News Sustainable Biz No sacred cows: Printer and promotional company realizes benefits of going paperless
Order Reprints
Follow @MiBiz
By Joe Boomgaard | Main Street Strategies
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
 |
|
Applied Imaging’s Darren Smith, left, and Complete Source’s Paul Schweitzer, right, worked together to help Schweitzer’s company find a digital imaging and indexing solution that would allow remote access to in-house documents. For a company that gets much of its revenues from printing, Complete Source knew it had to go digital to gain efficiencies, Schweitzer said. PHOTO: JOE BOOMGAARD |
KENTWOOD — To gain efficiencies in his family-owned business, Paul Schweitzer accepted the irony that a company that relies on printing for 70 percent of its revenues had to invest in paperless electronic technology.
In essence, he realized to be successful, there can be no sacred cows.
Complete Source Inc. provides printing and promotional solutions to clients around the country. The company offers a managed solution to clients who used to have to work with an embroiderer, label printer, screen printer and a host of other vendors, Schweitzer said.
“You can buy a shirt from anyone. You can buy a brochure from anyone. To be efficient, you have to manage the system. You’re buying a business solution, and from us, that’s a graphic solution,” he said.
But in the name of efficiencies, the company realized it needed to be unchained from manufacturing platforms. Rather than try to offer every kind of printing service or make myriad promotional items in-house, the company leverages its capabilities with the strengths of partner organizations to provide more cost-effective solutions, he said.
“We recognized long ago, as a conduit to efficiency, we could not be dictated by a manufacturing platform,” he said, noting new technology can quickly change customers’ demands. “We can come up with a merchandise and graphics solution, and if (technology) changes in six months, we can change with them. Every six to nine months, we move in another direction. It’s part of our culture … and it keep us growing. ”
Schweitzer and the management team realized the company needed to find a way for its sales team to have remote access to internal documents. While CompleteSource is largely a printer, it chose an online, paperless document management solution.
“We knew we needed the technology, but it was a question of who do we purchase it from,” he said. “It was an important piece of technology we knew we needed to have, but it was a question of who would help implement and maintain it. If you want to have a great system work, you need to have a great partner. If you can’t implement and train and get it functioning right, it isn’t worth it.”
CompleteSource had been searching for a document management software and found local provider Applied Imaging offered a managed solution based on SmartSearch. The system allows CompleteSource to scan and index internal documents and search them anytime via the Internet.
By August, the company’s office had gone completely paperless based on the success it saw in using the software, Schweitzer said.
“Indexing all our paper documents really helped our efficiency from the standpoint in the office,” he said. “It is a critical part of our operation.”
Schweitzer said CompleteSource at one time looked into developing its own searching and indexing program, but it decided that software development and management was too far from its core business. It turned to Applied Imaging instead.
The two companies share a similar story in that each had to break with traditions, said Darren Smith, business consultant at Applied Imaging. While Applied Imaging started as a printer and copier dealer, its management realized it had to embrace technology to remain viable in a rapidly changing business environment. They faced the question of who would need copiers if businesses continued eliminating paper from their operations.
“We want to lead change in having more solutions for companies to run more lean,” Smith said. “We wanted to get ahead of the curve.”
By continually investing in technology, Schweitzer said CompleteSource, which has 15 employees, has been able to maintain itself in an industry and in an economy where many companies have struggled. Most of the company’s clients are larger firms such as General Electric and Owens Corning that are outside West Michigan.
About five years ago, Schweitzer said the three-person management team, including owner Pam Schweitzer, his wife, faced some challenging decisions. The company was on pace to “grow at a rapid pace,” and the managers saw they had to choose between going down that path and maintaining the familiar company culture.
“(The growth) would have been brutal, and we decided it was not what we wanted to be. We refocused on making it a great place to work and a place we all wanted to come, including us bosses,” Schweitzer said. “We got rid of the corporate mentality that ‘We’ve got to grow and be bigger.’ We focused on doing things right, and the bottom line will come.” MSS
A gathering of the week’s sustainable business news powered by the editors of MiBiz sent every Tuesday.
Businesses that utilize “green” marketing — claims of environmental benefit or superiority ...
As operational costs continue to rise, many companies have become acutely aware of energy use in th...
