The Digital Imaging Association holds regularly scheduled educational sessions that offer attendees a dependable way to stay current with the industry. The DIA achieves this by asking experts in various fields to address topics of interest to the membership. Members who attend our sessions often remark on how informative our technical-based presentations are. But, technology is of greatest value when the marketplace wants to buy the services it enables.
On April 21, 2010 the DIA held a panel discussion that provided insight into what print buyers want from print providers. Thank you to PaperlinX for hosting the event.
There is a strong distinction between print purchasers and print buying professionals. Purchasers tend to source printers like they do other commodity vendors. Print buying professionals view their suppliers as expert resources they can work with to achieve end products that meet expectations – every time.
The panel
Doug Picklyk, editor of Canadian Printer Magazine, moderated the panel discussion. The panel included three print buyers:
• Sonia Popovich has 20 years of hands-on production experience as a print buyer. She regards her early days as a Kwik-Kopy Kowgirl as being incredibly valuable because it taught her that keeping the client across the counter happy was paramount to keeping the company in business. In the early 90s, she joined the City of Toronto and learned “best practices” guidelines, as well as the importance of keeping paperwork up-to-date and current by tracking revisions. Now with The Works Design, she is just coming out of a heavy annual report season, which required well-honed production skills and good printer relationships in order to meet deadlines without jeopardizing the creative demanded by the art directors. She holds a B.A., CPPP (Certified Print Production Practitioner) and APM (Accredited Print Manager) certification.
• Sandra Bishop is a senior print production and project management specialist with the technical skills and experience to guide projects on time and on budget to exacting specifications. She is widely regarded by service providers as a true professional who brings out the best in her suppliers. They find her knowledge and professionalism a treat to work with. Sandra is an APM and CPPP. She has been a guest lecturer for print production and advertising courses and has been recognized by her peers for her dedication and concern for the role and image of the Print Production Profession. She has in-depth production knowledge of media from broadcast to various print products and excels at working in close partnership with clients, internal resources and external service providers.
• Andrew Yee comes from a diverse marketing background within the financial services industry. With stops at RBC’s retail and insurance divisions to CIBC’s marketing and wealth management, Andrew has called DundeeWealth Inc. his home as the company’s director, statements and document production for the past five years. He manages short run and variable print services internally and outsources larger runs and services requiring other print methods such as offset.
Where are production dollars going?
Popovich spends about 60 percent of her time on print projects; Bishop’s time on print projects can vary from 25-30 percent to 50-60 percent depending on which agency or client she is working with. Yee’s time is spent managing data to digital print and mail, though he has been working on a digital portal to encourage clients to get their financial statements online.
Yee reported that competitors’ surveys have shown that 90 percent of their clients still want paper documents, so Dundee has not forced migration away from print and mail. External print buying is a smaller portion of his activities than it was two years ago.
Bishop told DIA attendees that she continually sees that print complements web – in fact one supports the other. For this reason, production needs to consider repurposing of documents and also digital asset management that can be accessed for and by clients for a variety of executions. Digital asset management (a subject the DIA has address in other sessions) has become a huge service offering for design studios.
Popovich has seen an increase in website development. The design firm she currently works for develops HR materials for its clients. While these materials continue to be made available as printed documents, the print version is now a supplement to what is provided on an interactive web portal.
What’s important to the buying experience?
Sonia Popovich loves the challenges of both time and production complexities and the satisfaction of working with the people who make it all happen. She wants a network of print service providers – a network she can trust – and she does share the work between them. So, she is always open to hearing from new suppliers. But she doesn’t want cold calls from sales reps who have not familiarized themselves with her company, their client base and the work the company produces and buys for their clients. Popovich also doesn’t want email contact from anyone who has not spoken to her first.
What’s also important to her is an equipment list so she is aware of what a potential supplier can do in-house. If/when she invites a sales rep to meet with her in person, she wants to see printed samples that relate to her product mix as well as examples of proofs and press sheets that demonstrate colour matching. When a printer is invited to quote on a project she provides a spec sheet and a representative PDF file – and in return she looks for proactive suggestions and input to help facilitate the finished product. She also looks to her suppliers to give her a heads up about potential production problems – and offer suggestions to circumvent them. With the finished product she expects well-detailed and nice-looking packing slips that accompany cartons that fit the job. Typically, the job is delivered directly to her client so she wants to be provided with samples of the job before the client receives it and ultimate proof of delivery.
Sandra Bishop echoed much of what Sonia Popovich stated. She wants a print provider who is an extension of her team. She indicated to the DIA audience that she encourages printers to advise her of the latest technology their company plans to include in their offering mix. She also likes to know about potential growth plans and/or mergers. She does not want to gather her information from industry rumours. She prefers face-to-face meetings, though email, phone calls and e-newsletters can supplement them. The service providers she gravitates to are those who bring ingenuity to her.
Andrew Yee’s print related activities are much different. His department delivers a component of the services DundeeWealth offers to their investor clients. The printing Yee is responsible for is considered an expense for the funds not a potential revenue generator. The production environment Yee manages is designed to fit their regulatory requirement. What is important to him both in terms of in-house production and outsource buying is speed and quality. He doesn’t need to know the technology. He wants a printer that makes him look good. And he wants to know what’s up with his project – no lame excuses. He particularly values honesty in a service provider, and he views the sales rep as his advocate throughout the process. Yee particularly noted an example of a time when a printer caught a mistake on a job on press – attention like this is a game saver.
Standards, certifications, statistical reporting
Most of Andrew Yee’s print projects require a level of security clearance. He also does pay some attention to environmental certifications such as FSC. Sonia Popovich and Sandra Bishop stated that sometimes environmental considerations are relevant but are part of the overall decision making about where a project will be printed.
DIA attendees asked specific questions of the buying panel. Among those was one related to the importance of colour management and G7 workflows. Another asked if any of the buyers were asking for statistical reporting to prove consistency throughout a press run. Neither of these were decision-making factors for the panel of buyers. They do expect a printer to have the ability to closely match a contract proof and a level of consistency throughout a run, but are not asking for special confirmation back in return. And that would mean that a trusted printer would embrace the tools to enable a reliable product and production cycle.
Loyalty
All three buyers on the panel answered Picklyk’s questions:
• Is your relationship with the representative or with the printer?
• Would you follow a rep to a different company?
And the answer from all was – it depends. These buyers defined supplier reliability as a combination of direct contacts within a company and the company behind them. The company should represent more that the representative does, so a decision to follow a rep to another company is not taken lightly by any of the DIA’s presentation panel.
When making or influencing a buying decision, price is a factor but it is one of many considerations for print buying professionals.
