Editor’s Note: Sabrina Carter is the new vendor representative on the APDSP Board. In this interview, Carter describes her career, the value of color printing, and her hopes for her service to the reprographics industry.
Avis: Please tell us about your background.
Sabrina Carter
Carter: I'm actually a mechanical engineer by trade. I attended Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ and was recruited by HP my sophomore year to work as an intern in their SEED Program the following year. After I graduated, HP made me an offer to come and work for them full-time. I started my career supporting our high-end servers and data storage systems located at the Unisys help desk in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. After a little over a year I transitioned into technical sales for printing and personal systems where I got my first foray into desktop printing.
Several years after joining HP I was recruited by Microsoft to help them grow their education software sales business on the East Coast. After Microsoft I joined SchoolNet, a software company that provided data driven decision making solutions and tools to K-12 educational institutions. I was there for a few years before I was recruited back into HP. The company had evolved its print business to encompass what is known today as managed print services and I was asked to come back in the role of a solution architect to help drive business in Fortune 50 and Fortune 100 companies seeking to optimize their small format print environment.
I was in that role for four years before becoming a master solutions architect and then taking a role in our global business unit. In 2017 I transitioned into the role I have now in HP’s Graphic Solutions Business. I came on board as a business development manager and now am working as a sales enablement manager for our PageWide XL devices and our contractual fleet of DesignJet and Latex solutions.
Avis: The PageWide seems to emphasize HP’s belief that paper printing has a future in reprographics. Naturally, reprographics shops are cheered by that idea, but the world seems to be going digital – what’s your personal feeling about the future of paper?
Carter: Yes, we've been hearing this for a while. Stories of how the digital on-ramp/off-ramp is replacing the need for paper. I even recall hearing stories of how companies like Iron Mountain had warehouses full of paper and data that was digitized and yes, we know that doctors and hospitals are making some patient data available digitally. However, while we've seen progress in many areas, I don't think paper will ever truly go away.
You have individuals who are very visual, and we see that with a lot of the things that are happening today with adults and children alike. They read books, shop and even write papers and submit them directly from their cell phone or tablet. But there are also just as many individuals who are very tactile; they need to review a printed document or hold a file in their hand. Add to this the increase in the number of security breaches that have exposed personal identifiable information and the level of skill we are seeing in hackers globally leads me to believe that while we will continue to make strides toward minimizing paper, I don't think we'll ever truly be a “paperless” society.
Avis: What’s your feeling about paper printing in the AEC world?
Carter: I think the movement to digital in the AEC space was somewhat propelled by the desire to reduce errors, which were costing billions of dollars. Many of those errors were caused by the fact that blueprints were black and white. It was very difficult for the electrical engineer to differentiate what they had to do from the work of the plumber or structural engineer. This led to constantly getting new drawings and designs where unfortunately in some instances the work would already have been done before you ever got the notice that something was wrong.
Making color more affordable has helped reduce these errors in the AEC space and provided engineers, contractors and designers with the accuracy, cost effectiveness and efficiency they need to deliver projects on time and on budget. This can be seen in the market today with the growth of products like PageWide XL. So while errors in printed documents have made it imperative that the AEC community consider digitizing and bringing content online where it makes sense, it’s not an all or nothing decision. The availability of color at or near the same price of mono has actually opened up more opportunities to reduce risk, improve efficiency, lower costs and increase value.
Avis: Reprographics shops would love to sell more color prints, because they traditionally have a greater margin. But color CAD printing hasn’t really taken off in the United States. What are the arguments that reprographics firms can make to their clients that say, “Hey, it's worth it for the extra money to print color”?
Carter: I think the key thing is that color prints reduce risk. They take away some of the errors that you're traditionally used to. I think the second thing is centered around cost – if printing in color helps me avoid errors, that saves money, right? And color can improve efficiency, because one color print can show the information of multiple monochrome prints. “So yes, Mr. Customer, while you might pay a penny or two more for color, you’re not having to produce multiple sets and from a design standpoint you can convey exactly what the designer wants to communicate and what your end customer wants to see.” Finally, color helps improve communication. It highlights areas and allows a project team to isolate and focus on changes or areas of concern before the work even starts.
Avis: What do you hope to accomplish during your term on the APDSP Board?
Carter: What I'd like to bring to APDSP is an awareness of opportunities that exist in the graphics industry that can help member organizations be successful and expand their business in ways in which they may not have considered; providing a listening ear that results in growth in member organizations and APDSP membership.