Darlene Sobers has been in the production area of the print business for over 20 years. Previous to her 6 years with Reliable, she was with a privately-owned collectible company for 12 years handling the production of their catalogs. Previous to the collectible company Darlene spent 5 years at an industrial manufacturer purchasing catalogs, sell sheets and binders for the sales staff.

The year was 1917 - a sign reading "Reliable Stationery Co." was first raised above a Monroe Street entrance in downtown Chicago, and Reliable was born as a small contract stationer with a dedicated sales force. In 1937, the company was purchased by the Zenner family and renamed "The Reliable Corporation." In the 1960s, Reliable continued as a contract stationer but began looking into new ways to serve its customers better. They decided to dabble in direct response by creating catalogs to be mailed to current and new customers.

In May 1994, Reliable was sold to Boise Cascade Corporation and the following year became a subsidiary of Boise Cascade Office Products. The sale allowed Reliable and its customers to enjoy the resources of a larger company--one that now has 12,000 employees and sales of over $3.4 billion. Today, Reliable is proud to be one of America's largest direct marketer of office products.

Darlene Sobers is the Catalog Production Manager for Reliable.

Darlene, tell us about the scope of Reliable’s reach.

We have approximately 500,000 active customers and ship out of 11 distribution centers across the country. We process and ship 3 million orders a year. We print over 10 catalog titles, such as, General, Customer, Furniture, Computer, etc. Our in-house advertising department will process thousands of pages a year for our catalog titles. The Catalog Production department is responsible for negotiating contractual agreements with our vendors, purchasing paper for our catalogs, monitoring the workflow of catalog pages from inception to mail and preparation and maintenance of our catalog costs.

How do you track all the pages and details needed to produce your catalogs?

We recently created a new position "Media Coordinator" who is responsible for scheduling and tracking the flow of our thousands of catalog pages each year. At present, this is a semi-automatic process. Even with this process, we have been able to conduct a time study to determine the length of time and cost involved in each step of this process to complete a catalog page. We are investigating new software/systems to automate this process in order to plan our catalog page flow more evenly, provide more detailed time study analysis and cost per page analysis. The addition of this new job function has helped us focus how to improve the process and work as a team to complete each catalog.

What about remote proofing, will that become part of your workflow?

Investigating remote proofing at our location with our pre-press vendor. We would send all information via a secured internet site and the completed proof would be sent to us immediately upon completion. This would save time for both companies and reduce our production cycle.

What is your proofing process now?

We have a Advertising department which will create copy and place images on the catalog page. We than send a laser proof with our digital file to the pre-press vendor who will rip, trap and furnish a Kodak Approval for a color OK. We also proof our pages on the type of stock we use to print our catalogs. This gives us a better understanding of how products will look on the printed page. The Kodak Approval, digital file and blueline in page sequence are sent to the printer who will create plates or roto cylinders to print our catalogs. We either photograph new products or the vendor will furnish a transparency or digital file for our use. We will have the pre-press vendor scan and supply a random for approval. They will furnish a JPEG which is what we use to place on our catalog page.

Being a large paper and print customer, how important is it for these vendors to be on the “same page?”

A knowledgeable customer service rep is the most valuable asset a printer or paper merchant can offer a customer. The Reliable Corporation has long standing partnerships with our current printers and paper merchant. Our customer service reps at both printers are very knowledgeable and flexible in scheduling a last minute change. Our paper merchant is always there for us when we need additional paper or want to select another type of paper. We have been able to project our estimated production information - catalog quantity, page count, mail date - to our current suppliers so they can plan paper usage, press time and bindery time to meet our mail date. Both parties need to be aware they are a team (at different companies) working towards a mutual goal.

The demise of mass printed catalogs - Do you see it happening?

Even though you are mailing catalogs to thousands of people, you need to speak one-to-one with each customer whether that is in the business to business or consumer world. There will be more focus to reduce the cost of one-to-one personalization for catalogs now and in the future.

What value does the Internet bring to the process of producing the catalog?

Computers and the internet are wonderful to research information, however I don't believe you can totally eliminate the human factor in communication. That's what we are talking about, communicating with our customers. I view the internet as an enhancement to our printed catalog. It is another tool for customers to communicate with their supplier. At this point, I don't see my company using this tool to place orders for print or paper.

Your catalog is your business - Tell us about the trust factor with your printers.

Create and maintain a long term partnership with your vendors. Building this trust factor takes time and diligence from both parties. But also be open with them when you are quoting another source on a project. They will understand and respect your decision. Business is business.