows you to mount and laminate your printed material with a few easy steps.

The EXP 42" Pouch Laminator combined with our revolutionary SuperStick Laminating pouches will give your printed material the highest quality finish.

Heat activated adhesive on the back so they can be mounted on virtually any ridged substrate or foam board.

Some of the features and benefits:
• Fast set up and easy operation
• Adjustable roller speed and pressure settings
• High quality silicon rollers for easy clean-up and low maintenance
• Reverse mode provides easy miss feed correction
• Quality manufacturing in the USA
Color-Bond Laminate

Stop expensive reprints of digital prints because of de-lamination. Color-Bond Laminate provides excellent bond even to prints right off the copier and will allow jobs to go to post press without delay. No more reprints, delays or unhappy customers.

The unique adhesive in Color-Bond Laminate will create a chemical bond to the toners and oils that are commonly found in the digital output of color copiers.

Some of the features and benefits:

* Available in gloss or matte finishes
* Available in polyester or nylon base films
* Superior abrasion resistance
* High clarity lamination
* Water, oil, acid, and alkali resistant
* Can be die cut
* Excellent alternative to PSA films
* Easy to apply
* Enhances overall color and appearance of graphics


800.631.3572
spiralbinding.com

Back Up That Data, and Test It

Okay, you’ve got offsite backup systems – but have you tested them lately?
If we’ve learned anything from the recent hurricanes, ice storms, floods and other national calamities that attack us from time to time, it’s that old Murphy was right – what can go wrong, will go wrong.

So, when was the last time that your IT people actually ran a test on your backup system? Something rigid enough to ensure that you really could restore your files from the back up tapes if your system went down in the event of an emergency?

We’ve learned that one of the most common causes of failure stems from back up tapes being used and re-used year after year – rendering them unable to read input data.

Obviously, any restoration attempt from defective tape is going to be a failure.

ACTION ITEM: Make sure that someone in your shop does a “live drill” and actually performs a backup using your current system and tapes.
And what about your and your desktop or laptop. When was the last time you backed it up? What if your laptop died, was stolen, dropped, or had coffee spilled on it? Where would it leave you?

We can say from experience where it would leave you... up the proverbial creek.

ACTION ITEM: Take a minute to back up your work computer. The time could come when you're really thankful you did.

Viva Vegas! Viva PEiR!

Shaun's Corner
by Shaun Meany

We're back. Last week's annual PEiR Group Executive Conference at the Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas was informative and fun - but it is nice to be home, isn't it?

Great turnout by the membership and it was great to be able to sit and talk with you all. Face-to-face is always better than the telephone, in my opinion, and it was a pleasure to sit in a comfortable environment and talk about this industry of ours.

We're still sifting through your feedback but initial responses to our two days together are overwhelmingly positive. Thank you for your kind words.

The theme of this year’s conference and our underlying theme for the PEiR Group in 2009 remains “Managing for Success.” We believe that in times like these it is critical for reprographic owners and their senior managers to focus on honing their management skills to a razor-like sharpness unseen at any other time in our business’s history.

Many of the presentations shared at the executive conference emphasized strategies for controlling costs and increasing sales. If your company’s sales are declining (like some) it is essential that you manage your expenses to assure your profitability. These decisions need to be made quickly but cautiously.

For those of you who could not join us in Las Vegas we will be posting all of the presentations on the PEiR intranet. In addition, we recorded many of the sessions on video and plan to post these sessions on the intranet as well; so you can see and hear what was discussed.

I've outlined a short summary of each of the sessions so you'll know what to expect.

Session #1: Bid Communications. Our resident expert, David Swider, shared with the group the impact that technology is having on the General Contractor’s bid communications workflow.

Session #2: Out of the Box Ideas for Generating New Revenue Opportunities. This session involved sharing real-life applications our members are using to generate new revenues. Some of the ideas were centered on using PlanWell for Color and non-AEC purposes. Other ideas included: marketing document management outside of traditional AEC market, document destruction/shredding services and out-sourcing (off-set, production color and graphic services).

Session #3: Revenue Opportunities with Remote Printing. This session addressed positioning reprographers as a network of digital document distribution companies able to send or receive documents for same-day distribution. A new remote print technology and service will be released to PEiR members at the upcoming IRgA conference in May 2009.

Session #4: Promoting High Margin Sales. This session focused on ways to generate more sales and profits by selling digital services and facilities management.

Session #5: Strategies for Right Sizing Your Business. What things you can do today to control costs, manage your business environment, incentivize your sales people and still keep focus on the future of your business.

Session #5 & 6: Opportunities in Wide Format Color. In these two sessions we heard vendor partners Tekgraf (Hp and Canon Distributor) and Océ discuss the future revenue opportunities for large format color. Miguel Gonzales told the members about Tekgraf's commitment to educating and supplying a full range of inject technologies. Océ presented a business case (ROI) on production color opportunities for their new Color Wave 600 printers.

Session #7: Navigating the Storm in HR (Liabilities, Opportunities and Threats). This session was presented by Laurie Williams the Director of Human Resources of ARC. Laurie discussed ways to avoid law suits when implementing labor force reductions. Strategies for keeping your trained and valuable human resources while at the same time reducing costs. New laws are in the works that could threaten your company's future.

Session #8: ARC Technology Pipeline. ARC has spent over $100 Million on technology over the last six years. This year alone ARC is budgeting to spend more than $6 million on new technologies. Kumar Wiratunga, Director of Technology, shared with the group the technology pipeline planned for the next 12 months.

Session 9: Green Initiatives and Sustainability in Reprographics. This session was an open forum on why sustainability is important to everyone. Why reprographers, their customers and industry manufacturers are "going green"? We also addressed what PEiR has planned to assist our members in communicating the power behind sustainability to clients.


That should keep you busy for a while. Check out this site for more pictures, video and commentary from people attending this year's conference. You're bound to recognize old friends!

With thanks,

Shaun Meany

PEiR Executive Conference - 2009

Thanks for coming!

Sign-up for Educational Webinar

The PEiR Group will be hosting our monthly Educational Webinar for March on the “E-Take Off Tool."

The E-Take Off is the next generation of take off software and how it is intergrated with PlanWell and Sub-Hub.

In this webinar David Snedaker from E-Take Off will discuss:

What is E-Take Off?
How does it work?
What are the benefits to your customers?
What revenue opportunities can E-Take Off can create for your company?


When: Thursday, March 26th, 10:00 AM Pacific (1 hour)

Click HERE to Register!

Congratulations to Ed Rodham, newly named president and chief operating officer at Precision Blue, Inc. based in Chicago.

Rodham assumed his new role February 2, at which time Al Rank, president and owner of the company since it was incorporated in 1977 and a respected member of the PEiR Group, became the company's CEO/owner.

Rodham brings more than 20 years experience in strategic, tactical, digital and financial leadership experience to PBI, including an extensive digital marketing background with a track record of leveraging technology to improve business results and a proven ability to excel in both new and established organizations.

Prior to joining the management team at PBI, Rodham was employed by United Stationers, Deerfield, IL as VP of Marketing. United Stationers is a $4.6B wholesale business products distributor with more than 67 North American distribution centers. While there he orchestrated large-scale strategic projects from original
concept through final deployment, including cultivating alliances with companies such as AT&T and Hewlett-Packard.

In announcing the new position, Rank said: “I look forward to Ed's leadership and experience in taking this company to the next level of technology and growth.”

Do You Have A Junior Scholar At Home?

Children with parents working in the reprographics industry are brushing off their GPA’s and getting ready to state their case for scholarships as the CREST Foundation announced its Fall, 2009 application deadline.

The mission of the CREST Foundation is to fund and award scholarships to children of reprographics industry employees who wish to pursue a better education, but who lack the financial means to do so. This foundation provides opportunities for the reprographics industry to unite for the benefit of the children of our long-term employees who provide so much value to the industry.

General Eligibility Requirements Include:
• Student must have a parent currently employed by a reprographics company for at least five years
• Be a US citizen or legal permanent resident
• Must apply for federal financial aid using the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid]
• FAFSA Student Aid Report (SAR) required with CREST application
• Be enrolling on a full-time basis at a college or university
• Minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA
• Recommendations from at least 2 qualified adults

Apply now at apply.crestfoundation.org. Awards for the 2009/2010 school year will be made in Fall 2009.

BERTL Says the Arizona 350GT is "Star Quality"

Pretty much the "Brangelina" pairing of the reprographic industry, Océs Arizonas - the heralded 250 and 350GTs - continue to attract attention, success, and laurels.

The superstar 350 received a 4.5 star Outstanding BERTL evaluation Monday, celebrating the printer and its Océ VariaDotTM imaging technology. BERTL reserves its 4.5 star rating for those devices that deliver a range of business-critical features and functions that are above average and provide potential buyers with a good return on investment. The BERTL report specifically cites the versatile way the Océ Arizona 350 GT printer can apply white ink (over, under, in-between and as a spot color); its ability to print on roll media while staging the next rigid print job; the approximately 40% increase in print speed over previous models; and the very quick return on investment time, which BERTL estimates to be less than two months.

The Océ 350 GT printer combines a true flatbed design with a separate, dedicated roll-to-roll system. It can print onto rigid media up to 1.25 m wide x 2.5 m long x 48 mm thick (49" wide x 98" long x 1.89" thick). With the Roll Media Option installed, users can print onto flexible media up to 2.2 meters (87") wide. Shops lucky enough to have it are reporting remarkable results with a variety of different substrates.

The printer uses four-color (CMYK) inks and offers a White Ink Option to expand applications options to non-white surfaces. The White Ink Option enables under-printing for non-white media or objects, over-printing for backlit applications on transparent media and/or printing white as a spot color. Under-printing white ink provides a base for non-white surfaces upon which color can be added, giving users the ability to expand their range of offerings to include specialty applications. Over-printing white ink provides a diffusion layer for backlit applications that will be viewed from the unprinted side, enabling users to produce high quality backlit images for point-of-purchase applications. The ability to also print white ink as a spot color enables white features of images to be highlighted for greater effect. Day-night panels – which can be viewed either front-lit or backlit – can also be created by printing color data on two separate layers with a white diffusing layer in the middle.

If you've got one, let us know how it's working for you. Click HERE to drop us a line.

PEiR Plays Vegas!

The PEiR Group is on the move, mobilizing for tomorrow's debut in fabulous Las Vegas and excited about the prospect of seeing other "Kings" of the industry during the PEiR Executive Conference (see adjoining agenda in this blog).

We've got a couple of days to be together and a great turnout so far (thanks for the prompt signups and logistical support, by the way) and a whole lotta stuff to talk about as we gather at the Bellagio Thursday and Friday to discuss ways to "Keep Fit During this Economy."

Don't settle for impersonators, ask for and get the best in the business - and have some fun with us Thursday and Friday. We all deserve it!


Luv ya, Baby...

Shaun