Offering Fulfillment Services--Getting Your Fill

by chris bauer

Managing Editor

While ancillary services in general are often pointed to as the savior of the commercial printing industry, fulfillment services specifically have received more fanfare than some of the other value-added capabilities. In speaking to printers that offer fulfillment services and to experts on the subject, it's easy to see why the two go hand-in-hand.

"Printers are being asked by their customers to start fulfillment operations to support the client's marketing operation," observes Tom Quinn, director of fulfillment services for the Mailing & Fulfillment Service Association (MFSA), noting that 88 percent of printers that participated in a recent NAPL/MFSA survey stated this as their primary reason for establishing a fulfillment operation.

"This, of course, makes sense because the printer has serviced the client for many years and has developed a level of trust with marketing departments serviced," Quinn continues. "These same marketing departments have been required to reduce their manpower and are doing more with less."

A Logical Fit

At the same time, Quinn acknowledges that time-to-market has been drastically reduced for these same customer's jobs. Therefore, it makes good sense to ask printers to offer more services—like mailing and fulfillment.

The addition of these services accomplishes two goals for the print buyer—both time-to-market and a reduction in the number of vendors needed. This is the old "one-stop shopping" model, Quinn notes—a model that will serve the printer and customer well for the foreseeable future.

"We are finding that most associations and publishers don't have storage facilities, nor do they have the staff to process orders," advises Jane Quellmalz Carey, president and CEO of Boyd Printing in Albany, NY, which has been providing fulfillment services since 1973. "We also take care of the postal requirements and regulations. They want to streamline their operations by not having to deal with many vendors."

Elaine Beitler, senior vice president and general manager of Bowne Enterprise Solutions, agrees, stating that fulfillment services reinforce the strategic partnership between client and printer. By coupling the company's integrated fulfillment solutions with its digital processing and imaging capabilities, Bowne serves as a single resource, eliminating the need for clients to seek multiple vendors for a project.

"We opened our consolidated digital print/fulfillment center in 2002 to accommodate clients with the migration from traditional pick-pack to merge with customized and personalized digital printing and fulfillment," Beitler explains. "Prior to 2002, fulfillment was embedded in our offerings throughout our many locations across the U.S. until we co-located our dedicated digital print and fulfillment under one roof."

Bowne offers a variety of unique services and solutions for collating and kitting. It works with its clients to review all kit work to determine the most economical and efficient processing methods, and typically will move client applications through these various options.

In addition to Bowne's traditional fulfillment services and digital solutions, the financial printing giant offers its clients high-speed ink-jetting, shrink wrapping, and high-volume mailing services. Complete lettershop services provide customers with traditional mailing solutions, as well as creative direct mail, personalization, hand insertion of unique pieces, digital signature storage and printing.

"The challenge is keeping things organized," contends Carey of Boyd Printing. "We do a physical inventory yearly to be sure that stock corresponds with our records."

Boyd offers complete warehousing, distribution and fulfillment through its wholly owned subsidiary, Johnson Press. It also manages subscription lists and inventory for its publication clients. The company relies on custom fulfillment software, as well as Federal Express and UPS manifest systems.

According to Beitler, the most difficult part of maintaining fulfillment is keeping in step with client needs, minimizing stale inventory and ensuring enough is on-hand.

"Where once everything was offset and strictly off-the-shelf, fulfillment has merged with digital printing and electronic delivery offerings to enable clients to blend static information with customized materials, on an as-needed basis," Beitler points out. "Our best client success stories involve cooperative inventory management: moving documents to print-on-demand when possible, managing the threshold for re-order quantities and lead time in partnership with our clients, and offering our own offset printing services as needed so that Bowne can manage the end-to-end delivery."

MFSA's Quinn predicts more printers will enter the fulfillment business in the next decade. The reason? It makes good business sense to ease the print purchasing process for the customer and for the printer to be more responsive to clients' needs.

A Mature Decision

"Printers will have to look at their current position in the market and determine what they really want to be when they grow up," Quinn advises. "I think they will find themselves as partners with their marketing client counterparts, which will allow them to be involved in the planning process.

"They will most likely present themselves as solutions providers in the future," he continues. "In any case, the reward is high for those with the courage to pursue fulfillment."

Carey feels it is helpful to be able to sell both printing and fulfillment services as a package. While fulfillment is important to Boyd Printing's customers, she stresses that the importance of getting printed jobs completed on time is still high.

"We see fulfillment as growing in the future," Carey remarks. "We do offer fulfillment even when we don't print the product—but obviously we try to get the whole package."

Beitler concludes by saying fulfillment is an excellent opportunity to expand a printer's range of services and to gain new clients while building on current customer relationships.

"By tapping into clients' needs on a deeper level and anticipating change, printers provide an invaluable resource to clients," Beitler advises. "Both today and in the future, printers can service clients on multiple levels, not just from a printing standpoint—thus expanding their value."

Tips of the Trade

Tom Quinn, director of fulfillment services for the Mailing & Fulfillment Service Association, offers some tips to keep in mind when moving into the fulfillment realm.

* Purchase the best fulfillment software you can afford.

* Inventory accuracy is a parameter you must control.

* Develop receiving procedures.

* Hire experienced third-party fulfillment (3PF) employees who understand the complexities of the fulfillment industry.

* Get deeply involved in this new business and understand fulfillment's nuances and complexities.

* Understand that your current model for managing client materials is inadequate for entry into the fulfillment industry.

* Remember you will be required to manage inventory for months and years—and provide 99 percent or better accuracy.

* You must be truly committed to fulfillment to be successful in the fulfillment business.