By Ed Avis
The Association of Printing and Data Solutions Professionals is here! The former International Reprographic Association has been renamed, but more important, the association has a large basket of new benefits for members.
How can you take advantage of these benefits? Here are six steps:
1) Make sure your company is a member. All paid members of the former IRgA – at the Bronze, Silver, and Gold level – were automatically designated as members of APDSP. The new association has only one membership level, equivalent to the Gold level of membership in the old IRgA. So even Bronze and Silver members are now at that top level.
How can you tell if your company is a paid member? Visit the new online ADPSP membership directory (click here) and look! If your firm does not appear, it is not a member. If that is the case, register by clicking here.
2) Visit the APDSP Member Center. Along the top right of the association’s home page is a tab called Member Center. Click on that and you will go to the member login. IMPORTANT: Your old IRgA username and password will not work with the new login! So instead of entering that info, click on the link below the log in that says “No login created? Sign up now.” That will take you to a spot at which you can create your new login. Alternatively, you can wait until you receive a letter from APDSP with a direct link to your new login.
Once you enter the new Member Center, you will see a number of tabs that lead to important pages, which are described in the following paragraphs.
3) Make sure your information is up to date. In the Member Center, take a moment to make sure your business and personal profiles are correct by clicking on the appropriate tabs along the left side of the page.
4) Check out the new member tools. Under the “Links” bar on the left side of the Member Center are three important tabs: Member Tools, Discount Programs, and Wholesale Programs. Under Member Tools you will find two items: the new APDSP Member Marketing Toolkit, which is packed full of valuable marketing assets for you, and the APDSP Network. The Network is how members can find and connect with other members in other parts of the country when they need jobs done outside their own geography. This Network will go live once enough members sign up – you will see the sign-up link under that tab.
5) Check out the new discount programs. The second tab under the “Links” bar on the left side of the Member Center is for APDSP’s valuable new discount programs. The first link there describes the discounts being offered by six reprographics industry vendors, ranging from Dietzgen to KIP to Image Access. These discounts are ready to roll – start accessing them today! The second link under the Discount Programs tab is for UNA Purchasing Solutions. This is a major purchasing organization that aggregates the buying power of hundreds of associations across the country. Using that power, they have negotiated discounts for FedEX, Staples, Best Buy, and many other important vendors. Visit the APDSP/UNA portal soon to start getting the best prices on many services and products you already use.
6) Check out the new wholesale programs. If any of your customers ask you to scan documents, you now have a new profit center: CAD/CAM Solutions is offering their high-quality raster-to-vector conversion service to APDSP members at wholesale prices. With a few mouse clicks you can upload your scanned documents and quickly get back accurate CAD files. The profit you earn on each depends only on what you charge your customers. Another new wholesale program exclusively for APDSP members is latex printing being offered by Printtrader.com. If you have an important client who needs giant latex signs and you are not ready to invest in that equipment yourself, let Printtrader.com handle the work and you keep the profit.
These items available through the Member Center are not the only benefits of APDSP. Two other areas will bring greater profit to members in the years ahead: Education and Marketing.
Education
APDSP is developing a schedule of webinars on key topics of interest to APDSP members. The first, scheduled for October 25 at 3 p.m. Eastern, will be an end-user panel discussion of the three big single-pass color printers: the HP PageWide, the Oce/Canon 910, and the KIP C7800. The panelists will provide frank, unvarnished opinions about the pros and cons of these machines, and respond to questions from webinar attendees. Bonus: The webinar will be preceded by a series of podcasts created from pre-webinar interviews with the panelists. This is a members-only event; you can register for it in the Events tab in the Member Center.
Marketing
Finally, a very important new benefit that APDSP members will receive is that the association is buying advertising and creating promotions to encourage prospective AEC customers to use
Advertisement encouraging architects to use APDSP members' services.
APDSP members for their printing and document management. The ads are scheduled to begin running this month, and will appear in publications and websites of the American Institute of Architects, Associated General Contractors, the Ontario Association of Architects, and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. These promotions will be linked to the online APDSP member directory.
To learn more about all of these new benefits, register for a webinar on September 8 at 2 p.m. Eastern by clicking here.
And welcome to APDSP!