HP and Canon Announce Game Changing Wide Format Technical MFP Devices

There has been some game changing announcements from the manufacturers of inkjet plotters recently. Both HP and Canon have introduced new technical inkjet devices that are giving LED technologies a run for the money.

Upon attending HP’s open house last week,  I learned of (2) new technical cad printer models; the HP T2300 eMFP and the HP T7100. Both of these new printers are breakthrough products--for there price performance, speed, versatility and total cost of ownership.

The HP T2300 MFP is a T1200 (2) roll plotter (42 or 60 inches) with a fully integrated Scanner (36”) for scanning and copying color documents. Included with the hardware comes new software tools that let users scan and print to and from the Cloud! It also allows users to walk up to the device with a laptop or a USB drive and print or capture documents with a simple user friendly interface. Something like an iphone interface. Street price for the basic 42” MFP system starts around $8,500.

Video of the HP T2300 eMFP: click here

The HP T7100 is a fast, multi-roll technical printer that can print up to 4 “D” size prints a minute. Not only is the system extremely fast, but the cost to print in monochrome is less than comparable LED systems from Oce, KIP and Xerox. HP shared a TCO chart that showed that the cost to print color on the T7100 is significantly less than the cost to print on Oce’s Plot and Color Waves. The HP T7100 can be configured to meet the needs of your most demanding customers: monochrome or color, additional rolls, external hard drives, postscript, stackers and scanner/copier. The street price of the T7100 starts at $8500 (monochrome). Check the PEiR Group's web site (vendor partners/Hp) for special promotions pricing and other information on these exciting new products.

Not to be out done, Canon has responded to the new HP announcements by introducing its own price performance technical MFP solutions. Canon has introduced a family of MFP products that combines the complete line of Canon technical iPF plotters (iPF 710, iPF 750, iPF 755, iPF810 and iPF825) with an integrated 42" scanner that allows users to scan to file and make full color copies. The street price for the basic iPf710 MFP is $7,500--Unbelievable.  Check the PEiR Group's web site (vendor partners/Canon) for pricing and other information.

If you are NOT reselling HP or Canon technical printers you need to! These new products are so cost effective and offer so many capabilities your customers will have a hard time not installing one in his or her office.   HP estimates that there are over 70,000 potential  Designjet upgrades available in the US market alone.

The PEiR Group offers one of the best equipment vendor programs in the reprographics industry. If you want to grow revenues and make good margins on equipment, supplies and service please take advantage of our HP and Canon reseller programs.

In these challenging economic times Reprographers need to be more proactive if they are to control their markets and customer base. I suggest for those of you who do not offer printers/copiers solutions to your customers please reconsider. The PEiR Group can help you develop a sales program to make these products available to your customers; either on a FM or Purchase Program.

If you fail to realize these fundamental changes in the marketplace, you might find that one of your best customers just bought a new print/scan/copy solution from one of your local competitors and they may never be back!

Shaun

On the Road with Fellow Reprographers (Part 1) BIM

Over the last month and a half I have been traveling to a variety of regions in North America, visiting with reprographers and learning about their challenges and what they are doing to position their companies for the future.

In my next few articles in “Point of View” I will be sharing some of my observations and experiences from these trips along with some updates on what the PEiR Group will be doing to help our members develop strategies to grow their businesses.

In late September I went to San Diego to attend the (WRA) Western Reprographics Association annual convention. The attendance was light but the networking opportunities were great and some of educational sessions were extremely interesting.

One educational session I found most enlightening was a presentation on BIM (building information modeling) from Chuck Goodman from iPda (integrated Process design associates). Chuck’s company, iPda, is a design firm that has been working with BIM for several years and has developed a BIM solution that helps owners, AEC firms and others; leverage the technologies and processes used with BIM. iPda helps project stakeholders strategize on how to implement BIM so that the benefits of BIM can be maximized in all stages of a project’s lifecycle (design, bid, build and operate).

Today many in our industry think that software tools like Revit, Bentley Microstation or Graphisoft are BIM but in reality they are just that, tools.

When implemented properly, BIM can save owners millions. BIM helps design and construction companies build a project virtually which allows project team members to do a variety of “what if’s” before a single hole is dug in the ground; eliminating change orders, reducing inventory and material costs, conducting water and electrical cost analysis, scheduling labor more accurately and a whole lot more. A few of the biggest issues that many who want to embrace BIM are struggling with are:

• Knowledgeable personnel capable of understanding and implementing BIM.
• Multiple tools are used to develop BIM projects and there is a technological challenge of making these various tools all work in one model. i\If BIM is to become truly effective there is a necessity for the software tools to interoperate.  That means that the BIM model needs to be accessed and  updated by multiple disciplines regardless of the software manufacture (Autodesk, Bentley, Graphicsoft) .
• BIM Models are huge and to be effective they need to have the abilitiy for all team members to access the model, so it can be kept up to date with all pertinent data.  

Possible Solutions

BIM Knowledge Transfer and Technology Outsourcing Services 

Companies like iPda offer expertise and outsourcing of personnel to help owners, designers and contractors ramp up and implement BIM. As reprographers we need to position ourselves to take advantage of the opportunities to team with companies like iPda to market their services to our own clients; TOS (Technology Outsourcing Services).

IFC

To address the need for multiple team members to update the BIM model with various preferred software tools, a new file format has been developed, its called IFC.  The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) data model is a neutral and open specification that is not controlled by a single vendor or group of vendors. It is an object oriented file format with a data model developed by buildingSMART - an international alliance of built environment sector professionals, contractors, suppliers and client groups who promote the benefits of interoperability and open standards for information sharing in the building industry, and is a commonly used format for Building Information Modeling (BIM). The IFC model specification (ISO-PAS 16739) is available at http://www.iai-tech.org/.

BIM Servers

BIM models are huge and multiple team members need to securely access, add, change and delete sections of the model as needed. In the not too distant future there will be a need for a provider to host and manage BIM models in the Cloud. As an industry reprographers are perfectly positioned to offer BIM Hosting Services but, it will require us to understand BIM and the technologies required to support this initiative and, how do we can charge for these services.

I will continue to add more about my travels so please check back on a regular basis.

Sincerely, Shaun Meany

From the Road with Fellow Reprographers (Part 2) Color in Construction

This is my second article related to my recent roads trips around the country. If you read my previous post you learned that I have been attending a variety of industry events along with visiting with reprographers to learn about their challenges and their strategies for success in the future.

As I promised, I am sharing some of the more valuable information I learned along the way and at the same time I want to reinforce the message that there are opportunities “still to be had” in these challenging economic times.

I recently headed to Dallas, Texas to attend the Central Reprographics Association  (CRA) Conference. Overall the attitude of the attendees was fairly optimistic, a little better than those who attended the WRA in San Diego. The attendance was a bit light but there was good educational material presented and there were plenty of opportunities to network and exchange ideas.

Like I said, the educational sessions were great. There were several educational sessions that I attended but the presentation from Peter Lawrence (Océ) Where's the Color? Sales Opportunities in the construction project lifecycle was particularly insightful!

Peter is a very knowledgeable guy and has been around this industry for some time, since the days of PageMasters. It was interesting to hear his perspective on where he sees the applications and benefits of color for the construction industry.

Peter sees color being used in several areas in construction:

1. Construction documents that are produced in color can be more accurate and more trustworthy; color can transform rich 3D data set into a powerful guide for the installers.
2. Color can reduce errors by 80%.  Color can reduce direct costs (errors and changes) and also the associated litigation cost of errors and omissions.
3. The Document coordination process might be much easier to tackle if the construction documents were in color.
4. Scan As Built’s in color; these hard-copy records usually have color mark-ups and notes (color markers. pens or pencils) about changes that were made over time. Capturing this color data is critical for records keeping purposes.

As an industry we need to help educate our customers on the benefits of using color. If you are interested in learning more about the opportunities for color in the construction industry please visit Peter’s blog at http://colorforconstruction.com/.

Shaun

PlanWell Collaborate is Offically Released

Today PlanWell Collaborate is officially released. If you have not yet heard about PlanWell Collaborate (PWC) you will very soon! After many months of research and development ARC has released PlanWell Collaborate; a game changing application for the AEC marketplace.

PlanWell Collaborate is a cost-effective and easy-to-use Web 2.0-based application that accelerates project team coordination and improves file sharing; PlanWell Collaborate replaces inefficient project management tools like FTP, email or spreadsheets. With PlanWell Collaborate, project teams can easily share documents, increase team accountability, and reduce delays without the complexity and steep learning curve associated with traditional project management software.

PlanWell Collaborate can be used independently or inside Microsoft Outlook(R) to create a working environment that is easy-to-use, familiar and immediately accessible. Project communication and document sharing happens in real time inside a central project portal, so projects start fast and stay on track with current information. With no software to install and a cost-effective software-as-a-service pricing model, users can be added or removed from the project as their participation is required.

Because PWC is completely a cloud based solution it has significant appeal to any business entity that is project centric.

PlanWell Collaborate will be sold and supported by a select number of PWC certified reprographers who understand how design and construction project teams use documents to communicate and collaborate.

PlanWell Collaborate is available as software-as-a-service (Saas) for individuals, project teams and business enterprises of all sizes. Standard pricing is set at $25/seat per month.

For more information or a 30-day free trial, visit http://www.planwellcollaborate.com/, or call your PEiR Group representative at (925) 658-0200.

Staying On Top of Copyright Rules

“Can you copy these four pages out of this book for me?  ”More importantly, does everyone at your front desk know the right answer?

U.S. copyright law is remarkably strict!

Making a single copy of a copyrighted work without authorization of the copyright owner can get you in trouble, even if you believed that the work wasn’t protected or thought that you had permission of the copyright owner.

Penalties can be severe and can include lost profits, damage claims up to $150,000, attorney’s fees, and more.

Knowing what you can do and what you can’t with copyrighted material is a serious legal issue, and anyone in your business who comes into contact with customers should know the basics.

Luckily, it’s easy to educate them.

The PEiR Group has posted training material on copyright issues on the PEiR Group's intranet. To find these documents visit the members resources area under best practices library:  sales/tech/prod/ .

In the materials, you’ll find information on how to protect yourselves from liability issues, what circumstances require a written release from liability, as well as useful documents to have within reach when customers come to the counter with a magazine, book or photo in hand.

Please join your PEiR’s at the SGIA Expo in Las Vegas October 13-15

This is a reminder to all PEiR Group Members that we will be hosting a Color Graphics Sales and Technology Conference in conjunction with the SGIA Expo on October 13 and 14 in Las Vegas.

"As wide-format digital printing continues to emerge, new markets and applications are being developed continually and new uses for the technology are being discovered. There is a lot to be said for adopting a technology during its emergence phase. Being early to the right markets can generate new business, and the margins are better when emerging technologies are needed." (source: American Printer)

According to a SGIA “Trends Survey” report (figure 1) several wide format imaging market segments are predicting growth, these include: government agencies, health care services, corporate branding and retail.

If you are not prepared to address these market segments with your wide format color graphics services or you want to learn how to expand your wide format color business then you will want to attend the PEiR Group Color Graphics Sales and Technology Conference along with visiting the SGIA Expo.

I am sure all of you can all find excuses why you cannot come to Las Vegas in October but, let me remind you of this very important point. Can you not afford to attend? If you want to know what your competitors are doing in wide format and where they see the opportunities you need to come to Las Vegas.

The SGIA Expo historically attracts over 22,000 attendees and every vendor who supplies anything to do with wide format output. Combining a PEIR Conference with the SGIA expo allows you to learn about sales strategies for selling your display graphics and to experience firsthand some of the new technologies and applications that your customers will be interested in knowing more about.

More reasons why you should attend:

1. We negotiated a great deal at the MGM Hotel ($100)
2. Low Conference Fee ($135 Includes access to SGIA Convention, monorail pass and dinner at the SGIA)
3. Experience the latest developments in Wide Format Color Technologies and Applications
4. Attend the largest Wide Format Print Convention in the world.
5. Learn what your competitors are doing in WF Color.
6. Selling WF Color in Vertical Markets
7. Learn How to Sell at Higher Prices

To register or to request more information about the PEiR Group Color Graphics Sales and Technology Conference or the SGIA Expo click here:

Do you have a High School Senior that is planning on attending college?

If you have a High School Senior there is a four-year scholarship program offered by Coca-Cola to 250 high school seniors. The application period is open from August 1 to October 31 — it’s a pretty tight window, but there are very few restrictions on applicants.

The application requirements are simple, and this is a merit based scholarship.
So if you have a senior in high school, the Coke program is where you should look now.

Application Information is available here:
Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation — Applications open from 8/1/2010 thru 10/31/2010
https://www.coca-colascholars.org/cokeWeb/page.jsp?navigation=15

SGIA Survey Shows Retail As Leading Market for Imagers

"The survey shows strong evidence that specialty imagers - garment decorators and graphics producers alike - are exploring new markets and opportunities as a way to bolster their businesses," said Dan Marx, SGIA's Vice President of Markets and Technologies. "Further, the survey shows how specialty imaging companies are using sales, management and production initiatives to strengthen their competitive advantage."

According to the US report, about 71 percent of imagers agree that referrals are a very effective way to attract new customers, while only about 3 percent rely on online directory listings for new business. To increase their competitive advantage in production, 37.6 percent of all imagers are adding finishing capabilities to their businesses - up from 29.1 percent in 2009.

The survey also concludes that retail (direct and indirect through ad agencies) continues to be the leading market for graphic imagers (75.7 percent). For garment decorators, educational institutions (77 percent) and corporate branding (72 percent) are among the primary markets served.

Quark Promote Update

Quark Promote — a new direction for Quark (read full article)
This is a follow-up on an eariler blog posting regarding Quark Promote. Check out the new improvements to the Quark print partners program!

Managed Print Services

Many of you have heard of Managed Print Services, or MPS but I would guess that many of you have not thought about the effect that MPS will have on your business in the near future.

As a way of providing you with a frame of reference for MPS in general, take a look at the graphic above. It’s from the research firm, Photizo Group, and helps explain important aspects of the future of MPS.

Things to keep in mind:

• First, the overall market for professional print services isn’t projected to grow that much in the coming years.
• Second, while the market isn’t likely to grow as a whole, it will be changing dramatically. Over the next four years, your customers will be aggressively converting from buying and managing their own printers, to outsourcing all print services through MPS. How aggressively is the market likely to convert? The graph above shows that $50 billion of the traditional print services market will be moving to MPS by 2013!
• Third, this means that your share of the market will come under attack from other print providers, especially equipment manufacturers and equipment resellers who will tell your customers, “Hey, we do all your other printing, why don’t we throw in your wide-format work, too?”
• Fourth, wide-format printing is only a small part of this overall market, so even though the market isn’t growing, your share of the print market can increase dramatically by pursuing MPS. Why? Because for every wide-format printer in a typical office, there are frequently 10 additional small format or multi-function devices!

The observations above go a long way in answering at least two fundamental questions about your strategic direction with regard to MPS:

Q: Why should you consider pursuing MPS?
A: The overall print services market isn’t projected to grow aggressively. As such, you need to defend the market share you have, and grow aggressively inside the overall market. You can do this by converting the FM business you have to MPS, and leveraging your strengths to capture new business through your MPS offering.
Q: Why is there such a sense of urgency on MPS?
A: The conversion of the market is happening fast — $50 billion of converted business is projected in less than four years. If you don’t capture this business, someone else will take it from you.

* At its simplest, MPS is managing hard copy device fleets (copiers, printers, multifunction devices, and fax machines) in a unified fashion. Essentially, this means a client outsources ALL of their printing resources to you – you run their on-site printing, off-site printing and document management & storage.

Thanks............Shaun

Sell Software to Grow Sales and Profits

As the economy continues to linger in the doldrums many reprographers are struggling to make ends meet. For some reprographers, revenues are down as much as 50 percent from the industry highs of 2008 and profitability, of any amount, is becoming difficult to realize. What more, Reprographers are struggling to develop strategies to survive. The AEC clients reprographers serve are fraught with the same economic realities and are dramatically changing their organizations in size and the ways they do business. Demand for traditional printing and other services are down as your clients continue to adopt digital workflows to save costs and improve productivity.

Recessions become catalysts for change -- for everyone and every business. If you do not realize that you need to embrace change you have the prospect of becoming irrelevant when the economy returns to somewhat normal. As business leaders, it is extremely important that you strategize on ways that you can re-position your company’s message and resources so you will be prepared to offer the right products and services that your marketplace with need after it experiences the paradigm shift that will result.

The profiles of the companies that survive the recession will likely be smaller but more efficient. If you agree with this conclusion then you might want to develop a strategy for your companies to offer solutions that will allow your customers to do more with less. This is where software becomes an ally to your business strategy. Offering a range of tools to help your customers to do things more efficiently with less labor has significant value to companies. Take Microsoft, Google, Apple, IBM, Salesforce.com and a host of other software vendors they are all growing at astronomically rates during the recession. Why? Do they know something that you don’t? I believe they know that people today and in the future will want convenient tools that are internet enabled to conduct business any time and any place. People are willing to pay to use internet enabled tools and this is where reprographers need to make a leap to selling software as a new revenue generating area for their businesses.

The beautiful thing about selling software it is very profitable and in some cases requires very little cost to sell. The trend in software today is selling Software as a Service (SaaS). You might ask, what is SaaS? Software as a Service is the idea of selling the use of software that runs over the internet and users subscribe or rent to use of the software by a user/seat licenses on a per month or per year basis. The software can be acquired immediately with minimal costs and IT infrastructure for the customer.



More and more companies want SaaS. Users want to be able to use technology when they want it, where they want it. The revenues from SaaS are often reoccurring and can add significantly to your company’s profitability month after month; year after year.

If you are interested in learning about software products you can sell to your AEC clients attend one of the PEiR Group’s webinars by visiting this link.

Don’t let the current economy make you numb and unable to develop strategies for your company’s future success. Take a few moments to see the world as it is changing around you, look at the trends, make some conclusions and take some action.

Best

Shaun Meany

PEiR Group 2010 Executive Conference Recap

Last week The PEiR Group held its 2010 annual executive conference in Palm Springs, CA. Given the economy and the location we still had a good turnout, about 30 companies and over 40 attendees at the conference. Even though many of our members could not travel to Palm Springs this year (for various reasons) we were pleasantly honored by having several of our international members in attendance: Tony Militano , Tony Smith and Gerry Brust of Carbon Copy, in Calgary Canada, Kieran Obrien of HOBS in the UK and Frank Veltman of Creffield Digital Print in Melbourne Australia.

Outlined below is a summary of some of the key topics, presentations and discussions that took place.

The meeting was held right after the IRgA Convention at The Renaissance Palm Springs which was a beautiful resort. It made for a long week for some of us who attended the IRgA but the weather was fantastic and there was plenty of time to socialize with others from our industry. As usual I got the opportunity to play some golf at one of Palm Spring’s most famous courses, The Classic, where the PGA’s Bob Hope Classic is played.

By the way the PEiR conference was way better than my golf game!

The first day of the conference we had a special welcoming from Suri the CEO of ARC to share with us his vision on the future of our industry. Suri talked about the unprecedented declines in print volumes for reprographic companies and what he believes are the revenue opportunities for reprographers in the future. Specifically Suri discussed the costs of technologies and that these costs need to be recouped by our industry if we are to survive. He stated “If our revenues are only related to print and print services (and we include the technology with the price of the print) the future does not look so good. But if we realize that printing is declining and our technology investments are growing we must stop and think about the way we charge for our technologies! Suri stated that ARC will begin to focus on selling technology for its own benefits and will not be including the technologies with the print services for free. He basically projects that there will be six major revenue buckets for reprographers: (1) Printing, (2) Digital and Content management services, (3) FM & Managed Print Services, (4) Software Licensing and (5) Outsourced Technology Services (like CAD, R2V & BIM) and (6) Equipment and Supplies.

After Suri’s talk, several of our vendor/partners, who were in Palm Springs for the IRgA, stayed and shared some ideas on what they are doing to help PEiR members generate new revenue opportunities. Spiral Binding, Nashua, Océ, KIP, Canon and Wynit all had some interesting products and services that you should look into. The vendor/partner presentations are located in the Member Resources/Executive Library on the PEiR Group’s new web site.

Kumar Wiratunga closed the Friday night session with an introduction of PlanWell Collaborate that is planned to be released to PEiR members in the 4th quarter of the year. PlanWell Collaborate will use a SaaS (software as a service) licensing model. Licensing will be sold on a per seat basis, something new for our industry but a growing trend in the software world. Keep a lookout for webinars and other announcements on PlanWell Collaborate as we get closer to general release.

Dinner on Friday was at a local steak house, The Falls, we had a great time and based on the comments from the group the food and wine was delicious.

Saturday was a full day. We began the meeting with a presentation from the President of the SGIA, Michael Robertson, who shared some interesting trends and applications in LF color imaging or display graphics. Michael showed research that indicated that UV Curable technology is the hottest growing technology in wide format color. FYI, the PEiR Group will be attending the SGIA Expo in Las Vegas, October 13-15; so if you are looking to expand your sales in wide format color you will want to consider joining other members at the SGIA Expo. More details of this event will be coming in the near future.

Following Michael Robertson’s discussion, was a presentation from Paul Stout, a seasoned construction PM who discussed the Paradigm Shift taking place in the construction world and how this paradigm shift could create opportunities for reprographers who offer technology and support services to the AEC marketplace. Many of the members commented that this was a very enlightening presentation so please take a few moments to review Paul’s presentation; it is located in the Executive Library as well.

Océ presented on wide format color. They did a group exercise that I thought was very educational and helpful in illustrating the benefits of using more color in the AEC workflow; they handed (2) sheets of the same architectural drawing to each group. Sheet (1) was a B&W drawing with some toilets and sinks. They asked each of the groups to count the number of sinks. Each group concluded various counts almost all varied from 7-11 sinks. Then they passed out sheet (2) the same drawing that highlighted the sinks in color. Each group easily counted the exact number of sinks. The conclusion, color helps users become more accurate and efficient. Talk to your Oce rep about this exercise and show it to your customers as well. Maybe you can start generating more demand for LF Color output with ideas like this one, from our friends at Océ.

After the Océ presentation, Beth Dobson (Meridian-aka Prolog) and Kumar Wiratunga introduced Meridian as a strategic partner for PlanWell and the capabilities that the PlanWell Prolog DataBridge will offer our members who use PlanWell Enterprise. Many of the members were extremely excited to learn of the opportunities in selling to some of the AEC world that uses Meridian products like Prolog and Proliance.

After lunch we had a presentation on Managed Print Services (MPS) from Jon Styrlund, who shared his vision as to where reprographers can position themselves in this rapidly growing printing trend. Jon said that MPS is growing so fast that if we do not respond to this trend by becoming MPS providers we will lose many of our customers to the vendors that do. Who are the vendors you may ask?

Here is just a small list:

• Oce
• Xerox
• Canon
• Konica Minolta
• IKON
• Ricoh
• IBM
• ARC
• HP
• Almost every copier dealer

The final session of the conference was presented by Mahil Maurice and he discussed the future and what is the cloud and what is cloud printing. As more and more content is on the internet (cloud) there will and is a growing need to have printing on the cloud. There are currently several cloud printing technology solutions becoming mainstream and ishipdocs has the potential to be positioned as a major player; only if reprographers can get a grasp of the concept and understand what it can mean for their businesses. This is an area we will be spending more time to help our members understand in the months ahead.

What a conference. Here are some of the comments we received from those who attended:

• “MPS and Prolog are the two areas that will impact my business immediately!”
  
• “Webinars and market insights is great, helps small shops keep up with what the rest of the world is doing!”
  
• “Suri’s presentation was excellent. Overall the PEiR Conference was better than the IRgA.
• The Océ presentation; showing differences of color vs b&w was excellent!”
  
• “Paul Stout of Power Summit was Excellent! He was not a sales pitch or skewed statistics. He was real, from the field/industry and informative…made the whole trip worth my while!”
  
• “I have always appreciated the transparency of ARC. I mean the way ARC shares their vision of the industry and what they see down the road!”
  
• “Congrats for putting together another excellent conference!”
  
• “Everything discussed regarding color was fabulous!”
  
• “Beth from Prolog was Excellent!”

If you want the presentations from the conference just visit the PEiR Group’s website and go to the Member Resources/Executive Library and download the 2010 Executive Conference presentations that you are interested in.

Thanks for your continued support and have a safe Memorial Weekend! Shaun Meany

Update on 2010 IRgA Convention

The IRgA Tradeshow and Convention opened this week in Palm Springs with about 400 people attending, including vendors. Attendance was roughly flat to 2009’s event in Pittsburgh, but there were more reprographers than vendors this year than last.

While the show ended up being more about industry relations than a sharply focused sales environment, there were a few notable things to talk about from vendors, including the PEIR Group’s PlanWell Collaborate, Sub-Hub, AbacusPCR, ishipdocs and KIP’s introduction of a new FM-oriented machine – the 700m, which has Abacus built into the controller – and new products from HP and a few of the scanner vendors on the floor.

The event got raves on its education program.

One of our members pulled me aside and told me he thought it was the best curriculum he’d seen in years, and several others from other company's echoed the sentiment. I sat in on several sessions, and I’d have to agree. Even the economist was a good speaker! Many of the presentations will be posted to the IRgA’s website in the coming weeks.

The CREST Foundation – Children of Reprographic Employees Scholarship Trust – co-sponsored the opening night reception and Janine Brandel’s opening remarks impressed the crowd with the number of kids the organization has helped, and emphasized how passionately the foundation believes in the cause. I’ll post some of that information in a future post.

The IRgA announced that next year’s event will be in Las Vegas.

The PEiR Group Launches New Web Portal

In our on-going quest to keep our members informed and up to date on the latest trends, opportunities, events and technologies that impact the reprographics industry we are pleased to announce the introduction of our new web portal.

Our new portal incorporates the latest technologies in web features and functions and will allow us to communicate in a more effective way. The new site is the same web address as before (http://www.peirgroup.com/) but with a whole new look and feel.

Notice you will see a user login on the right side and also a new feature called: My Profile. This new feature will allow all of our members to interact with the web portal as well as with others in the PEiR Group Community

We will be hosting several orientation webinars in the next few weeks; after we return from this week's IRgA Convention and The PEiR Group's Executive Conference in Palm Springs. For those who are adventurous and want to get to know the new web site now; we are sending out usernames and passwords this week. So, once you get your username please login and start playing around.

We are anxious to get your feed back; and to make it easy for you, there is a feedback link on the every page that will allow you to comment on the new web site and let us know what you think!

Best Regards


Shaun

$225,000 Dollars Helps Send Our Kids To College

Sending our kids to college is no easy feat. While our children might have the ambition, they don’t always have the money.

But if you’re reading this, you and your peers can offer your kids a good chance at financial assistance for their college careers.

In April of 2008, ARC was the prime mover in starting the CREST Foundation. It was formed to support the educational objectives of the children of our industry’s employees, primarily through financial support.

The CREST Foundation awarded $225,000 in scholarships to 31 recipients over the past two years.
In less than a year, the organization created an independent board of directors that included some of the biggest names in the industry, and established itself as a government-recognized non-profit organization.
At the 2010 IRgA opening reception held in Palm Springs (see article), Janine Brandel, the Executive Director of the CREST Foundation (see photo above), shared some of the foundation’s achievements over the past two years.

• Budget for 2010/2011 scholarships is $150,000.
• Current application session open through May 31, 2010 for the 2010-2011 school year.
• Parents of CREST scholarship recipients work for 27 reprographics companies with a ombined total of 500+ years in the reprographics industry.
• CREST recipients live in 12 states, attend 24 schools.
• All CREST Foundation staff volunteer their time so every dollar of donations goes toward scholarships – every one!
• PEiR Group Members have received $85,000 in CREST Scholarship Funds.
• 100% of donor funds received went to scholarship awards for children whose parents work in the reprographics industry.

Did you know this?

I work with Janine on CREST from time to time, and yet even I hadn’t realized how effective this program has been helping to send our kids to school!
Please spread the word with your peers and staff. It’s such a great program, and the foundation has capacity for new students this year.
For more info, visit the webpage at http://www.crestfoundation.org/. Download the flyers. Post them on your bulletin boards in the shop.
Make a difference in our childrens’ education through the CREST Foundation.

Tracking Documents With Printable Technology

Okay, time for some trippy future nerdy stuff.

What if you could track every piece of paper you printed? Know where it went, and detect it within 10 meters or so with a small electronic reader?


Would you want to if you could? Some of our customers might, and soon, there may be some technology to help them do it.

The idea is the same one that works in automatic toll transponders that beam your car’s information to a reader in the toll booth as you whiz through (angering all those poor slobs lined up like cattle in the manual lanes). Actually, it’s used with cattle, too. Transponders are frequently used to track the whereabouts of livestock .

The technology is called Radio Frequency Identification or RFID, and merchants like Wal-Mart are sending a clear signal to the marketplace that they’d like to put them on all of their products for tracking, inventory and even checkout purposes.

But because current RFID tags are made with silicon, and cost about 50 cents each to produce, it’s not yet cost effective.

But a collaboration by researchers at Sunchon National University in Suncheon, South Korea and Rice University in Texas has yielded a new RFID tag that can be PRINTED DIRECTLY on paper or plastic packaging, eliminating the need for silicon, and bringing the cost down to three cents a tag. The researchers developed a semiconducting ink, made with carbon nanotubes, capable of holding an electric charge.

At three-cents, it’s still pricey for tracking individual pieces of paper, but the researchers are looking to bring it down to one cent in the near future. Some of our friends at Xerox think this is a no brainer for our business.

Francois Ragnet, writing in his blog “The Future of Documents,” said “…At [one cent], and (needless to say) once this capability becomes available in office printers, that will make paper document tracking a reality…Just like we are thinking twice today before printing in color because it adds value to our documents (for a few pennies), we will also ask ourselves whether we want our documents to be fully traceable (for the same order of magnitude).”

Game-changer? Could be. What do you think?

"Shaun's Corner "First Quarter Update

Dear PEiR Members

I recently decided to get more active with the construction industry and have joined both the local and national American General Contractors Association (AGC). I also have been meeting with a wide assortment of members from the construction industry, both General Contractors and Sub-contractors, to learn how we reprographers can become better equipped to serve this particular industry.

In pursuit of this goal I attended a variety of local and national construction events to learn more about the needs and challenges of the construction industry.

One such activity was a workshop called Successful Negotiating in the Construction Environment offered by the local AGC Chapter of Northern California.

This workshop was developed by the AGC to help their members learn a more systematic approach for negotiating. It was interesting to learn that the culture of the construction industry expects almost everything to be negotiated. Sub’s and GC ‘s are constantly negotiating during all phases of a construction project. I learned that, as reprographers, we must be prepared to negotiate whenever working with representatives of the construction industry.

Last week in Orlando, I attended the National AGC Convention where approximately 1,000 industry representatives met to discuss the future of construction and their plans for stimulating construction projects and increasing construction jobs. It was a pertinent topic given that today, estimates suggest the construction industry has 29-30% unemployment.

As an exhibitor at the convention (we were showing PlanWell and Sub-Hub) it was clear that many attendees were finally realizing that they are in a new era. Some, if not most, of these professionals have never experienced a down-turn of this magnitude in their entire careers. Several GC’s who stopped by the booth claimed that they have not had to hard bid (vs. negotiated bid) for more than 20 years. Today they have been forced to do so, just to survive. Many GC’s stated they have lost bids when they have bid at or slightly below their real costs.

When you are calling on the construction industry, it is important to be empathetic, but also resourceful. It you explain ways that your services can help keep costs down and reduce errors there are opportunities to be had.

Despite the industry challenges I did hear of some sweet spots in the industry. Civil Construction is doing well ( mass transit, urban rail, superfast trains, airports, waste water, nuclear power, wind, and solar ), as are Data Centers.

Color also seems to be on the minds of construction companies. Applications for color are growing exponentially. Since the future will be more design-build and focused on integrated project delivery, projects will need to be rendered in realistic color, bid documents will contain more photos, and drawings and schedules will require more color to communicate well.


On a side note, I also got to talk with reprographers themselves in my travels to the Midwest, Northeast and Southeast. Many have indicated that their investments in LF and SF Color seem to be beginning to pay off. As a matter of fact, more than a couple of reprographers have told me that this month’s sales projections (March) are tracking for one of their best sales months in years. Most explain the up-tick in sales to their efforts to market color to both the AEC and Non-AEC markets.

While it’s early in the year to start saying things are looking up, keeping your ear to the ground will serve you well throughout 2010. Whether the reprographics industry manages to crawl out of the recession this year or next, knowing what your customers are dealing with and where the opportunities are will serve you well.

PEiR Group 2010 Executive Conference Agenda and Registration

Mark your calendars for May 21-22!

The PEiR Group is proud to announce our 7th Annual Executive Conference to be held at the Renaissance Palm Springs Hotel.

In an effort to support and strengthen the reprographics industry the PEiR Group Executive Conference will be held in conjunction with the annual IRgA Convention (May 19-21).

The PEiR Group's Executive Conference will begin at the tail-end of the IRgA Convention and will be exclusive to our members and vendor partners.

Please click here to access the registration form; and here for the agenda
This year, we are offering an Early Bird Special. Register between now and April 1st for only $199/person. Since we are hosting this conference in conjunction with the 2010 IRgA you should book your rooms as soon as possible as space will be limited.

I believe this year is one of the most important times in our history that every member make a sincere effort to attend this years conference. Never has our industry been in more need of the sharing of good ideas and fellowship. We at the PEiR Group will do everything in our power to make sure the time you spend away from your business will be rewarded with valuable content and networking opportunities.

I look forward to seeing you in Palm Springs! Shaun

PEiR Group Executive Conference Keynote Speaker

Paul Stout is a construction project manager, estimator, LEED Accredited Professional, facilitator, seminar instructor, and the AGC of America's 2009 National Instructor of the Year. He brings more than twenty-three years of practical, hands-on construction experience to the arena.

From Laborer to Project Manager, Paul advanced through the ranks to learn the industry from inside to out. This progression of personal and career growth included lab, supervisor, and management for hundreds of projects. He was a crew Foreman or Project Manager for more than ten years. Paul has managed projects from the position of both Subcontractor and Prime Contractor (GC).

At our upcoming Executive Conference Paul will share ideas on how reprographers can approach construction companies with new products and services that will drive productivity and save costs!

PEiR Group/Canon 2nd Qtr Programs & Promotions Webinar

Topic: PEiR / Canon - 2nd Quarter Promotions

Host: Richard Reamer

Date & Time: April 8, 2010 2:30 pm (Eastern Daylight Time)

To register for the online event

_______________________________

1) Go to here

2) Click "Register"

3) On the registration form, enter your information and the click "Submit"

To attend this web seminar, you must enroll prior to the day of the event by clicking on the link above and entering your information.

Once you have enrolled, you will receive an email message confirming you enrollment and instructions that will include a password (imagePROGRAF1) to join the event.

_______________________________

For assistance

_______________________________

You can contact Richard Reamer at rreamer@cusa.canon.com

Océ Accepting Applications for its Third Annual "Green Reprographer of the Year" Award

Oce' is now accepting applications for "Green Reprographer of the Year" Award. Applications are being accepted now till April 16th, 2010.

For details go here.

You Posted That On Your Facebook Page?!

I read an article from one of my colleagues the other day, Kari Fairbanks, who wrote recently on the use of Facebook, and how a post that we might consider personal can cast a shadow over our professional lives.

She wrote:

“I joined Facebook initially to see if there was a way to blend it into the workplace. My friend list includes many company employees and competitors’ employees I’ve gotten to know over the years. I quickly found myself embarrassed and disappointed with many posts made by people I consider to be in a position of leadership.

Here are a few examples:”

• “Tough day. No one listens. Cough, cough. I may be sick tomorrow.”
• “Have worked 32 of last 36 hours. No respect and no appreciation.”
• “What do you do when the execs won’t listen?”

“The second quote above was made by a competitor’s VP! Do you think he thought about the competitive advantage I have knowing he is overworked and feeling unappreciated?”

Kari also made it clear that while comments like these are harmful enough, they were hardly the worst examples.

In light of this, she wrote, “If you opt to tweet [on Twitter] or make posts on other social networking programs [MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.], consider the manner in which you are presenting yourself; especially if you have readers or friends who are your employees, customers, or competitors. Your statements have an effect on morale and – as in the case of the disgruntled VP – they can also affect our business and competitive position.”

If you don’t want to censor your own posts on a Facebook page, consider adjusting your privacy settings. There are a number of ways you can tweak the settings by page, status, wall, photo collections and even by category of friends. Check out this third-party link on adjusting your settings, or Facebook’s own user instructions here. (It’s important to remember that Facebook and other sites change their privacy policies and tools with some regularity, so check your profile now and again.)

If you don’t purposefully change your preferences, the default settings expose your posts to just about anyone with a internet connection and a basic understanding of search engines – they don’t even have to be a member of Facebook.

Social networking sites have changed the way we communicate with each other, and are clearly here to stay. But just because its’ “Social” networking doesn’t’ mean it won’t be used for professional reasons, and just because it’s a personal expression doesn’t always mean it’s private!

Sub-Hub: New Updates with Turbocharged Productivity

We all know that more people are competing for fewer projects these days, so making sure your process is as efficient, fast and effective is critical.

Late last year we upgraded our Sub-Hub bid communication tool with tools that turbocharged productivity, make last minute changes easy and fast to implement, and create more ways for your bid or bid management efforts to payoff.

Three new features are attracting the most attention as more and more contractors sign-up for te service.

1. Self-publishing - Create your own projects and upload documents directly from your computer; no outside intervention, document indexing, or handling is necessary.

2. Total flexibility in document format - TIFF, PDF, DWF and more; flexible document formats allow you to use almost any take-off tool and costing application; it also makes simple exchanges, RFI's or other collaborative activities involving marked up documents easy, fast and efficientl

3. Upload/Downloads - Posting documents to your project, or downloading drawings for review and bidding is fast, clean and simple.

Sub-Hub allows anyone to send or receive bid notifications from a private address book via email or fax, and share documents in an easy-to-use and effective online application. You can visit the Sub-Hub website by click on the link here. To find out more about how you can use Sub-Hub, or for a demonstration, contact the PEiR Group at 925-658-2000.

Canon imagePROGRAF Support Announcement

Effective February 1, 2010, Canon U.S.A. began working with a new nationwide on-site service partner for imagePROGRAF repairs. This partner, Pitney Bowes, has more than 1,200 technicians in the field, of which over 300 are trained on Canon's imagePROGRAF products.
The Pitney Bowes technicians can respond virtually anywhere in the U.S. to service and imagePROGRAF large format printer.

The attached letter was sent to those end customers who were on record as having experienced an on-site visit in the past. The letter was sent to them via e-mail, when addresses were available, or by U.S. Mail.

For your reference, the letter is attached. Please click on the link: Support Announcement.

PEIR Group Educational Webinar April 22

The PEiR Group is hosting an educational webinar on April 22nd at 10:00 am Pacific Time.

Subject: New Revenue Opportunities - Outsourcing CAD and other Digital Services.

Click here to sign-up for the webinar.

Justifying Digital Services Webinar

Are you able to get your customers to accept your charges for digital services? If not, then you should plan on attending our webinar "How to Justify Charging your Customers for Digital Services"!

Having the right technology and the right marketing strategy to justify charging for the digital services is the key.

Who should attend?

• Sales Reps
• Customer Service Reps
• Plan Room/Document Management Managers
• Owners/General Management
  

Webinar Details:

• When: Thursday March 11, at 12pm Pacific
• Duration: 45-60 minutes
  

Sign-Up Here:

Crest Foundation Scholarship Fund Now Accepting Applications

Funding College Opportunities For Our Children

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:

1)Student must have a parent currently employed by a reprographics company for at least five years
2)Be a US citizen or legal permanent resident
3)Must apply for federal financial aid using the FAFSA (Free Application For Student Aid)
4)Be enrolling on a full-time basis at a college or university
5)Have a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA
6)Provide recommendations from at least 2 qualified adults

Online applications for the 2010/2011 school year will be available from March 1, 2010 through May 31, 2010. http://www.crestfoundation.org/

Awards for the 2010/2011 school year will be made in the Fall of 2010.

The Art of Questioning

Asking good questions, and doing so in spirit of honest information gathering and eventual collaboration, is good practice for leaders. It cultivates an environment where employees feel comfortable discussing issues that affect both their performance and that of the team. And that, in turn, creates a foundation for deepening levels of trust.

John Baldoni is a leadership consultant, coach, and speaker. He is the author of eight books, including Lead Your Boss, The Subtle Art of Managing Up.

PEIR Adds Wynit to Vendor Partner Program

WYNIT, Inc. a leading national distributor with a 20-year history of selling internationally branded products in the consumer electronics, digital photography, print and presentation, video editing, outdoor, security and photo ID market categories has officially become a PEiR Group Preferred Vendor Partner.

As promised, The PEiR Group continues to expand it's vendor programs (47 vendors) and with the addition of Wynit you now have another distributor for both Canon and HP wide-format products and services.

Many of you already know and have worked with our national account manager at Wynit, Miguel Gonzalez, who just recently came over to Wynit from Tekgraf. For more details on the Wynit vendor program please login to the PEiR Group intranet and review the vendor library area titled Wynit.








If anyone is interested in attending the PMA (Photo Marketing Association) Convention on February 21-23 at the Anaheim Convention Center, Wynit has offered our members free passes to the PMA Exhibit Area.

To download the free pass click here:

Shaun's Corner "Sell Technology Not Print"

I was in Up-State NY and Boston last week to meet with several of our PEiR members and their AEC customers to learn about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for our industry in 2010.

One thing is abundantly clear: While opportunities to sell customers printing services appear to be declining, the opportunities to approach customers with technology solutions are huge and growing. The days of throwing bodies (labor) at problems are long gone. Every AEC company recognizes the need to use computers and software applications to improve productivity and efficiency.

Whether they use AutoCAD, Microsoft Office, Timberline, Prolog, Primavera, SharePoint or whatever, they are all accustomed to budgeting for technologies. They simply need reminding to extend that technology review to their reprographics services. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the bidding process.

The contractor community, has a limited number of funded projects in the works. As a result, contractors are required to do a lot more bidding to win a project. The bidding process used by many contractors is oftentimes very inefficient, and as a result, can create technology sales opportunities for those reprographers who can demonstrate the value of their bid communications and document distribution services.

In an effort to keep costs down and in some cases to keep their doors open, many contractors are trying to cut any costs associated to pre-construction activity, in order to survive. Remember, contractors don’t make money by bidding, they SPEND money. To stay in business, they need to make the bidding process as cost effective as possible. To most, that means reducing costs in bid set printing by eliminating them entirely, or passing printing down to subs by simply distributing their bid documents digitally.

That’s where we need to turn into technology promoters.

Solutions like PlanWell/BidCaster and Sub-Hub can offer better document control, productivity improvements, bid response tracking and better security than ANY analog-based solution. Contractors are still opting to use less sophisticated digital distribution methods (technologies) like FTP and CD’s because they do not understand the savings that your technologies can offer.

Reprographers who are struggling to get GC’s to pay to use their document management solutions need to remind themselves that they must explain to their customers that the technologies they (reprographers) offer actually help solve problems and create value.

Some reprographers are still lucky enough to be printing bid sets for government projects particularly in markets that require bids to be distributed in paper. Others claim that bid set printing is declining so fast that they (reprographers) are finding that they have more print capacity than the market is demanding. I could not help noticing at some shops, production devices and personnel were sitting completely idle. Such circumstances demand a different approach to remain relevant to our customers and viable as an industry.

Don’t lose the chance to help your customers to increase productivity and reduce costs with the technologies you can offer. You may need to price the technologies a bit different but I think you will find that you will have a better chance of getting your customers to accept the costs.

Automating the Bid Communications Workflow in the Construction Office

It is important when selling technology that you understand what problems and inefficiencies you can solve for your customers.

In the bid process you can save the pre-construction department labor, printing costs and increase their chances to win more projects. Effectively doing more with less and that is what the marketplace is looking for!

Canon Offers PosterArtist Software-- Wide Format Poster Templates

PosterArtist is a poster creation software program designed to be used by all levels of users to create professional-posters, banners and signage in just four easy steps. This template driven poster creation tool for PCs was developed by Canon specifically to create large-format posters quickly and easily.

PosterArtist provides over 200 professionally designed templates, and over 1000 royalty free images and clip art that can be quickly customized and outputted to a variety of media. You can even import your own images such as company logos and digital camera photos. With PosterArtist, now you can quickly customize and print posters, banners, signs, and eye catching displays.

PosterArtist includes an Auto Design feature to make printing even easier-just specify your layout elements and the software will automatically generate a variety of designs for you to choose from. With PosterArtist, you can integrate variable data, enlarge scanned data, import presentations and other office documents, and bring in images directly from most digital cameras. Visit Canon's PosterArtist Website to learn more and download a trial version today!

QuarkPromote.com

In an effort to strengthen its ties with the digital printing community, Quark has announced the launch of QuarkPromote.com, a new on-line service that promotes digital printing by local print operations.

Announced late last year, QuarkPromote.com helps digital print shops market their on-demand print capabilities by providing a web based design application that makes creating and printing marketing collateral like business cards, flyers, datasheets, business letterhead, tri-fold brochures and other promotional documents a breeze.

Quark’s research showed that many small businesses just do not have the marketing expertise or the layout software to make professional looking promotional materials in-house. Now with QuarkPromote.com , businesses of all sizes have free access to professionally designed templates and a network of local print provider to delivery their printed materials.

After hearing about this new service, and thinking how it might help some of our members who have digital presses, I asked Quark to send me more information about this exciting new service.

If you are looking for ways to expand your market reach and to offer more digital printing services please visit the video link and view a demonstration of the features of QuarkPromote.com. You can also visit their web site to learn more about this service or to sign-up and become one of their print partners.

[Links]

Video

Website

Webinar on Print Cost Recovery and Print Tracking

Please plan to join Mike Becker and myself on a webinar that will offer valuable insight into understanding cost recovery and how this subject can lead to new customers, along with higher profits.

Mike Becker – has over 20 years experience selling document and cost recovery solutions to AEC, advertising, legal and financial service markets. Mike most recently was one of Sepialine's top revenue producers, now Mike is working for us.

Webinar Agenda:

• What is cost recovery?
• Why are your customers interested in cost recovery?
• Finding new customers and new markets
• Ideas for cost recovery by industry

Webinar Details:

• Date-- Feb 18th
• Time-- 9:00 AM (Pacific)
• Register -- click here

Shaun Meany
President
The PEiR Group

925-658-0212 direct
925-876-9409 cell
925-658-0201 fax
http://www.peirgroup.com/
http://www.abacuspcr.com/

Shaun’s Corner “Innovate 2010”

Happy New Year PEiR Group Members:

2009 was a year that really tested our managerial skills. In talking with PEiR members all over the world, there was no escaping the plight of the Great Recession of 2010. Many of you stated that you have never experienced such dramatic changes in your industry, and at the same time, been confronted with such challenging business decisions.

Having weathered the storm, I hope you have learned some good lessons and will use these experiences in planning for your future.

2010 has the prospects of an economic recovery. We are beginning to see indications that the decline in construction employment is flattening and that there is projected growth in some sectors of the industry. Many of you have realized the need to diversify and are seeing the merits of that decision. I also think that many of you realize that change is something that we all have to embrace and that we need to continue to adapt our business offerings to remain relevant to the clients we serve.

With that being said, I would like to start out the New Year announcing the PEiR Group theme for the upcoming year "Innovate 2010". The idea is to show our customers that Reprographers are leaders in innovation. It is more important than any time in our history that reprographers demonstrate to their customers that they are a creative and valuable resource.

But how do you go about doing this? This is where the PEiR Group can help!

While it's up to you to do the actual innovation, the PEiR Group can help you explore what you should be looking to change; new ways of adding value to your offerings, and help you communicate your value more effectively.

Let's face it, your customers are being bombarded with new technologies every day, but do they really understand how these new technologies are going to be useful? Those of us who can explain how new technologies can be applied to solve real business problems (innovation) have opportunities to build our businesses.

To accomplish these objectives, The PEiR Group has planned the following list of activities and events for 2010.

• PEiR Group Meetings
  
  • May 21-22: PEiR Group Annual Executive Conference in Palm Springs
    
  • October 14-15 PEiR Group Color Sales & Technology Conference at the SGIA Convention in Las Vegas
    
• Weekly Technology Demonstrations and Training
  
  • PlanWell, SubHub, ishipdocs, Abacus, MetaPrint (sign-up here)
    
• Bi-Monthly Best Practice Webinars
  
  • See Above
    
• Member Visits (if interested please let me know) (shaunm@planwell.com )
  
  • January/Feb/March (NE, MidWest, SW, SE)
    
  • Others to be Announced
    
• Conventions
  
  • March 24-26 AGC Annual Convention in Orlando
    
  • May 19-21 IRgA Annual Convention in Palm Springs
    
  • October 13-15 SGIA Convention in Las Vegas
    
  • Oct/Nov Reprographics Industry Regionals
    

More details will be sent out on each of these activities but please mark your calendars appropriately.

We have plans to announce some additional vendor programs (currently 43 vendors) and new exciting and innovative technologies later in the year as well, so please check out the PEiR Group or read our emails for the latest news and updates.

Again thank you for all your support and please let us know if you have ideas for innovation we should be exploring with you.

Best Regards

Shaun Meany