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!

Take A Look At The Sub-Hub Upgrade!

Over the past two weeks or so there’s been a quiet sort of buzz building around the newest version of Sub-Hub.

If you’re looking for new ways to get customers off the dime and into bidding take a good hard look.

David Swider, Director of Business Development, has posted a quick primer video on YouTube* and new release notes on sub-hub.com to help you get familiar with the new features and functionality. Click on the screenshot to watch!



Customers can create their own projects now, on the fly, without waiting for the reprographer to do it for them. Just as important, they can upload their own documents, too! This is a very big deal.

There are also new features that allow users to publish, un-publish, and republish projects as project workflows change, and even track a sub’s willingness to bid. In addition, customers can now choose from three different levels of access for different roles in their company, and control who can see or manage what parts of their project. (Sort of a light version of PlanWell permissions.)

Check out the video for more detail on the new upgrade to Sub-Hub.


* If your company server blocks video content, you may not be able to view the video.

“Bid Services, Can I Help You?”

By Shaun Meany
The PEiR Group

For the past two years the PEiR Group has been promoting bid communication solutions and some of the opportunities technologies like BidCaster and SubHub can offer General Contractors with their Bid Processes. Some of our members understand this area of opportunity. Many do not - or just don’t see how it can benefit their customers and their own businesses.

I have talked with several reprographers who understand the bid process, have embraced our bid technologies and have enjoyed new sales as a result.

As our industry continues to evolve, many of the traditional services that you have grown to depend upon for sales and profits simply will not be demanded in the same volume as before. As the construction industry begins to crawl out from under its current cloud many of your customers, like General Contractors, will be looking to change the way they do their business processes; particularly the pre-construction or bid process.

When it comes to the bid process (often considered an overhead activity) most GC’s want to reduce expenses and boost productivity. Reducing bid set printing is one of the most obvious areas that GC’s focus on when trying to reduce expenses. There are two primary alternatives that GC’s tend to choose for reducing their printing costs: (1) send out cd-roms (2) post drawing and specs to a FTP site. While both these methods will reduce printing costs for the GC, neither approach improves productivity for the subs and suppliers. Sure, the documents get to their intended parties fairly quickly, but there are still inefficiencies (and costs) that could be controlled more efficiently with bidding solutions like BidCaster and SubHub.

Let's look at distributing bid-sets on cd-roms. The cd-roms still have to be mastered, duplicated and distributed (by mail, pick-up or express couriers). Any updates to the documentation must also go through a similar distribution process.

The next time a GC asks you to create a bid-set to be distributed via cd-rom here are a few questions you may want to ask: Why are the music and video industries moving away from cd/dvd media? How do you (Mr. GC) plan to update your subs when changes take place? How long does it take to update and notify plan holders of addendums? As you already know, with plan rooms like PlanWell or SubHub the documents are always up to date. Changes can be made real-time and anyone who has access will know what the current documents to bid upon is.

The same applies to FTP sites. It may sound simple for a GC to upload documents to a ftp site and send out instructions on how to download the documents. But when you look at this process in more detail FTP actually creates more headaches than it alleviates. First, the sub needs to know about ftp. Second, the sub needs to know a user name and password. Often the same user names and passwords are used by everyone who want access to the FTP site quickly breaching security. Third, how does the GC track who has documents? If a sub just wants to look at a document he has to download it and then view it. This can take a considerable amount of time if they have a slow Internet connection.

Here's something to ask your GC’s: Why do subs want a digital file?

An important component of bidding is tracking who is interested in bidding and who is still kicking the idea around. CD-Roms and FTP sites do not track who is interested in bidding the project. Sometimes this is the most critical information that a GC needs to know. Does he have coverage of all trades required on the project and if not how can he get more bids before due day?

More than at any other time in our industry’s history, it is vital that reprographers begin to market services beyond mere printing - and bid communications offers a perfect opportunity.

There are two approaches that you can consider with bid communications:

1. Offer bid communication software tools such as PlanWell Bidcaster or SubHub that your GC's can learn and deploy.
2. If your customers don’t want to take on learning a new system there might be an opportunity for you, the reprographer, to provide “Bid Services“ as an outsourced service.

One very progressive reprographer I've talked with recently said they've introduced a new department in their business called Bid Services and they've put a person with construction industry experience in the manager's position to make sure things run smoothly.

Either way, be it with BidCaster, SubHub or a dedicated Bid Services department, you will be offering intelligent choices that can address your GC’s needs, help them reduce costs and increase productivity. It’s a win win for both you and the customer!

Sub-Hub Gives Reprographers a Competitive Edge

By David Swider
Sub-Hub

We are receiving daily inquiries from reprographers regarding Sub-Hub and how an independent reprographer can compete in the bid communication space. We have reviewed what the competitors are up to, and at this year’s executive conference, I also plan to review the Bid Process from the General Contractor and Subcontractor’s perspective.

The review will help us understand a “Day in the Life…" and where as reprographers we can help provide our digital technologies and services to our customers. In a tough economy more and more of our customers are looking for work. Here is what we will review to succeed in our current economy:

1.) What is the Bid Communication process…real world?
2.) What is the competition saying to your customers?
3.) Why is a tough economy the right time to sell digital technologies?
4.) How do I start the discussion with my customers?
5.) How can digital revenue help replace diminishing print revenue?

Our meetings have been full and many reprographers are beginning to offer Sub-Hub to their local GC’s. Why not see for yourself by typing: sub-hub.webex.com and browse meetings to see how you may succeed with this offering. Meetings for reprographers are held every Wednesday 10:00am PST.

Editor’s Note: For direct questions please contact David Swider at dswider@sub-hub.com or 925-658-9025. The Bid Communications feature will become a regular feature of Point of View.

Sub-Hub: A Solution for Your ITB Needs

Fellow Reprographers:

We are all aware that the reprographics industry is experiencing change at an unprecedented rate. One area of significant change is the information needs of your General and Sub-Contractors. Are you getting more and more requests like any of the following:

• I Want to Create Bid Sets on CD-ROM and Duplicates for my Subs
• Can You Post Drawings/Specs to our FTP Site?
• Do You Offer Invitation to Bid Software Tools (ITB)?
• Can You Post our Drawings/Specs to ISqft or other ITB Solutions?
• Do You Offer Free Downloads or Access to Files for Printing on My Printers from Your Plan Room?
• Do You Offer On-Screen Take-Off Capabilities?
• Can You Help Me Reduce My Printing Costs?


If you answered YES to any of the requests above you may be interested in joining us for a webinar on a new reprographic solution for General Contractor’s and their subs called Sub-Hub.

Please click on the link below to sign-up for a Webinar and learn how you can turn these challenges into opportunities and new sources of revenue for your business.

Time:Thursday September 25th, 2008 10am Pacific Time

Sign up HERE.

For a high-speed demo of the application, click HERE.

Enjoy! More GC's and subs are signing up every day!


Shaun Meany
President
The PEiR Group
1981 North Broadway, Suite 360
Walnut Creek, CA 94596

925.658.0200 tel
925.658.0201 fax
925-658-0212 direct
shaunm@planwell.com

Sub-Hub Gains Traction – A Case Study

Can Sub-Hub work for you? More shop owners are finding that it can. Here's a recent case study involving a California reprographer and details of a call for assistance he made to Sub-Hub Director of Business Development David Swider.

The reprographer was investigating a drop in revenue from three key clients recently when he began to note similarities within the accounts.

All were General Contractors, each had set a goal to reduce printing and each was using either an FTP site or a non-PlanWell® site offering free downloads. Two of the GC’s were using current ITB competitors, Bid Mail and iSqft, and the other was using Bid Fax and manually tracking the bid process. All three had dramatically increased the number of CD’s that they distribute.

“We were watching printing revenues from each of these companies drop as they turned to other technology-based services supplied by competing vendors,” the reprographer says. “An associate suggested I work directly with David to see if we could counter the trend.”

The reprographer assumed an aggressive “top down” approach to correcting the problem, assuming the role of sales lead and setting out to integrate Sub-Hub into his internal workflow, calling on David to lend a hand with strategy.

“David has a tremendous amount of industry knowledge, not only of the practice of GC’s bidding projects and the construction industry, but also of the competition,” he says. “After several discussions with him, my team and I were able to secure appointments with the three companies we’d identified.”

Working through a very concise list of base questions designed to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of the customer’s current workflow, David made it clear to the customer that he understood their bidding process and could help.

“I believe that the discovery portion of our presentation was where the sales were made,” the reprographer said later. “Two of the GC's signed on almost immediately.”

The reprographer ended by saying: “Sub-Hub gave me the ability to compete with any other ITB tool on the market. It also gives you the ability to give the customer what they want. When a customer states that they want to reduce printing, put the cost of printing onto the subs, use a FTP site to offer free downloads and wants to produce CD’s for distribution, we have a better alternative for them.”

"Who Should I be Talking With About Bid Communications?"

By David Swider, Sub-Hub

Many of you who have phoned or emailed ask: “Okay Dave, we identified or qualified which companies to target for Bid Communications, now who should we be speaking with at these companies?”

As most of you know, the answer varies, but in most cases it will be one of these three no matter the size of the company:

· Bid Coordinators or Assistants
· Estimators or Project Managers
· VP of Construction, Executives or Owners

Any or all of these three positions will have an interest their company’s Bid Communications. It is however, important to know what language they all speak. By language, I mean “what are they hearing?” In most cases, you will find the following:

· Bid Coordinators and Assistants – The language they hear best is features and benefits.
· Estimators or Project Managers – The language they hear best is more bids on bid day, better bid coverage.
· VP’s, Executives and Owners – The language they hear is more profitable projects, reducing risk, higher margins.

At the end of the day, these are the functional areas you want to address when it comes to Bid Communications. Just remember to ask yourself: “Am I speaking their language?”

Are you Qualified?

By David Swider/Sub Hub

We keep hearing about digital solutions with bid communications and how our AEC prospects and clients are asking for reprographers to provide those services. How do we qualify these prospects for digital solutions? The answer is simple. Look for the classic following traits:

1.) Web sites containing project photographs – Companies who post job site photographs or list recent artist renderings of projects they have completed, are just one step from making their web site a functional revenue and efficiency platform. Say you have seen their project photographs and follow with: “have you ever given thought to posting digital files on current projects you are bidding?” can only get them thinking. This simple question will lead to a discussion of how executing this simple step will drive more competitive bids on bid day. Easy.
2.) Companies with .ftp Sites – Companies with repositories of digital files are even more in need of your digital solutions. You may qualify the potential digital revenue opportunities by asking:
a. Who manages the digital files on your .ftp site?
b. Can your contractor track who has been in to see those drawings?
c. How often does your competitor visit your .ftp site and bid against you?
d. Are you paying for the .ftp site and a bid communications program?
More often than not more than one system being used and it will be fraught with risk, inefficiency and lack of project control. This is a definite conversation starter – use it.
3.) Smaller General Contracting Companies - Family-owned and smaller contractors
are prime targets for digital solutions because: Dad is the tradesman, Mom is the bookkeeper, Son and Daughter are crew and bid manager respectively. Quite often the “Mom and Pop” shops can do the same work as the larger contractor; they just lack the resources to manage the bid process effectively. Ask these firms to describe their current bid process and be ready to take notes feverishly because they will lead you to a digital solution every time.

Okay, what’s the moral of the story? Every one of your AEC prospects and customers has a need for a digital solution – you just need to ask! If you want to further discuss this topic feel free to contact me at:

dswider@sub-hub.com

Bid Communications

By David Swider
Director of Business Development, Sub-Hub

Have you noticed how crowded the Invitation to Bid and Project Communication space has become in the last few months?

Increasingly, General Contractors (GC’s) are looking for ways to be more efficient in sending Project Communications to their Owners, Architects, Subcontractors and Suppliers while still linking to their digital documents. The competition is trying to secure the project communication business and in many cases this is happening at great cost to the reprographer’s digital and print revenue.

How are these companies “taking” our business? Every day our competition is calling on our GC’s, offering to provide them with an easy-to-use tool for project communications. They tell our GC that all they need to do is upload the digital plans/specs. or other documents via their software and it will ensure that their subs and suppliers have everything they need to know about their project and submit their bids.

What is compelling the GC to use these services? They will tell the GC that since your local reprographer needs a digital file to fulfill print orders, and you give that reprographer the “Paper Revenue,” your reprographer should give you and all of your subs a copy of that digital file FREE. To add insult to injury, they will also tell the GC that in addition to providing the free digital files, if your reprographer is charging you more than $.05 a square foot they are not looking out for your best interests.

Sound familiar? If it doesn’t, we either haven’t spoken to enough of our GC’s or we better start asking our GC’s if they are interested in this service.

What can we do to keep our hands on this revenue and our GC’s, while still giving them a valuable service that increases efficiency in their business? At the end of the day, these competitive communication companies require one thing….the Digital File. Without the digital file these competitors do not stand a chance. Generally speaking, each of us already has access to that file currently in the workflow at all our shops.

Many of us are familiar with the Bidcaster program, which allows for our customers, or us as their reprographic services providers, to send ITB’s out to their subs based on Project Documents we currently manage for them in PlanWell. Many reprographers are now utilizing Bidcaster’s ITB functionality, along with the document management prowess of PlanWell, to make them increasingly more revenue as more and more of their customers are requiring these types of digital solutions performed by their reprographer.

Now, reprographers have another alternative called Sub-Hub. Sub-Hub is a digital plan room (as opposed to a Document Management system) combined with an easy to use bid communication tool. As the reprographer you can now add revenue to your shops by creating, converting and posting the digital files, and then providing the backbone (via Sub-Hub) for a private digital plan room for your GC, and their subs. You can also fulfill any print orders that the GC has sent out to their subs with the click of a button. Your GC will appreciate having the control of the documents and the communication process all under one roof.

Regardless if your GC is looking for an alternative to his FTP site and a more efficient way to contact subs on jobs, or if his scope of work demands complete Project Document Management services and a comprehensive ITB Solution, we have a tool that will keep you in the game, increase efficiency for your GC customers, and even make money for you!

If you have not yet investigated Sub-Hub and the many benefits it offers to both you AND your GC’s in today’s rapidly changing reprographics environment, then type: sub-hub.webex.com and browse meeting to see how you may succeed with this offering. Meetings are held every Tues. Thurs. at 8:30am – 10:00am PST.

Editor’s Note: For direct questions please contact David Swider at dswider@sub-hub.com or 925-658-9025. The Bid Communications feature will become a regular feature of Point of View.

The Art of Bid Communications

Bid Day - GC Presentation Objective:
Our objective was to bring in a local project manager from a General Contractor and get an idea of what the bid day looks like from a General Contractor’s perspective and what a reprographer can do to earn or lose his business. What we received were discussions of several key concepts:

Loyalty - Does it Exist?
PEiR Learning: If saving a GC a lot of money still does not generate loyalty what will? While nothing may guarantee loyalty here are some things that may help:
• Stay in touch with your General Contractors on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. No news is not always good news.
• Communicate often that you value the GC’s business while allowing the GC to identify how much value they receive from your service.
• Become that trusted advisor by knowing their business and interacting with their clients.

Fees and Services – It should be free!
PEiR Learning: Time and again our General Contractors still only see us as providers of paper. The next time your General Contractor says it should be free, ask them to build another 10,000 square feet onto your shop for free. While this may not be a good idea, it underscores a reality that we should bring into the discussions of the following concepts:
• We provide more value than paper prints.
• We must help them understand this critical point as the digital age is upon us.
• The amount of money spent on paper according to our GC may be less than 1% of job costs yet we are the most critical aspect of the bid process. There is value in what we offer.

Efficiency – “One Stop Shop”
PEiR Learning: Without a doubt Sub-Hub, Bidcaster and Planwell provide this very functionality for General Contractors. If we are not offering this to all of our A/E/C prospects and clients someone else will and then we will be forced to compete on cost per square foot on paper. This will reduce our efforts to being little more than a Vendor as opposed to leveraging the relationship and resources you have invested and worked so hard to achieve.
• Ask your General Contractors about their current bid process and where the feel it needs improvement.
• Identify (in actual dollars) the impact inefficiency has on their process. At that point you have already built your case for additional service fees such as document management fees and digital download fees.
• Talk to the solutions Bidcaster/Planwell offers to the entire process from planning to project closeout. You will always identify areas that will highlight how valuable you are to the process.

Confusion – “We know what we need”
PEiR Learning: PEiR members helped our visitor identify the fact that the process he feels is one stop shop actually isn’t, and from a higher level is less efficient process than he already has with a BidCaster/Planwell offering. How we can help with confusion:

• Identify if the process they are using leads them to the goal they are trying to achieve.
• Is the GC solving a problem and creating another?
• As the process changes you will need to help the GC identify potential changes to the process.

Conclusion – Be Prepared

Obviously, we can never know in a live scenario where our General Contractors will lead us. The best thing we can do is be prepared with as much information as possible and keep trying to identify what the General Contractor really needs. THIS IS WHAT MAKES BEING A PEiR MEMBER SO IMPORTANT! Our group has the best minds in the business and sharing the best practices and hearing what is good and not so good in our processes and systems will continue to drive our success. We look forward to your participation in our next meeting and upcoming road shows.