Strategy for Improved Profitability within Print & Mail Operations

Within print and mail operations, it is common to see excessive overhead and production delays squeeze profitability from document processors.  Common areas of lost profitability include:  

$       Paying higher postage for jobs which run late

$       Paying unscheduled overtime to complete jobs in order to meet contract deadlines

$       Stopping production to find missing pieces and reconcile jobs/pieces on the plant floor

$        Operators utilizing production time to enter production data and manually close out jobs (rather than running production)

$        Manually entering production data in to spreadsheets and reporting programs

$        Paying late delivery fees and compliance penalties

$        Introducing duplicate pieces and extra postage into the production cycle

$        Manual re-print processes which require excessive labor and production resources

$        Waste and spoilage within printing, finishing and inserting processes

An effective piece and job tracking strategy can measurably eliminate these expenses while providing management with REAL TIME, desktop transparency to:

Ø  Status of jobs versus production schedules and SLA’s

Ø  Immediate notification of integrity issues such as missing & duplicate pieces

Ø  Elimination of manual process transitions, operator logging/reporting and manual data entry to record production information

Ø  Enable jobs to be completed on-time without excessive postage costs and overtime charges

Ø  Production performance dashboard including productivity benchmarking

Ø  Automated reprint process

Ø  Compliance audit trails

Today’s job and piece tracking systems provide a strategy to measurably optimize profitability and integrity performance, regardless of the equipment types and information management architecture in a production facility.

By Pat Hoskins, pat.hoskins@ironsidestech.com, PH 585.953.3013

Business Process Optimization

In the world of print and mail tracking, where document integrity and privacy protection is paramount, it is often the by-product of this tracking which is most useful for the document processor’s business.

Businesses involved with printing, mailing and fulfillment operations are challenged every day to reduce operating costs and improve margin. Yet, the methods by which many use to quote jobs or predict production schedules are traditional in the sense that they are often based on estimates.  This is the space where significant margin is lost in the form of excessive overhead costs and lost profitability dollars.

Document and fulfillment operations have, at their fingertips, the data and technologies to maximize profitability.  The use of production reporting data in predictive models for quoting, estimating and scheduling optimizes business performance along with providing the requisite print & mail integrity.

Real-time production data contains tangible information based on what actually takes place in the production environment.  Objective information, it defines actual production costs. Properly displayed, it shows caveats in the production process.  The utilization of predictive modeling, based on unambiguous production data allows document processing operations to generate optimal quotes based on actual costing to optimize profitability, coordinate efficient schedules to minimize labor costs and correct deficiencies in business processes.

Print & mail integrity may still be the foundation for document tracking strategies.  Compliance penalties, late delivery fees and lost business risks make sure of this.  However, business process optimization through the access and intelligent reporting of this data should also be a natural output of integrity tracking processes

By Pat Hoskins, PH 585.953.3013, pat.hoskins@ironsidestech.com

 

Require Vendors to Improve your Document Processing Operations

Would you invest in a technology if you knew it would, without risk, tangibly pay for itself in several months?

It is understandable that companies, especially those involved with document processing, would be hesitant to invest in another solution which claims to help their business.  Too many times, the document processing arm of insurance companies, financial institutions, healthcare companies and service bureaus have been burned by vendors promising performance improvement but instead, providing professional service laden and proprietary solutions.  You know, those software solutions that work great as long as they are attached to a specific brand of hardware/software or require additional investment if you want to actually get any data out of them.

There are business process optimization, integrity verification and piece/job tracking systems which truly do measurably improve business performance.  Those built on truly open platforms and current technology can break the culture of proprietary, expensive, closed, etc.  Solutions built upon reducing overhead, reducing risk of late deliveries, ensuring compliance, improving quoting/scheduling/invoicing accuracy do exist, without requiring extensive and expensive professional services.  After all, you shouldn’t require anyone’s brand of anything in order to run your business better. Changing customer requirements and applications demand that we be more flexible than that.

As you have probably guessed, this entry is quite self-serving.  However, it is written with the honest intention of helping clients understand that information management and process optimization are different today. We must expect our clients to know and understand all short and long term costs associated with a solution.  We must be held responsible for meeting the return on investment we commit to. We must be advocates for their long term business.

Whether we are supplying an ADF (Automated Document Factory). Business Process Optimization (BPO) or integrity verification (compliance), the days of “spend and hope” are long over for our clients.

By Pat Hoskins, PH 585.953.3013, pat.hoskins@ironsidestech.com

“Big Data”…A Print & Mail Perspective

I am already painfully tired of the buzzword “big data” and vendors’ over reaching efforts to confuse clients into spending money for ambiguous “big data” solutions.  More data exists for us to use than ever before.  That is a good thing.  But inducing confusion or unrealistic expectations is not.

No one doubts that we are in a data driven economy.  Data is intelligence waiting to be learned.  A reality of today’s technology, however, too much data is clutter which hides this intelligence from its meaningful use.  The responsibility is on vendors to help clients sort through this information to effectively utilize the most valuable pieces. 

I do realize that the presence of more data creates other challenges such as privacy considerations and implementing archival strategies.  Although these can’t be ignored, the majority of our “big data” efforts should be focused with an eye on how this abundance of data can improve our client’s core business. 

It is the availability, usability and meaningfulness of the data which is paramount. To over simplify (which I am brilliant at), find the data which allows clients to run their business better.

Data needs to be meaningful- What are the significant pieces of information that will allow customers’ business to run better or allow them to capture new business? What are the 1-2 biggest challenges for the client’s business that if they addressed today would impact their performance?  What are the pieces of information which will allow them to address these 1 or 2 business aspects?

Data must be accessible- Data must be available when and where the client needs it without contacting a vendor or manually manipulating information within an information management system.

Data must be useable- It must be in a format which is easy to understand and easy to share

From a print/mail operations perspective, the important data is that which helps answers questions such as:

How do I increase productivity with given resources? 

How do I reduce operating costs (i.e. where am I not optimizing operations)? 

How do I compare my plant productivity metrics with my estimates and schedules to optimize performance? 

How do I easily measure my profitability on a job (or product) compared to projections? 

For print & mail operations, the information that answers these questions is “big data”!  If vendors’ “big data” efforts are not focused on these core aspects, then I advise caution about what their real intentions may be.

The availability of data within today’s print & mail operations is a tremendous opportunity.  Our job as vendors is to collaborate with clients to identify and help them use the data which will most impact their performance which measurable results.

By Pat Hoskins, Ironsides Technology, pat.hoskins@ironsidestech.com, PH 585.953.3013

Customer Service Matters More Than Ever

As vendors for business process optimization and print/mail integrity tracking, we provide software and services which must improve our customer’s business in order for us to be successful.  We are in a challenging market, in relatively tough economic times.  Why then, do I see so many large service vendors forgetting that it is the customers they are servicing? 

It is very easy for any business to get so caught up in day-to-day battles and processes, that they momentarily forget who is paying the bills.   But when it becomes the culture of a company to put process and “the company” ahead of the customer, decline is imminent.   Customer service must be embedded in the culture of a company…. A way of life, rather than check mark in a “to do” list.    

It is the customer’s growth we must be focused on in order to achieve our own growth. Simple things matter:

Ø  Understand the business objectives  and risks of the client

Ø  Make it easy for the customer to do business with your company

Ø  Stay in touch with the client, not just when they are buying

Ø  Look and listening closely to the factors challenging the client’s business

Ø  Be advocates for their business

I am fortunate enough to work for a small company where there is no tolerance for lack of customer service.  Success, even survival, is predicated on ensuring the customer’s success.   

If you have customers, you are in the customer service business! It is far too easy for our prospects to find competitors.   

By Pat Hoskins, pat.hoskins@ironsidestech.com, PH 585.953.3013

The Automated Document Factory (ADF) has transformed into an enterprise business tool

Print and mail tracking systems have certainly evolved over the years, but I am not convinced the perception of users and perspective users has evolved at the same rate.

I remember the early days of print & mail tracking systems (such as the LMO concept) where early adopters faced challenges of their vendors continually (and at the customer’s expense) developing interfaces and forever trying to integrate new processes and factory equipment into a rigid ADF architecture.  I am surprised at how many of today’s transactional, security, healthcare and financial document processors still tolerate this level of performance from their traditional vendors.

As mentioned in previous entries, I am not a fan of the term “automated document factory” because it does not embrace the value today’s technologies provide, nor does it focus on the core (information management) power of today’s solutions.  Perhaps, we (us vendors) have not done an appropriate job of educating our clients as to how they can improve their entire enterprise through use of an ADF. 

Current generation ADF technologies are no longer shop floor data collectors with proprietary systems, long installation times (laden with extensive professional services) and closed data structures.

The real value of today’s ADF is to make our customer’s business processes (and performance metrics) available to them at their fingertips while ensuring the accuracy and timely output of ALL processes.  We are in the business of providing easily accessible benchmarking and business performance information just as much as we are in the document integrity and compliance reporting business.   

The ADF is no longer restricted to print & mail operations, but now extends across all other production environments such as fulfillment, card processing, manual processing operations and shipping.   Current generation solutions, built on an open data concept, allow seamless integration of shop floor production management and integrity tracking with front office accounting, estimating and scheduling activities.

Open and scalable technologies, along with vendor agnostic architecture models, now allow the integration of these additional operations while making real-time data accessible for business owners when and where they need it.  Users should require full access to data, reporting and the ability to compare actual results with pre-production accounting, estimating and scheduling expectations. 

An effective ADF also eliminates overhead costs associated with process transitions, manual data entry and the reporting of SLA, productivity and job performance metrics.  Although eliminating risk (of late delivery fees and compliance penalties) continues to be the leading cause for investment in a tracking system, most installations can provide a very quick and hard ROI based on tangible process savings.

As I continue to see financial, healthcare, insurance and security print providers burdened with the limitations of yesterday’s ADF, it is obvious we must do a better job of showing our perspective clients how today’s ADF can improve their entire business.

By Pat Hoskins, pat.hoskins@ironsidestech.com, PH (585.953.3013)

Return on Investment (ROI) Extends Beyond the Short Term

We are often required to ensure a return on investment over a given time period (often one year or less) for our clients.  Fiscally essential, this by itself can be short sighted.  When analyzing print & mail tracking or Automated Document Factory (ADF) integration, a long term strategy is equally essential.

What if my customer types, processes or equipment change? 

What is the cost of support over the life of the system?

How will developing technologies impact my business?

What future role will data analytics play in my customer relationships?

What is the cost to re-scale or modify my investment?

What is my vendor’s ability to provide service and support in seconds after an incident occurs?

These and many more questions should be examined and answered prior to investment. 

Good ideas should come from all sources.  Challenge your vendors to improve your long term business, not only short term results.

by Pat Hoskins, pat.hoskins@ironsidestech.com, PH (585) 953-3013

Don’t call it an Automated Document Factory (ADF)

For the second time in the past week, I have been on calls with prospective clients who previously invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in an Automated Document Factory (ADF), only to use it as a glorified job management tool.  In these cases, the “big iron” suppliers seem to be taking advantage of the closed, proprietary nature of their “solution” to enhance their revenue stream, rather than enhancing their client’s business.  

Automation, by definition, is requiring no or little control.  There is nothing automated (or beneficial to the user) about requiring a check from a client every time they want to access their own data or closing off access to production metrics. 

I don’t like the term “Automated Document Factory” anyways because it does not address the two most important things an ADF is supposed to do:

1)      Ensure the integrity and privacy of printed information [compliance/privacy protection]

2)      Provide business owners with the useable information to better manage their business [workflow automation]

It is difficult for me to understand how document processing operations, so reliant on data to produce their jobs, would expect anything less than 100% real time access to their own production information from their vendor.  Any information management technology which is based on current technology should be capable of sharing information and communicating with other software packages without significant additional investment. 

In an era of increased competition for print & mail volume, print tracking, mail tracking & workflow automation software must be about helping our clients improve their business (on their terms). Whatever happened to the concept of making it easy for your customer to do business?

By Pat Hoskins, pat.hoskins@ironsidestech.com, PH (585) 953-3013

Production Benchmarking- It’s About Improving Business Performance

Measurement of production performance such as delivery accuracy, asset utilization, waste, spoilage, operator efficiency, and productivity are, at the end of the day, just statistics.  The collection of this data becomes most valuable when it is easily accessible and used to improve business performance. 

Accessibility- Data must be available when and where the user needs it

·    Production metrics must be available based on real-time information so management can make decisions based on what is happening in their shop at any moment in time.  The objective is to prevent issues, not just correct them

·    Important data must be highly visible- Information must be presented in a logical format or reports which clearly explain desired metrics.  Consuming time to interpret data is defeating the intent of benchmarking

·    Information must be stored and shared based on industry standards to allow easy integration with other systems.  We all share our data with other departments, customers, vendors and business owners and should not be consuming overhead to facilitate this information transfer 

·    Effective benchmarking systems must protect the user’s original investment as their processes, equipment and jobs change.  These systems must be open and scalable to remain current and cost effective.

How should performance benchmarking improve business?  

The simple answer is that benchmarking should enable growth and reduce operating costs without adding overhead.  To the level these objectives can be achieved, of course, depends upon many factors unique to the user.  However, production benchmarking should provide one or more of the following:

·    Track equipment and operator utilization to optimize equipment loading, throughput and turnaround times

·    Track operator effectiveness to analyze where overhead can be optimized or reduced

·    Eliminate compliance penalties and late delivery fees

·    Provide open information reporting to enable users to verify and prove clients’ compliance and SLA requirements are met

·    Eliminate manual production tracking and data entry costs

·    Reduce spoilage & waste

·    Compare actual performance data with budgetary estimates to improve estimating accuracy

Pat Hoskins, Ironsides Technology, PH (585) 953-3013, pat.hoskins@ironsidestech.com

 

Great End Users…

What a great week - There is nothing like being on the shop floor, in the middle of production, watching operators work with your software to produce more efficiently and more effectively. Good operators want to create great work and welcome tools which help them to improve productivity and quality.  Their commitment makes a winning team and delivers client satisfaction. When your own product helps them do that, and you get to see it in action - it is a rewarding experience.

When a production expert, the operator, asks: “how can we use this do produce faster; and, why not do that differently” – and we listen – the end result inevitably is better software.

Too often we get caught up in the process of closing deals and managing business issues.  It always helps and refreshes to be brought back to why we do open software - so we can help with diverse production tracking and integrity challenges.  The business solution you offer is only as good as its’ usefulness.  Actually watching customer operators practice “usefulness” creates a real sense of purpose for our continuous systems development.  Comments and critiques from these hands-on end user experts are paramount in keeping us aware and ahead of the real world technology and “usefulness” curves. 

So – thank you to all of our great end users! Your pride, craftsmanship and drive to be better have motivated us to keep our software easy to use, responsive and leading edge– literally built on your tremendous feedback as users. We try to listen, and promise to work even harder to support you.

For another insightful comment on software in your print/mail operation, take a look at this recent post in Digital Nirvana by Nicole Schappert.

http://thedigitalnirvana.com/2012/09/what-is-one-of-the-most-important-aspects-of-your-mail-campaign/comment-page-1/#comment-47442

Thanks for reading, and please feel free to comment,

Bill.riley@ironsidestech.com

(508) 962-1649

p.s. COMMERCIAL: If you are curious about more Ironsides’ end user experiences, and if we can provide you with more information about our open systems and open data sharing, please just let us know.

Here is a quick 4 minute audio about Ironsides – it is a commercial! You’ve seen them before, and this one won’t kill you either…

Ironsides APT

http://www.brainshark.com/brainshark/vu?pi=688769288&dm=5&pause=1&appKey=77

Data Security is a Print & Mail Issue with Benefits

The abundance of digital printing presses and the growth of 1:1 marketing have broadened information security risks far beyond their origins with transactional communications.  Multi-channel marketing strategies which blend direct mail, trans-promo and transactional communications have placed direct mail and commercial printing operations at similar risk.   

Beyond the tangible risks of compliance fines and SLA penalties, document processors face  the reality of losing customers and new business opportunities due to lack of controls.  Private data does not only consist of account numbers, financial and protected health information.  Simply, a breach is the improper use or disclosure of personal information. Exposing personal tendencies, transaction history information, email addresses and the like are enough to violate customer trust and in some cases incur penalties.

Providers of all marketing communications and mailings must follow procedures and incorporate baseline controls such as those outlined in ISO 27001/27002.  Proper care with data security and production should not only ensure data integrity.  Properly deployed, these controls should have a fundamental impact on business performance beyond the obvious transparency to data integrity.  By verifying and tracking the integrity of printed pieces, document processors in the direct mail and commercial printing sectors can fundamentally impact their business:

·         Eliminate late delivery penalties
·         Capture new customers which have higher integrity requirements
·         Reduce or eliminate manual processes for process handoff and production logging (logging of each production step, manual data entry, etc.). 
·         Improve equipment optimization and resource efficiency (i.e. reduce operating costs)
·         Defer capital expense on new equipment by adding intelligence to legacy equipment
·         Reduce waste and spoilage expenses
·         Connect islands of information (such as different departments) within an organization to allow business decisions to be based on tangible, real-time production data

Document Tracking & Productivity Solutions Should Adapt with Your Changing Business

The old days of piece, job and productivity tracking solutions consisted of closed technologies which prohibited users from accessing data and required extensive professional services for implementation or change.   Phrases such as “Automated Document Factory” and “File Based Processing” invoke thoughts of brand specific technologies which prohibited implementation across multiple types of equipment and limited users from accessing their own production data. 

The increasingly competitive document processing landscape requires us to use all resources at our disposal, regardless of equipment brands or process types.   Productivity improvement, integrity verification and delivery performance are not prejudice toward certain brands or types of devices.  Today’s equipment talks to us and we must take advantage of this data to run our business better.  As print and mail processors must adapt quickly to their customers’ changing requirements, “open”, ”scalable” and “flexible” are the pertinent terms  of today’s production environment.   

Impact of Print & Mail Integrity Tracking

Print & Mail integrity verification should impact business performance.  Beyond the obvious impact of getting the correct documents out the door, data gathered during printing and mailing processes should be used to:

• Track productivity by operator and by device to optimize production performance
• Automate reconciliation and reprinting of defects
• Eliminate manual signoff and logging between process transitions
• Automated compliance reporting for healthcare and financial processes
• Enable organizations to pursue and close new high integrity print/mail applications
• Track job performance to reduce the risk of late delivery penalties
• Automate workflow to improve throughput and reduce cost per piece

Integrity tracking has evolved from antiquated technologies such as file based inserting and file based integrity verification.  Today’s real-time technologies provide full access to reporting and data, eliminate the need for extensive implementation times and extensive professional services and allow integration on all print/mail devices, regardless of brands or models.

Although integrity verification and privacy protection may still be the risk based reasons for investment, integrity tracking clients should expect a tangible return on investment based on operational improvements and real-time access to collected information.

Document Accuracy Should Mirror Productivity Performance

When organizations use automated methods to track and verify the integrity of documents during production and finishing, the accuracy of these documents should be directly related to productivity performance.

Data collected to verify document accuracy and automate the reconciliation of integrity defects is the same data utilized for tracking the performance of jobs versus schedules and SLA’s.  This also the same data utilized for tracking the productivity of processes, equipment, operators and departments.  They are innately connected.

The challenge is that many document processors simply don’t have easy access to nor do they fully utilize this production data.  By accessing current information from their (local or remote) desktop, management can quickly understand where production performance stands versus schedules and customer commitments.  Load balancing, equipment allocation and operator decisions can be made to affect performance.  Printing and mailing organizations can then fundamentally ensure productivity and delivery performance with this same information they are collecting to ensure the accuracy of printed, personalized information.  The result should be improved delivery performance, reduced overhead costs and reduced risk of penalties.

The Value of Print/Mail ADF

If your business is reliant on the security and accuracy of printed information, do you ever consider:

• What are your biggest risks associated with print and mail processes?
• What are your biggest opportunities for new revenue?
• What technology will measurably improve your business performance? 

The real value an Automated Document Factory vendor provides is making your capital optimally work for your business (not theirs). An ADF provider must understand your business, identify cost savings, operational efficiencies and the technologies which address these questions. Their business culture and technologies must provide measurable ROI which reduce your risk while improving business scope, productivity and profitability.

Today's ADF solution providers can not survive though use of yesterday's business tactics of hidden charges and closed (proprietary) solutions. The focus must be on impacting your business.