The print buyer’s perspective.

Have you ever wondered what happens when we stop looking at printing from the traditional printer’s perspective?  Try looking at it from the buyer’s side.   Quite honestly, the print buyer doesn’t really give a damn about how the job was printed – unless of course he’s intending to photocopy over it.  So it’s pretty much irrelevant for your marketing to trumpet about how you’ve just acquired a new XYZ Digital press.  He’s not going to understand, let alone be impressed.

All he wants is a guarantee of quality, and a short delivery time. Oh yes?  Actually, no – what he really wants is entirely different – the promotion of his business, the roll-out of that new product line, or whatever   And of course to be made to feel important – don’t we all?  So as far as your customer is concerned that elegantly printed brochure is simply a means to an end, and the real purpose is entirely different object.

To make things worse, with the advent of desktop publishing many potential buyers nurture a secret belief that they could do it themselves on their office inkjet or laser printer.  To be honest, maybe some could.

So how can we break through?  Well,  you have to convince the buyer that your offering is a necessity, rather than a luxury, that you are the best person to do it, and that if you do it, he is a lot closer to reaching his goals. Whatever they are.
 

Printing is obviously too difficult!

Well, I was wrong. (See previous post)

As I surmised, printing is self-evidently too difficult for Lord Sugar's apprentices.  I didn't see the actual program but I now understand that unlike in the trail I heard, they weren't actually getting their hands dirty themselves.

What they had to do was simply get some mugs and t-shirts screenprinted, and then try to flog them to the public.

In other words they weren't doing or supplying anything useful, unlike the poor benighted printing fraternity, but paying a printer to produce something which nobody had asked for or wanted, and then trying to create a market for it.  Well, I suppose it gave work to a hungry printer, and taught the apprentices about selling stuff in the market, so it can't be all bad.

I can't help wondering whether it wouldn't be more interesting to get them to do something useful for a change?

It's a mad world, my masters!

The Apprentice?

I heard on the radio today about the latest new series of 'The Apprentice' (to non-Brits out there that's a UK television program putting would-be entrepreneurs through their paces).  Apparently it's going to start with Lord Sugar's latest victims being given the task of ...

Yes, you guessed it. Starting a printing company.

Well, after I stopped laughing, I thought a bit about it.  As we all know, any fool can start a print company.  And also, as we all know, the problem is keeping it going.

It does illustrate the fact that the cost of entry to the trade is lower than ever.  If they had to start by buying a GTO, or signing a year's contract on some serious kit, I reckon the BBC might be less enthusiastic.  I can only presume they are just going to buy some cheap and cheerful laser printer from PC World and take it from there.

We've all seen hopeful startups. They tend to burn their money very quickly, and by under-pricing they take the work away from real print companies.  To think that they will make a go of it is more than a bit unrealistic, especially in the time frame of a television series.

It should be very entertaining. And after all they are bright kids, most of them, so maybe, just maybe, they might come up with some good ideas.  Or maybe not

Maybe someone should suggest something easy for the next series - how about being a brain surgeon for a week?

Turning an idea on its head

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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...

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?

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

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

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

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