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Questions and Answers

If you have questions about this webinar, please contact Eric: eric@whattheythink.com

Q: Why an IGen or Xerox 6060 vs an Oce' or similar device?

A:

Beth Coleman: The Xerox Products offer a higher quality reproduction than the Océ. While the Océ can feed a wider variety of stocks, the toner has a very flat look to it regardless of the substrate used.

Joe Cotrupe: A major reason is the amount support that you can count on by being invested with a major player. The three top players are Xerox, HP and NexPress. In our opinion, it is not the cost of the device that drives the decision as much as it is the ability to partner long term with a major player that is investing its lion’s share of R&D into color digital print and VI technology. Real world comparisons of the equipment performance, flexibility and quality led us to the iGen3.

Q: Do your future plans include such marketing ancillary services as e-mail marketing, personalized websites or telemarketing services? In other words, are you moving more toward CRM solution companies instead of printers?

A:

Beth Coleman: Hilltop Press already sees itself as a solution based entity. Our offerings, especially in our fulfillment areas, go way beyond publishing and ink on paper.

Joe Cotrupe: We are definitely looking into these capabilities. This is the number one reason that we have not pulled the trigger on a web-to-print solution. The high web-to-print solutions are capable of tying in many of these cross media features. This is exactly what we are weighing at this time.

Q: What R& D do you actually do....or is it applications development driven by a specific customer need?

A:

Beth Coleman: In the case of Hilltop EXPRESS, we started with a customer application, and selected the right equipment to meet the expectations, reach optimal productivity and employ value added services.

Joe Cotrupe: Our facility reacts to a customer’s need or a wish. In the strict sense of R&D, we do not participate.

Q: Have you explored the opportunities for digital printing in the rapidly growing digital photographic print market?

A:

Beth Coleman: Occasionally we do some photographic prints. Greeting card packages can be profitable if you automate the workflow to avoid them being lots of very small custom orders.

Joe Cotrupe: We have not. This has not appeared to be an opportunity for us to pursue at this time.

Q: Have you implemented advanced color management to match your digital printing to your conventional printing?

A:

Beth Coleman: Not at this time.

Joe Cotrupe: We apply the same color management techniques to the digital print as we do to the rest of our shop. There are obvious limitations in digital print that must be taken into account when representing the product.

Q: How important is it for your digital printer to match special spot colors?

A:

Beth Coleman: We use the process build charts from Xerox to help educate our customers with this requirement before production.

Joe Cotrupe: If spot color matching is key to our customers we highly recommend they move the project to our litho presses. Although a digital press can closely represent many spot colors I can not accurately replicate actual spot color inks across the board.

Q: Beth, does each of the 2000 locations provide the information for your custom digital application or are you dealing with a single location that provides the information for the POS pieces? I.E. how user friendly is the user interface for many different people.

A:

Beth Coleman: In this case, all variable orders come through a corporate office along with a daily database upload. The individual locations can order static pieces through a website.

Q: What are qualities looked for in hiring new solution sales based reps?

A:

Beth Coleman: Good listening skills. Also, a person who is creative in expressing and suggesting ideas. Brainstorming is critical in this process.

Joe Cotrupe: The same qualities we look for in hiring any employees; character and confidence. Good sales skills can be taught and specialties can be trained but you can not teach character and confidence.

Q: When you went VDP / Digital, were there any hidden costs that surprised you?

A:

Beth Coleman: The need for immediate response QC is very important. If a customer thinks that they received something incorrect, it is very important to have the checks and balances in place to respond to them very quickly and to inform them if the concern is a result of a database issue, machine issue or human error. The timeliness of the response is especially critical in the credibility of the work.

Joe Cotrupe: I would not say surprised, but as with anything you realize that you need to invest in other things to really optimize your facility.

Q: What kind of paper options are available? Coated, uncoated, colors? Are there different levels of quality that are offered?

A:

Beth Coleman: Many stocks are available.

Joe Cotrupe: We can basically put anything through our iGen3. This was one of the key reasons we purchased this device rather than the NexPress or Indigo.

Q: Can you expand on "added value services"? How do you charge the customer for these services?

A:

Beth Coleman: We charge for specific database manipulation, special packaging, special sorting, etc.

Joe Cotrupe: Our customers demand special attention to detail that they know they cannot get from other vendors. Charging for it is the easy part if your customers realize they are asking for it. Again, we do not truly differentiate between litho and digital type services, therefore like services are charged at like prices.

Q: What do you use for the variable front-end and how did you select it?

A:

Beth Coleman: We use a Meadows product called Design Merge which is a QuarkXpress extension because of the variable graphics in this application.

Joe Cotrupe: We currently are using Print Shop Mail. It is a basic easy to understand and work with program. We will be adding a much greater level of capability and complexity by the end of the year.

Q: Can you explain again the IT support you needed to add to support your client base and new equipment. Especially for variable text and mailing.

A:

Beth Coleman: This is a tough one, especially for a printing company. Database management and variable prep is a different skill set than most printing company IT personnel have. A computer technology graduate with marketing database experience is ideal.

Joe Cotrupe: You need to be able to cull databases and prepare them for printing. You need to be able to offer these services or align yourself with an outside vendor who can prepare for mailing.

Q: If you had your choice, what would be the ideal way to get your sales force trained on digital print sales?

A:

Beth Coleman: Be part of a project development team to learn all the steps in the consultative sales process.

Joe Cotrupe: The ideal way would be to land a huge client and learn on the fly. Of course that is because I am responsible for sales of the company. Seriously, formal training definitely adds to their knowledge and confidence rapidly. Knowing the hard facts of VI response rate, etc… can arm your sales force with enough information to pique a client’s curiosity. The rest of the training happens during windshield time. My background allows me to handle the practical training.

Q: Are you selling directly to the end user or do you use brokers all or some of the time?

A:

Beth Coleman: End user. The database issues are so sensitive that you have to develop a trust with the real customer to maximize the effort.

Joe Cotrupe: We work directly with the end user and also work with some brokers. Our broker relationships are not the standard fare relationship. We are very closely aligned with the brokers we work with which alleviates the undue tensions that can arise.

Q: How long have you had your current digital press? Did you start in variable data with that press? Did you have any open houses prior or since the arrival of the press?

A:

Beth Coleman: 18 months

Joe Cotrupe: We have had the iGen3 for 6 months. Prior to that we had a DC2045. We have had specific client open houses.

Q: What UV equipment do you use?

A:

Beth Coleman: Conventionally-Komori

Joe Cotrupe: We do not currently UV coat any of our printing in house. This is something we may well add to our facility. When needed we outsource this task to either a cylinder or screen UV provider.

Q: Do you have products that you offer as a package?

A:

Beth Coleman: Yes

Joe Cotrupe: We have many clients that will combine our various services within a project.

Q: What about training/educating the customer base on the benefits beyond depending on what the sales person knows. IE: How do you get the customer to overcome the hesitancy to go digital vs. years of dealing with conventional printing?

A:

Beth Coleman: Focus Groups really help.

Joe Cotrupe: Honestly, this is a fit issue. If the need fits litho, it goes litho. If the need is better served by digital, it goes digital. The education process takes place when you ask the client what the goal of the printing is. If they cannot tell us why they are printing 10,000 of something we can have the digital conversation.

Q: Are profit margins very different in digital printing than in offset printing?

A:

Beth Coleman: Yes, the value-add results in significantly more profit.

Joe Cotrupe: Yes and No. Depending on the type of project, you can realize greater margins than normal. However, if you truly factor in the burdens and overhead, the overall number remains close.

Q: As your business grows what additional help or services would you like to see from your major digital print vendors? What could help you grow digital business faster and more profitably?

A:

Beth Coleman: More time in the day.

Joe Cotrupe: It would be helpful if there was an established course curriculum for aspiring VI and Digital Press operators that would standardize a knowledge base.

Q: Do you print on offset shells?

A:

Beth Coleman: Seldom

Joe Cotrupe: Yes.

Q: Do you have the inline finishing on your digital equipment or do you use your traditional bindery department or offline equipment in your digital shop?

A:

Beth Coleman: No in line—small bindery services.

Joe Cotrupe: All of our finishing is off line. We prefer this since it enables us to utilize all equipment for litho and digital. We have purchased on demand finishing such as a perfect binder but this device is used equally for litho and digital. If it was on line, we could not do this.

Q: What do you use for soft proofing?

A:

Beth Coleman: PDF

Joe Cotrupe: Soft proofing is handled through PDF files.

Q: What is the average size (volume) of the variable print jobs—pieces per job—and frequency?

A:

Beth Coleman: 2500 sheets or less starts to crossover with our conventional business. In variable you do 1 specific piece.

Joe Cotrupe: One of our clients orders between 120K and 175K of full 11X17 on a bi-monthly basis. Others order 10-50K postcards monthly. Still others are not as repetitive and can be very unique.

Q: When customers ask for a proof we try to get them to look at a PDF. In some cases they insist on seeing a printed digital press sheet. What are you doing in these cases as far as cost for that proof? We have an IGEN.

A:

Joe Cotrupe: Unfortunately, it is difficult to explain to a customer that by the time you set the entire project up and print one, you may as well print 1000. We have worked out an acceptable charge for proofing as we understand it is the nature of the business today. We also move towards PDF proofs and intend to gravitate our customers that direction as often as possible.

This free event is made possible by Enovation

About Enovation Graphic Systems, Inc.

Enovation is the nation’s largest distributor of equipment, consumables and technical services for the graphic communications industry. Representing hundreds of suppliers at branch locations across the country, Enovation employs more than 1,000 people.

Enovation has created a team of experts, poised to answer questions, offer advice and help navigate customers through the ever-changing graphic arts industry. We not only help customers make sense of new technologies and developments, but we also work with them to develop the capabilities they need to operate efficiently and stay ahead of the competition.  Whether it’s information on an emerging technology or reliable delivery of supplies, customers know they can “Get It From the Experts” at Enovation.

For more information about Enovation, please visit www.enovationgraphics.com

If you have questions about this webinar, please contact Eric: eric@whattheythink.com