Mr. Nickoloff was the co-founder, CEO and President of PlanetPrint, a web-enabled provider of POD (print on demand), Fulfillment, Outsourcing and Consulting Services that grew to almost $30M since being founded in late 1999. Standard Register Company recently acquired select operations of PlanetPrint for around $10 million.

PlanetPrint's consulting practice in Rochester, N.Y., the software-integration group in Minneapolis, and the POD operation in Dallas that were acquired by Standard Register represent approximately $17 million in combined 2001 revenues and a workforce of about 100 people.

Keith is a former Kodak Vice President and General Manager with 22 years of printing and publishing experience. He was also the founder of PathForward, Inc., a leading strategic growth and merger-and-acquisition consulting practice dedicated to the POD market. His clients have included a number of Fortune 500 companies, in addition to Heidelberg USA, IKON, IBM Printing Systems and Staples, and more than a dozen independent service providers.

Recently Mr. Nickoloff received the "POD Pioneer of the Millennium 2000" award and was named as one of the ten most influential people in digital printing. After reading both parts of this interview, we think you’ll see why. The interview also provides a snapshot of the evolution taking place at Standard Register.

PART TWO - WTT: As we watched PlanetPrint evolve over the last three years, we found your focus on integrated print management at an enterprise level interesting, and it makes a lot of sense that Standard Register would find value in augmenting their current range of services with those offerings. What are some of the things you look for in a potential client for these services, and how do you go about determining whether there is a fit?

Keith Nickoloff: I believe that when companies select which customers to serve (and not to serve) it is the most important decision they make. The prerequisites of a sound business model require a disciplined choice of customers combined with a differentiation strategy and an alignment of resources to deliver the ultimate value proposition to each set of targeted customers.

PathForward will prioritize its services offerings to Fortune 1000 companies where there’s C-level involvement, investment and oversight of enterprise-wide and global projects.

The perfect PathForward client is multidimensional -- one that values the ability not just to take costs out, but also to reinvest a portion of those savings to build more effective, harder working and more personalized communications. The PathForward mantra is "Print Less, Print Better, With More Relevance."

PathForward will offer unique value as a change agent. But that happens only to the extent that the customer has demonstrated an ability and sincere desire to implement change. We look for customers that are committed to process and content reengineering, training, and aligning incentives to reward desired behavior and penalize rogue, bypass spending.


WTT: Can you take us through an example of a customer you have worked with to develop an integrated print management strategy, including the results achieved?

Keith Nickoloff: Here’s an example of a recent engagement that typifies a PathForward consulting project.

We were retained in early 2002 to define an enterprise-wide print strategy for a Global 150 company. Four strategic areas of focus were a part of the project scope. These included an exhaustive review and analysis of all aspects of print procurement spend; the fleet of distributed output devices, including copiers, printers and fax machines; the on-site digital and offset print and fulfillment center(s); and the on-site statement/transaction printing and mail operation(s).

We were asked to identify "low hanging fruit" and provide a phased approach to achieve "two-comma" level savings. The project has just been completed, and our client’s ROI will have exceeded 300% in less than six months.


WTT: Give us another example where you implemented a different solution based on the findings compiled during the initial consulting phase.

Keith Nickoloff: In mid-2001, we were asked to do a similar project for another Global 150 customer. In this case, however, based on market conditions and the company’s strategic direction toward outsourcing, we led the sale of an on-site facility and bundled it with a sizeable amount of externally procured print. Net/net, the customer actually SOLD what had historically been BOUGHT, and contracted to buy it back for equal to or less than what had been previously paid.

Hundreds of employees will be transitioned from a cost center to be a part of someone else’s core competency. Technology risk and the cost of ongoing software investment will also be transferred to an entity far better equipped to leverage such an important investment. Excess capacity and new capabilities will lead to improved performance for both the buyer and the seller. In this case, the customer ROI will exceed 10X what was invested for our services, with follow-on savings identified within their fleet that exceed $5 million annually.

Even though consulting projects may have a common initial focus, the outcome pursued is clearly dependent upon the needs (and timing) of each customer. It’s what makes consulting so exciting – every engagement is different, with different people, perspective and possibilities.


WTT: So the big question is, are you moving to Dayton? (Standard Register’s headquarters are in Dayton, Ohio.)

Keith Nickoloff: My family and I are part of the Rochester community and have made it our home. I do not see a move to Dayton on the horizon -- and Standard Register doesn't want or need us in Dayton. They want us to be intimate with customers as we continue to learn and benefit from these relationships.


WTT: Of course you could make a business case for staying in Rochester too, right?

Keith Nickoloff: For doing what PathForward is to do, Rochester possesses a special concentration of talent, technology and time committed to advancing print and the ubiquity of the document. We can reach out to the resources at RIT, sit across the table from former colleagues at Heidelberg and Kodak, summit with neighbors at Xerox, visit with Pitney Bowes’ Enterprise account organization (the former DSI FM company), and reciprocate with valuable and independent Voice of Customer input to each of those respective organizations. Rochester also has a number of related software companies and leading commercial printing operations.

Plus, New York City, Boston, DC, Philadelphia and others are only an hour away by plane and represent major financial services, pharmaceutical, university and federal government markets.

Further, if we want to truly align with the very best people, then we have to embrace them on their turf and allow them to live and work where they can thrive and be most productive and enriched. At the end of the day, most of us end up working together on the customer’s premises. We’ve also learned to work virtually and make use of other "local" consultants to help when needed. I see my role as building an elite group, providing overall direction, and then, letting them execute close to the customer. We will be building select teams of relevantly experienced professionals in a number of major markets over the next twelve months, beginning with a team here in Rochester by the end of 2002.


WTT: Keith, thanks for sharing your thoughts with our readers at WhatTheyThink.com. Before we close, are there any words of wisdom you would like to share with our readers?

Keith Nickoloff: As we model inside the company, our most important objective is to work hard and smart enough to earn the right to be thought of "first, well and often" by our customers and partners. If we continue to select fewer, better customers (and people), and do world-class work for them, we’ll continue to grow as we have. We’ve consistently been rewarded for humility and a servitude mentality. We’ll never waver from the golden rule! And, we’ll never give up the faith!


See Part 1 of this interview.