Kevin Craine has worked in the field of information processing for over 20 years and is the author of the new book, "Designing a Document Strategy," currently sold in over 15 countries worldwide. His responsibilities have run the gamut of document processing and include MIS printing, on-demand publishing, offset printing, graphics and pre-press, network printing, forms design, and high-volume mailing. Kevin is also the editor of Document Processing Technology magazine, and considered to be an authority on corporate process improvement and document strategies. He received his BA in organizational communications and his MBA in the management of science and technology. To contact Kevin visit www.document-strategy.com

We are proud to announce that Kevin will join WhatTheyThink as a contributing writer. Look for advice and more about buying print and managing document processes. Kevin will begin his column in March. Welcome Kevin!

Tell us about the overall mission of BlueCross BlueShield and your position at the company.

Our mission is to provide our customers with the best value in health, dental, vision and life insurance benefits. We accomplish this by being customer focused and by using the strengths, synergy and opportunities created by our affiliation, called The Regence Group, that includes BlueShield in Washington, BlueShield of Idaho, BlueCross BlueShield of Utah, and BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon. It is my responsibility to ensure affordable, high-quality documents. These documents include everything from marketing materials and business forms to transactional documents like billings, statements and checks. Since my organization is committed to keeping health care costs as low as possible for our customers, I have an obligation to effectively manage costs, and to provide my internal customers with competitively priced printed products.

Describe the estimated volume and structure of print procurement at BlueCross. BlueShield.

I have responsibility for our Oregon and Washington operations, and we have fairly robust internal capabilities in-house. As a result, we work aggressively to keep work inside. We find that we can produce work for about 50% of the cost of using outside providers. With that said, however, we spent about $750,000 on outside printing and bindery services last year between the two states. It is difficult to equate this to a specific volume since it depends on how you count things (e.g., sheets, signatures, impressions, pieces). It is important to note that a relevant portion of our outside procurement is not necessarily related to printing needs, but to a large degree a function of specialized post-processing or binding. There are times when we do not have the capabilities needed to meet the needs of a particular job, or the volumes are such that it is more cost effective to use an outside provider.

How important is it for a company who orders a significant amount of print to buy into "document systems?"

This is an exciting time to be in the document business. The convergence of printing and communications technology has presented opportunities that were unheard of only a few short years ago. I discuss these opportunities in my book "Designing a Document Strategy." (www.document-strategy.com) Documents are one aspect of information processing that can be quantifiably measured and improved. A document strategy is vital because it monitors, directs and improves the way information is used in a very tangible way. Enhancements made in document systems can ultimately determine the real value of the information within your organization the technology used to collect it.

Describe your relationship with your vendors.

We use only a handful of vendors, and for the most part we use local vendors so that we can develop a personal and professional relationship. We select our providers based primarily on price, but our long-term relationships are based on the vendor’s ability to consistently meet our turnaround requirements and their ability to deliver quality documents. We recently discontinued using one vendor because they were unable to keep a handle on quality and accuracy.
What trends do you see in the spending of print within your firm?

I expect that we will spend less money on outside printing. There are two reasons for this. The first is that we continue to build our internal capabilities We recently added digital color presses for example. As I mentioned before, we have found that we can provide printing to our internal customers at a lower cost than via outside providers. This makes us confident in the face of outsourcing. Second, some of our policies have changed. In some cases, we’re issuing fewer paper documents and migrating to online delivery of documents. This has certainly been the case with our provider directories, which are now offered online via our web site and provided in PDF format to large group administrators.

What vendors have you examined in the eprocurement space and your thoughts?

I have to admit that we’re not big fans of e-procurement of print. We’ve built good face-to-face relationships with our local providers and we don’t really find added value in e-procurement. We’re very cost driven, and e-providers have not successfully convinced us that they can cut our expenses and provide us with the customer service we’re accustomed to. We have investigated several e-providers, however with Smartworks, planetprint and IKON being among those.

In your opinion, is the "paperless office" around the corner?

As I mentioned, we’ve seen some decrease in production print volume due to online delivery of documents, however, we’ve seen increased page counts in other areas. In fact, during the research for my book, I discovered that despite the popular notion of the "paperless office," the Information Age is actually powering a boom in paper consumption. Since 1984 — the dawn of the personal computer — the number of pages printed by American companies has grown by 500 percent to over 1.5 trillion pages per year. This equates to a mountain of paper 6,500 times taller than Mount Everest. In 1986, 2.5 million tons of office paper shipped, by 1998 shipments reached 4.6 million tons. The reason for this is the exponential growth of information in our society. More information has been produced in the last thirty years than in the previous five thousand — the entire history of civilization. What’s more, that body of information is expected to double in less than five years. So while the percentage of printed documents may be decreasing, the number of documents created is increasing dramatically.

Would you ever proof documents on-line?

We proof using a match print or a chromacheck. This is one advantage of using a face-to-face provider versus an e-provider. Most of the jobs we send outside have a specialized requirement, so we like to see a proof on the actual paper, physically, rather than rely on a screen proof.

Thank you very much Kevin. We look forward to working with you here at WhatTheyThink.