Buying a
digital printing solution: This is a big step in a new direction that will lead your company to new service opportunities and allow the organization to participate in the fastest growing segment of the printing and publishing market while delivering increased value and service to your client base. Through many years of experience and observation, I have compiled a list of the nine keys to buying a digital printing solution from a graphic arts supplier. The objective is to provide you with the insights and ideas regarding how to organize for success and identify what questions to ask from your supplier when exploring the purchase of a new digital printing integrated solution. 1. Do your homework. As with any product or solution you may want to buy, there is a certain amount of initial homework to be done. Usually first to be considered is the price. How much can you afford to spend to get the solution you seek with all the optional features that you think you need to satisfy your clients? Getting from good intentions to production-ready can be rather expensive depending on how fast you need to get there. And, whether it is a home theatre system or a luxury sailboat, a demonstration of the product is always involved. When looking for new equipment or solutions to buy, there have always been the questions: Where do I start? Who do I talk to? Whom can I trust? If you are a commercial printer, specialty printer or content designer, there are many industry trade shows throughout the year. This is where you can get a “packaged” demonstration showing the latest hot technology on the most up-to-date equipment. You can go from booth to booth just picking up literature and application samples. Remember though that this is not a good venue to get “under the hood” of the product or solution you are interested in. This is because most suppliers prepare brief product demos run by marketing people intended to provide small snippets of information to large meandering crowds. It’s also good idea to attend seminars at trade shows, especially when you’re in the market for new equipment. Usually someone from the industry will be speaking about real life production problems and reality based production needs. These types of seminars can be very educational and deliver high quality information, especially when the very popular user panel format is available (such as at the annual VuePoint conference and user association meetings). Before you actually go to a vendor’s demonstration center, a trade show or elsewhere, remember to ask your suppliers sales representative for a customer list. If the company and its products have any merit, your sales representative won’t hesitate to hand over their customer list. If they give you a preferred list of customers (a list of only 10–20 “reference site” customers), immediately ask for a complete customer list. You’ll want to hear the good, the bad and the ugly concerning customers’ past and present problems. But a word of caution: don’t get discouraged if you hear some negative reports. Every equipment manufacturer cannot possibly satisfy every customer, even though they try. 2. Site visits: See it before you believe it. After calling a few users of the equipment that you are considering, try to arrange a site visit. Any manufacturers’ sales representative worth his salt should have a handful of reference sites that they can take you to. This activity is invaluable because you’ll actually get to see the equipment in action. While visiting, ask about processing speeds, upgrade ability, network capabilities, technical and applications support, and most importantly who fixes the equipment when it breaks and how long does it take them to show up on site? The next logical step would be to try out a typical job on the equipment. However, instead of doing the test job at the vendor’s demo center, I would suggest you have it performed by the reference site. The reason is that the people in production at the reference site use this equipment every day, while the suppliers’ people in the demo center are good at talking about and showing features and benefits, but production is not their specialty. Before submitting your test job to a production shop, make sure you ask to have the exact processing speeds of your job reported to you afterwards, and an explanation of exactly what equipment was used. After all, you’re paying for this job, and no matter how expensive testing is, it’s much less expensive than being stuck later with equipment that doesn’t work or fails to meet your customers needs. 3. Pre-sales technical support — the inside story. By this time, if you’ve asked your sales representative for a customer list, you can be sure that he or she has forecasted your sale to close in a relatively short period of time. You can also count on them calling you quite frequently. This can be a bit of a nuisance, however, you can use this to your advantage. In every major supplier organization there are pre-sales technical people that are not commissioned on sales. Rather, their job is to support the sales force. In many cases, the technical support staff will tell you the realities of a particular solutions shortcomings and deficiencies. This is because these are often the same people who will have to support you after the equipment has been purchased, and it is in their best interests to ensure that your expectations are properly aligned with reality. These pre-sales technical gurus have actually worked with the products and are required to have extensive technical expertise. They can help you with integration requirements, present and future workflow problems, and staying current with updated software revisions. It is always a good idea to use these people during the sales cycle and to begin fostering a long-term relationship. It is also a good idea to arrange an independent meeting with someone from the pre-sales support staff. 4. Consultants – the value of second opinions. A consultant’s role is to give you high quality information and lend a different perspective and fresh ideas as they relate to technology acquisitions. But consultants have their drawbacks. As humans, they tend to have certain preferences: a particular platform of products or a specific brand. It’s possible a consultant will chose a system that appeals to him/her, but that may leave you with no inter-operability with your existing equipment investment. Customers hire industry consultants to advise on new technologies, help in their shop’s workflow problems, or advise them in new equipment acquisitions, with varying degrees of success. It can save you a lot of aggravation to get references from the consultant. Talk to the people who have used the services of a particular consultant you are considering hiring. Treat a search for a consultant just like your search for new equipment. 5. Product demonstrations: Smoke, mirrors and optical illusions. The expression “smoke and mirrors” often refers to a vendor using tricks and deceptive practices to mislead a customer in a product demonstration or presentation for the sake of a sale. In every demonstration there is some type of processing equipment (a computer) that will be demonstrated. Make a mental note of what other computers are connected to the one you are interested in. Be sure to find out what the suppliers’ other personnel are doing at those other workstations while your demo is going on. Vendors have been known to conduct ancillary processing at other workstations to speed up your demo. If your demo station keeps crashing or requires rebooting, the supplier might ask to move to another station. Ask if the new station is the same type of station as the first one. Lunch. The most famous type of smoke is lunch. Lunchtime comes during the course of a demo and both you and the vendor break for a meal. However, you’ve left out the demonstrator. This person knows there’s a sale at stake and if he or she is resourceful, they’ll use the opportunity and any computer at their disposal to finish the job processing activity. This is without question the best time for the manufacturers’ representative to get work done or fix a computer or call in some additional technical support. It is the most productive time for them, since prospective customers aren’t standing over them asking questions every step of the way. Another type of smoke and mirrors involves sending in a job to a vendor prior to a demonstration. In most cases, this is a bad idea. Why? Because an unscrupulous vendor will prepare the job in such a way that it will reflect well at every stage of the demo, but not reflect the realities of an actual production environment. The most popular excuse a vendor might give for asking you to send your job to them before the demo is “the demo staff doesn’t do this type of work everyday, that’s why we need to see it” I would tell the vendor that sending up a job is okay for practice, but I’ll bring the same type of job, but not the same job, when I come for the demo. Then tell them to practice, practice practice ... Here’s one more tip you may want to remember: When you arrive for a demo and the equipment is not there, it doesn’t exist. This is commonly known as vaporware. 6. Beta testing: It can be a pest. In my experience, beta testing is done not to work out the bugs, but rather to find the bugs that were left over from the alpha testing stage. This is not to say that all vendors don’t try and do some last minute bug fixing, but for the most part beta testing is to figure out what’s still wrong. This is so bugs may be fixed before the first production release is out — hopefully. Why would you want to be a beta test site? Well, it could be that the equipment you were interested in at the demo wasn’t available, but you were told that if you sign on the dotted line today, the vendor would make you a beta site. Or, it could be that you like to stay as far ahead of the technology adoption curve as possible. In doing so, however, be aware that this beta equipment may not work to your standards. First, since it isn’t a released product, who will service it? Second, who will help with software quirks? And third, will you have direct input into the product’s look and feel? These are questions you’ll need to ask your salesperson. 7. The acceptance test: Define it now or whine about it later. Acceptance tests are a crucial element of the equipment or solution acquisition process. Remember that acceptance and sign-off initiates several key aspects of the terms of your agreement with your supplier including payment schedules and the start of the clock on your warranty period. Well in advance of signing any paperwork, your supplier should provide you with a written description illustrating the method of acceptance inclusive of the test target image and production parameters for the final acceptance test. If the manufacturer is unable to produce this documentation, then this is your opportunity to specify an agreeable method of acceptance between all parties and attach it as an addendum to the purchase and sale agreement. The key elements for creating a suitable final method of acceptance include a document illustrating the actual method of acceptance process, copies of all forms and agreements that will need to be signed by the purchaser, an agreed upon acceptance test image or suite of images, and a set of production parameters for producing the test target along with a pre-specified and acceptable level of variation from the production parameters illustrated on a specification table. 8. Resellers. In some companies there is either a direct sales force, a group of resellers, or both. Resellers remarket other companies’ products or solutions and play an important roll penetrating alternate channels and vertical markets that the manufacturer could never gain access to with their direct sales channels. Resellers buy their products from manufacturer at a transfer price and sell strictly on commission. The manufacturing company may have several resellers of their product. Different reseller companies might have some of the same territories causing some sales channel conflicts and confusion, and often aggravation to the customer. Every manufacturer and reseller is looking to sell something. They all want to solve your problems, but at the end of the day they have a number or quota to meet. You, as the customer, should be as informed as possible and buy the best piece of equipment for the best price. If you can find out how many companies in your area resell the brand name that you’re looking to buy, there is a good chance you’ll create some price wars in your favor, enabling you to acquire the product or solution you seek at the lowest possible price along with local service and support. 9. The best time to buy. Most suppliers of graphic arts equipment and solutions operate on a quota of one to three months, typically with a three-month maximum time horizon that coincides with their fiscal calendar. This means that they have to make their sales numbers or quotas in a very short period of time. In my experience, the best time to buy has always been the last couple of days of the salesperson’s quota period. If they have not had a good month, you could possibly save thousands of dollars at that time. The trick is to find out how your salesperson operates, whether it is a one or three-month quota period. You’ll be sure to get the best deals towards the end of their cycle. Another good time to buy is at the major industry trade shows where manufacturers often create show specials and incentives to allow them to recoup their often multi-million dollar trade show budget expense. This includes shows like Drupa, Graph Expo and Print amongst many others. Some of these incentives can be quite attractive including discounted demo equipment, free accessories, ramped lease payments, and free lease payments in exchange for switching to new sensitized media contracts (plates and proofing media). Manufacturers also make available a suite of other freebies that will help ensure a smooth startup and ease the initial cost burden for implementing new solutions. This includes business development support, marketing kits, cooperative marketing programs, open house support, and many other valuable resources and tools. Just remember, you won’t get what you don’t ask for. Good luck in your quest for your new equipment or solution. |
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