Reprographics 101

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  • A frequent Reprographics 101 visitor wants to share his ideas with you

    One of our frequent blog-visitors would like to share his ideas with visitors to Reprographics 101. Vern, thank you.

    Hello Joel,

    Know you are always interested in receiving reader feedback, so just thought I would pass along a few ideas in the attached word document…

    All the Best to You,

    Vern Kellie

    205 West Wacker Drive, #322

    Chicago, IL 60606

    A City of Chicago Certified MBE

    312.251.1962

    www.imaprintcorp.com

    Here’s what Vern would like to share with visitors to Reprographics 101:

    Hello Joel,

    Just wanted to forward along a few thoughts on how small, independent Reprographic Service Providers might employ a few cost-conscious marketing efforts.

    We are just such a company (a handful of employees), so we don’t have huge sums of money to invest in marketing the company. Primarily Imaging & Printing Corporation (www.imaprintcorp.com) provides Reprographic Services, but also does Poster & Sign Work, and Business Document Printing (color and b&w copy and duplicating).

    Here are a couple of areas that we’ve spent money on in the latter half of this year for marketing that don’t really break the bank:

    · EDDM Retail Promotional Mailings, and

    · Website Development (a reasonable($) design and hosting service)

    1) EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) Mailings:

    I don’t know how much you know about this new service announced by the Post Office in the Spring of this year – but we think it’s a great way to promote your business for a rather small investment. So far we have done 7 mailings (2 different pieces); we primarily promote the Poster & Sign portion and the Business Document Printing side (for promotional offers) of our business.

    This program was specifically designed by the Post Office for Small Businesses, i.e., mailings must be >200, but <5,000 pieces. You could Google “EDDM Retail” or just go the USPS website for more info. It takes only an hour or two to figure out how to do an EDDM mailing – and everything you need to do is on-line at the USPS website. Basically you just:

    · Log in to the USPS site and go to the EDDM Retail Section

    · Define the Geographic Location for your Mailing (Zip Codes)

    · Pick the Specific Carrier Routes you want deliveries to

    · And, fill out the forms (specify number of pieces per carrier route, and cost sheet –which is calculated for you)

    Here are the Highlights of this type of mailing:

    · Cost – Each Piece is only 14.2c to Mail

    · No Mailing List – Carriers Drop to Everyone on their route (we especially like this being in Chicago where nearly all buildings in the downtown area are “secure” – I can’t get into the building across the street from our business, but with this type of mailing I can certainly mail to their business)

    · No Bulk Mail Permits – You don’t deal with the bulk mail business unit at the post office, just drop off your mail at the post office counter like you would mail a letter or package.

    (There is a standard Indicia, as well as standard address, that you print. And yes, no mailing list means no variable print – bulk print your pieces).

    · No Sorting Machines – This is nice. Know how a lot of direct mail gets seriously abused by those sorting machines; well, direct carrier drops never see the sorting machine – carriers just pick up your bundle(s) and deliver (so it’s not all scratched up or otherwise marred).

    And the caveats:

    There is a size and weight restriction which is posted on the USPS website which needs to be paid attention to. The USPS doesn’t want this type of mailing to “interfere” with their first-class business, so the size of the piece needs to be a “flat” size as defined by USPS (basically a little larger). We actually like this a lot because it gives you more real estate to define your message in – one of our mailings was just stuffing our company capabilities brochure into a “license plate” sized envelope (which met the size standards) that we had imprinted with our return address, EDDM indicia, and mail address – (see attachment).

    The little larger size also has a chance of standing out in a stack of mail better. We’ve done mailings with over-sized postcards. There are a few on-line print companies that specialize in EDDM mailings – we used a company in Florida (Sonic Print) the last time we printed postcards …here’s the link to the EDDM portion of their site:

    http://www.sonicprint.com/EDDM-Every-Door-Direct-Mail.php?ff_sesh=60432d1cd2841ff439d5e1e19ef41cf7

    Our All-In Costs for the mailing (design, print, mail) was about 45c per piece – nearly the same as a first-class stamp..

    We had a freelancer design the card, Sonic printed it (heavy stock, coated cards which we don’t have the capability to do), and the mail cost was 14.2c a piece.

    We use this type of mailing mainly for promotion, but there is obviously a sales opportunity here should someone have the right manufacturing capabilities and want to put together a targeted program for this type of mailing…

    And now on to 2)…Website Development….

    We’ve been struggling for a while to put up a site that we could easily make changes to, and that wouldn’t cost us a ba-zillion dollars for development and upkeep of…

    At Graph-Expo this fall we came across a company that offers hosting and “templatized” sites for small printers, the company is Printer Presence www.printerpresence.com

    Previously we had been using our plan room service provider – ReproConnect – as our main website, but that avenue is fairly limiting…both in flexibility of offering other services outside normal reprographic capabilities, and also of being able to make content and design changes yourself…Joseph and his team at ReproConnect are great to work with, and very accommodating…but there is only so much that can be done in that framework.

    We signed up with Printer Presence a little over a month ago, and in that time have gotten to a point where we are pretty happy with what we have now as a website.

    How a “templatized” site works is:

    · You pay a one-time setup fee (the package we chose was $2,000, but the Graph-Expo special price was less 20%), and pay a monthly hosting and support charge (our package is $150/mo).

    · Chose a Design for the overall framework of your site, and start adding content

    · Your provided with a Dashboard (they call it Springboard), that you work through to implement any changes (they start you out with a bunch of default settings and content)

    · You do not have to be a web designer, know any HTML, or be otherwise geeky in any way to put up a professional looking website. I’m a sales/marketing guy and I do the work on our site (my only skill is Photoshop from a photography background).

    We find this solution to be flexible enough for our needs, the price is right, and we’re able to make any changes we want without paying huge programming or other fees. Printer Presence has been great with support (phone, on-line help, user forums, etc.) in helping us implement the design changes that work for us (well worth the monthly charge).

    Aside from web hosting, they also offer ala cart services like SEO, an E-mail campaign manager, marketing kits, etc…at a pretty reasonable price; so a very complete, configurable package can be put together. Anyway, we’ve been pretty happy with them.

    Our site is www.imaprintcorp.com

    Another reprographic service that also uses Printers Presence hosting is http://www.newfaxcorp.com/

    If you would like to compare design differences…

    Please feel free to do with this information what you want, if anyone can get an idea that might help their business, so much the better.

    Appreciate what you do with the blog in keeping us informed,

    Vern Kellie

    Imaging & Printing Corporation

  • American Reprographics (ARC) Releases Q3 2011 Results

    SOURCE: American Reprographics Company

    November 02, 2011 16:01 ET

    ARC Reports Results for Third Quarter 2011

    WALNUT CREEK, CA–(Marketwire – Nov 2, 2011) – ARC (NYSE: ARC)

    • Adjusted EPS of $0.02 per share
    • Quarterly Cash from Operating Activities of $17.6 million
    • Gross Margin of 32.4%

    ARC (NYSE: ARC), one of the nation’s leading document solutions companies, today reported its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2011.

    “As we expected, the U.S. economy remained sluggish through the third quarter. In spite of a year-over-year sales drop of $4.6 million, we maintained a strong gross margin and generated healthy cash flow,” said K. “Suri” Suriyakumar, Chairman, President and CEO of ARC. “Meanwhile our efforts to grow sales in adjacent areas are starting to show meaningful results. Substantial MPS growth in the quarter, primarily from our Global Solutions customers, drove a 12.8% increase in our FM revenue category compared to the third quarter of 2010. It is also important to note that at the end of October we paid down to zero the outstanding balance on our revolving debt facility.”

    Net revenue for the third quarter of 2011 was $104.8 million. ARC’s net loss for the third quarter was $41.8 million, or a loss of $0.92 per diluted share, primarily due to the recording of a goodwill impairment charge in the amount of $42.1 million. Excluding this and other non-cash charges, including the previously-disclosed accelerated amortization related to trade names and interest rate swap-related costs, adjusted net income for the second quarter was $1.1 million, or $0.02 per diluted share. The Company’s third quarter gross margin was 32.4%. Quarterly cash from operating activities for the period ending September 30, 2011 was $17.6 million.

    Net revenue for the first nine months of 2011 was $320.9 million. The Company’s gross margin was 32.1% for the same period. ARC’s net loss for the first nine months of 2011 was $130.0 million, or a loss of $2.87 per diluted share, caused primarily by the non-cash charges mentioned above. Excluding these non-cash charges, ARC’s adjusted net loss for the first nine months of 2011 was $0.8 million, or a loss of $0.02 per diluted share. Cash from operating activities for the same period was $29.5 million.

    Goodwill Impairment
    In the third quarter, ARC recorded a goodwill impairment charge of $42.1 million. The main factor driving this goodwill impairment charge was an increase in the Company’s reporting units’ weighted average cost of capital (WACC). This change in WACC was due, in part, to increased uncertainty in the overall economy and a decline in the price of our bonds (resulting in a higher yield) during the third quarter of this fiscal year. The Company will not be required to make any current or future cash expenditures as a result of the impairment.

    Outlook
    The Company reaffirmed its 2011 annual adjusted EPS forecast of $(0.02) to $0.05 on a fully-diluted basis and projected annual cash flow from operating activities in the range of $35 million to $50 million.

  • Henrico County (VA) – Bid Tabulation for Reprographics Services Bid

    On SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2011, I did a post on Reprographics 101 about Henrico County’s RFQ for Printing and Reproduction Services

    This RFP opportunity did include “large format” reprographics services.

    IFB 11-9009-2EF – Due Date for bids was: 2:00 p.m., October 21, 2011

    “Annual Contract for Printing And Reproduction Services”

    As a follow-up to that post, you’ll find, at the link shown below, the “bid tabulation” document that’s now posted on the County’s web-site.

    Companies who submitted bids included:

    * Ridgway’s LLC (that’s American Reprographics (ARC))

    * ABC Imaging

    * Bizport

    * OfficeMax

    * Drafting & Technical Supplies

    Evidently, Keith-Fabry, a Richmond, VA reprographer, submitted something, but there’s no information about K-F’s bid in the bid tabulation document.

    Here’s the link to the “bid tabulation” document:

    http://tinyurl.com/3b8mecp

  • AMERICAN REPROGRAPHICS (ARC) TO RELEASE Q3 2011 RESULTS THIS AFTERNOON

    ARC will release its earnings results right after the close of the stock market today.
    Inasmuch as ARC operates the largest “AEC” reprographics business in the U.S. (and in the world), ARC’s results have to be considered a good reflection of how things are going in the reprographics business and industry, country-wide.

    If you go to the investor page on ARC’s web-site (at e-ar.com), you’ll find instructions how to join, and listen in, on the “earnings call”, that will take place this afternoon. If you’ve never done this before, you’ll find doing it to be an interesting and educational experience. Listen to the questions that analysts ask and then figure out what questions they did not ask that they should have asked.

    If you miss out on listening to the live earnings call this afternoon, then a written transcript of the earnings call will likely be up by tomorrow morning on http://www.seekingalpha.com
    UPDATE AT 3:32 P.M…..

    HEAVY TRADING IN ARC’S STOCK TODAY, PRIOR TO THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF ARC’S Q3 RESULTS. MORE THAN 430,000 SHARES HAVE TRADED, SO FAR TODAY, THAT’S ABOUT 3.5 TIMES ARC’S AVERAGE DAILY TRADING VOLUME. PRICE OF THE STOCK IS UP AROUND 2.3% TODAY. I THINK THIS MEANS THAT BUYERS ARE ANTICIPATING GOOD RESULTS – PERHAPS A REVENUE SURPRISE AND/OR AN EPS SURPRISE ON THE UPSIDE. WEL’L SEE …. ARC due to release its Q3 results in about 25 minutes.

    UPDATE AT 3:55 P.M….

    ARC’S STOCK UP OVER 5% ONTHE DAY, NOW AT $4.34

  • This is an example of how frustrating “investing” can be….

    Yesterday afternoon, after the markets closed, Pitney Bowes (PBI) released its Q3 2011 earnings results.

    Read, below, what was said on the web-site of http://www.takeoverchatter.com

    WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2011

    Earnings Surprises of the Day: (GWR), (GLDD), (IPGP), (INT), (PBI)

    Pitney Bowes Inc (PBI) reported earnings results for the quarter ended September 2011. They reported actual earnings per share of $0.69 when they were expecting earnings to be $0.54 per share. Actual earnings beat estimated earnings by $0.15 per share. Investors could expect the stock price to rise on better than expected results. Further analysis on other trends may need to be completed to determine whether the upswing will be confirmed. Guidance, stock price, and revenue estimates must be considered as well. There are currently 4 analysts covering this firm. Investors can look to their reports for more information. Shares of PBI fell by 1.32% or $-0.26/share to $19.46. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $18.00 and as high as $26.36. On average, 3274750 shares of PBI exchange hands on a given day and today’s volume is recorded at 851470.

    Investor’s “could expect the stock to rise.” ?????

    Wrong!

    Here’s where PBI was early this afternoon:

    Pitney Bowes Inc. (Public, NYSE:PBI)

    18.83

    -0.89 (-4.51%)

    Real-time: 1:18PM EDT

    Range

    18.83 – 20.19

    52 week

    17.95 – 26.36

    Open

    20.19

    Vol / Avg.

    4.11M/3.03M

    Mkt cap

    3.82B

    P/E

    10.93

  • Should Reprographics 101 conduct another SURVEY?

    As per requests from several blog-visitors recently…..

    Should Reprographics 101 conduct another SURVEY?

    I’ve received several e-mails, very recently, from reprographers who visit Reprographics 101 and from two “financial” industry people, who’ve suggested that Reprographics 101 conduct a survey of reprographers.

    I’m only interested in conducting a survey if reprographers are willing to, and going to, participate in the survey, and, I mean a bunch, not just a few. The last time I conducted a survey of reprographers, it was like “pulling teeth” to get reprographers to participate. If my memory serves me correct, approximately 33 reprographers responded to the last survey we conducted. I was hoping to get over 100 participants, so achieving 33 was, to put it mildly, an abysmal turnout.

    Part of the problem (lack of participation) is, I think due to two primary factors: 1) reprographers are kind-of-apathetic about participating in surveys, and 2) many who visit Reprographics 101, did not know that we were conducting a survey – admittedly, it’s not easy to find, on Reprographics 101, that a survey is underway. I think I have a way to fix problem #2, but I can’t fix problem #1, apathy.

    Okay, now I’m going to ask for a “show of hands”.

    If you feel that Reprographics 101 should put out another survey, then please post a “yes” in the comment section under this post. Also, if you do post a yes, then please also suggest “survey questions” that you would like the survey to ask.

    Thank you.

  • The Danwood Group – growing through and in spite of the recession

    Recently, I noticed that Reprographics 101 had been visited by someone from “The Danwood Group” (that was the “service provider” name listed in one of the reports I get from Google Analytics, which reports on “visitor” activity to Repro 101.)

    Always wanting to know who my blog-visitors are, I looked them up on the Internet. And, I found that “The Danwood Group” is quite a large company and that they’re based in the U.K.

    Their primary business is the distribution (i.e., sale of) copiers and printers (and, copier/printers, multifunction systems.)

    However, they have a very significant MPS business. And, their MPS business is growing by leaps and bounds.

    They’ve been growing …. in spite of the recession! Wow, take a look at their impressive growth, 2006 through 2010 …. Here’s the Internet-address of their 2010 Financial Highlights report:

    http://www.danwood.co.uk/documents/financial%20highlights%202010.pdf

    About Danwood

    We can trace our roots back to the 1970s, when trousers were flared and collars were large – and when print technology was vastly different to what we see today.

    Over the last four decades, Danwood has built its success on two core values: product independence and customer-centricity. We have grown up during the technology revolution. From the large, noisy print and fax machines of yesteryear; to today’s compact, multifunctional devices, intelligent systems and wireless technology.

    Key facts

    • There are 40 Danwood offices in our network, including four national distribution centres, our head office in Lincolnshire and our regional sales and service centres.

    • We are the largest, completely independent provider in the marketplace – a position we are committed to maintaining.

    • We continually seek to innovate – for example we were first to market with handheld devices for engineers; and we offer 24/7 online service call tracking.

    • We have installed or manage over 74,000 machines in the UK and Ireland.

    • Faults are a fact of life; however our 370-strong team of service engineers maintains 97% uptime across our entire machine base.

    • We listen to our customers. One reason why our national call centre is manned by our trained in-house team – guaranteeing you will always speak to us (not a recording or an outsourced service).

    • Our engineers respond within just 4 hours (from when your call is logged, not from when our operator calls you back – there is a difference!)

    • We take quality management very seriously and are ISO 9001 accredited.

    • We are environmentally responsible, continually finding new ways to reduce the environmental impact of our own and our customers’ operations. We are proud to be ISO 14001 accredited.

    As an accredited SAFEcontractor member, we’re committed to very high standards of health and safety within the business.

  • PRE-MEDIA SERVICES SALES PROFESSIONAL WANTED!

    The other day on LinkedIn, I saw this “help-wanted” post in the “Reprographics” Group:

    ***PRE-MEDIA SERVICES SALES PROFESSIONAL WANTED!***

    Based anywhere in the UK with experience in the Pre-Media Market or a BPO background

    Up to £65k basic with a fantastic company.

    Call me on 0161 443 0066 / 07545967643

    or email on RachelK@keyrecruitment.co.uk.

    Thanks!

    Inasmuch as Reprographics 101 does get visitors from the U.K. – and, perhaps there are yanks who would be willing to relocate to the U.K. for an excellent opportunity (after all, they do speak English there, even if you can’t understand their English!) – and not knowing what one of the “terms” meant, I decided to contact the poster – her name is Rachel – to ask her what that particular term – Pre-Media – meant.

    This was Rachel’s reply:

    Pre-Media is the creative side of printing, the process before production, for example, graphic design, art working, brand creation & advertising campaign creation.

    This particular company is looking for a sales person to go into printers/publishers or large retailers who have in house Repro/Artwork departments and pitch to board members to remove these departments from the company and let the Pre-Media Service company (my client) handle the process. The Pre-Media company will then outsource this overseas. 



    I hope this has helped. 



    Kind regards,

    Rachel

    So, Rachel’s client is in the BPO Industry – Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and, evidently, one of the serves they convince clients to outsource is “Pre-Media” services. Years ago in the U.S., I learned what the term “pre-press” meant (as I had a friend who was heavily involved in that business in the D.C. area.) But, evidently, “pre-media” goes well beyond just “pre-press.”

    To me, “outsourcing” the “pre-media” function is not altogether different from “outsourcing” reprographics functions. You convince clients (I call them “customers”) to stop doing it themselves and, instead, outsource it to you. Which allows them to concentrate/focus on their core business.

    Anyone interested in the position Rachel advertised should e-mail her – her e-mail address appears, above, in the ad I copied into this post.

    Pip-pip, Cheerio!

  • iPAD Apps for Project Management and Construction in the AEC Industry

    There’s a new article up, this morning, on AECBytes.com…..

    Article Summary

    This article is focused on iPad apps that are available for project management and construction in the AEC industry, including the Vela Systems app for field management, Bentley’s iPad apps for its ProjectWise and Navigator applications, Autodesk’s Buzzsaw and Bluestreak apps, Newforma’s new Mobile Punch List app that has just been announced, and additional construction-specific apps including Onsite:AEC and SafetyNet. It follows up on my earlier article that looked at apps primarily intended for design and visualization.

    Article Link

    http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2011/iPadApps-Const.html

  • ROCR – file renaming software

    Cut your renaming time in half!

    How much time do you spend indexing and renaming image files? ROCR is a new tool that can radically reduce your workload.

    Step 1 – Load your project files

    Step 2 – Select one or more regions to capture

    Step 3 – Watch as ROCR rips through your files in seconds!

    http://www.rocr.com/