by contributing WTT columnist, Cary Sherburne February 24, 2003 -- Marc B. Fors has been named president and CEO of httprint, a provider of e-procurement, management and sourcing solutions for corporate purchasers of print. Founded in 1996, httprint is a survivor in an industry segment that has seen significant turmoil and consolidation. Mr. Fors spent 11 years at printing giant R.R. Donnelley, capping his tenure there as Vice President, Magazine Sales in New York. In 1986 he was recruited as executive vice president to a newly formed company with an aggressive acquisition agenda, Maxwell Graphics Inc., based in Greenwich, Connecticut. He directed the integration and operation of the sales and administration functions for 18 production facilities, rapidly building and training a sales organization that delivered a business volume topping $750 million. Following the sale of Maxwell operations to Canada-based Quebecor Printing in 1989, Mr. Fors was named president of Quebecor Printing Sales Inc, and was promoted to Chief Operating Officer of Quebecor Printing (USA), assuming operational responsibility for all U.S. manufacturing and sales activities of 26 facilities and $950 million in revenue at that time. Subsequently, Mr. Fors continued to demonstrate his business acumen by assuming a leadership role in a series of flagging multimillion dollar printing businesses, which he was able to move to profitability and/or package for sale. Most recently, Fors was CEO of Sheridan Books. Under his leadership, Sheridan’s earnings rose by $9 million and the company has emerged as one of the largest short-run distributors in the country. httprint originated as Landmark Productions, a brick-and-mortar print production agency. The company was renamed httprint in February 2000 after the launch of its e-commerce initiatives. Landmark Productions built a solid reputation in the print industry by serving companies that lacked the resources, time, and/or expertise to adequately manage print procurement services for themselves. Much of what was learned in providing services in the brick-and-mortar world was then optimized and migrated to the Web. Mr. Fors indicates that in his experience, corporate buyers of print does not have an integrated strategic sourcing solution available to them yet, nor do they have a single source available to them for experienced print consulting. He found the httprint opportunity intriguing because of its heritage in the buy-side management of print production and print spend, and its team of print-savvy people capable of doing the current-state analysis necessary to successfully reengineer business processes. As he puts it, "The httprint team has the expertise required to audit and chart current workflows, and identify gaps or opportunities in the supplier network, finding ways to unlock the savings and putting it all down in black and white, so that when you do overlay a new software solution the organization is ready for it." Having restructured a number of companies himself, Mr. Fors certainly understands what it takes to prepare an organization for massive change, and intends to apply that expertise both to httprint’s own revenue growth as well as for the benefit of httprint’s client base. Fors contends that with the proper organizational preparation, process changes can be implemented smoothly and with outstanding results. "Our goal at httprint," he says, "is to assure that the solution we propose is ready to be adopted by the stakeholders in the buying organization, that it interfaces with suppliers well, is non-threatening, and, most importantly, that it actually saves money rather than just tacking on a surcharge for the privilege of keying in your own data, as appears to be the case with many of the other print e-procurement solutions in the market today." Mr. Fors is looking forward to the challenge presented by his first foray into buy-side solutions for the printing industry. He says, "Corporations have been in a long learning curve over the past two years on available e-business solutions and the types of companies they can entrust a project initiative to. I think that learning curve is coming to an end, and corporations are ready to tackle print spend. I read all the business articles touting success in saving money on office supplies, overnight delivery, outsourced human resources, and the like… but my mind reels at the savings achievable by effectively managing corporate print spend."