Tom Quinn

Tom Quinn
Mailing & Fulfillment — Five Steps to Become an MSP

WHEN I owned my own fulfillment center in the Dallas area in the ’80s and early ’90s, I wondered why printers were not embracing mailing and fulfillment services as an extension of their business. Actually, I was looking over my shoulder, dreading the time when the giant woke up and understood the importance of these ancillary services to the growth of their businesses. Fortunately, the introduction of new technology and Web-based products kept the majority of printers busy enough not to infringe on our sacred mailing and fulfillment territory. There were some printing industry innovators, such as Jim Schultz at Great Lakes Integrated and

Fulfillment Services— Are Printers ‘Getting It’?

ARE PRINTERS ‘getting it’? What does that mean? Does it mean that they are not diversifying by utilizing fulfillment? The answer is an emphatic no. In fact, more and more printing companies are entering the fulfillment business sector to make their companies more viable in the future. The promised reward for printers diversifying into fulfillment is that it takes them out of the commodity-driven print marketplace. That selling these solutions will take the focus off of print pricing, and that both print volumes and profit margins will increase with print/fulfillment clients. I can report this, in fact, to be a true statement. Fulfillment

Mailing & Fulfillment Special Report — Getting Started In Fulfillment

MOST OF the printers I have visited over the past several years are already in the fulfillment business with one or more applications. In fact, several applications reviewed were very sophisticated, consisting of both static and dynamic content and requiring considerable data manipulation plus mastery of several shipping methods. Printing companies are very entrepreneurial in finding ways to satisfy customers’ needs with their existing resources. In addition, printers have taken the leadership in the Web-to-print industry, which has provided them experience in establishing shopping carts for their clients. So, getting started in fulfillment may not be an entirely correct title for this