The PrintSum Blog

Turning an idea on its head

2011-11-09T10:48:00.000Z

I was talking to an old printer friend the other day and asked him how he was doing. I expected the usual cautious optimism (people say you have to be an optimist if you're still in the printing game at present) but instead he said "We're making money for the first time in years".

When I picked myself up off the floor I asked him what had changed. "It's my new marketing guru", he said. Apparently this new advisor had asked him what boxes a new client had to check in order to be accepted as a customer. "Are you joking?" replied my friend "it's the other way round. There are so many printers for each job that the buyer can pick and choose".

"Well," said the advisor "why not stand that idea on its head?" What he recommended was to see if the the customer had what it takes, by checking things like:

Will you pay me up front?
Will you accept my prices including a reasonable profit?
Will you accept a reasonable time frame?

I cautiously asked my friend whether his business had shrunk at all. "No" he said. "The customers who were haggling away my profits, paying late, or defaulting now go to the big on-line boys, where they get what service they can. But if a customer wants proper service, with the knowledge that we'll continue to be here to serve him next year, there's a price and it's worth his while paying it. So that proper service is what we've been selling, and successfully too."

I've heard similar views expressed as an ideal by printers, but I think this was the first time I've seen the profitability increased in this way without compromising turnover.

I take my hat off to him!

It's a funny old game, printing, isn't it?

IPEX South Asia

2011-10-11T12:52:00.002+01:00

I was really annoyed at not being able to attend IPEX South Asia in Mumbai, but I now have the pictures to show you. It seems to have been a great success - we signed up several new users at the show, and are currently talking to a whole lot more. I think we seem to have hit the spot, as they say. Good software at a reasonable price really does seem to be a winning combination.

(Left to right) Vikas Nikam from FMV, Rajesh Vartak, Sameer Vartak

Sameer Vartak runs through the system with a customer

One piece of breaking news is that we had a 'proof of concept' meeting to see the first rough version of our new 'cloud-based' version, which was impressive. It will work natively on Windows, Mac, or even in a browser, and users will be able to use both the current and the new interface to address the same on-line database simultaneously from different devices.

When I add to that that we're currently testing the system with Windows 8 you'll understand that we are a bit busy just now ...and despite all the doom and gloom, I get the general impression that many of you printers out there are a bit busy too!

Happy printing!

The Green Shoots of Recovery?

2011-09-06T14:59:00.001+01:00

I've always said that if the advertising industry is the sharp end of the ship - first into recession, first out - then printing, which after all mostly depends on advertising, must be the bowsprit. So it's interesting as I talk to printers on a daily basis to notice a change starting to happen. Whereas a month or so ago I was getting remarks like "it's OK for a bit but then it all goes dead again" or even "it's all because of the politicians - they keep talking the market down", just recently I've been hearing "things seem to be picking up a bit". Well, it's about time, too!

We've had a relatively quiet summer here, but that's about to change - we're off to exhibit at IPEX South Asia in Mumbai on 16th September. I say "we" but to my great disappointment I won't be going myself as we have a family wedding for which my attendance has been secured by a 3 line whip. I'll be sorry not to be able to catch up with old friends there.

Anyway, as we progress into Autumn ("Fall" to you Americans out there) we're looking forward to more optimism in the industry. Maybe, just maybe, we're through the worst. Let's hope so.

yours optimistically

Richard Fergusson

Northprint - post-show reflections

2011-05-23T17:15:00.000+01:00

Well, we've been back for a week now, and I've finally managed to clear my desk a bit. Northprint was, despite pessimistic forecasts, actually a very successful show for us. We signed up our first new user within half an hour of the show opening, and from that moment on we didn't look back!

I think that the reason for our success was that it was the official U.K. launch of our 'Software as a Service' offer. Basically we are offering the full system for just £65 per user month, with no contract and tha ability to opt out at any time without notice. The other M.I.S. companies there seemed a little alarmed at this, as without exception they either ask for a major fee up front, or bind you in for a substantial number of monthly payments. I should just mention that you can still pay up-front, which probably makes more financial sense if you want three or more users.

It was great to meet some of our northern friends at the stand, and for those of you that couldn't make it I've posted some of our handouts and other Northprint-related material at http://www.printsum.com/northprint/flyer.htm.

I think the star of the show, though, was undoubtedly Norman Marks, who was invited by the organizers to give the lunchtime address each day - and the subject he chose was "Digital or Litho? Why not both? Balancing the issues". I've uploaded his powerpoint slides here. I think you'll agree that this subject is an important one, as it holds the key to the future development of the industry, and I hope you find it useful.

Warm regards

Richard Fergusson

Northprint

2011-05-05T09:47:00.000+01:00

Well, Northprint is just next week. We haven't exhibited at Harrogate for a few years, and I'm rather looking forward to it. That makes the third trade fair this year - Jaume Casals hosted Printsum at Grafispag in Barcelona in March - we're getting to be quite international!

One of the things we'll be trying out will be a new projector screen for demonstrations. It's a bit innovative (and rather unconventional), as it's basically just an oval of fabric held out by a flexible spring steel band. When you first see it unpacked it's a bit startling - a small carry case unpacks practically by itself to this enormous great screen.

What concerned us far more, though, was how on earth to get it back into the case. Here is this enormous almost rigid object, but how on earth can it be folded up? After all you can't fold a steel band! In the end we did it - took us about an hour to figure it out, but it's really quite simple when you have the knack of it.

Once again I'm forced back to an analogy with software - as in any discipline there can be a learning curve, but when things fall into place, their simplicity can pay amazing dividends. I could even extend the metaphor further and talk about flexibility, lightness (it only weighs about a kilo) etc. but I think you get my drift!

Anyway I look forward to meeting some of you at Northprint next week. Otherwise, stay in touch.

Warm regards

Richard Fergusson

A little sunshine for a change

2011-03-08T16:15:00.001Z

Just back from the Graphics of the Americas trade fair in Orlando. After the coldest December in London for centuries, and a pretty chilly January, February in Florida was really warm.

We also got a very warm welcome from the American printers who were looking at our new U.S.A. version of Printsum. Thanks for all your enthusiasm. We're glad you like the new product.

We were in Florida at the invitation of RCCSA, our Spanish colleagues, who were simultaneously showing our new Spanish version - if you haven't been, I should just say that around 60% of attendees of Graphics of the Americas are non-American, and mostly Spanish-speaking. I also should mention in passing that in addition to Latin America we saw people from as far afield as Haiti, Belarus, Denmark, China, and India - it's a very international show!

Anyway, it's back to chilly London again. I'm not able to reveal just yet what this year's offerings will be. You'll just have to watch this space.

warm regards

Richard Fergusson

Happy Christmas

2010-12-23T12:50:00.001Z

I was going through some old files and came across this cartoon Christmas card we (with the help of the late great Keith Gidlow) did for Printpak in the early 1990's.

Have a great Christmas, and a prosperous New Year - and don't forget our Christmas Quiz at www.printsum.com/quiz2010.htm.

best wishes

Richard Fergusson

Barmecide Feast

2010-12-08T09:16:00.003Z

I came across an unusual expression the other day. A Barmecide feast. I actually had to look it up. It refers to a tale from Arabian Nights where a beggar is entertained by a rich man (Barmecide) who promised him a feast, but instead put a series of imaginary dishes before him. It means something that doesn’t live up to expectations.

I sometimes wonder if software doesn’t sometimes feel a little bit like that. In a complex world like printing, management software has to walk a fine divide between being so simple that it doesn’t satisfy your need, or so complex that you can’t make it work, which is no less disappointing.
I think what makes it worse is that whatever system you pick, there has to be a certain amount of input from you, which can seem a bit daunting. So you hover on the brink, unwilling to commit yourself, and thereby get more frustrated.

If you look at the original Arabian Nights story, though, you’ll see that in the end, after pretending to eat the imaginary meal, the beggar finally does receive not only a real feast but a further twenty years’ unstinted hospitality.

So in software terms, we could translate the moral into ‘take the plunge and it will pay dividends in the end’.

It's interesting how relevant old stories can be – even in the 21st century.

Warm regards

Richard Fergusson

Unpredictable weather

2010-11-17T11:11:00.002Z

Well, November seems to be here with a vengeance.

Here in London we've had rain, frost and cold. The weather forecast was predicting fog recently, but so far we seem to have been spared. On the other hand we've actually had a few really warm days.

This time of year is traditionally a pick-up time for printers, who get increasingly busy in the run-up to Christmas. It seems to have been a funny year so far, with print buyers hesitating till the last minute before committing themselves, and with shorter but more frequent runs.

Most printers I've spoken too say that business is actually quite good - it's just that the short notice they've been getting means they can't plan ahead, and the shopfloor is either working round the clock or strangely idle.

I suppose the reason is that the work's still out there - it just arrives in different patterns, and we're going to have to get used to it. Just like the weather - except that unlike the weather, I think that as usual the industry will 'hot up' in December.

On a different note (blowing our own trumpet) I'm pleased to say that former users have recently been flocking back to Printpak - we signed up 10 in a single week recently. We're obviously doing something right!

It's been good to catch up with them all.

warm regards

Richard Fergusson

There are a lot of dossers out there!

2010-08-16T09:15:00.000+01:00

I was chatting on the phone the other day to one of our users who was still using our very first edition, which was written in MS-DOS. He seemed quite happy on it... except that he has to run 3 Windows 98 PCs and is terrified of them breaking down. After all we're talking about 20 year-old programs on a 12 year-old operating system, in the computer industry when even 5 years seems a very long time.

The problem is that life moves on. Believe it or not, if somebody asks me to look at even Version 3 copies of Printpak I have to power up an old PC to do it, as mine is a 64 bit Windows 7 PC. But this user was on Version 2. It's a bit problematic especially when you learn that Microsoft no longer supports MS-DOS at all.

I suppose I should take it as a compliment - after all I wrote the DOS version myself. Anyway the long and the short of it is that I was able to tell him that we can update him very simply to the latest Version 5, and retain all his data in the process. He seemed a bit surprised.

So if you're running an MSDOS version of Printpak, why not get in touch. We'll be pleased to advise you.

Enjoy what's left of the Summer.

warm regards

Richard Fergusson

Summer holidays

2010-06-30T09:31:00.003+01:00

Summer seems to be here at last. I'm back from my holiday in the France to find a heatwave in full progress - maybe we should have gone to Brighton instead!

We're talking to all the new customers who joined us at IPEX, and helping them get set up, and as usual we are learning more about our own software in the process: new ways of looking at it, and new approaches to using it.

I was interested in the huge interest from overseas customers we saw, and I am reinforced in my belief that printers all over the world seem to think the same way - almost like members of an enormous family. We really enjoyed meeting you all.

Anyway we're over half way through the Spanish and Catalan versions now (thanks to Jaume and Ricard Casals) and we've just signed up our first African agency, under the capable hands of Ada Babajide in Lagos. I think we've got a bit of set-up work to do now.

On that rather international note, I'll sign off - I have an on-line training session to do to a new customer in U.A.E!

Richard Fergusson
The PrintSum Partnership

The final runup for IPEX

2010-04-07T17:47:00.001+01:00

It's the final approach to IPEX now. Got your tickets yet? (apply on line at http://www.ipex.org/ and they should be free).
We're having the usual in-house arguments about how to make best use of our stand space, what posters for the walls, where to stay, etc, etc. But we'll be there - Stand F323 in Hall 9, and very much look forward to meeting you there. We'll be showing of a load of new stuff, too (some of which is still under wraps). Our new version 5 is bedding in very well and really makes our competitors seem outdated now, so we're excited about demonstrating it to you and showing you just how different it is from the rest.

Talking about that difference last night, a friend said 'but you need to encapsulate WHY you are different in a single memorable phrase'. I've been thinking about that, and it's surprisingly difficult. I suppose one difference is that, despite the fact that we've been going for 20 years now, we are as enthusiastic as ever. The original creators are still hands-on on a daily basis, and we do have a tendency to worry about about getting things right, even if it takes a bit longer. And we are concerned and have passionate arguments about 'usability' versus 'instant appeal'. How do you put that in a single memorable phrase? I really haven't a clue!

See you at IPEX!

Richard Fergusson
The PrintSum Partnership

A rose by any other name...

2009-11-14T11:58:00.000Z

Well, my American cousins are in the final countdown to Thanksgiving, and we're about to enter beta testing phase for the USA edition. I've been waiting for about 20 years for America to go metric, but I guess it will never happen. As a Los Angeles printer told me back then "Yes, we're going metric .... but by inches!"

So finally we are getting our act into gear and I've been trying to put realistic U.S. prices and tasks into our non-metric distribution model.

One thing that did come out of our studies, though, is that the name Printpak seems to already have too many uses that side of the Atlantic. There's American Printpak, a packaging materials manufacturer in Wisconsin, Goldrich Printpak Inc, a packaging company in Toronto, Print Pak Inc, in Texas and Printpak Inc in Missouri. In fact there are a whole load of them. Looking further afield, there are Printpaks in South Africa, Nairobi, Australia - everywhere in fact! So... (and this is what I'm getting round to) we've taken the rather difficult decision to re-brand the non-UK versions of Printpak Version 4 as PrintSum. In the UK, Printpak remains just Printpak.

So the Printpak Partnership which owns the product now becomes the PrintSum Partnership, and we even have a new logo:

Now that means there I'm going to have a bit of a problem with what to call this Blog. Does it become the Printsum blog? Maybe, but I think that's a problem for the future - let's get the PrintSum website up and the first non-metric version 4 out of the door first.

Best wishes from

Richard Fergusson
The ~~Printpak~~ PrintSum Partnership

Job costing in a free print MIS?

2009-08-01T20:41:00.003+01:00

Well, we always promised it to ourselves, and it really seems to be here. Next week (with luck) we'll be adding job costing to our free Community edition. Everybody says "why?" so I've been trying to work out why it's so important to us.

I think it's that that we've always said - for the last 20 years or so - that any print MIS without some method of comparing real against theoretical costs is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Actually, thinking about it, its probably a damn sight more dangerous than the chocolate teapot could ever be, in that you might get a bit scalded when the chocolate melted, but the MIS could actually lose you your company.

The point is that you can do all the theoretical calculations in the world but the only real way you can find out if you're getting enough to survive on is to cost a few jobs to see how accurate your estimates are.

In practice you don't even have to cost every job. One company I know costs a random ten percent sample. They simply mark every job sheet which has a job number ending in zero with a yellow highlighter. As those job sheets go through the shop floor everyone knows that you have to fill in your times and stock usage, and at the end they get collected and entered. Then you can start to analyze task by task whether you are getting it right or not.

It's analyzing the figures that is so important. For instance it's all very well knowing your cutter costs may be out by ten percent, but you need to find out whether there was one job that skewed the sample, or whether you are consistently out and need to revise the way you estimate cutting.

So that's why we place so much importance on job costing, and why we're bundling it in the free community edition. I reckon that's a world first!

Best wishes from Printpak

Richard Fergusson

Version 4.2 and the vendor-client relationship

2009-06-02T09:19:00.004+01:00

Well, 4.2 is finally out there. A few teething glitches but settling down. I'm currently trying to get my head round American units. They're the same as the UK used up until around 30(?) years ago. i.e. inches and pounds weight. I remember in L.A. around 15 years ago talking to a printer about the USA going metric - after all weren't they trying out A4 paper in the White House? He said 'sure - but it's its an imperial A4 (11.69" x 8.27")'. He then added the immortal line "Yes we're slowly going metric - by inches!".

And now for all you hard-pressed printers out there - I thought you might appreciate this clip somebody sent me. It may not actually help your negotiations with print buyers, but it might bring a wry smile to your face. Been there? Often? Comment and let me know if you have ever experienced business like this.

kind regards
Richard Fergusson

Printpak 4.2 is coming out this weekend

2009-05-13T17:30:00.001+01:00

After months and months of ‘are we nearly there?’, we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. The much-awaited version Printpak 4.2 should be coming out this weekend. The goodies contained in the package are so many that I’m not even going to attempt to enumerate them, but they include job costing and cost absorption (both included even in the free community edition), stock control and full purchase order processing, together with a load of fixes and enhancements. The main menu has been overhauled too, to reduce the clutter.

The reason for including job costing in even the free version is that we think that these days it’s getting increasingly vital to identify which jobs to walk away from. To provide accurate costs for a few jobs is vital so you can see whether your quoting is accurate. The problem is that the administrative load of entering the actual cost of each job is too much for many busy printers.

One of our users in Wales came up with an interesting solution to this – he said “why don’t you just cost one in ten jobs?” He went on to explain “You just need to mark with a yellow highlighter all jobsheets with the job number ending in zero. Then you tell the people on the shop floor that if their jobsheet is highlighted, they have to write on it their ‘actuals’ (i.e. the actual time taken, and actual stock used).” The downside of this is that any highlighted jobsheet will tend to take longer to work its way through production as people will try to avoid picking it up! In this way it’s possible to get a completely accurate costing of an exact ten percent sample, which is good enough!

Reverse Selling

2009-04-17T22:15:00.002+01:00

Here’s another idea I came across for making print sales in difficult times. What about companies who have tried their own DIY marketing? You might want to call on companies who have sent you any form of junk mail or conducted any form of bad marketing.

I heard a story from a print salesman who many years ago used to do this when starting off in business. His first sale from junk mail was a cavity wall insulation company who sent him a really awful mailshot. He noted down some ideas and comments on the leaflet and posted it back to them.

Five days later he got a call from the company, and after a chat about it, he “guaranteed” to at least double their response (not hard, seeing how bad their existing efforts were). The outcome was that they commissioned him to produce their next promotion, and the resultant response rate increased from under half a percent to around three - not hard, given that their original effort was pretty dire.

So why not try phoning the companies who send you junk mail? Ask to speak to the "marketing manager" (who is usually an unqualified staff member). Tell them you have a professional interest in their promotion and asked “how did it go?” You’ll initially always get a guarded response, but when you offer a (tactful) professional opinion on the mailing you’ll get their interest and sometimes their future work. But be careful you only give away enough ideas to gain credibility and interest.

Keep on trucking!

Richard Fergusson

Profit from the recession.

2009-03-24T21:31:00.003Z

In every recession there are a vast number of losers, and a small but interesting number of winners. The purpose of this blog is to try to identify those strategies which can make printing companies winners in these difficult times.

I have my own ideas, which many of you will have heard over the years, but I would be most interested if you could tell us your ideas, to try to build a useful list of do's and don'ts.

Many years ago I had a colleague who had at one stage been a keen motorcyle racer. He told me about the time he went in for the Isle of Man TT race (for those who don't know this is a rather extreme road race - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Man_TT). He recalled coming round a corner, seeing a large thick fogbank that had come in from the sea, braking to kill his speed - and then noticing that a few competitors, instead of braking, accelerated suicidally into the fog! On asking them afterwards they all said that because a significant proportion of riders automatically brake, by accelerating they were creating and consolidating a position in front of the pack. They knew the road well, and had a reasonable hope that there wouldn't be any unexpected obstacles. My friend Steve said he suddenly realized that he would never win the TT!

The point I'm making is not that you have to be suicidal to win (?) but that what looks like an obstacle can in the right hands confer a competitive advantage.

Over the last few weeks I have talked to many printers and have been interested to see that they can be divided into three main camps: those who are desperate for work at present, those who are ticking over but are worried about what the future will bring, and those who are up-beat and doing well. The purpose of this blog is to allow different members of the Printpak family to help each other with comments and suggestions as to what strategies can help you take advantage of the recession and create a competitive edge.

At this stage I would normally go on about the importance of accurate estimating, etc, and not doing a job below cost. This time let's have comments from you guys (and girls). After all you are the experts!

Richard Fergusson

2009-03-01T11:00:00.002Z

In this job we get to talk to a lot of printers, and a question I always ask is “so how’s it going? Are you busy?” which I must say I have been asking with greater trepidation recently. The interesting thing is that some printers do seem to be extremely busy.

On the face of it that would appear to be encouraging, as it means that companies are trying to promote their way out of recession. On the other hand the recent BPIF Printing Outlook survey reports that almost half the printing industry has been forced to cut prices despite rising raw material costs. This is obviously unsustainable in even the short turn, so what is happening?

The obvious answer is that many printers are reverting to their discredited old motto ‘Turnover is king’, or as I once heard it put ‘If I work all the hours God sends I must be doing something right!’

Well, OK. If you’re working round the clock you may be making fuller use of your resources, and your rent and admin. costs etc. are spread over more jobs, which could, if you're careful, bring your print costs down by as much as 10%. The problem is we’re beginning to see reductions in price of far more than that, which in an already squeezed industry is not, on the face of it, healthy.

But there is a rather paradoxical light at the end of the tunnel, which is that people who reduce their costs that far are actually chasing turnover for immediate survival – they simply have to, in order to pay the wage bill at the end of the month. That £30,000 job they are doing for £23,000 can be factored for £18,000 which gets them neatly out of the mess - for this month. What about next month? I suspect that we are about to see a major shake-out of those printers who do not stick to their guns when pricing.

We live in interesting times!

Richard Fergusson

2009-01-21T20:19:00.003Z

We were talking to the BPIF earlier this week about our plans, and one of the ideas that their CEO, Mike Johnson was expounding was that there were four different 'levels' of print companies, representing ascending levels of success. In his model, level 1 was (all too familiar) the world in which price is king. Here, quoting and hoping is the way that business is obtained. In the second level the printer was concentrated on selling printing as a product. In the third level the printer was focused closely on the customer and his requirements, and in the fourth and 'top' level, as far as I could see, the printer had taken off his clothes and actually gone to bed with the customer.

I must say it was not a way of looking at life that I had contemplated before. I know that when we teach Printpak to people I do have a tendency to start a sentence with "Now there are 3 principal ways in which..." (and then usually think of a fourth when I'm half way through). And I've noticed that a certain type of person often writes it down as an important classification, which is unnerving to say the least, considering I'm usually talking off the top of my head.

But thinking about what he said, there is a basic wisdom here. Yes, level 1 is where a large proportion of printers are stuck - a sort of nightmare realm where everybody is undercutting everybody else, sacrificing all for the great god Turnover. We (I hope) manage to get most users to level 2, if only by making them aware of cost and profit, and boring them rigid with the necessity of walking away from the jobs with no profit. The way I normally put it is that if you take a job where you're making a 10% loss, you'll have to do another equivalent one with a 10% profit just to break even. So even by just walking away from loss-making jobs you can increase your profit while reducing your turnover.

It's the distinction between the last two levels that I had difficulty with. His level 3 I guess is addressed by our PrintPrices system which allows users a way into the running and ordering of their own jobs. Mike reckons though that there are 'fewer but smarter' competitors at this level, which I suppose is true.

But his final level, in which the printer is virtually embedded into his customer's operation, I would have thought was not really feasible. The type of thing he was proposing I think he would describe as a 'design house', but surely the reality is that the people who really get into bed with the customer are the advertising agency, who do the concept work and then use a printer to produce it. I'm sure that some printers are starting to blur that distinction by improving their creativity, but if it becomes their central expertise as would be suggested by Mike's model, I'm equally sure that they would start to put out their printing to the level 1 guys! Yep - that completes the circle OK! Like a circle in a spiral, like a .... etc.

By the way, having got sick of explaining to people what an MIS can do for them we've now set up a site containing "A few points to consider when choosing a print MIS". Its at http://www.print-mis.com/. I hope you like it.

Richard Fergusson

Happy new year, world!

2009-01-10T12:51:00.013Z

Last Wednesday my nephew came to dinner with his Thai girlfriend, who is over here on a 10 day visit, and despite a bit of a language barrier - her English isn't that brilliant and we only got as far as French at school - we had a good time. She's a bookkeeper by profession or maybe an accountant (we didn't manage to track down the precise UK equivalent). Basically she manages the day-to-day accounts for a company in Bangkok.

Talking to her I suddenly realized how despite the wars and political rows the whole world is basically on a convergence path. Bookkeeping is bookkeeping the world over, and so, I guess are printing, print estimating and management.

Can you imagine the differences between the UK and Thailand back in the 19th century? I can't help thinking of 'The King and I', though I understand that most Thai people regard it as an insultingly inaccurate portrayal of their revered king, Mongkut. Yet even then the convergence had started. His son Chulalongkorn sent his son to be educated in the UK at Sandhurst and Oxford. While looking him up I found this wonderful picture of Chulalongkorn and (presumably) all of his sons (must have had quite a busy life!) going to the British Museum in 1902. Note the Eton jackets!

Anyway what I'm getting round to saying is that we have been amazed, since the launch of our new web-site, about how far flung are the people who now download and use our Printpak software. Apart from the UK and Ireland, just a quick look at the last 6 weeks' downloaders reveals a list containing (in random order) South Africa, America, Greece, Egypt, Nigeria, Israel, India, Finland, Singapore, Bahrain, Angola and Pakistan - there are plenty more but I got bored looking!

The thing is that all of you are joined in a common understanding of the printing industry, and how it operates, in worries about the economic downturn, in concern about whether they are working efficiently, about whether to take that job at a loss because it might lead to a worth-while contract, or whether to let some poor other sap take the risk. While 150 years ago maybe some of the concepts might have been there, I can't help feeling that today we are much closer to each other.

And yet despite this, or perhaps because of it, some people want to blow other people up? Its a mad world, my masters!

Have a happy and prosperous New Year.

Richard Fergusson

Christmas cheer or another cock-up?

2008-12-26T13:12:00.001Z

(Cock-up is not as rude as it sounds: from letterpress printing when type was “cocked up”. It was obviously an expensive mistake, unless timely spotted by an eagle-eyed operator.)

But enough of the education. I don’t know what your Christmas lunchtime was like. It’s a very stressful period in our house. “Will those men be back from the pub for 3.00pm?” worry the womenfolk. (Years ago it used to be 2pm, but times change.) “The parsnips are drying out fast”, or words to that effect. “Can we squeeze in another half (hrmm)?” from the opposite sex – a good ten minute walk away at five to three.

A little while later, the confrontation. That’s when the timing of the good ladies reveals itself. The Royle Family yesterday revealed what the good cheer (and plenty of it) will do to offset turkey still undercooked (pop bits in the microwave); gravy cold and difficult to pour; potatoes like crisps; and the afore-mentioned parsnips needing only a match to start a house fire.

Oddly, in my old printing company and I suspect many others, when there was little work and the minders had time on their hands, there were more cock-ups than usual. So there has to be a balance. People need to be relaxed (not too relaxed) with enough time to do the job properly – not feeling under pressure. And maybe a brief rest after to savour their achievement (Not too long, though. Sometimes I wildly mused that the alcohol would be better used in the minders than in the damping.)

Knowing what’s needed in the job and planning its production to a deadline is vital. It does please the consumers when the job is both good and on time. It’s also good to minimise waste. Take the Christmas dinner. We don’t all want turkey for five days (days 4 and 5 in various curried formats) or bubble and squeak for breakfast ad infinitum. Actually I don’t mind the last one.
So your New Year’s resolution should be to organise the ingredients (costing), sort out the cooking timings (kitchen production planning) and work to a practical deadline (schedule for pub opening hours).

Compliments of the Season and I wish you all a very prosperous New Year! (If I could only remember where I hid the port, I could enjoy the last of the stilton.)

Norman

Strictly Come Printing

2008-12-11T21:57:00.006Z

There has always been competition. You may remember the historic Judgement of Paris. There, on Mount Olympus, the hapless judge (Paris the handsome) was choosing the most beautiful between Hera, Aphrodite and Athena. The prize, apart from the title, was a golden apple. Paris was to get his consultancy fee in kind. These beauties, if the statues are anything to go by, were more scantily clad than Rachel in ‘Strictly Come Dancing’.

That’s pre-empted my other competitive example. As my wife is fanatical about the BBC’s “Strictly”, I have been sucked (if that’s the right word) into avidly following the lunges, lifts and fleckles of the gyrating contestants. The rules of the competition have been explained succinctly by the ‘retiring’ John Sergeant, as simply the gaining of judges’ points (for dancing skill) and public votes (for popular appeal) being equally important.

Now here’s where my printing brain kicked in (before you ask where this was all leading). Particularly in hard times, many printers scramble to get in work (popular appeal) – but at any cost. I know it looks good to have a fat order book. But aren’t they forgetting the judicial discipline (commercial skill)? If dancing was your profession you’d have to earn enough to live and put a bit aside for new frocks (or whatever your chosen costume may be).

Sure, you can do the odd bit of ‘charitable’ work (Charitable: Full of love and good will; benevolent; kind). But there is a limit, even at Christmas. Unfortunately, the bullet has to be bitten. Printers, to survive, must work out what their real costs are and price their jobs accordingly. Of course there are the idiots who will price jobs ridiculously to try and ruin the market for everyone else. But if you can display your skills and show confidence in your products, your customers will not desert you on a price whim. And that confidence is stronger when you know what services you can genuinely afford to offer to the market. (By the way, the Printpak free download might give you a clue to some of this.)

So the moral is ‘By all means come printing, but be a bit stricter on your commercials.’ I feel a spiritual moment coming on, so I’ll sign off and pour myself a large whisky. To misquote the perpetual Bruce Forsyth, “Keep prrrrinting!”

Norman

Shortness of time

2008-11-27T20:53:00.005Z

I think it's Parkinson's second law that states that 'work expands to meet the time available to it'. And it's certainly time that gives printers most of their problems.

There's never time to consider the estimate properly, or look at the alternatives. No time allowed to check the copy or repro thoroughly. The minder never has the time to read the jobsheet carefully (that's what he says, anyway).

And customers think the presses run at warp factor nine, and expect deadlines to stay the same despite the last-minute changes they chuck in the way. Never mind the courier who has a different time on his watch from everybody else!

Older printers will remember that when faxes came in they were thunderstruck. It meant they couldn't just post off the proof and have a two or three day breathing space until the next stage. But now it's far worse. The customer thinks he's done all the hard work, and that all the printer has to do is press a magic button and the precious source file gets miraculously corrected where necessary and transformed into neatly packed boxes of perfectly printed copies.

So don't print buyers appreciate the effort that printers make? Well, they do if it's pointed out to them. Printers usually try hard to sell the service angle and not just the print, but it's a struggle. And it's always time that does for you. That prestige job that has to be 'just so' is always the one with the silly delivery time, and of course makes a mockery of your original costings.

Let's hope that Printpak saves you time in estimating and invoicing (and protects you from underpricing, miscalculating and missing opportunities).

Anyway now its time to pack up my computer, and spend a little quality time with my family before it's bed time.

ttfn

Richard

Sprezzatura

2008-11-19T17:46:00.007Z

Last weekend I was at an international print trade fair, and being outside my usual environment I was able to inspect a few rival print MIS products without fear of recognition. Most of our rivals are extremely reluctant to show us their products, so I have to resort to subterfuge for this kind of thing. (If any are reading this, please feel free to download and inspect our system.)

Anyway, what I noticed principally was the apparent extreme complexity of what I saw. Screen after complicated screen - they seemed to be enormous and comprehensive systems - very appropriate for such expensive products, and judging from the prices, evidently aimed at large print companies.

But thinking further about it I came to an altogether different conclusion. Large print companies often do large jobs but fewer jobs, unlike the smaller jobbing printer who tends to do more jobs but with a lower average value. It follows that the administrative headache is actually rather worse for the smaller printer than for the larger.

So one perfectly logical business strategy is to write a simple system, aimed at larger companies, because their requirements are less demanding, and charge more. Larger companies can afford it, but to justify the expense the program has to be made to look both powerful and complex. When, er, it isn't.

But a really useful program would actually have to be powerful, more efficient, more simple to use, and priced so even the smaller company could afford it.

So lets get this paradox straight. The expensive product seems more complex but doesn't need to be that great, but the inexpensive one needs to be very powerful but seem very simple. The word that comes to mind is 'sprezzatura'. This Renaissance Italian term means doing something very difficult while pretending it's actually easy. Like someone juggling while riding a mono-cycle, or maybe a pianist continuing to play the most amazing jazz while talking to the audience.

Sprezzatura is what Printpak does. I've only just realized it. We know that our estimating tools are second to none, and whenever we put in something really useful, someone always says 'that looks too complex - how can we make it look simpler' or even 'how can we hide it'. We've always had to do that because the product has always had to sell itself, without expensive salesmen on the road, and without lengthy on-site configuration. We have to make it seem easy. But when you stop to think whats actually happening inside, it's a lot more powerful than the expensive systems.

So that's my word for the week. Sprezzatura.

ttfn

Richard

Printpak Users

2008-11-12T11:18:00.008Z

I'm away from my desk this week, training the support staff on the up-coming update, which will include purchase orders, job costing and stock control. Staying in a hotel gives you a lot of time for contemplation, and I've been thinking about Printpak's loyal customers.

A couple of our established users have kindly agreed to guinea pig the new release for us, and I was reflecting how the relationship between software house and customer is a two-way affair. In the printing industry there is so much that is non-obvious to outsiders, and so many idiosyncrasies that we depend on our users for feedback almost as much as they depend on us for the programs.

Some of our users have been with us for over fifteen years now, and I like to think our software has grown with them. And although the Kords are now mostly retired and the new digital presses have swept in to take over the short-run market, many of the essential processes are virtually unchanged. We still design an image, transfer it to paper, and then fold, stitch and trim it. The basic core processes of Printpak still preserve the original logic from all those years ago, which I guess is the sign that we got it right in the first place.

So to get back to the subject of our users, I've come to realize that in the same way that their requirements and problems fill our lives, our software permeates their lives in a way I don't think we always appreciate. Its only when you go on-site to a large installation and see Printpak on every desk in the office that this really comes home.

What we write, they use daily, and that heavy responsibility is really what makes this job so worth while.

But enough schmaltz.

Before I finish, I came across this cartoon of the 'Anatomy of the Printer'. If I'm infringing somebody's copyright, please let me know, but it seemed too good not to share. I haven't been able to identify the artist so if anyone can tell me I would be grateful.

Richard

An Industry First

2008-11-06T16:40:00.004Z

Well - its been a long time in the making, but I think we're about to score a Print MIS industry first.

We've now fixed November 28th as the official launch date, but pretty much everything is in place now for the first FREE fully featured Print MIS. This should finally mean that the estimated 50 percent or so of printers who don't currently have an MIS has no excuse to remain ignorant about whether they are covering their costs.

This industry is known for its suicidal undercutting. That normally gets even worse in a recession. Now maybe there's a way out. All it takes is for printers to work out the real cost of doing each job - including an allowance for indirect costs, and then to dig their heels in and refuse to budge lower than that figure. Sounds simple, but you'd never believe the reasons for not doing it!

"If we included all the costs we'd never get the job" (no comment)

"If we're working all round the clock we must be doing something right" (then where is your enormous expected profit?)

"It's a sprat to catch a mackerel" (but it's interesting to see that the customer who stitches you up for a small job will fillet you even more efficiently for the larger ones!)

"But we've already covered our costs this month" (so why give it all away?)

So thats it. If independent print companies are to survive, they have to keep an eye on their profits. There's really no excuse any more. Not when there's a free MIS available.

Richard