Carol A. Katarsky

Don't Fight the Future Distributors are riding the wave of a changing industry By Carol A. Katarsky The times they are a-changin'. More so than ever before, distributors are facing a topsy-turvy industry. Mergers and acquisitions--among both suppliers and distributors--continue to bring new dimensions to once-familiar companies. The blurring of boundaries be-tween the manufacturing and distribution segments has changed the dynamics of the industry. And this activity isn't going to end soon. A Slow But Steady Climb With a maturing market and a slowing economy, manufacturers face a rocky road in '99 By Stacey Wenzel The forms industry saw quite a bit of change in 1998. Acquisitions and mergers became commonplace for manufacturers.

Use variable imaging to modernize mature product lines By Carol A. Katarsky As technology continues racing along at its feverish pace, many printers are looking for ways to add value to their products. One of the most promising developments in this area is variable imaging. Graphic Systems Services (GSS), Kettering, Ohio, provides offline transport systems and inline variable imaging systems for forms manufacturers. GSS' director of sales, Dick Prentice, said the most common, and oldest forms of variable imaging are bar coding and numbering, but new opportunities abound in direct mail, labels, on demand publishing, shipping forms with tracking information, invoices and statements, as well as many other