The independent distributor's role in the new economy is shifting rather than being eliminated, according to Mark Osborn, vice president of marketing for Four51, the leading e-procurement provider for print distributors, buyers and suppliers. In his presentation, "The Independent's E-Solution," at the Document Management Industries Association's (DMIA) recent Informservices i2000 conference, Osborn said that the independent distributor will survive because printers and print buyers cannot, and do not want to, do the work distributors currently do. In his presentation and in a complete white paper entitled, "The Independent's E-Solution," on www.four51.com, Osborn instructed distributors how to make better decisions about e-procurement. Osborn said technology and the Internet will require distributors to help their print buyers and their printers improve the ways all three do business together. "To survive and thrive, distributors need to promote technology and Internet-based solutions as an opportunity to bring proactive, business-driven tools to their end-customers and suppliers," Osborn said. "Distributors should choose technology the same way they decide whether to source a new product or establish a new fulfillment relationship," Osborn said. "Those decisions are based on whether or not they make business sense. Will it improve your relationships? Will it improve margins? Will it help grow the business?" Osborn advised distributors in attendance to evaluate an e-procurement service based on its relevance and value to their business, and suggested asking a few questions to determine whether the service represents distributors' needs and interests: "Does the solution require me to change WHO I work with?" Osborn said that any e-solution impacting a distributor's current trading relationships, or requiring trading partners to adopt the solution in order to continue doing business together, compromises a distributor's flexibility and decision-making ability. "Does the service require me to change HOW I work?" Osborn said, "Any service that minimizes or eliminates a distributor's role as value provider between buyers and suppliers will minimize or eliminate the distributor's relationship. Distributors should identify a solution that sustains and promotes their value between customers and suppliers." "How does the service provider make money?" There are three ways for e-procurement service to generate revenue: transaction fees, fulfillment and subscription fees. "With transaction fees, distributors are paying to process an order they would have received anyway," according to Osborn. By contrast, fulfillment-driven services are web-enabled vendors. "No matter how robust and feature-rich their service, they can't fulfill every item a distributor sources for your customers," Osborn said. Subscription-based services help distributors project annual expenses, according to Osborn. He said many subscription-based services can be used for every transaction type, regardless of order size, order type, or product request. But buying an e-solution is just the first step, according to Osborn. "It's all about usage," Osborn said. "If distributors' trading partners don't use the service, the distributor won't benefit from buying it." Three Valuable Lessons Osborn shared three valuable lessons learned by independent distributors who have successfully adopted e-procurement. Lesson 1: E-Commerce is About Your Customers "E-commerce is about enabling your customers to continue to do business with you, only better," Osborn said. "To do that, distributors have to identify a service that improves communication, collaboration, and interactions with customers and suppliers everyday. " Interoperability is an increasingly important issue for distributors, Osborn said. "Distributors are critically concerned that an e-solution operates with their existing back-office systems," he said. "But they must also consider how any technology they adopt will interoperate with their customer'sexisting systems." Lesson 2: E-Commerce is About Your People Distributors must select an e-solution that helps their salespeople and customer service representatives (CSRs) sell and service accounts more effectively, Osborn commented. E-procurement can bring more value and improve customer relationships by eliminating administrative hassles and order management errors. It can create new revenue opportunities by generating additional sales from an existing account base and new accounts. Fewer administrative challenges will help CSRs become proactive account managers instead of reactive service representatives, according to Osborn. Lesson 3: E-Commerce is About YOU Distributors should select a service that helps them do what they already do, only BETTER, according to Osborn. He said an e-procurement service should enhance and extend current relationships by bringing new capabilities to customers and suppliers. It should create new account opportunities by providing another value-add to customers and suppliers. And it should maintain existing business processes and preserve a distributor's value position between customers and suppliers. Distributors waiting to make a decision about e-procurement may find themselves facing a situation where a valued customer forces them to adopt a less-than-ideal solution in order to continue to do business with them, Osborn cautioned. That solution might enable the relationship with that customer, but may jeopardize the relationship with other customers, he said. Osborn encouraged distributors to buy a third-party e-procurement service rather than building their own. He said third-party solutions leverage state-of-the-art technology, are implemented quickly, help manage costs, and allow distributors to focus on selling and servicing end-customers and suppliers. Four51 is a Minneapolis-based e-procurement provider serving the print materials market. Four51 equips mid-market businesses with an e-procurement network, linking print materials buyers with their distributors and suppliers. Delivered via subscription, Four51's e-procurement network standardizes the highly variable purchasing process and promotes efficiency and significant cost reduction for its subscribers.