A recent seminar on green initiatives had some distributors and suppliers in the audience seeing red—and others, gray. The occasion was Indianapolis-based IBSA’s 2008 Conference, held July 21-23 at the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis. While industry professionals certainly support the sourcing of fiber from well-managed forests, they are less than thrilled with the thousands of dollars associated with obtaining chain-of-custody (CoC) certification. Some wondered where the money was, in fact, ending up. Others complained end-users—the group driving certification in the first place—will frequently opt for non-certified stock after realizing it can increase costs. Still, others pointed out that projects printed on CoC-certified stock can ultimately
EMA Specialty Envelopes and More
Headquartered in Austell, Ga., EMA Specialty Envelopes & More’s Connect Four51 program was developed to drive efficiencies into the print, envelope and business card supply chains. As a result, independent distributors have the same Web-based procurement system used by the majors—for free. Conducting business with EMA allows distributors to become one of the Connect Four51 international success stories. Whether using phone, e-mail or fax, the traditional order entry process involves manual labor and the potential for mistakes. However, the Connect Four51 order process drives all purchase orders to suppliers through an integrated channel which significantly reduces manual labor and virtually eliminates errors. By
The deadline-driven lifestyle of today’s professional requires efficient and convenient means of communication. E-mail, in particular, provides instant gratification for the “think fast” individual with a single click of the send button. However, e-mail lacks the personal touch experienced with an envelope. According to a 2007 survey conducted by International Communications Research on behalf of Pitney Bowes, 73 percent of the participating consumers indicated a preference for receiving new product announcements and offers from companies through mail; a whopping 86 percent of consumers named mail as their preference for receiving confidential communications, including bills and bank statements. Granted, e-commerce has impacted traditional mail-based
