2023 Innovator of the Year: Access Direct Embraces a Data-Driven Future

Editor's note: In today's printing industry, the concept of innovation is wide in definition, but rather narrow in its goal. Leading companies grasp many tools to define themselves, increase profitability, and differentiate themselves. They utilize new technologies, systems integration, novel human resources practices, diversification, exemplary customer services, and so much more.

The six companies included in the 2023 class of Printing Impressions’ Innovators of the Year were nominated by printing industry experts and consultants who identified them as notables. The business tactics and philosophies they employ may provide some inspiration to take your company to similar, greater heights.

The summary of Access Direct that follows shares what makes this company innovative, interesting, and exceptional. The insight it presents may provide the inspiration you need to take your company to a new level, or in a new direction.

The wise Morpheus once said, “The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us.” Although the real world isn’t quite as advanced as it was in the late ’90s blockbuster “The Matrix,” John DiNozzi and Lori Messina, partners at Access Direct, say we’re not too far off. DiNozzi, who is CEO of the Farmingdale, New York-based company, likens advances in artificial intelligence (AI) to some of the most classic science fiction, like “The Matrix” and “Terminator.”

“It’s here,” he says. “It really is. And it’s controlled. We are writing code around the AI to fence it in; therefore, the opportunities are endless.”

A passion for exploring this segment of innovation has led Access Direct to develop its own homegrown system of AI-enhanced software. From scheduling and productivity to incentive programs, DiNozzi explains that Access Direct has begun introducing AI into every department.

“From dispatching of mail to targeting customers’ delivery needs,” he says, “even in our sorting operation AI is present, where we are dynamically creating sort schemes day to day so we can lower postage costs. ... All those things intertwined together are what make Access, Access. And hopefully we are doing a good job, which keeps our customers satisfied and also draws in new customers.”

While the concept of AI integration in systems might scare some business owners, Access Direct has a long history of embracing and utilizing data to its advantage. When DiNozzi’s father started the business in 1967, it was a data processing company. So, it’s in the company’s “heritage,” he says.

“As the company grew, we didn’t just add staff, we kept adding systems and processes to help us manage production and costs,” he adds.

DiNozzi says that early on, the company understood data on a deep level, including data security.

“We have some of the standard software packages that we go out and purchase, but the other systems were developed internally, which became our secret sauce that we are very proud of,” he says.

Inkjet Innovation at the Forefront

Access Direct’s dedication to data and willingness to dive into new technology is only one of the reasons the company was nominated as a Printing Impressions “2023 Innovator of the Year.” Messina, president of the company and DiNozzi’s business partner of 35 years, shares that part of the company’s innovation lies in its decision to take a “big plunge” 10 years ago. She explains that the company was a toner-based, black-and-white environment for decades, but that it needed to enter the world of color, as many of its competitors were doing.

“We took a plunge,” she says. “We didn’t just put one device in; we did it [all]. Within a calendar year, we transitioned the entire company to be all color inkjet.”

Lori Messina, president of thINK, Canon Solutions America’s inkjet user group, speaks at the 2023 thINK Conference in Boca Raton, Florida. | Credit: thINK

While it was a decision made to stay on top of demands and relevant with the competition, it was also a decision based on human interaction with the technology.

“We knew it was going to become a staffing issue at some point,” DiNozzi says. “We really had to make a full transition, otherwise we were going to end up with two different kinds of technologies and staff. We knew that would not blend well together.”

Just as AI now pervades every department at Access Direct, so do the updates in technology. The company made updates to finishing, bindery, inserting, commingling, tracking, and data and content management. This meant that they needed to secure buy-in from employees to make sure the company was using its new technology to its fullest potential.

“When we get technology, we don’t just choose a device,”

DiNozzi explains. “We get the whole company behind the vendor that we choose. ... Once we find a vendor that we like, we really do stick with them. I think that helped the transition for our staff. ... You can move people around more easily with less of a learning curve.”

Even with all possible accommodations made, a radical environmental change can induce ripple effects throughout an organization. In this case, Messina says there was a “big cultural change” that happened at Access Direct. The hundreds of employees working at the company needed to hop on the moving train of transition, and it wasn’t necessarily easy.

“All of our procedures had to change along with it,” she says. “There was a lot of pushback. It was a period of growth for us that continues to change. Seven years in, we get hit with COVID. ... The transition happens again. How do you manage to work in this new space?”

The two biggest driving forces in Access Direct’s success with the transition were training and support, Messina says. That meant for everyone, from the top down.

“We certainly needed to be trained ourselves, and I will admit to you that John and I personally attended some of these sessions and failed the first couple times,” Messina says. “We took the tests, we didn’t do well, so we had to go and take them again, but it started with us. Unless you believe in it, how can you expect your staff to?”

A Commitment to Leadership

Messina partially attributes the company’s success with the transition to its commitment to leadership — something that she and DiNozzi stress has been a joint effort for many years. It’s clear they lead the company together, wholly, and completely.

In fact, leadership is one of the reasons Access Direct was nominated as one of the 2023 Innovators of the Year.

Sheri Jammallo, senior advisor, marketing, Production Print Solutions, at Canon Solutions America, nominated the company not only because of its inkjet evolution, which she says has “positioned their company into a leadership position,” but specifically because of Messina’s leadership involvement as president of thINK, an independent community of Canon Solutions America production inkjet users and partners.

“Not only does Access Direct show leadership in the printing industry,” Jammallo says, “Lori’s involvement in thINK shows leadership in contributing to the overall success of the industry as a whole.”

Although Messina is comfortable in her role now, it took some time to get there. When she first joined the thINK group, she says she “felt like the Martian in the room.”

“I wasn’t the person in the room who could speak to all the widgets on the machines,” she explains. “But I could speak to what benefits it gave our customers, what we were able to do with the technology, and where there are future opportunities.”

For Messina, leadership means collaboration and collective thinking in the industry, something she brings to thINK and to Access Direct.

“The challenges that we’ve had have only made our relationships stronger,” she says. “Equipment can’t create a strong relationship — only humans can create a strong relationship. So, I believe you must collaborate with your customers and vendors in order to be a stronger company. That’s how I like to see myself as a leader, as being the person behind [the company] to add the heartbeat to the equipment.”