When the Big Man on Campus (BMOC) chooses a partner , what kind of partner does he choose? Not just another pretty face

PR Partners, or partnerships that extend no further than the press buzz they are meant to generate, are no longer the rage. Partnerships are once again serious business. Heidelberg, clearly the BMOC in the printing industry, has chosen Noosh  a relative newcomer - as a strategic partner.

Noosh was also looking for a partner with knowledge of the industry and theability to sell its integrated print management solutions. Quality partnerships are not made with a distributor with thousands of sales reps or feet on the street but no real understanding of the final solution. Heidelberg and Heidelberg Printect Systemhaus bring knowledge of the market as well as extensive sales coverage.

The strategic alliance between Heidelberg's Prinect Systemhaus, a systems integrator, and Noosh brings together companies that can serve the full length of the print supply chain, both the buy side and the sell side.

Heidelberg has selected Noosh technology to be a key component of its print supply chain solutions deployed by its Prinect Systemhaus These solutions include marketing and procurement applications for print buyers and print production and collaborative project management for print suppliers.

Specifically Prinect Systemhaus will provide:

• Marketing and sales of the Noosh print management solution
• Customization of Noosh for Heidelberg customers
• Development for related print lifecycle applications
• Integration with other enterprise and print supplier applications
• Localization and local hosting of the Noosh application suite
• Training, deployment, and support services

Heidelberg has more than 150 years experience serving commercial printers and such tenure has brought deep understanding of offset printers, particularly sheet fed printers, important since most print bought is still sheet fed offset. Building on this knowledge and experience, Heidelberg's Prinect Systemhaus has the expertise to layer localization over JDF-compliant integrated production and procurement workflows. While Prinect Systemhaus is currently targeting German-speaking enterprises, there is an opportunity to clone the operation worldwide.

A current deployment project for BookworXs, a subsidiary of The Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, a large international publisher based in Stuttgart, Germany, will integrate SAP, a publisher accounting system, a product pricing system , and Noosh's print management capabilities.

A Clear Focus

Noosh is clear about what they do: provide enterprise solutions for managing and purchasing print and other media products and services. And for whom: enterprise buyers. With this clear marketing focus, the company can't approach both print buyers and printers. Noosh's services are built for, marketed to, and paid for by the buyer - printer transaction fees disappeared sometime ago.

Shifting the cost of the service to buyers hasn't hurt sales at Noosh at all, indeed, just the opposite has occurred. Over the last two years, Noosh has enjoyed steady sales growth in both the commercial and government sectors.

And, by abandoning transaction fees, Noosh has better realized its vision to deliver a tool that serves and enhances buyer/supplier relationships. As a result, Heidelberg - whose interests are clearly on the supply side - saw no conflict about forming a partnership with Noosh.

For its part, Noosh is also choosing its partners carefully, selecting companies who have excellent relationships with print suppliers. Partners like The Stationery Office in the UK and Heidelberg worldwide provide Noosh with both geographic coverage and insight into how printers and agencies can benefit from Noosh's capabilities.

The Noosh Solution

Noosh's services fall into three categories:

• Hosted software or software as a service.
• Consulting/professional services - delivered by internal staff and through partners  including spend analysis, procurement, marketing, and print production process analysis, training, product customization, and system deployment. Noosh's professional services are project-based.
• Data services and business intelligence  Noosh has aggregated data that can be used to establish benchmarks for market behavior and procurement best practices for both print buyers and print service providers.

Noosh's latest product release, Noosh 5, is designed specifically to allow a partner to customize and localize the solution.

A new area of emphasis for Noosh is the management of direct mail marketing campaigns and production, an opportunity that looks to be healthy and robust. As companies drive for improved response rates through more targeted marketing material containing customer-specific information to more finely defined segments, it is extremely important to develop cross program views of campaigns. Noosh's direct mail solution provides:

• Specification management for all the printed pieces making up a direct mail package.
• Management of permutations for test versions.
• Development of best practice templates for creative packages.
• Integration with other solutions for response rate tracking.

The Future?

With Mike Gardner, CEO, at the helm and a team of seasoned executives, Noosh has persevered, matured, clearly defined its marketing and business strategies, and enjoyed sales traction. This partnership with Heidelberg is another indication of the company's growing strength and maturity.