Top Design Contest--Continuous Forms

Platinum Award: Continuous Forms.

Many Happy Returns.

Sometimes opportunity doesn't knock. Sometimes it just makes an appointment. At least that's how it happened to Jim Cramer, president of Data Flow, a forms distributor based in Amarillo, Texas.

One day he was making a routine appointment to meet with a manufacturer's sales representative and the next day he had a fantastic new product and an idea for just the client to sell it to.

In spite of all of his good fortune, Cramer said, it was little more than opportunity meeting preparedness.

"Actually Ward/Kraft came to me and showed me a new product," admitted Cramer. "And I said, 'Yeah, I think I've got somebody who'd be interested in that.' "

That somebody was PPL, a commercial test laboratory in Amarillo. For years PPL sent doctors Data Flow's two-part test request form. Though PPL never reported any major problems, Cramer knew there were still a few elements of the form that could be improved.

For one, the very nature of a two-part test request form increases the odds that specimens and test requests will become separated during processing. With the new all-in-one version, which features an attached poly bag, the problem is eliminated.

Second, as the name implies, the original two-part test consisted of two parts, and as you might imagine neither of them was free. With the new form, PPL would no longer have to spend extra money to buy specimen bags and labels—and that saved money.

With that, PPL was sold and happily switched over to the new forms.

Though Cramer said he doesn't understand why reps don't show up at his door more often, in this case, he's happy to share the credit.

"You can't get out there and sell products if you don't know what's new and available," advised Cramer. "So when you do get someone that comes out and does that, it's always a good thing."

• Manufacturer: Ward/ Kraft, Fort Scott, Kan.

• Press: Stevens Multi.

• Collator: Hamilton.

• Paper: Mead.