Dynagraf is one of Boston’s leading full-service printing companies. A family-owned and operated business with over 150 employees, its equipment includes 6 and 8 color presses in a range of sheet-fed and web, with in-house, in-line and finishing capabilities. The company's mission and commitments are unchanged from the day the company was incorporated in 1973: to be a leader in the graphic communications industry.

Bill Roche is President and CEO of Dynagraf.

Bill, you combined your two locations in Boston with your office in Canton. How has that affected your company?

By the single fact of consolidating into a single office, we have been able to increase our productivity by 20%, reduce spoilage by 30% and provide our clients with better service.

Tell our subscribers about your decision to invest in computer-to-plate technology.

We began investigating CTP in 1995 at the DRUPA show in Germany. At that time, there were only two major players that had operational devices, CREO and Gerber. We decided on CREO based on their superior knowledge of thermal imaging. Our first CTP device, a CREO Trendsetter 3244 was installed in April 1997.

Continuing with the move to a filmless workflow, we also installed a Kodak Approval, digital proofing device. The biggest change we have made since the installation of our first CTP device has been our workflow. It immediately became apparent that the workflow solution was as important as the output device. You need to be able to quickly move large files over the network to the output device. It was also important to be able to output the same ripped data to plate as well as to proof.

How did you solve the workflow problem?

In 1998, we switched to a RamPage workflow. At that time, RamPage was the only vendor who could provide this type of solution. By the end of our first CTP year, our workflow was 80% CTP. It was necessary to install a second CTP back up device. In January of 1999, we installed our second CREO Trendsetter 3244 and in January of 2000 we switched our proofing device from Kodak Approval to the CREO Spectrum Proofsetter. We have also installed two Fuji PreProof Plotters to replace all of our conventional Dylux proofs.

What do you feel are the most important business decisions facing print owners in the next two years?

Market focus - what services should we offer our clients? Should we simply continue to provide what we presently offer and try to improve your ability to provide those services or should we look to expand into other markets and services?

What one section of the market will take the lead over the next year?

A tough question. I think that depending on whom you ask, you could get a different answer. From a commercial print view the simplest answer I could give is that I think the market and clients will continue to look to differentiate themselves with color. I believe customers will be using UV inks and coatings. In addition hexachome might also be used as a selling point for their printed products. Finally, some printers I know are planning on adding units to their existing web equipment, turning 6-color presses into 8-color presses, thus opening up additional options for their client base.

You have recently purchased a new press, would you tell us your thoughts as to the decision?

We are installing a 6 unit Rotoman 38 inch web with closed loop color and registration controls. The technology in web printing has changed dramatically over the past five or ten years, to a point where the lines between web and sheet have almost disappeared. The quality coming off of high-end web presses, such as Rotoman, are as good as it gets and now the technology has reduced make-ready and run waste to enable webs to compete on shorter quantities, traditional run on sheet fed presses.

There was a time when the minimum run length for a full-sized web would be 75 to 100,000 sheets. Today, there are runs as small as 15,000 sheets going on webs. Our new installation is two things, a full-size web for higher quantities and an extension of our sheet fed pressroom. We plan on putting runs of 30,000 sheets and higher on our web and we believe is that it will help us be more cost effective for our clients and improve service at the same time. An example might be a 50,000 16 page text form which would take about 12 hours to run on a high speed sheet fed press and could be run on a web in about a quarter of that time and if it folded in-line could save the client another 5 or 6 hours in the bindery. So our focus for this new press is to help our clients be more cost effective and save time for their projects.

Tell us your feelings on the influx of e-commerce within the printing industry. Has Dynagraf looked into this area and partnered with any of these firms?

I have been following the e-commerce offerings since they were first introduced in the spring of 1999. My initial thoughts were that e-commerce would be a great enhancement to the communication tools we were presently using and would help our customers better manage their print projects. My first concerns were the business models being offered by the first e-commerce providers, namely providing most of the benefits to our clients and asking the printer to pay for those services. The second concern was their software's inability to interface with the printer's in-house management system.

I began evaluating the options during Graph Expo in 1999, and ultimately chose to partner with printCafe. Since Dynagraf had the Programmed Solutions (PSI) management system in place, printCafe was the logical choice. (PSI, Logic, and Hagen were acquired by printCafe in February 2000).

So the interface and workflow proposition was key to your decision to use printCafe?

Because the printCafe solution can interface with Dynagraf's print management system, it streamlines the request for quote and ordering process. We felt that would reduce some of our cost and labor. We knew we wouldn't have to re-key everything in our PSI system. With printCafe, print buyers fill out RFQ's and job tickets on the interface and the information is then automatically input into their provider's business management system. Sales people and customer service representatives are no longer required to manually re-enter all of the order specifications.

We read about a new tax law just passed in your state. Tell us about it and how it should affect your company?

In August of 2000, a four-year legislative effort to extend the state's manufacturing equipment exemption to include the purchase of prepress equipment became law with passage of the 2001 fiscal year operating budget.

As a result, more than 1,300 printing and graphic arts establishments involved in the manufacture of printed material in Massachusetts are no longer required to submit 5 percent sales tax on the cost of prepress equipment purchases. The exemption makes Massachusetts printers more competitive with printers in other New England states who have benefited from the tax exemption for several years. Between 1992 and 1997, Connecticut, Maine and Rhode Island exempted prepress equipment purchases from sales tax.

People may not realize it, but Boston and Massachusetts represents one of the largest printing markets in the country. With this long-sought exemption, we'll be able to recoup some of the contracts that left the state, put more people to work, and continue to grow our companies. This legislation is important because it will help stop the flow of printing work that leaves Massachusetts.

Describe your best customer.

Someone who considers us as one of their primary vendors by including us in most of their projects, has the experience and knowledge to know that we really care about their business and will do everything in our power to satisfy their requirements, whether that is to provide technical assistance or work through a weekend to meet a difficult delivery requirement.

Thank you Bill, for your time and openness. Good luck to Dynagraf for the future.