August 21, 2007 -- BELLEVUE, Wash. – Times are changing.  With an eye on the future, commercial printers are adding a broader set of value-added services to their businesses.  According to the NAPL Printing Economic Research Center (April 2007), fulfillment revenues have grown over the last three years for both mailers (58.1%) and printers (68.2%) with an expected increased profitability over the next two years of 60% and 57.9% respectively.  In addition, it found three out of four businesses stated print volumes have increased for their clients receiving fulfillment services and two thirds report client profitability has risen for those receiving fulfillment services. Client turnover for fulfillment and print customers is one third that of print-only customers. 
“Mailing and Fulfillment services represent an important opportunity for the commercial printing industry.  Customers are increasingly looking to printers to provide a larger role in the distribution of printed (and other) materials.  Printers that provide an end-to-end solution are seeing increased revenues, margins and customer retention,” states Steve Corcoran, Virtual Systems 3PF Product Manager.
One example of this trend is Paper Airplane, Inc., a mailing and fulfillment facility located in Birmingham, AL. It's a spinoff of Birmingham Printing and Publishing, a 97-year-old full service offset printing company. Tom Pittman, President of Paper Airplane, Inc. said, "The decision to branch out was based on a few things: the vision of our company's owner, encouragement from existing print customers, and feedback from industry experts. Yes, it's a bold move, but there are compelling reasons to diversify into mailing and fulfillment.  Today, we're at the one year mark with our new dedicated mailing & fulfillment company, which runs Virtual Systems’ Mail-Shop Software for mailing and Virtual Systems’ 3PF Manager Software for fulfillment. The printing business has definitely benefited from the addition of mailing and fulfillment, and each passing day seems to further prove this fact."
Virtual Systems, who has specialized in mailing and fulfillment software since
1996, has seen the market change over the last ten years.  Many companies are integrating printing with mailing, fulfillment, and related online services.  This has enabled Virtual Systems to focus on a more integrated approach in providing their software to companies that are serious about providing mailing and fulfillment services and need a program to manage it.  “Printers are gaining momentum by providing mailing and fulfillment services,” remarked Chris Huber, President of Virtual Systems.  “Adding these programs often results in increased client retention and higher margin work… and I like helping business owners make more money. We are committed to helping companies get started quickly and do it successfully.”   
Virtual Systems makes software for Mailing and Fulfillment service providers.  Mail-Shop is a leading direct mail order management system designed to assist mailing providers in quickly implementing a solution for mail estimating, work orders, postage tracking, and integration with leading accounting packages.  3PF Manager is a fulfillment system designed to provide online ordering, online reporting, inventory management, and integration with leading shipping systems. For more information about our mailing and fulfillment programs, please call 888-581-3100 or visit www.virtualsystems.com.