Jeffersonville, Ind.-based manufacturer MICR Express mainly offers Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) documents used in the banking industry. These include cash tickets, general ledger forms, counter forms, process-control documents, teller receipts, notice forms and official checks. Thomas Lathan, senior partnership executive at the firm, discusses some opportunities:

1. Check 21 Act has created a demand for new products. The banking industry is moving toward full digital image capture, Lathan says. Banks began experimenting with image capturing in the early 1990s. The Check 21 Act, enacted by Congress and signed by President Bush in October 2004, once again brought image capture to the forefront. Check 21 creates a new, negotiable "substitute check" that allows traditional paper checks to be truncated at any point in the presentment process. The source document still exists, but the physical transportation of the original isn't necessary.

Banks have installed image equipment to receive and transmit digital images of negotiable documents. The image systems require different types of documents than the traditional proofing systems. Banks need to redesign and replace nearly every internal document (cash tickets, general ledger tickets, transaction documents, counter forms, official checks, etc.) they use, Lathan says. That's where the opportunity for distributors and ultimately the manufacturers exists.

Read the complete report

Respond to this story

Back to top

Document Security Systems Acquires Security Printer
Document Security Systems Inc. (DSSI) acquired San Francisco-based Plastic Printing Professionals Inc. (P3), a privately held, security printer specializing in plastic cards containing security technologies. DSSI acquired the business for $1.25 million in cash and 18,704 shares of DSSI restricted stock. P3 has 25 employees and sales of approximately $2.6 million in 2005. It produces ID cards and drivers licenses; phone, bank and gift cards; and other plastic documents that will now incorporate DSSI anti-counterfeiting technologies.

Ward/Kraft Introduces Security Laminate
Ward/Kraft Inc. introduced taggant lamination. The laminate can be applied to the face of a document and then die cut to create an integrated card. The face is then exposed to a laser beam from a pen device and the resulting coded reaction tells the user if the card is original.

PrintXcel Adds In-line Die Cut Capabilities
PrintXcel(SM), a Quality Park brand, added in-line die cut capabilities at its Fairhope, Ala., facility. The in-line process uses magnetic dies that offer unlimited design options cost effectively, the company said. It's available in 11-inch and 22-inch cut sheet and continuous formats. Finished products can be single or multi-ply. The feature is ideal for small to mid-size orders for temporary cards, door hangers, key tags and more.

Proforma Launches ProApparel
Proforma introduced ProApparel, an exclusive product line that includes a wide range of wearables, including dress shirts, casual shirts and outerwear available in a wide variety of styles, sizes, colors and embroidery options.

FMI Employees Face Lockout
Approximately 39 employees came to work Feb. 5 at FMI, Forms Management Inc., to find out that the company had locked them out, according to a Feb. 7 story in The Morning Sun. Girard, Kan.-based FMI, which is owned by Sovereign Business Forms Inc., decided to lock out the employees in response to recent contract negotiations with Global Communications Conference/International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 235-M. Full story.

IBSA Reports 2005 Sales
International Business Solutions Alliance (IBSA) announced that its health care sales under the Novation contract jumped 300 percent in 2005. IBSA affiliates focused on selling to underserved non-acute clinics and smaller hospitals, and educated the facilities about the advantages of being VHA Inc. and the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) members, the company said. This strategy, along with IBSA's willingness to work closely with these customers and their specific sets of challenges, led to gaining large amounts of new business in 2005. IBSA, a nationwide organization of independent printing and promotional products distributors, began its Novation contract Jan. 1, 2005.

Weyerhaeuser Reports 4Q Loss
Weyerhaeuser Co. reported a steep loss of $211 million for the fourth quarter 2005 (October-December), compared with a profit of $199 million in the same period in 2004. The company reported net earnings of $733 million for 2005 on net sales of $22.6 billion. Full story.

International Paper Reports Earnings
International Paper reported full-year 2005 net earnings of $1.1 billion, compared with a loss of $35 million in 2004. The company posted a fourth quarter 2005 net loss of $77 million, compared with earnings of $169 million in the fourth quarter of 2004. Full story.

Wilmer Office to Relocate
The Wilmer Presentation Folders sales office at 1441 Metropolitan Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa., will close Feb. 15. The new sales office is now located at: Wilmer Folders, 2221 South Webster Avenue #101, Green Bay, WI. 54301-2139. The toll-free phone and fax numbers remain the same. Call (888) 567-7373.

Harland Co. Reports 4Q, 2005 Results
John H. Harland Company reported results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2005. Consolidated sales for the quarter increased 22 percent year-over-year to $267 million, compared to 2004 fourth quarter sales of $219 million. For the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2005, consolidated sales increased 23 percent year-over-year, to $982.9 million, compared with $798.5 million a year earlier. Full story.

In this discussion with Print Matters on variable data printing (VDP), Dr. Harvey Robert Levenson, Ph.D., describes how you can motivate you sales staff to sell VDP and convince customers that it's an effective solution. Levenson is a professor and department head of Graphic Communication at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Calif.

1. What are some of the challenges that are unique to selling VDP? How can printers overcome them?

One main challenge continues to be developing the "front end" and setting up databases. Having a high-quality and accurate database is vital because if you have the database you have the customer. And databases are confidential information that the customer does not want to move from printer to printer. However, some printers just getting into digital printing do not understand what aspect of the databases to focus on. The more successful digital printers go into customers' sales data and pull out all transactional information. What was purchased is more important than demographics such as where the customer lives. Once the printer begins managing the database for the customer, "What will the campaign cost?" is not the question of utmost importance to the customer. It will more likely be, "Which new customers have I attracted and which previous customers have returned with new jobs?"

Another challenge is customers thinking that digital printing quality does not match offset lithography. However, from what I see, this obstacle is quickly disappearing because some systems have come close and others have reached this goal. It will be the first-time digital print buyer who must be convinced by firsthand observations that digital printing can match offset printing in quality. Showing samples or even doing a small free job is often convincing.

Another challenge is convincing customers that doing many short run jobs can be more effective that doing a few long run jobs. Arguments can be developed around the advantages of having no or only a small inventory, as well as the opportunity to change the content and "look" of a job with each short run.

Yet another challenge is hiring a sales force that is not "tainted" with the experience and attitude of the traditional printing salesperson. Strategies for selling digital printing are much different than strategies for selling traditional printing.

I believe that I was the first to say, "This is not your father's printing job." Sales cycles take longer than traditional printing. The printer must come to terms that he or she is dealing with projects, not individual jobs. And, that the future for most commercial printers involves doing many small jobs as opposed to a few large jobs. In the end the digital printers must know print production, must know database management and must know the ultimate goal of their customers' programs. And they must demonstrate that the "campaign" works based on ROI.

Read the complete interview

A Combination of Creative & Complex Jobs
Selling tag/label combinations isn't easy. Here are three tips to keep in mind:

1. Distinguish your firm by tackling complex jobs. Despite a rapidly changing industry, there's still a need for distributors with solid forms design skills-professionals who can combine forms, suggest alternative constructions and present creative ideas to printing problems. "Learn about complex printed products," says Marc Laucks, CDC, president of Marc Laucks & Company Inc., a distributorship in York, Pa. "They provide a great way to separate yourself from competitors who sell on price."

2. Be choosy about customers. Not all clients have the patience to endure a design and testing process for complicated printed products. Laucks encourages distributors to evaluate their customers before committing to a lengthy project. If they get annoyed by questions and are unresponsive to queries, consider walking away. "Some customers sit back at their desks with their arms crossed and say, 'It's just a label. Why can't you do it?'" says Laucks. "If you want to deliver a value-added product, you need to have a value-added product buyer."

3. Expect long lead times. "Have the stamina to stick with technically complicated projects," says Laucks. He spent approximately 30 hours during a 2-month period designing, testing and refining a tag/label combination for a supplier of power trowel replacement blades and floating pans for the concrete industry. Laucks admits it's tempting to abandon tricky projects for easier orders. But his persistence paid off: Laucks gained a loyal customer with a wealth of potential printing projects.

Read the full story