"Cloud Printing Services" Reprographics on the Cloud

The economy has had a major impact on the AEC industry over the last couple of years and as a result has forced many AEC firms to change the way they do business. The Great Recession has been a wake-up call for almost all firms in the Design and Construction Industry. Companies have been pressured to reevaluate their core competencies, work behaviors and workflow processes; all with the intent to keep costs down, increase productivity and stay alive.

While most AEC businesses are cutting costs many are looking for project opportunities outside of their traditional geographic areas. As your customers become more digitally savvy and begin to realize the power and efficiencies of using the Internet (Cloud) as a cost effective means of sharing and distributing project information the need for traditional local reprographic printing is going to continue to contract. Your customers will use the cloud to participate and manage projects anywhere in the world.

What does this mean for the future of reprographics? You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to project the impact this change in behavior will have on your current and future revenues. The basic premise that many of you began your reprographics business (production equipment offering centralized production printing and distribution) is being challenged on a variety of fronts.

First, clients are working with application software to create digital documents and they are sending print ready files (emailing or FTPing PDF files) out for distribution-- diminishing the demand for traditional production volumes of reprographic services like scanning, copying and printing.

Secondly, printer manufacturers continue to introduce low cost MFP devices (both LF and SF) with the goal of having convenience MFP’s in all firms of any size; again further eroding the demand for centralized production printing.

Thirdly, the advent of widely available mobile devices with interactive displays and significant computing power has redefined how people request and receive documents and marketing collateral, but has not eliminated their need for relevant printed materials (Garner). This last challenge should actually be viewed by reprographers as an opportunity.

The fact that printing will still be demanded is a good thing. The problem is, it may not be printed in the volumes of the the past or in your repro shop at all but; rather at the customer’s office or maybe in some repro shop across the country or across the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean.

So, in order to address this new paradigm shift, reprographers need to think about the opportunities to provide some type of Cloud Printing Services.

Cloud Printing Services (CPS) is a buzz word that you might want to start introducing to your customers. According to Gartner, Cloud Printing will grow to a multi-billion dollar industry in the US alone. If you want to ride the wave and let your customers leverage the power of the Cloud you should promote digital document distribution and cloud printing to your customers.

Here is what Gartner is saying about Cloud Printing.

“Cloud printing services (CPS), driven by the commoditization of print and the growth of electronic communications, has changed how, when and where people access print. CPS's "anywhere, anytime access" will drive rapid acceptance by global 1,000 companies. Print technology providers must anticipate the reduction in print volumes as pages transition to video and voice messaging by partnering with the leading players in unified communications and collaboration (UCC) to provide users with a complete solution that includes context-enriched content.”

Summary

To help our members and other reprographers position their businesses on the Cloud the PEiR Group has been busy developing Cloud Solutions for the AEC market that can be marketed by the Reprographics Industry. The solutions involve Cloud Computing Technologies (PlanWell Enterprise, PlanWell Collaborate SubHub and iShipDocs) education and training (best practices for sales and production personnel) and professional services (support , customization, advanced training and consulting).

If you are interested in knowing more about Cloud Printing Services click here  for our whitepaper.

Thanks ….Shaun

2011 the Year to Emphasize your Managed Services



Managed Services

If you are looking to expand your sales in 2011 and want to increase your margins and get away from selling commoditized printing services maybe it is time to market your company as a provider of various managed services. What are managed services you might ask and why do I care?

Wikipedia describes managed services as the practice of outsourcing day-to-day related management responsibility as a strategic method for improved effective and efficient operations.

A managed service is not really a new concept but it is being marketed and promoted in all types of industries in slightly different ways.

One managed service that most of you are probably familiar with and one that the PEiR Group has been talking about lately is Managed Print Services. Managed Print Services (MPS) involves managing hardcopy device fleets (copiers, printers, multifunction devices, and fax machines) in a unified fashion. While this can be done internally, the term is typically associated with outsourcing the fleet to an external vendor. There are typically three stages in the customers’ adoption of outsourcing:

1. Control: During this phase MPS implementations are focused upon gaining control of the fleet.
2. Optimize: At this point, the implementation is focused upon optimizing the fleet by trying to ensure that hardcopy assets are deployed in the optimal manner.
3. Enhance: In the final phase, customers move beyond optimization of the fleet to actually enhancing the capabilities of the fleet by using document management and document workflow to improve basic business processes such as processing loan applications, or other paper intensive processes.

Another related term being promoted by IT companies is Managed Service Provider (MSP). A managed services provider is an outsourcing company that delivers and manages network-based services, offers technical knowledge and expertise, applications, and equipment.

A new managed service term that is quickly being promoted by the Commercial Printer Industry is Marketing Service Providers (MSPs). Marketing Service Providers offer a range of hosted marketing services that embed marketing technology and software offerings. These offerings include proprietary marketing databases, predictive modeling, vertical marketing and data expertise, email delivery and assurance, and marketing program design and support.

Construction Document Management Services (CDMS) is a managed service that more and more reprographers are beginning to offer but, as far as I know, the industry has not coined it as a bona fide managed service, which I believe we should.

My definition of Construction Document Management Services involves providing a solution that combines managed services (i.e. cloud based technologies and services) with AEC industry specific software as a service (i.e. content management, bid management, project collaboration and construction management software) that enables project teams to securely store and file, retrieve and exchange, communicate and distribute construction related content and other project related information to project stake holders and finally professional services (installation, training and customization) all with the goal of increasing project team productivity, cost savings and on-time project delivery.

So if you don’t think that managed services are important for you and your business maybe it is time you did. I will add to this concept in future postings!

Best…..Shaun

PEiR to Power Sales with New 2011 Theme

Over the last few years The PEIR Group has used centralized themes to help our members focus and rally their businesses toward facing specific trends, challenges and practices in the reprographics industry.

In 2010 our theme was Innovate 2010. The idea behind this theme was to help our members and us (The PEiR Group) to review and assess how things were being done in all key functional areas of our businesses and to identify areas that could be run more efficient or ways that our customers could be better served.

Many of you were innovators on a variety of fronts: introducing new products and services to existing customers; identifying new markets and clients to serve were some of the most successful innovative approaches we observed in 2010.

In 2009 and 2008 our theme was Strategic Moves. What strategic moves were made back then you may ask? Many reprographers recognized the need to position their companies towards subcontractors and general contractors. Others realized the need to move into display graphics and make investments in flatbed printers and electronic cutters.

As we look back over the last 12 months, I think you will all agree, 2010 was one hell of a year for reprographic companies and their AEC customers!

In the US, many reprographers experienced double digit declines in revenues due to the Great Recession. Some repro firms were fortunate in 2010 and had small declines or in some cases small increases in sales. In talking with those company owners who reversed the industry trends most attributed their good fortune to their unique markets and/or their diverse mix of customers and services.

Throughout 2010 the recession had a major impact on all sectors of the Global Economy. In the US, the unemployment rate began the year at 10% and remained steady for most of the year. Just recently the economy is beginning to show signs of growth—however it is not coming from the AEC marketplace.

The US construction industry’s unemployment rate began 2010 at 24.7% (highest on record since 1976) and ended the year somewhere around 18% (the highest of any industry and roughly double the overall unemployment rate).

The Architectural and Design community also suffered significantly in 2010. Unemployment statistics for architects indicate that approximately 13% of all architects are unemployed and in some communities, like Phoenix, 20% of the architects are unemployed. As the year progressed the AIA’s outlook for Architects was mixed; November Architect Billing Index began to climb to 46 but in December the index dropped 3 points to 43 (indicating that there are still more building jobs finishing than starting).

So what is in store for reprographers in 2011? The beginning of a whole new business cycle (recovery)! The big run up in construction projects has ended and the new normal is what we can expect. This means projects will begin to be reintroduced to investors, design firms will begin doing a lot more preliminary project design, construction companies will be going anywhere they need to, to find new projects and, everyone will be in need of marketing and sales support.

In order for reprographers to be successful in 2011 and beyond, they will need to stay close to their existing customers, prospect for new customers and new projects and develop new products and services that are relevant and purposeful to the project stake holders.

Reprographers must realize that technology (digital files and the internet) has disrupted the reprographics industry; new digital workflows are being implemented throughout the project life-cycle and as a result drastically reducing the need for prints. Reprographers who think that print volumes will return, as in past economic recoveries, will be in for a real shock.

So what should a reprographer do? Reprographers need to have a sales culture that empowers their employees to sell other stuff besides printing. What stuff and how?  We will get to this in later posts!

I think we all agree sales are the key to your company’s success. If you noticed (above) sales and marketing is key for your customer’s success also. So if we all agree sales is vital for success; how do we learn to be more effective at selling and at the same time helping our customers become more successful?

This is where our theme of SalesPower2011 comes into play.

The PEiR Group will be sharing strategies and offering training programs to help improve your overall sales effectiveness. However, in order to be successful in sales, it is essential to have the right products and services that your customers are looking for. So in addition to sales help, The PEiR Group will be sharing ideas and strategies for selling the right combination of products and services that will help your customers be more successful!

So let’s not dwell on the past and let’s get out and talk to our customers and prospects and find out what they are doing and identify some of the challenges that they are facing and how you are postioned to help solve them.

Happy New Year...Shaun Meany

PlanWell Collaborate & AbacusPCR Awarded BERTL's BEST

If you are familiar with BERTL you know that it is recognized as one of the leading business equipment research and testing labs in the world.  Manufacturers like Xerox, Oce, Canon, KIP, HP and others submit their products to BERTL for evaluation every year. 

A BERTL’S BEST Award is a big deal to these manufactures’ as this rating helps to raise the credibility and competitive positioning of their products in certain market segments. 

Today we are pleased to announce that BERTL has tested and rated several of ARC’s software products and has given them  BERTL BEST ratings in their respective market segments.

AbacusPCR was awarded Best Print Tracking Solution in the marketplace in 2010.

According to BERTL,  AbacusPCR:

• Is a fast, comprehensive and easy to use cost recovery tool.
• Tracks all printers and copiers by; user, project, client or custom criteria as business requires.
• Has the ability to import or export any data for easy integration with any accounting system, ERP or other Business Management Tools.
• Integrates with on-board technologies of devices manufactured by KIP, Océ, Canon, Ricoh/Savin and Konica Minolta.

PlanWell Collaborate was recognized as 2010’s Best AEC Project Management and Collaboration Tool.

According to BERTL, PlanWell Collaborate’s strengths are as follows:

• Cloud based project management application requires no hardware, software or training.
• Unique and Innovative Integration with Outlook allows for an efficient Project Team Communication tool.
• All notifications reviews, comment distributions can be done through Outlook.
• The project calendar can be cross-referenced with the team's calendars.
• Notices can also be sent to non-team members through this system.
• Visual updates allow all team members to actually see the progress of the project.
• Knowledge base is accessible to all project team members on the cloud which eliminates time consuming documentation.

For the complete BERTL Report on PlanWell Collaborate click here!

Who is BERTL?
 The Business Equipment Research and Test Laboratories Inc., (BERTL) is an independent testing laboratory whose purpose is to provide objective, independent product evaluation reports and comparative analyses on imaging devices and software workflow solutions.


In order for reprographers to offset the declines in traditional printing they need to introduce new and relevant services to their AEC clients. Software tools like AbacusPCR and PlanWell Collaborate are examples of best in class technologies that can go a long way in helping reprographers diversify their businesses, while at the same time, generating high margin sales.
Let us know your thoughts!   Shaun

CREST Foundation Awards $145,000 to 18 Students for 2010/2011 Academic Year

With budget cuts in education and the uncertainty on the employment and economic fronts, pursuing a college education is a difficult challenge for many qualified students.

This year, the CREST Foundation provided a boost to the educational dreams of 18 highly motivated and deserving kids by contributing $145,000 toward their college expenses. We are especially thrilled to announce that many of these aspiring college students will be the first generation in their family to achieve this goal.

In the past 30 months, 49 children of reprographic industry employees have received $370,000 from the CREST Foundation to help fund their college educations. This remarkable accomplishment is due entirely to the generous donations of individuals, reprographics companies, industry vendors and financial institutions. CREST gratefully acknowledges all of our donors since the inception of the foundation, expressing sincere thanks for special contributions in 2010 from Xerox, Océ and Wachovia Securities.

This year's student scholars are: Delane Bass, Zachary Bergers, Kate Borghgraef, Jacqueline Corrigan, Antoinette de Pinto, Hannah Dean-Wood, Ericka Dutton, Emma Garza, Anna Goodrich, Mackenzie Heman, Kelcey Heman, Alexandra Iorfino, Charles Mann IV, Brittany Pham, Krystina Pingel, Evan Stalcup, Casie Sultzbaugh and Sara Taylor.

These students are children of our industry peers working at reprographics shops throughout the nation. Altogether, the parents of our CREST Foundation scholars represent a collective 410 years in the reprographics industry—an amazing testament to this business. Their tenure ranges from 6 to 30 years.

Their parents work at: A&E The Graphics Complex; Acme Blueprint Co. Inc.; BHFX, LLC; Blair Graphics; CAD Copy; City Blueprint Company; City Blue Technologies, LLC; Consolidated Reprographics; Duncan-Parnell, Inc.; Ford Graphics; HB Digital Arts & Blue Print; Imaging Technologies; Plan and Print Systems, Inc.; Print-O-Stat, Inc.; SBD Reprographics; Veenstra Reproductions and Western Blue.

The need for assistance with higher education expenses will continue to increase as funding is limited. Please join us and key industry sponsors including KIP, Canon, Xerox, Océ, and HP with your support. Encourage children of our industry employees to widen their opportunities through higher education and blossom into tomorrow's leaders.

This year's recipients were chosen by the CREST Foundation's Selection Committee, whose members for 2010 include industry veterans Mike Carter, Cathleen Cushing Duff, John Deermount, and Miguel Garcia.

For more information on CREST Foundation, please join us on the CREST Foundation web site at www.crestfoundation.org.

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