Bell and Howell is hoping that Graph Expo in September will be an opportunity for the document processing company to showcase a new identity. The Illinois-based business, with its new financial structure, will be launching new products for inserting, vision and postal software in August and September, gearing up for the Chicago show.

Bell and Howell, formerly Böwe Bell and Howell (BBH), had its official start with the launch of a new brand and financial structure on June 27, when its acquisition by Versa Capital Management, a private investment firm, was completed. BBH filed voluntary petition under Chapter 11 on April 18, hoping to restructure and move away from the financial struggles linked to its previous owner, Böwe Systec, Inc.

(For additional background information, please see this June 1 article)

A new board of directors now leads Bell and Howell, and Gregory Segall, the CEO of Versa, is now the company's chairman. George Marton remains president and CEO of Bell and Howell.

At a company meeting not long after the acquisition's completion, Segall said the "outside distractions" for the company were now gone. Though, in a related company promotional interview, he hesitated to be too ambitious in future predictions.

"We want the company to move as fast as it can, and not faster than it can, which means that some things can be perhaps done sooner, and faster, than they have been done in the past," Segall said. "And (for) other things, we want to make sure that appropriate time is taken."

Swiftly following the company's rebranding, Bell and Howell highlighted two initiatives: a new release of Compose and ReCompose software, for composition of raw or print-ready business documents within the Bell and Howell automated document factory software suite. Bell and Howell boasts that the software has a "single, easy-to-use interface for both composition and post-composition."

The second initiative, released on July 11, is a partnership with PPI Solutions, a health-care and benefits industry print management and communications company based in Pennsylvania. This new partnership focuses on Bell and Howell's secure production facilities, which allows for the safe care of sensitive, medically related documents.

Another new software series, publicly announced at the company meeting, will be called the IQ Series. The product is intended to bring together all postal, vision, and ADF software for Bell and Howell. Its roll-out is expected leading up to the Graph Expo in September.

Like the industry as a whole, Bell and Howell is battling rising postage costs - and the uncertainty associated with the postal industry at large. In the same promotional video, Mike Swift, the general manager of postal and sorting products, said one of the main goals for products of Bell and Howell remains to keep costs down. "It's not so much about a specific product as it is a process, a way to think about all of our Bell and Howell products working together to deliver the lowest possible postage costs," he said.

Regardless, that won't be easy, according to Peter Basiliere, the research director of imaging and print services at Gartner, a technology research firm.  "Companies like Bell and Howell have to offer software and services to enable their clients to continue generating revenues from their print communications," he said.  Basiliere has been involved in printing and mailing for 35 years. He notes that context enriched-content is what consumers are going to be demanding from companies, and that printing companies need to adapt by enabling that content in printed and electronic form.  "As more people use tablets and smart phones, that drives down the demand for print," he said. "It increases demand for personalized content. The real growth opportunities for providers are in software and services. Bell and Howell has a software arm. They need to migrate away from an emphasis on revenue derived from mailing machines, to the software that enables context-enriched context."

Basiliere predicted the company would look to enhance the productivity of its mail insertion equipment and enhance, along with a now necessary rebranding, of the Böwe One suite of ADF 2.0 software.

"A viable Bell and Howell is important to the mailing industry for two reasons. First, it has a large and loyal customer base with numerous installations and significant investments they wish to protect," he wrote in a June 30 perspective on the company. "Second, Bell and Howell's presence will ensure competitive pricing and continued product innovation."


Bell and Howell management video
Company bio of Gregory Segall, chairman, president and CEO of Versa
Bell and Howell executive bios
Gartner analysis of Bell and Howell
Graph Expo homepage