A monthly newsletter about document management, digital print technology and printing.

White Paper: 10 Strategies for Managing Your Firm in Uncertain Economic Conditions

December 2009

White Paper

Over the past 18 months, our sister division, RCMS Group, has conducted strategic planning discussions with many of its clients, partners and analysts with the goal of attaining visibility into both specific markets and business concerns.

Given how closely their BIM services dovetail with productivity, efficiency and workflow in their customers’ businesses, RCMS executives have a unique point of view into architectural firms and how they run their businesses.

Through their ongoing study, they uncovered key commonalities and gleaned insights into how successful architectural firms plan on managing the near future and published their findings in a whitepaper available from their website. (Download the white paper here.)

The key strategies described are all driven by the measurement of costs and flexibility applicable to your own business model. These strategies require little investment of capital, but rather an investment of management’s time and consideration. Firms that are employing these strategies have built businesses that can either take advantage of hyper-growth, or significantly reduce their risks during a stalled economy.

RCMS gathers data from  its clients across a wide spectrum of architectural segments, including large government agencies, commercial developers of all kinds, institutional owners and project managers, as well as a healthy portfolio of industry specific architects in healthcare, education, retail, and residential.

The whitepaper (link) boils their findings down to 10 key strategies to help architectural firms not only weather recent economic storms, but position themselves for growth and opportunity when the market recovers.

The 10 Strategies are as follows:

1.    Focusing on core business competency
2.    Understanding the success-drivers to a firm’s cost and operating model
3.    Aligning vendors with costs and service delivery
4.    Shifting capital intensive IT deployments to “on-demand” services
5.    Understanding prospects by project backlog and building type
6.    Partnering for scale and specialty
7.    Attempting to better-understand unresponsive clients
8.    Benchmarking and tracking core productivity metrics
9.    Crafting compensation plans to drive firm goals
10.    Ranking, stacking and cross-training employees

(Download the white paper here.)

RCMS provides three- dimensional modeling and analysis of construction projects on an outsourced basis to AEC clients throughout the industry. Deeply embedded in the practical evolution of BIM, and relied on for expert opinion, RCMS provides a valuable point of view on managing projects and business practices to reduce risk for design and construction firms, and create more efficient and more competitive organizations.

Looking for more in-depth information on how partnering with technology service providers can improve your business? Contact us to learn more!

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Five Tips for Producing Better Promotions

December 2009

SALE banner printing

Like all of our sister divisions in ARC, we are focusing a great deal on helping our customers create awareness of their services, products and value through the production of outstanding promotions.  If your plans for 2010 include promotion – whether that be a POP display, signage, or other high-impact displays – here are five tips for creating an eye-popping and value-oriented projects.

Tip#1: More dots aren’t always better; it’s the type of dot that counts

Color quality is often assumed to be a factor of resolution – the denser the pixel count, the better. And while that’s a safe bet for computer monitors and television screens, it can be misleading when it comes to printed materials. When you discuss your project with our production staff, make sure to describe what you’re trying to achieve and how the sign or display will be used. Are you looking to impress, capture attention, or simply inform? Will it hang from the ceiling? Adhere to a storefront window? Mount to a frame to be seen from the sidewalk or road?

With a huge variety of output options and substrates (see Tip #2), we can help you determine not only the quality of print you need, but the best output device, as well as the best value for your project. If you can accomplish your goals with a high-end inkjet print and forgo the continuous-tone, photographic-quality print you had in mind, you might be able to reallocate your budget to include some cool mounting alternatives, or a custom cut-out.

Tip #2: What you print it on is just as important as what you print

Toner, like ink, is absorbed into a substrate; how much it’s absorbs often determines how vibrant the color is. Over the years, paper manufacturers have put as much R&D into how papers react to digital printing technologies as they previously did with offset presses, and the differences are huge. Papers with “hard” finishes are typically more expensive, but not always. If you laminate your pieces, any shine you might be looking for from the paper will be overwhelmed by the finishing process, so why pay for it?

Likewise, if you use a “softer” finish paper, too much resolution (see Tip #1) will result in muddy color as the dots bleed and blur as the toner is absorbed in the substrate. A quick talk with our production department can steer you in the right direction.

Tip #3: Cut-outs capture attention

Not every job needs a cut-out of a celebrity in front of it to capture people’s attention, but shaping your display can make a big difference in how it’s perceived. Got a coffee cup that’s prominent in the graphic? Print it separately on a direct-to-substrate printer and have our production department use our high-speed, robotic cutters to slice out everything from the handle to the steam coming out of the cup! Flat displays have their place, but silhouettes and layered graphics add dimensionality that can sometimes draw more attention that the most vibrant color.

Tip #4: Installing your ideas

The graphic that was meant to turn heads can easily be ignored if it’s in the wrong place, lit poorly, or hung upside down (it happens, believe us!). We can’t say it enough: Talk to us about your objectives and the context in which your promotional graphic will be used. We have professionals who can not only fit your print on an arched ceiling, but who can recommend the proper hardware and lighting considerations for all the great work you do.

Tip #5: Choose your supplier carefully (Hint, hint)

Anyone can talk about how good their service is and how talented their people are, but the proof is in the pudding – so make sure to taste the pudding! We’d like to invite you in to see the variety of production options that are open to you. A shop tour can be an eye-opening experience. It can also give you the chance to talk about options, ideas and new techniques or technologies to get you ready for your next big project, before the deadline is bearing down on you. Call us today and schedule an hour in our facilities; we think you’ll walk away impressed and excited about your next promotion.

We’ve got more great information to share with you on how to make your projects work harder. To talk with one of us about your next job, click here.

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Océ To Be Acquired By Canon

December 2009

CanonOce Logos
Many of our customers make excellent use of both Océ and Canon equipment through our FM services, and for them, there is nothing to address (That’s the great part about our Facilities Management programs!). For those of you who own the machines, or are simply curious how two titans in their fields manage to marry, here’s a quick summary to keep you in the loop about Canon’s intent to acquire Océ.

When the news broke last month, Reuters reported that Canon intends to buy Océ “…in a challenge to rivals Ricoh and Xerox in the hunt for growth.” Analysts were expecting some move toward consolidation from Canon after Ricoh’s acquisition of Icon earlier this year.

Given how clearly focused their key competencies are, it’s not surprising that roles and responsibilities for the two companies will be initially be distinguished by Océ’s expertise in wide-format black & white and color, while Canon execs will focus on the small format business. And just for the record, our Océ account team was upbeat about the arrangement.

On November 19th, Océ management conducted a press teleconference to provide further details of its acquisition by Canon and a few new details came out of this conference, including:

•    Océ will consist of three strategic business units (SBUs):  Commercial Printing Systems, Wide Format Printing Systems (including Canon’s portfolio), and Business Services.
•     Océ, as a wholly owned division of Canon, will maintain its current responsibility for portfolio marketing, sales and services and the management of the SBUs will report to the Océ corporate board.  Océ will lead R&D and manufacturing in The Netherlands, Germany and Canada. Sales and marketing will be organized by country.
•    A steering committee is being established to lead the integration between Canon and Océ for the office, including regional integration teams that include both Canon and Océ representation.
•    The companies still plan to conclude the acquisition in the spring of 2010.

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Our London Division Reaches Into Europe And Beyond

December 2009

London-US Poster

London has suffered under the ongoing recession along with the rest of the world but it remains a global hub of finance and business for business and projects of all kinds.

Reprographics Warehouse, the ARC division located in the heart of London’s business district, is playing its part, relaying jobs from around the world to far-flung destinations in Europe, Canada, the U.S., China, and many places in between.

Fast, international turnaround often comes by way of a mistake – the file was produced incorrectly by another vendor, a typo was found, as package was lost or the file was corrupt. In cases like these, our team in London locates and fixes the problem on the spot and sends the project on its way.

In other cases, it’s all about speed. In concert with other ARC companies around the world, Reprographics Warehouse has sent files of fine art from London artists to New York galleries, project plans from Las Vegas to Dubai, and promotional flyers from Belgium to Beijing, all in a matter of hours, with no stops at international distribution centers, or delays in customs.

The key to all these globe-trotting documents is ishipdocs™, our “digital shipping” Web application that allows our customers to send documents to hundreds of print partners around the world.

Rather than printing, packaging and shipping via an overnight or international shipping company, we can send your documents close to their final destination before the documents are actually printed, and then deliver locally. The savings in time are dramatic, and we can often cut your shipping costs by half.

If you’re next job needs to get to London – or cross-country, or anywhere else in the world – drop us a line or give us a call about ishipdocs. We’ll show you how we can save you time, money and headaches by shipping digitally, and printing locally.

Shipping work digitally is becoming easier every day, whether it’s around the corner or around the world. Contact us to learn more about how to improve your project distribution practices.

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