Barbara A. Bucci

As forms margins shrink, commercial printing offers new opportunities By Barbara A. Bucci As demand for traditional business forms products declines, it is increasing for colored brochures, catalogs and direct mail pieces. Distributors are "naturals" for this market because they already know some printing techniques. However, making the move from forms to commercial printing can be daunting. "From my experience at trade shows, neophytes don't want anything to do with commercial printing. If you want to keep selling printing, you'll have to sell commercial printing as well," said Joe Kulis, director of sales for Ed Garvey & Company, Niles, Ill. According to Kulis

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

Smart cards face a bright future in the U.S. market By Barbara A. Bucci Europeans love them. Asians are leading the market with increased usage. But current U.S. sales and implementation of smart cards and their required infrastructure continue to lag. However, according to data compiled in the report Global Smart Card Opportunities, 1997-2002, by Datamonitor, New York, the future of the U.S. smart card market looks bright. For example, the study states that although 3.85 billion smart cards will be issued globally by the year 2002, with Europe as the world's largest market, U.S. usage will grow the fastest worldwide--at a "yearly

Try some arresting techniques to round up document security sales By Barbara A. Bucci The bad guys are everywhere. Just read the paper or watch the evening news to learn how criminals alter all kinds of business documents. Frank Abagnale, a secure document consultant to a variety of groups, has compiled the following statistics in his 1997/1998 Client Service Bulletin Losses from check fraud exceeded $12 billion in 1996, up from $5 billion in 1993. More than $1.2 million worthless checks enter the U.S. banking system each day. Between 1990 and 1996, the number of cases involving fraudulent checks of $100,000 or more increased by 300 percent. Fortunately, manufacturers and