Carol G. Beisiegel has been with Blue Horse, a mid-sized marketing communications agency in metro Milwaukee, for 15 years. She started out as an Administrative Assistant and then was promoted to production coordinator. Carol moved from there to production and traffic supervisor and eventually landed as Production Manager. She has been in her current position for 3 years.

Blue Horse is the result of a merger between two well-know Milwaukee area agencies: Andrews Mautner and Fuller Thiede & Luskin. A-M was more well known for its business-to-business experience, FT&L for its consumer experience. The company provides integrated marketing solutions. Blue Horse has a proven record in solving problems, and case histories to show ROI when using their services.

Carol, tell us about your job and the experience you have gained by performing so many duties at your agency.

I've learned a lot from the different positions I've been in at this agency. Besides now being the Production Manager, I also handle dub orders, broadcast trafficking, and talent residuals for one of our national clients.

At this time, I'm the only one that orders print at our agency. I do have a number of local prepress/print sources that I prefer working with based on past experience, reputation, quality, on-time delivery and pricing. It's my responsibility to select the right prepress/printer source for the job.

What tips have you learned that you can share with others who buy print?

1) Don't always go with the cheapest - Good - Fast - Cheap : pick two.

2) Using the right resources will make you look good.

3) Work hand in hand with your prepress/printing partners--don't demand everything right away whether it's "hot" or not--be flexible with them when you can so as not to have a reputation for always crying wolf or being demanding.

4) Don't be afraid to ask your vendors questions when something is not clear, or for their advice regarding the best way to accomplish the job at hand.

5) Learn from your mistakes and move on. Try not to repeat the same mistake twice.

Also, don't sweep your mistakes under the rug but rather share them with others that may learn from them.

Tell us about your relationship with your vendors. How much interaction do you expect with your primary printers?

There are some where the relationship is rather businesslike. Then there are others that I truly respect and care about. It's nice to go out to lunch with a vendor and not talk business once in awhile. My vendors know that I'm not afraid to ask questions and I expect them to ask questions of me if something's not clear. I also like frequent updates. And I want to be able to rely on them to get the job done without me nagging them about a deadline. I keep the CSR informed of deadlines, and the best vendors I work with are always on top of things.

Many of the ad agencies we have spoken with have a variety of vendors they use for their projects. How many vendors work with you?

I'd say I utilize about a dozen vendors for prepress/print purposes. In most cases, I deal directly with the owners and their CSRs. They gained our work by referrals from other print buyers I have worked with, demonstrating their capabilities, and presenting themselves as partners I would feel comfortable working with. We've kept these relationships through proven service - quality, turn-around, availability, pricing. I'm also a firm believer in not parceling out our clients' work to a multitude of vendors. I look for that level of experience our vendors show in relation to what we're looking for in the printed piece i.e., keep the colors consistent for our similar products manufactured by our clients.

A few times I've had to make the decision to stop using a printer. The decision was based on coming to the realization that they weren't the right ones for the job. The client's high expectation for quality was not coming through. Or sometimes it related to the printer not following our explicit instructions.

Do most of your clients procure print through your firm as well as the creative?

For the most part, we handle concepting, copywriting and design/layout. We take the job through lo-res production disk, and then turn the job over for prepress/printing. We oversee the prepress/printing.

We have one client that spends a lot on print collateral. We originally produce a piece for use domestically, then need to convert the piece to several foreign languages. There are quite a number of print projects going on at the same time for this particular client. On the other hand, some of our clients are making the decision to handle their own prepress/printing. In those cases, we'll take the job through lo-res production disk, mark up our prepress instructions, and invite the client to let us partner with them in reviewing prepress/print proofs. Making printed materials available on a client's web site does not replace the need for producing printed pieces.

One area of interest for many of the print buyers who subscribe here is proofing. What methods do you use?

All members of the account team - the account executive, copywriter, art director, and myself--production manager, review internal proofs until the job is ready to send to the client for approval. If the piece is rather lengthy or highly technical, often times we have the job copy proofed by an outside source. When prepress proofs come in, the whole team reviews those proofs, with each member proofing based on their area of expertise (i.e., the art director proofs for artistic matters; the copywriter does the copy proofing; I review production matters/consistency; the Account Executive reviews overall). When the prepress proofs are Okayed internally, they're then shown to the client for final approval before printing. I press check the piece.

What characteristics do you look for in a new print vendor?

A company that stays on top of the latest technology, offers cost-saving ideas, is always looking into new areas for growth and becoming even a more valuable service provider, delivers a high-quality product on time, is available in a pinch, a company that says "no problem" when faced with a demanding task. Also, a company that makes me feel comfortable dealing with whomever I need: the sales person, the CSR, the retoucher, etc.