Learning From The Best: Get Back To Basics

By Shaun Meany
The PEiR Group




Last Sunday I had a chance to watch the U.S. national soccer team play Brazil in the Confederation Cup finals in Johannesburg South Africa. I normally don’t watch much soccer, but after the U.S. team surprised Spain (another world class powerhouse) with a score of 2-0 earlier in the week; I just had to watch the U.S. play Brazil.

It was a great game, and it wasn't long into it that I begin to see parallels between the match and our industry today. Like the U.S. and Brazilian players, we're playing to win in an environment full of challenges. Your business, of course, is not a game, your livelihood and those of your employees are at stake - not a silver cup and bragging rights. But if you look at your business and prepare yourselves like the Americans did before their games with Spain and Brazil there are lessons to be found as we enter the second half this challenging year.

Preparing for Sunday's match, the U.S. team was keenly focused on soccer basics: maintain ball possession, keep up a good defense and capitalize on scoring opportunities. This was clearly demonstrated as the U.S. built a 2-0 lead going into the second half.

But when play resumed the Americans were noticeably exhausted. They started to make critical mistakes. The rest was soccer history: the Brazilian’s closed the gap 2-1 then 2-2 and finally toward the end of the half they took the lead and the final with a last minute surge that put them on top at 3-2.

So, what are the lessons that you can learn from this?

The business challenges you are facing require that you have your best team available and ready to play.

This economic cycle we are currently facing is just finishing the first half. You need to pace yourself and your employees to maintain good practices, keep your business fit and lean so it can meet the second half with enthusiasm and creativity.

Remember the basics. Treat each customer and job as if it is the only one. Study your competition. What are they doing that you're not? Are you focusing on just AEC or looking for revenues in quick printing and copying, large and small format color, archiving, FM’s and growing digital services?

Here's my locker room sales talk: Don’t be like the US soccer team. Keep focused on the goal, remember the basics and keep pace with your competition - and save a little extra for when you'll need it!

Social Media and Reprographics: What It All Means To You

"Shaun's Corner"
by Shaun Meany

YouTube, BlogSpot, Twitter, Yammer, Facebook, LinkedIn and a host of other online social networking sites, frequently used by the “Y Generation," are quickly becoming popular hangouts for businesses and business owners, as well.

But how do you use these online social networking sites to share your expertise, gain a following, and increase your income potential for your reprographics business?

I thought it would be helpful to share some of my research about online social networking and how social media can be put to good use for growing your business.

If you think online social networking is something you want to do, you ought to create a social media marketing plan (this could be included in your annual marketing plan as well). The plan should be in writing and should quantify your goals and identify the primary social networks you are interested in targeting. Be sure that you target networks that fit your needs and desires. For example, I am a member of LinkedIn Network and I have joined several special interest groups within LinkedIn such as: reprographics group, info trends, sales and marketing, wide format imaging, salesforce.com and a few others. By being a member of these groups I have the opportunity to monitor what others are thinking and talking about. This information is invaluable as it helps a business owner know what is on peoples minds and where the future of his or her respective industry may be heading.

Keep in mind that your access to and control of what is said on social networks is often very limited. Social networks turn individuals into marketers for your company, but it can be very difficult to control the messages they send.

Also, remember when posting a message on a social network site that it’s important to add value to your content, not just pitch your products.

The idea is to monitor people talking about the things your company does, and then join in with useful information and expertise that can help answer their questions and solve their problems. When you do decide to make your contribution to the social network be sure to refer to your blog or twitter account so people can check you out for the link.

New social networking sites are popping up all the time. Take Twitter. This micro-blog site allows people to follow a topic or a person and post daily, hourly and sometimes minute by minute tweets (updates). I am just starting to get into twitter and still am navigating through all the different subjects and looking for a way to apply to my business needs. If you want you can tweet me at http://twitter.com/shaunmeany.

The rise of instant communication technologies has created a whole new environment for doing our business. If we are to survive in the future we must learn to adapt and apply the new marketing paradigms of the Generation Y's.

There are some interesting tools available to us today. Instead of turning our nose up at them, we may be well advised to learn how to use them effectively.

Tweet me sometime... or even just pick up the old fashioned phone! Communication, in any form, is a good thing.


Regards,

Shaun

Update on Construction Outlook

McGraw Hill published its Spring 2009 Construction Outlook publication and here are some of the significant highlights of the of the report.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes a $787 billion stimulus of which approximately $130 billion will go to construction from 2009-2011. The bulk of construction related stimulus money is going to GSA and the DOT.

GSA Activity:

• 70% of the GSA work will be in Washington DC with the majority of the remaining 30% going to projects in the larger states such as California and DC.
• These projects will likely not start any time soon; the GSA needs to obligate $5 billion by mid-2010 and the remaining amount by mid-2011.
• There are numerous rules and regulations that will go along with these projects; many of which may cause many of your customers to opt out of bidding.

DOT Activity:

• There is immediate work with half of the funding required to be designated by June 30, 2009 and the remaining half by March 2010.
• Current breakdown of funds is $27.5 billion for highways, $8.4 billion for transit, $9.3 billion for rail ($1.3 billion for Amtrak; $8 billion for high speed rail) and $1 billion to TSA.
• This funding is “use it or lose it” which means it will not be wasted by the states stimulus plan eliminates the standard state fund matching requirement.
• For roads, this is 20% of the total project cost; again supporting that these funds will not be wasted..

Spiral’s New Speedylam™ Is The Fastest Pouch Laminator Made

The SpeedyLam™ 330R10 is the fastest pouch laminator available. It will laminate up to 12' per minute, making it possible to laminate a letter sized pouch every five seconds. It offers six heated rollers, two cooling rollers and two outlet rollers. This unique 10 roller system and heavy duty cooling fans provide super fast lamination speeds while assuring high quality results even on difficult to laminate items such as photos, inkjet prints and color copies.

The SpeedyLam™ 330R10 features an LCD display that offers variable heat and speed controls and a reverse button to clear jams. A counter to measure the amount of lamination produced in a session and a memory feature to preset functions for frequent applications are also included. The removable top roller cover makes maintenance simple and a cool down cycle will automatically shut the system off when it reaches the proper temperature thus preventing damage to the heated rollers.

For more information, including specifications on this machine and other Spiral products visit their Web site, or contact Ann Marie Boggio at 800-631-3572 ext 1231.

ishipdocs Free Trial Deadline Extended!

The ishipdocs 90 day Free Trial sign-up has been extended to June 3oth, 2009 for all interested PEiR Members

If you have any questions regarding this innovative approach to sending your documents to the far corners of the planet - without customs delays or the lasting carbon footprint of more traditional shipping methods - please call the PEiR Group at 925 658-0200

To sign-up for ishipdocs go HERE.

Summertime: A Great Time To Plan For The Future

As we head into summer, rumors abound that the recession is beginning to subside. On one hand I am very excited to hear about the prospects of a turnaround in our economy, but on the other I am concerned for the eventual turnaround of our industry and wonder what the future of reprographics will look like when the economy is back in full swing.

Every day I talk to reprographers from all corners of the world, it’s one of the best parts of my job. The vast majority are voicing the following concerns about the future of our business:

When the economy begins to normalize will reprographers see printing volumes return as before or will the contraction of overall printing continue?

Will General Contractors continue to try to reduce printing costs by distribuing CD’s or offering FTP sites for their Subs to access project drawings and specifications? How can we make them aware of the advantages of our online plan room technologies?

Will our AEC clients accept our charges for digital services? What can we do to help them understand the value of these services?

Will General Contractors and their sub-contractors learn to embrace technologies like BIM and electronic take-off? What impact will this have on our printing? Can we find a role to play with these technologies? Can we find opportunities for new revenues?

Will production large format printing migrate from Monochrome to Color devices like the Océ Color Wave and KIP KC 80? When is the right time to invest in these new technologies?

Are software companies with no vested interest in the reprographics industry going to continue to steal your customers because you are unable to convince your customers of the value of your own technologies?

How about it? What do you think? If these same issues cross your mind more than once a day what are you doing to prepare yourself and your business for the time when your concerns materialize in the months ahead?

I encourage you to take time this summer to do a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of your business. Do not try to do this analysis alone. Reach out to your key employees and some of your trusted customers and ask them what they think the future will hold and where they think the reprographics industry is heading. What are the threats and opportunities that lay ahead for the reprographics industry as a whole and for your business specifically over the next three to five years?

Don’t wait until the economy comes lumbering back; take some time this summer to plan the next phase of your business’s transformation from a digital printing company to “Digital Reprographics Company.”

If you’re wondering what the differences between the two are, come back in the days ahead, I’ll be writing more about this in a future edition of POV.

Sincerely


Shaun

Does ishipdocs Work? Uh, Yes - A and E Digital Gets Its First Job 24 Hours After Signing Up!

Like anything new, there's resistance until an idea is proven - and more universally accepted. It's human nature to wait until "the other guy" tries out the model and makes it work.

The team at A&E Digital Printing on King Street in beautiful Charleston, SC could be described as "the other guy" in this case. They leapt in, signed up for ishipdocs, and got their first job within 24 hours from RK Digital in Omaha, NE.

That's making money within 24 hours of signup, folks. That's a heckuva testimonial to the effectiveness of the model.

Hewlett Packard Talks Shop - We Listen, And Learn

by Shaun Meany
President of The PEiR Group

This week I attended HP’s New Product Introduction (NPI) here in Northern California. I thought it might be helpful to update the members on what HP is doing in the technical or CAD printer market.

Our first session was an introduction by Pat Hester (HP’s Director of Wide Format Printing Solutions), highlighting HP’s success with their Designjet product line over the last 15 years or so.

Pat offered an extremely well done video about HP’s technical leadership in thermal inkjet technologies. Their focus on innovation is something that any prospect would like to see and learn about. Meany Note: one of our PEiR members, Andy Chiodo from Entire Imaging in Toronto, was featured in the testimonial portion of the video!

HP has a big “Cash-in and Trade-Up” promotion underway to attack the installed base of their older plotters. The opportunities are huge. Pat says there are more than 45,000 HP 600, 700 and 800 series and more than 27,000 HP 1050 and 1055 series still out in the market today.

Key products presented at the NPI were the HP1120, HP4020 and the HP T1120 MFP. Basically, HP updated their existing 1100’s and 4000’s with more RAM and Disk Space.

Something I took away from the session was how HP is positioning their products as solutions. HP is now bundling a variety of software tools along with their printers. One such tool is Accounting Excel 2.0, an easy to use utility that reports all printing activity along with related consumables into a worksheet used to recover project or department printing costs.

Another interesting component of their solution approach is an easy to use poster software application called Serif Poster Designer Pro. It gives end-users all the design power they need to achieve fantastic posters and banners for a variety of vertical applications (schools, real estate, retail, and other).

There are other software tools that you will want to familiarize yourselves with such as the HP instant print, embedded web server (EWS) and webjet admin.

HP knows it needs to help its channel partners promote and market their products as as a result have released some exciting marketing tools. If you visit the following web portals you will find a wealth of resources to aid your company’s sales and marketing efforts.

Partner Portal

Campaign Central

Designjet Expressway web site

www.hp.com/go/newdesignjet

www.hp.com/go/betterdesignjet

www.hp.com/go/media

If you are not offering FM’s it is my opinion you might want to start by looking at HP’s latest printers for the CAD, GIS and Technical marketplace. You will be glad you did!

If you are interested in attending one of HP’s New Product Introductions in your area click HERE to find one in your area.

Nicole Sisneros: "Time To Think Creatively, People!"

Creative Uses of PlanWell
by Nicole Sisneros

More often than not, we tend to look at PlanWell as "reprographic" software: specific only to the needs of the AEC community. I think it is safe to say that in the recent past we've noticed that this thinking is a little narrow. And maybe, just maybe, we aren't even being as creative as we could be within our AEC base.

It's time to get creative. To that end, I've included three examples of admirable "new" uses of PlanWell we hope will help inspire you during these challenging times:

Lightening the Load
"We have a client who flew back and forth to Cabo San Lucas with plans and renderings to show prospective home buyers. Now, using PlanWell, he totes his laptop and plugs directly into the web, displaying his onscreen architectural portfolio."

- Consolidated Reprographics

On Demand
"We have a proposal that we are still working on for the county. Basically, they want to have all of the county forms in PlanWell so they can order 'on-demand' for their packets that they send out.

"Some forms are going to be online such as Voter's Registration, etc. Currently, they pre-order hundreds and put them in a storage room. If the information changes, they have to re-order and throw out all of the previous copies. PlanWell will help them cut costs and reduce waste."

- OCB Reprographics

Standardized Testing
"In 2005 the San Jose Unified School District contacted me to provide a solution for organizing an easy way of storing and ordering their Benchmark Tests, which is part of the State of California "No Child Left Behind" program.

"I had taken some of their tests and scanned them into PlanWell, then showed the district how it will be the perfect application for their need. The San Jose Unified School District then had us implement PlanWell for storing and revising and ordering their Benchmark tests for English, math and other class subjects in grades 1st through 12.

"My contact in the Curriculum Department also gets all of the order confirmations so she can monitor all of the schools and teachers to make sure they have all ordered their tests. We also set PlanWell up to block certain tests from view that can only be ordered after a specific date. I also went around to each of their 45 schools throughout the district and trained the principals, teachers and assistants on how to order through PlanWell."

- San Jose Blue

Here are just a few adaptive, alternative uses of PlanWell. I can't wait to hear what you think, what uses you've come up with, etc. I'll try and post more uses later next week.

Thinking creatively,


Nicole

Vendor Update: Azerty

Azerty has just posted a host of updated product information pertaining to its Innovera Product line - find it all on the PEiR Group web site.

Enjoy!