April 20, 2008 -- HH, Europe's foremost print management organization, today announced the opening of its new US office. Located in New York, the office will better enable HH to service its US clients and the wider US marketplace. It's further evidence of the company's ambition to shift from a regional to a global service provider within the next two years. HH already works with clients in the US but will now also focus on targeting US-based companies, generating typical savings of between 20% and 30% for first generation print management clients.

The office will be headed up by Vishal Patel who will be responsible for driving growth and delivering service excellence within the region. Patel joins from the Aberdeen Group where he worked as a senior research analyst in Boston. He focused on procurement and sourcing strategies and technologies, specifically for larger and more complex categories, of which marketing and print-spend was one.

Corporate America is waking up to the colossal benefits employing a professional print manager unlocks. Having had solid results in the UK and Europe for the last ten years, CPOs are now implementing the same solutions, and enjoying those very same benefits, in their primary market.

By outsourcing the management of this indirect category to a specialist service provider like HH, savings are returned, the ongoing need for capital investment is removed, plus there is the added benefit of alignment with an expert service provider pouring in skills, resources and technologies to energise this top five indirect spend category.

Patel explained: "HH was a client when I was working for the Aberdeen Group, and I was attracted by their business model, technology and approach to managing corporate's marketing materials. Being close to the mind of the CPO, I knew there was a gap in the market for HH to move into. It is clear that the US market can learn a lot from the UK and Europe in terms of overall print management and control over marketing spend. So there's a real opportunity to demonstrate the scope of results that the innovation and energy of HH's print management solutions can achieve."

Recent research conducted by HH, in conjunction with the Aberdeen Group proved that over 80% of companies have little or no control of their printed marketing expenditure; only 30% have a service level agreement in place with their marketing agencies; and over 70% of organisations have no supplier metrics or performance measures. 63% of the 270 global enterprises surveyed were located in North America.


Robert Macmillan, HH Group CEO, commented: "The US market presents a wealth of opportunity for HH. We want US clients to benefit from the HH offering that has proved so successful for European clients. Our service offering caters to both procurement and marketing communities in very large enterprises and enables greater control over expenditure the brand equity, not only throughout the country but on a global basis."

HH's global infrastructure extends to cover all major printing markets, with supporting staff on the ground in over 19 countries and plans to expand further.