I just read an article in Newsweek that started out saying “in Silicon Valley the world is divided into two kinds of people…Those who “get it” and those who don’t”. It went on to say that the ones who “get it” understand that the Internet is the biggest thing that has ever happened in the history of the human race, and the ones that don’t “get it” are entire industries like the music industry, real estate, cable TV providers, newspapers and publishing,  and the list goes on.

This poses quite a conflict I see in some people these days…..How hard do we fight technology?  When I look at how far technology has advanced our company recently, its amazing. We’ve got the IT and Productivity tools we could only dream of 10 years ago, that allow us to achieve and measure higher sales & productivity, give us the ability to measure costs & margins on each job, and on and on.  These are the really good things about the digital revolution, when technology works.

So back to the other side of this conflict, which includes the Frustration. I understand how frustrating technology can be, especially when it doesn’t not work as promised. It’s gotten to the point that you need  to be fairly proficient with your computer skills just to do your job. My personal frustration has been trying to get our AT&T U-Verse programed on all of our TV’s, and figure out the new channel scheme, and TiVo, and all the other junk that comes with it that I did not want. And to make matters worse, the words on the remote they furnish are so small that even with reading glasses you can’t see them, so you have to depend on their menu driven (by the remote you can’t read) interface. I don’t think Apple designed this one. It’s probably not as bad as I make it sound, but watching TV used to be a lot easier.

In the end , it doesn’t pay to fight progress & technology, or the pack will just pass us by. I watch the print shops that have disappeared over the last couple of years. True, there was always some reason or circumstance, but most of the time if you dig deep enough, you find they were out of date. I find that a pretty motivating reason to stay up on technology. If you’re in the position of pushing the company forward, you have to be careful. If you push to hard, it’s possible to experience push back from your team, and sometimes with good reason. Technology does not always live up to the promise, especially when companies are overly eager to get something to market (Remember Vista). I think it takes common sense, a willingness to listen (and not be stubborn), and somehow figure out how to keep moving forward. Thats all.

The article I was reading (Newsweek 1/25/2010 “You can’t fight the future” by Daniel Lyons) actually went on to talk about China and the issue of Google threatening to pull out if the Chinese government does not stop censoring content. You could probably add the Chinese Government to that list of people who don’t “get it”, at least in this case. In the end I think the people of China will figure out how to get uncensored content. This isn’t a political commentary, just another example on a larger scale of people trying to fight  the loosing battle of “fighting Technology”.

When jobs flow smooth for us, it saves you money.The easiest orders for us to write up, and the ones with the least chance of mistakes are orders that come in over our Internet storefront.  When we can do something in a lot less time with less of a chance for mistakes, it ends up costing the customer less. So why don’t all of our customers have storefront catalogs set up with us? That’s a good question for 2010. Actually, there’s a fair amount of work on the front end and certain parameters that need to be met, so lets explore the costs and the barriers holding us back.

First, lets look at one basic example of what a catalog on our Internet store front does.When we have a customer that orders certain items a lot, say business cards, that is a good candidate. And with business cards, where certain elements like names, phone numbers and emails change from card to card, they are still perfect. So after we identify the items that you order a regular basis, we make a catalog of them, say business cards, letterheads and envelopes. Then we identify the parameters of the job (ink colors,  correct paper and the usual quantities you order).  After we have identified all of the specifications we apply a cost to the different quantities and now we have a catalog with 3 items in it (letterheads, Envelopes and Business Cards), with the option to order different quantities at different prices.

Next comes the more difficult part of it, adding the variable data (if your product requires it). On your business cards, we will have a part of the page where you can type out the name of the person you want to order the cards for, along with any other variables that we have determined would change on your companies cards. These will usually be things like the phone number and extension, email and title. Of course, since you want your companies business cards to appear consistent, things like the logo and it’s placement, the fonts used are all pre-programed to look the way they always do.After we get it all set up, it’s very easy to order these cards; you open your catalog, pick out business cards, type in the name and variable information, push view proof. You can print out the proof if need be or just approve it from the screen, and then just push place order and fill in where you want them shipped to and how you want to pay for it.

Back at the shop, we receive the order with all the important information, a print file that’s already been proofed, and we just take it right to production. That’s why we can afford to discount these items more than if we had all the order writing and typesetting and proofing to do. Now that said, this is a fairly simple scenario but it really stands as a good example of how these catalogs work. One other cool feature of these catalogs is that you can see a history of what you have ordered. That makes re-orders very simple and if you re-order contains something variable like a business card, you don’t have to re-set and re-proof the information…It’s all there from last time.

Our push for 2010 is to figure out what customer’s catalogs make sense for and talk to them about setting one up. In a very competitive print market, there are 2 things we can control with these catalogs…getting things done correct and offering the best value we each dollar spent. In many cases, there is no better way to achieve that than a catalog on our internet Store Front. Call us and talk about it if we don’t call you first.

What is it that we are the best in the world at? In today’s world of printing, that’s easy to forget. First off, the Printing & Graphics market  has changed and is changing so quickly still that the way we did things 10 years ago has no resemblance to the way our shop runs today. I’ve said before that we are very lucky; we’ve had the opportunity to invest in modern equipment and workflows plus we’ve hired forward thinking people. That changes a lot, because I think we get it.

Second off, the world and market we all live in changed drastically last year. All of a sudden small runs, variable data, full color are the hot items, and the big burdensome print runs are not so hot. Nobody wants to order a large inventory of items and keep them on a shelf just to get the price down. They don’t have to, the digital revolution changed all of that. Order just what you need and make changes to your printed copy when something changes. Design something once and repurpose it to print, the web, all kinds of digital media and any other places you brand your self. I get excited about all the different technology we have at our fingertips now. I just forget that since I work in the middle of this industry, its all around me. We need to help our customers understand what they can do to think differently about printing and save some money.

So my goal this year is to talk and blog more. I have a lot to say (a lot of hot air I’m told) about the way things have been done and better ways of doing them that save money & time. I know some people probably don’t want to hear it, because they make money doing things the way they have always been done. Remember the commercial 1984, lets break down some of these old walls and embrace the change for the better…It’s a new decade!