eLynxx Solutions Named to Supply and Demand Chain Executive’s 100 Great Supply Chain Projects List for 2015

eLynxx Solutions has been named to the 2015 SDCE 100, Supply and Demand Chain Executive’s annual listing of top supply chain solution and service provider projects. eLynxx Solutions was recognized for its on-going relationship with a leading manufacturer of alternative decking products, producing gains in ROI, efficiency and savings in the client’s marketing supply chain.

eLynxx Solutions, provider of cloud software for end-to-end management and sourcing of direct mail, marketing materials, publications and all things print has once again been named to the SDCE 100. Recognized throughout the supply chain management community, the SDCE 100 is Supply and Demand Chain Executive magazine’s annual listing of 100 great supply chain projects. The SDCE 100 is comprised of supply chain solution and service providers focused on helping their customers and clients achieve supply chain excellence.

Criteria for nomination and award to the 2015 SDCE 100 included the production of measurable gains in ROI through cost-cutting and increased efficiency in any category in the end-to-end supply chain. eLynxx Solutions was recognized for its on-going partnership with a leading manufacturer of alternative decking products providing the software, methods, guidance and support for streamlining the end-to-end planning, sourcing and production management of a specialized, international marketing supply chain. To date, the client has realized average per-unit cost savings in excess of 24% and an ROI of 300%.

“When eLynxx Solutions began its relationship with this client in 2009 their primary goal was to expand competition and diversity among suppliers of sales and marketing communication materials” states Mike Jackson, CEO of eLynxx Solutions. “Through rigorous objective qualification of vendors based on the client’s needs and standards, their vendor pool was increased from 21 to 48, meeting their initial goal” Jackson added. In addition, improvement of specification development, management and control, coupled with the eLynxx sourcing method and purpose-built cloud software allowed the client to automate the vendor selection, award, production management and better track each project from start to finish.

“By connecting all of their people, processes and vendors, eLynxx Solutions helped the client achieve better results without the need to either outsource operations or increase headcount,” Jackson said. “Speed to market of key promotional and sales communications across several channels and countries was improved while quality and consistency across a variety of projects was assured.” Additionally, the client also gained unprecedented accountability and transparency in their marketing supply chain thanks to the robust data capture and reporting features of eLynxx cloud software.

Submissions to the SDCE 100 were evaluated by the magazine’s editorial staff, weighted on: ambitiousness and scope of the project (30%); creative application of technologies, solutions or services used (20%); extent of business results and impact (40%), and clarity of submission (10%).

More information regarding the SDCE 100 may be found in the current issue of Supply and Demand Chain Executive magazine or on the web at SDCExec.com.

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eLynxx Solutions Named to Supply and Demand Chain Executive’s 100 Great Supply Chain Projects List for 2015

We Prefer Laser Focus Thank You Very Much

Our friends over at Capterra created a spoof commercial parodying software that tries to be everything to everyone. Everyone here at eLynxx Solutions had a good laugh at “…why be laser-focused on just one thing when you can be regular focused on 216?” because, sadly, we see so much of that in real life and its the opposite of our own philosophy.

Check out the video and while you’re at it, stop by out our listing on Capterra.

We Prefer Laser Focus Thank You Very Much

When Cyborgs Buy Print

If you need me in your life at around 4pm EST on a Wednesday, your best bet is to dive into #PrintChat on Twitter.  #PrintChat is a weekly discussion about integrated marketing and all things print. Look around and you’ll find me rubbing zeroes and ones with influential members of the online print community.

Towards the end of a recent chat, Deborah Corn of PrintMediaCentr (our host) asked about the books on our summer reading lists. I named a few including a new favorite that has started to seep into how I introduce eLynxx to select print buyers.

 

Smarter Than You Think is Clive Thompson’s thoughtful consideration of how technology enhances our cognitive abilities and an exploration of the anxieties that emerge with every innovation.

Socrates feared writing would destroy the capacity to memorize information and ruin Greek traditions of debate and dialectic.

Ye Mengde of 10th century China worried that the wider availability of written records made possible by China’s advanced printing technology would weaken memories and cause errors to be repeated without end.

Tools and palaver across 15th century European coffee shop conversations, 19th century novels and periodicals, 20th century telephone calls, and 21st century social media were all supposed to render us into frivolous blockheads and/or anti-social narcissists.

Take a breath. As Thompson documents in each of these instances, our species adapts.

As we adapt, we offload, enhance, and extend memory and cognition to and through our tools. The memory of thoughts and information captured in writing, audio, video, and photos is of significantly greater volume and fidelity than individual human memory.

The external memories captured through our arts are then available to us for deeper analysis, consideration, sharing, and collaboration. We see trends and patterns. We access stories, facts, templates, and instructions. Machines become what Thompson calls “transactive memory buddies” throughout our daily lives.

Our connected tools have increased our capacity to quickly and effectively use external memory while also providing us with new capabilities and opportunities for play.  Through blogging and social media, we engage in public thinking and experience “ambient awareness” of the thoughts, activities, and locations of others. We leverage “multiples.” We google the terms I’ve placed in quotes. Regular people have resources to coordinate unprecedented collaboration for games, problem-solving, art, exegesis, education, advocacy, “sousveillance”, and all types of activities including buying print.

If you are reading this, you are a mythic beast (or a cyborg)

Thompson introduces readers to a new meaning for “centaur” that emerged among chess players who play in concert with specialized chess software. In this context, “centaurs” are people who engage challenges and the world itself as composite beings: part human and part information technology.

Centaurs are common, and if you are reading this, you probably are one. Google is your co-pilot. Your ambient awareness tells you which hoaxes are frightening your Facebook friends and whoever you stalk on Twitter. You hire rides with Uber to get to restaurants you found with Yelp or OpenTable. You got escorted out of the restaurant, but you did it for the Vine.

If you’re one of those special print buyers who for some reason elicits full-frontal geekitude, here is where the book might creep into our conversation. While we’re chatting about your current print procurement process and the eLynxx platform, I might switch out “centaurs” for “cyborgs” and say eLynxx is in the business of helping print buyers become better cyborgs. At that point, either hang up or strap in for the ride we’re going on together.

Chess players have software to complement their human skill and judgment while choosing game strategies and moves. Project managers, accountants, nurses, and salespeople all have purpose-built software for their professions.

eLynxx is software purpose-built to empower and support print buyers. It is the “transactive memory buddy” with templates and guidance to enable robust specification writing. Through dashboards and custom reporting, it tracks open tasks, records every event and activity, and provides the capability to easily see metrics, patterns, and opportunities that would otherwise be invisible. eLynxx remembers the verified capabilities of vendors and how they have performed on each job. It links every actor in the print buyer’s supply chain together for collaboration, communication, and compliance.

Better cyborgs equal better processes and better results. And, yes, there is someone who has heard eLynxx described as her “transactive memory buddy” for print.

Sometimes those conversations spin out of control. Hopefully the fun won’t deny me the presence of mind to invite my new friend to a software demo. But we could go on. There is so much more to learn, discuss, and enjoy in Smarter Than You Think. Check it out for yourself. Also, Printerverse citizens will likely be inspired to go deeper into subjects like the history of libraries and Paul Otlet’s Mundaneum.

What’s on your reading list?

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Connect to get ambient awareness of Andy Solages on LinkedIn and Twitter (@andysolages)

Explore eLynxx.com or call 717-709-0990 to learn how eLynxx empowers print buyers and producers to achieve better results with fewer hassles.

Female centaurs flanking Venus (Mosaic from Roman Tunisia, 2nd century AD) by Giorces (Own work) [CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

When Cyborgs Buy Print

Print More Efficient Than TV? One Study Says So!

When I began my career in marketing communications, back in the mid-1990s, television was the Holy Grail of marketing channels. A decade and a half or so later, when I was managing communications at what was then a prominent online printer, nothing much had changed. Our ultimate goal was to have an ad air during the Super Bowl. That never happened.

In all honesty, maybe because of the industries in which I have worked , I’ve never been too enamored with big time TV. If you’re a major brand, with billions of dollars to put toward marketing, television campaigns might make sense; the audience is there, it’s targetable and with that kind of budget you can afford it. But, even if you have the budget to support TV, is it as efficient in building brand awareness as other channels like print media and mobile? A 2014 study say no.

With the intent of discovering the impact of mobile marketing as a channel in an overall campaign, the Mobile Marketing Association conducted the Smart Mobile Cross Marketing Effectiveness Study (SMoX). In one case study, SMoX looked at a 2013 AT&T campaign for Moto X smartphones. National television, print media, online desktop and mobile channels were used. Of course TV had the largest share, 93%, of the budget. Online desktop had the next largest share, a whopping 5%, leaving print media and mobile each with a mere 1% of the budget. The 18-year-old demographic was the target for this campaign conducted over a six-week period.

The study looked at the efficiency of each channel used in the campaign as a factor of individuals reached per dollar spent. The results are rather surprising. Consuming the overwhelming majority of the budget, national TV reached the most people. In terms of efficiency, however, it reached 1.5 people per dollar spent, edging out online desktop by a half a person per dollar. Mobile doubled TV’s efficiency at 3 people reached per dollar spent. Print media, however, showed the most efficiency at 6 people reached per dollar spent.

The study goes on to suggest, based on efficiency and other factors related to the campaign, an optimum mix of spending across the four channels. With a reduction from 93% to 72%, TV takes a hit but still gobbles up most of the budget because of its cost. Out of the rest of the channels, mobile, naturally, tops the list at a suggested increase to 16%. Print media, however, comes in

second with a suggested increase to 8% and online desktop remains constant at 5%. Long story short, the message here is that for a big brand that can afford national television, the next two most efficient communication channels are mobile and print media.

While print in this circumstance is referring to paid advertising space in printed magazines, the fact that it was the most efficient of all channels with an 18-year-old audience is significant. This audience is native to all things digital. This audience is thought to shun anything that’s not on a screen and preferably a screen that can be put in a pocket. But this study indicates otherwise. It indicates that physical, printed graphic communication has not only not lost its power, but its power is enough for it to be suggested as an excellent companion to the channel of preference among this demographic.

Although direct mail, direct marketing and other forms of physically printed communication were not in the scope of this study there are relationships and similarities that can be drawn between the them and magazine advertising. If old fashioned print mass media can efficiently reach 18-year-old smartphone buyers as part of an integrated campaign, well-targeted direct marketing with a great design can too, as long as the production quality, timing and price are optimized. If you are relying on paid channels like online, mobile and certainly TV, optimization is an area of obvious concern. But are you optimizing your printed marketing communications? Are you getting the best combination of quality, service and price with no compromises? You could be, you should be and eLynxx software can help you do it with the people, processes and vendors you already have in place.

Print More Efficient Than TV? One Study Says So!

eLynxx Solutions CEO Mike Jackson Featured in Xplor International Interview

Xplor International, a not-for-profit association focused on technology for, and production of, high volume printing for consumer communications, featured an interview with eLynxx Solutions own Mike Jackson in the most recent issue of their E-Document News. In the interview Jackson discusses workflow technology, the impact of the cloud and software as a service, compliance, efficiency and options for custom tailored software.

Read the interview: http://goo.gl/u4X6H2

Visit Xplor International: http://xplor.org

eLynxx Solutions CEO Mike Jackson Featured in Xplor International Interview

The Catalog Comeback

As a kid, back in the 1970s and early 1980s, I would spend almost as many lazy hours engrossed in catalogs – the Christmas toy and wish books especially – as comic books and Mad Magazine. I can even trace my interest in graphic design and marketing communication to a time when I would combine my affinity for catalogs, comic book fantasy and satire to create parody catalogs with ridiculous themes like discount gadgets for aspiring superheroes and evil underworld masterminds. Although I never achieved my goal of hijacking the grade school mimeograph machine to actually produce my early work; my career eventually led to a critical role in the catalogs of a major giftware and collectables wholesaler. To this day, I still enjoy picking up and flipping through a catalog. That’s why I’m excited to see that they seem to be making a comeback of sorts.

According to The Wall Street Journal and the Direct Marketing Association, the peak of catalog distribution didn’t actually occur until 2007 when retailers mailed 19.6 billion in the U.S. By the time 2007 had rolled around, Sears, the granddaddy of all catalog retailers, was long out of the large-scale catalog scene. Other retailers had obviously picked up the slack and then some. Unfortunately, the years following 2007 showed a constant, and often steep, trend of decline. In the very midst of that slump, J.C. Penney, the last remaining big gun of the catalog world, had phased out their so-called Big Book and all of their specialty catalogs.Finally, in 2013 catalog distribution was up, for the first time in six years, to 11.9 billion. Far shy of the 2007 peak but up nonetheless.

Earlier this year Penney’s made several big announcements. One, of course, was that they were planning to close underperforming stores. Another was that they were bringing back the catalog. The two announcements were an interesting juxtaposition since the start of many of the company’s financial woes coincided with the time it decided to dump the printed catalog and make mail order a strictly online operation. Far from the thousand page, soup-to-nuts behemoth of old, the company’s first catalog in five years was to be mailed in March. In the month since it was supposed to be distributed, I have not seen a new J.C. Penney catalog in the wild, although I understand that it was planned to be 120 pages focused on home goods. More akin to their old specialty catalogs than their Big Book.

Penney’s, it seems, is on-board with the realization of many other retailers; printed direct mail catalogs are effective in leading lifestyle-driven consumers to make in-store and online purchases. The key is to also realize that catalog marketing is highly adaptable and, given today’s design, printing and mailing technology, even nimble. When it comes to presenting a massive amount of products and related information as a point of reference, as was the main role of the huge old full-line print catalogs, the web is a worthy successor. In instances where many variations or options exist for products, the web can even be superior. However, when it comes to appealing to the senses, presenting shoppers with ideas, forming opinions and helping them make a buying decision on an emotional level, print can’t be beat.

There is nothing like moving through the thick, glossy full-color pages of a targeted, specialty catalog and turning to a beauty, or hero, page to see the products staged in a way that makes the reader want to replicate that scene in their own life. They see what could be the answer to their needs or desires, they get to understand about each of the products and they may even gain some insight from a designer or an expert in an article, separate from the product detail copy, that relates to the scene that has been set. With a quick look around to superimpose the beauty shot over their own surroundings, the reader is off to the website, catalog and credit card in hand, typing item numbers and filling a cart. In this way, print catalogs are not simply listings of what a retailer has for sale, they are a connection to the audience’s lifestyle.

Sure, you can put beauty shots and inspirational copy on a website. But the audience has to know it is there. Yes, you can let them know the website is there through email, but email is easy to ignore. You can have a web catalog site highly optimized for search, but the audience still has to be searching for what the site is selling to find it. When a person pulls a catalog out of the mailbox and they hold it in their hands, they have connected with it that’s harder to ignore.

In addition, marketers have much more control over graphic communication in print than they have online. No one knows the size, quality or settings of every screen in a given audience. Responsive web design can account for many of the challenges with screen size, but nothing can prevent low-quality hardware or out-of-whack settings from destroying the impact of otherwise stunning photography and design. If you are in full control of correctly managing your specifications, color standards, proofing and production, you can ensure that what the audience sees is what you want it to see in print.

Today’s printed catalogs may not look anything like the ones that inspired me as a kid. They are, however, still doing what those old catalogs were designed to do – sell to contemporary audiences – and do it well. For that reason I still find inspiration, and sense of satisfaction, when I pick up a printed catalog. Let’s keep ‘em coming!

The Catalog Comeback

Printing is Different and Different is Good

This morning I finally got around to reading the print and communication industry articles that have been piling up in my feed for a few days. Of all of the headlines and synopses, this one in particular caught my eye; US Commercial Printing Shipments Have Strong February, +5.2%, by WhatTheyThink.com’s Dr. Joe Webb. As a marketing communications guy who leans more toward the creative and problem solving side of things, economics isn’t normally shiny enough to get my attention. That being said, even though I am not what you would call a number cruncher, I do have a knack for identifying trends based on observations out in the wild. This particular article seemed to be aligned to one of those observations. Plus, Dr. Joe’s analysis is generally straightforward, concise and often entertaining; so I clicked.

I’m not going to restate everything in the article here, you should check it out yourself, but I will summarize one key point. U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that after a good January, February’s printing shipments were up over $300 million year-to-year. This means different things to different people. For printers who, as Dr. Joe notes, may still be facing reduced profits, it could mean some wiggle room as they adapt to a changing marketplace. For the people and organizations that put commercial printing to use, it supports the observation that print is not dead, it is alive and viable, but it is different.

Creative impact and efficiency – in terms of production and distribution – along with convenience and visibility – in terms of audience consumption – often drive tactical and media choices in marketing communication. What we print today is different from what we printed in the past. Many of the more pedestrian or throwaway items of the past have shifted to digital formats. It’s efficient and convenient. We can crank those out and reach the audience wherever they are at any time by doing it this way. But what is being printed today, and the people who are behind it, is impressive and surprising. We are printing on surfaces that, when I began my career two decades ago, were unheard of. We are combining print with technology that didn’t even exist ten years ago using processes that seem to be right out of mid-20th century science fiction. Organizations that you normally wouldn’t think to use in the same sentence as printing; companies like Google, eBay and Amazon, have successfully combined big data and high levels of personalization with extremely creative printing.

We may not be printing as much as we used to. What we are printing is more complex, more unique and more strategic than ever before. Organizations that are pouring their hearts, souls, dollars and trust into these projects need access to printers that are adopting new efficiencies and investing in new technologies to meet the needs of today’s print buyer. Print projects, and all of the people who play a role in them, need to be given the recognition and support they deserve. The numbers don’t lie. We are seeing a rebound in commercial printing and it’s not because we’ve given up digital communication and reverted back to ink and paper. It’s because we’re using print in wonderful new ways that, now more than ever, demand stronger marketing supply chains with purpose-built tools and methods for achieving the best possible results.

Printing is Different and Different is Good