Recently, quite a few of my discussions with people in our industry concerns the use of eprocurement services such as Noosh, printCafe, 58k and most recently Digital Express. Have I used any of them…would I consider any of them, and if not, then why?

To the first question, yes I have tried them out. Not all of them, but a few years ago when this new "tool" came along, I had my staff run some numbers and quotes through a few of these services and examine the potential return on investment. What we found was the pricing was competitive with what we were currently paying. This, at least, made me feel confident my sourcing techniques were working.

Will I consider using them going forward? I don’t think so. The service of web based collaboration and sending quotes out to bid to a group of vendors would interfere with a part of my job I truly enjoy. That is sourcing - the task of interviewing vendors, taking site-visits, scouring through the hundreds of sample packages I receive.

I can hear you now…"Why do all that?" Simple…I enjoy it. To me, this is part of my daily education; to see which vendors are keeping current with technology. To find the prize in the cracker jack box that is the printing industry.

Every week, I receive calls from other production managers asking for referrals. Today, a friend who sells outdoor media sent me two quotes and asked if I had a vendor or vendors that met the criteria of these quotes. One of his customers had two projects and wanted him to quote them, while knowing this was not his business.

There are so many print production people who never see sales people, never take the time to walk the floor at a DMA conference to see who is out there and what they are doing. Then when the time comes, they do not have any options.

Keep all your options open. Just because you are not producing direct mail now, does not mean you might not at some time in the future. When that time comes, I can assure you, the partner that produces your stationery or the fact sheets for your sales-force will most likely not be able to assist you. Shouldn’t you be ready with an option or two? Think how impressed your boss will be when you say, "No problem, I know just who to call!"

If you hear of a vendor through the grapevine, check out their web site. Ask people you know in the industry for comments and then give them a call and ask for the sales manager. Explain your business needs and let him/her select the rep for you. Salespeople, like production people have different knowledge bases. Let the person responsible for supervising them select the best one for you. One size does not fit all. Meet with the rep and find out about their company. If they are local, take a lunch hour and go visit them, (we will discuss how I judge site-visits in my next column).

You can never have enough information in our position, and one piece of that information is vendor profiles. I keep a binder with equipment lists, broken down by category (sheet-fed; web; specialty; letter shop, etc.), I also have five file drawers with printed samples filed by vendor. A new project comes along; I have the reference base needed to find out who should be quoting it. I also have three card files (I have never had the time to electronically file them all!), in addition to the electronic address book; I began 3-4 years ago.

Finally, if you have someone calling on you, and you are not happy with them, never fear making a call to the sales manager or company owner and asking to have another person assigned to your business. Never forget you are the customer and your needs and desires count. I have never had a company tell me that they would not change reps for me. Normally, the new rep will swap a piece of their business of similar.

Eprocurement is here to stay. I welcome my vendors to set up online estimating, collaboration and proofing systems. I know there is a large audience for the services of the companies named at the beginning of this column. Indeed, I know production people that use a combination approach, using eprocurement and their own sourcing abilities. I would prefer to use the personal approach and do the legwork myself. As I said earlier, we are all different…this is just my desire!

What have you done to find a new vendor? Have you ever replaced a sales rep, for whatever reason? Let me know. The more we communicate, the better we will be at our careers.