Interform Solutions

A little change never hurt anyone. With that in mind, this year’s big show promises a change of pace, a change of scenery and a change in demand. The newly revamped PSDA (formerly DMIA) will host its annual Print Solutions Conference and Exposition on Oct. 23-25 at the Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore. This year’s featured general session keynote speaker will be Charlie Pesko, founder and president of InfoTrends, a leading market research and consulting firm in the digital imaging and document solutions industries. Technological advances and refined marketing strategies are just some of the issues gaining momentum in a slowing economy. To encourage print

DMIA’s annual Print Solutions conference and exposition will be held Oct. 3-5 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill. The conference will provide three days of educational sessions, including a presentation by this year’s keynote speaker, Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House and co-author of “Contract with America.” Join Gingrich as he analyzes the current political climate in Washington, DC, and educates attendees on effective leadership. This year’s conference will feature equipment demonstrations, offering distributors better insight into how various applications are produced. In addition, exchange centers will be located on the show floor with more than 34 hours of

The Top 5 Suppliers combined for more than $1 billion in sales for 2004. Quality Park Consolidates Brands It's been a busy year for Quality Park, formerly the PrintXcel brands. The company has changed its name, experienced major growth by realignment and secured the top position on BFL&S' Top 100 Suppliers list. "Our sales and marketing teams were able to secure large pieces of business from existing and new customers this past year," said Allen Conway, president. "These efforts were being driven in 2002 and 2003, and came to fruition in 2004. We're already off and running for 2005." Off and running,

Distributors can prosper by pushing the envelope on mailers. After making a few initial phone calls to inquire about the state of affairs for mailer products within the forms industry today, it was clear that manufacturers have mixed feelings on the issue. Some simply reported such an insignificant sale of mailers—due to too much competition and changing technology—that they preferred to not report on them at all. But, others have found a way to prosper via the mailer. The prospering is true, despite the drastic decline of installed impact printers over the past several years, which has significantly reduced demand for continuous custom products—namely

Providing value-added products like form/label combinations involves product knowledge and a greater time investment. The '90s ushered in some amazing developments in affixing and integrating equipment along with ongoing advancements in materials and adhesives. The upshot is a dynamic crop of time-, efficiency- and accuracy-enhancing combination products such as form/label combinations. Clearly today's sophisticated business operations are well served by such innovation. However, as Judy Miller, label project manager for Vandalia, Ohio-based PrintGraphics observed, these products are best marketed through solution-selling, which requires up-to-date product knowledge and additional sell time. Offered Miller, "There are two types of salespeople: those who quote orders that essentially

A hands-on guide for selling this hot new niche product By Barbara A. Bucci Maybe you thought you knew what they were. And maybe you always did know. But since many people confuse electronic forms with software-compatible forms, let's first end any confusion that might exist and differentiate one from the other, before talking about market opportunities. According to Ted Nowlen, vice president of marketing and information technology at Bridgeville, Pa.-based Interform Solutions, an electronic form is a mail-enabled form that allows users to complete it electronically. Users can then capture and route the form throughout an organization's computer network. On the other