What Business Do You Want to Be In? A Response to the AEC Debate

Editor's Note: Below is a response from Woodie Rush, a veteran of the reprographics industry, to the article in the February 1 edition of APDSP Today about how much, or how little, reprographics business follows construction trends. You can read the original article by clicking here.

       Joel Salus, as always, gives thoughtful and perceptive insight to the discussion about the AEC industry and Reprographics, and I agree with his “SWAG (Scientific Wild Ass Guess)”. I do believe there is a caveat, however, that traditional reprographers need to consider, and that is, “what business do you want to be in?”, and “how best to succeed in whatever that might be?”

            Far too many of our members have already decided that “reprographics” can no longer support the model that brought success in the mid-to late twentieth century. Our membership numbers make it clear that other groups offer a broader range of print solutions than we (APDSP) can offer. In my way of thinking, the real question isn’t whether PRINTING revenue is following AEC trends, but whether revenues from our SERVICES might do so. Unfortunately, far too few of us offer as wide a variety of AEC-related services as can be found by moving to a more generalized print business model—which encompasses all of those print models that power organizations like SGIA, PIA, APT, ColorFX, ISA, and others.

            I continue to believe that we lost our way in the earliest days of project management. For decades, we provided key components of that service: We managed documents, we archived completed projects, we sold equipment and supplies to keep the project moving forward—but we did not focus on what really mattered---the WORKFLOWS and INFORMATION that propelled—or hindered—project completion.

            So when others began developing and offering these digital services, we as an industry interpreted that to mean that we should shift our focus to digital printing, not on the information itself. The explosion of digital print equipment and software allowed us to generate profits beyond what we had received as blueprinters, but led to an emphasis on the print side of that movement, and not on managing the data that those prints contained. We spent enormous resources on software to ensure our prints were properly positioned, rotated, collated, folded, stored, and distributed as hardcopy. We used the software to break out trade sets, create automated back end delivery and distribution models, and pricing on the fly, but we still neglected to recognize the fundamental shift taking place.

            And our clients began adopting Project Management Systems that simply ignored print parameters, but could locate data almost instantly, distribute the information electronically, log almost every keystroke, and provide comprehensive audit capabilities. Print services then became a mere commodity.

            We found ourselves asking “What Happened?”, and logically assumed our diminished revenues were following the economies of the day, and that once the recession ended, things would bounce back. And we were wrong. When the turnaround did begin to impact the construction industry, the organizations who benefitted most were those who offered Project Management, and a whole new industry came to life.

            My point is that we should have been driving, or at least contributing to the development of project management systems. Instead, we discovered we had focused on the wrong thing.

            And there ARE companies who are still part of our industry who DID break the mold by exploring new ways to serve the industry we have known and served for so long. There ARE successful companies whose models are still firmly based on construction—but they are offering services that are no longer tied to printing. Frankly, some of those organizations have already left APDSP. Others are choosing to keep their successes under the radar out of concern that others might dilute their unique service model. Many are changing the name of the organization to reflect a more universal offering; others are diving into construction sub-specialization—serving specific verticals such as Retail, Hospitality, Healthcare, Aerospace, and Government. One thing I have noticed about those companies, however, is that they continue to focus their efforts on companies they have known for decades. They are no longer just printers. They are becoming part of a team that shares responsibility for managing project information.

            There ARE other models available to APDSP members. You just have to consider whether or not you want to offer those services or not. I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer to that question, but whether you stick with printing or services, it will take determination and it will require resources to get there. After all, isn’t that why we changed our name from International Reprographics Association (IRgA) to the Association of Printing AND DATA SOLUTIONS Professionals (APDSP)? I for one, choose to participate, not as a Print Professional, but as a Data Solutions Professional specializing in Construction Information. In that sense, then, revenues would tend to follow Construction spending.