Digilink Inc. -- A Hit at the Link

by chris bauer

Managing Editor

People said opening a prepress shop while the nation's economy had one foot on a banana peel was just too risky. And who needs prepress services anymore anyway, naysayers asked, when most printers are bringing their prepress functions in-house?

But that did not deter Michael Wight, president and CEO; Hank Russo, vice president of sales; Ed Hartman, vice president of operations; and Jim Lerner, CFO, at DigiLink Inc., based in Alexandria, VA. The four partners had a solid business plan, a combined 75 years of printing industry experience and, most importantly, a drive to succeed. They would not be denied.

"Everyone told us that prepress is dead," recounts Hartman, thinking back to the time just before the launch of DigiLink in April of 2000. "I can't tell you how many times I heard that when we were going into business."

The partners felt that getting involved in prepress services first would be an affordable entry point—especially since they were using their personal funds to launch the company. The prepress investment was something they could get their hands around. Also, the new company's timing was actually a positive in the partners' minds.

"We thought customers would respond favorably to an independent company since there was so much consolidation going on at that time," reveals Wight. "Instead of getting lost in a large organization, our clients would be working directly with the owners and the managers, and we each have an extensive background in the industry. Customers did respond with surprising enthusiasm and support."

The company—located just minutes from metro Washington, DC, in a modern and ultra-clean, 19,000-square-foot facility—started out offering services such as drum scanning, image manipulation, retouching and color correction, page assembly and processing, proofing, as well as digital ad production and management. But the partners had a bigger vision for DigiLink.

"It all started with a solid business plan," Lerner explains. "The equipment lenders thought it was one of the most well thought out plans they had seen. To assure that we started out on the right foot, we made a commitment to acquire one of the best management systems out there in EFI's Hagen OA."

Right Back in the Black

From the beginning, DigiLink has been a hit. The company was in the black after its first month in business, and has been growing at 30 to 35 percent per year ever since. This early success allowed the partners to move forward with their plans.

The first step was to provide short-run printing. So, in November of 2002, DigiLink purchased a KBA 74 Karat sheetfed press with an aqueous coater. It was the first such press configuration to be installed in the United States.

The installation was an easy entrance point for DigiLink, the partners agree. They did not have to buy a platesetter since it is a direct imaging (DI) offset press, which helped decrease the learning curve.

"It was a great move for us," declares Wight. "We learned a lot that first year and it made a lot of sense as a starting point versus installing a conventional offset press."

One of the reasons the partners thought their KBA press was a good first step was because it only prints four colors plus a coating, Russo notes. "We knew it was a more straight-forward portion of the on-demand market," the vice president of sales points out. "We did our learning curve on the Karat."

After about a year of doing short-run four-color work, the company execs realized through their clientele and sales staff that the existing customer base had other print work that DigiLink was not receiving because it could only offer short-run, four-color sheetfed capabilities. It was not hard to see what needed to be done.

"We made the decision that the best way to grow our print sales was to offer five- and six-color work to the same customer base in order to sell them more services," Russo says. "It became obvious once we got into it that it was the way for us to proceed."

The progression continued this past January when DigiLink inked a deal for a new six-color Komori Lithrone L-628 sheetfed offset press with an aqueous coater.

AGS, Komori's Mid-Atlantic dealer, realized that DigiLink's front-end expertise and grasp of digital integration complemented the open-architecture technologies found in the latest Komori Lithrone 28. "Komori's K-Station links the Lithrone 28 to Hagen OA via a true JDF workflow, enabling DigiLink to realize the benefits of computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM)," comments Jeff Tomlinson, AGS vice president.

Entering New Markets

This 20.5x28.375˝ press now allows DigiLink to keep up with the demand for high-quality, medium-run work. The new Lithrone could now handle the longer-run jobs DigiLink was missing out on in the past, giving the company more flexibility.

"We did a four-city tour of the logical suppliers to evaluate their presses," says Wight, explaining the press purchasing process. "We were really looking for a strong support partner on the service side; Komori was very connected and their client base and referrals were second to none."

The addition of printing has paid dividends already, as the company reports it has won a 2004 Gold Ink Award. DigiLink will take home a Pewter award in the Fine Art Lithography category for its entry titled "A Vibrant Transparency." The award will be presented on October 11 at an awards gala during Graph Expo.

Training was also an issue for the company, since this was its first venture into traditional offset printing. An in-house employee who had prior conventional press operating experience got the nod, and now heads up the operation of the new press.

"Komori is very big into training," Russo lauds. "We can send as many people as we want to their facility for free training. Their whole philosophy with us has been 'the better your operators know how to run that press, the better it is for you and that, ultimately, is better for us.' I think that is a great approach for them to sell their equipment."

AGS and Komori offer on-site and remote training services that help eliminate traditional production bottlenecks in and around the pressroom. "The end result is that our customers realize the unparalleled productivity of the Komori press," adds AGS' Tomlinson.

Open House a Success

DigiLink held a well-attended open house for the newly installed Komori L-628 press in June, where more than 175 customers and prospects got to take their first look at the newest addition to the pressroom—not to mention indulge in some tasty BBQ.

The open house also gave the company a forum to show off its new prepress infrastructure featuring Intel servers built by Proactive Technologies running Full Press OPI software from Xinet. DigiLink utilizes Nexus software from Artwork Systems for its prepress RIP and Brightech's MediaBeacon asset management software, interfaced to Pioneer's 720 disk double-sided DVD jukebox (a first in the United States).

The addition of the Komori press has also opened the door to the expansion of DigiLink's bindery services. The company has signed a lease for a building just up the street from its headquarters and expects to be operating in the 7,500-square-foot facility by November. It will be known as the DigiLink Bindery and Mailing division.

"We are striving to be the company that print buyers recognize as the 'go to company' for high-end prepress, printing, converting, finishing and mailing services," Wight contends. "Right now we're in the planning stage to bring a full range of bindery and mailing services in-house."

Wight and Hartman went to the right place to find new bindery gear in May when the duo traveled to Germany to attend Drupa. The trip abroad turned out to be quite an experience.

"Everyone comes back from Drupa a bit overwhelmed," Wight admits. "It gives you a sense of the print world at large when you see printers from faraway places contemplating the same issues that we are."

The DigiLink partners report they spent most of their time looking at finishing and mailing equipment, and got the sense that the bindery, which had long been considered the technology "step child" of printing, has come a long way in recent years. That is exciting news to a company expanding its postpress services, and proof that they continue to head in the right direction.

"Our growth has been planned and calculated, and we have worked hard over the past 41⁄2 years," Wight assesses. "It has been a well-planned progression: the prepress area, the addition of the Karat, the Komori press installation and now the development of a new bindery and mailing division."

The partners feel they have a successful basic formula, and plan to stick to it. The company's strength lies in its ability to recognize and satisfy the individual needs of customers, they stress.

"We are very dedicated in making the customer experience a positive one," Wight vows. "That comes from our past experience in sales and customer service. We are working hard every day to turn our managers into customer-focused leaders."

In that vein, the partners promise that their clients will dictate what direction DigiLink will move in the coming years. But they know that their past will also help navigate their future.

"Being a prepress company has really helped us to become printers," Hartman concludes. "Most printers start from the back and work their way to the front of the process. It has been better for us to work forward from prepress. We have a digital mindset—we embrace it while a lot of printers are afraid of it."

Prepress and printing can be a risky business, but DigiLink seems to have all the right moves.