Solimar Helps Johnson & Quin Slash Expenses and Increase Revenues

Johnson & Quin, Inc. has been in business for over 130 years and has evolved into a market leading full-service direct mail and document production services provider that helps clients stand out and generate greater business results. Johnson & Quin offers a wide array of direct mail production services by leveraging creative solutions and innovative document production technologies.

Using a broad range of capabilities, Johnson & Quin is an excellent resource for projects ranging from small, on-going direct mail programs and customer communication programs to large projects involving several million mail pieces. They particularly excel at complex projects such as personalized and variable data printing. Johnson & Quin's direct mail areas of expertise include:

• Highly personalized and versioned mailings
• Mailer format flexibility (postcards, letter packages, dimesional assembly)
• Loyalty, membership and gift card mailer formats using intelligent affixing
• Custom data programming and mailing list hygiene

"Solimar's SPDE Solution has slashed our output and production management expenses by a total of $160,000 per year."

Ron Koy, CIO
Johnson & Quin

Johnson & Quin has always been successful in the direct mail and document production market by using the latest data and personalization technologies. However, they felt their current production workflow and technology solutions were not in place to achieve maximum efficiency or the lowest cost of ownership.

Johnson & Quin identified several business issues they wanted to address in order to increase productivity while lowering costs. The problem areas uncovered included:

• The previous output management software system, IBM InfoPrint® Manager was considered antiquated with a limited set of user tools that restricted productivity and opportunity for growth.
• The IBM software system also had an extremely high total cost ownership (TCO) due to its elevated annual support and maintenance expenses.
• The inability to create and archive PDF data streams.
• Lack of operating platform standardization and consistency using Windows-based solutions.
• Some client work had to be turned down because they were incapable of processing large files.

The challenge for Johnson & Quin was to replace the IBM InfoPrint® Manager system with a new solution that had more functionality at a lower overall TCO. Solimar Systems interviewed Ron Koy, Chief Information Officer at Johnson & Quin to discuss their experience in selecting a replacement solution.

After researching their best options, Johnson & Quin chose the Solimar® Print Director™ Enterprise (SPDE) solution to replace the IBM product. "We found the SPDE solution to contain the most well rounded features to implement workflow automation and eliminate manual operations," stated Koy. "The other compelling component was the overall ownership value of the SPDE solution. Both the price along with the annual maintenance and support were very fair which makes it a wise long term investment for us."

Johnson & Quin, Inc. has been in business for over 130 years and has evolved into a market leading full-service direct mail and document production services provider that helps clients stand out and generate greater business results. Johnson & Quin offers a wide array of direct mail production services by leveraging creative solutions and innovative document production technologies.

Using a broad range of capabilities, Johnson & Quin is an excellent resource for projects ranging from small, on-going direct mail programs and customer communication programs to large projects involving several million mail pieces. They particularly excel at complex projects such as personalized and variable data printing. Johnson & Quin's direct mail areas of expertise include:

• Highly personalized and versioned mailings
• Mailer format flexibility (postcards, letter packages, dimesional assembly)
• Loyalty, membership and gift card mailer formats using intelligent affixing
• Custom data programming and mailing list hygiene

"Solimar's tech support team went 'above and beyond' when helping us. The technical support was first rate."

David Henkel, President
Johnson & Quin

The industry standard Windows-based SPDE solution has allowed them to transform existing AFP files to IPDS data streams. The added data stream options have provided Johnson & Quin with more output flexibility and opportunity for growth. Automated job routing and a streamlined document reprint workflow have also helped Johnson & Quin become more productive.

The SPDE solution has also allowed Johnson & Quin to accept and process very large files from their customers, which previously they were unable to do using their old system. The added functionality of the new solution has enabled Johnson & Quin to gain new customers and secure more jobs, which has ultimately has increased their sales revenue.

The Results

The impact of the Solimar solution has been extremely positive and beneficial from both an expense and revenue perspective. SPDE has clearly proven to cut operational expenses at Johnson & Quin, while increasing revenue.

The robust workflow automation provided by SPDE has significantly reduced their output and production management expenses. "Solimar's SPDE solution has slashed our output and production management expenses by a total of $160,000 per year," said Koy. "The ROI for the SPDE implementation was very quick and easy to justify."

SPDE added new functionality for Johnson & Quin to accept additional projects from their customers. The ability to process large files increased their sales revenue. "In the past we were forced to turn down revenue generating work due to the technology limitation of the old system," added Koy. "With SPDE, that has all changed. SPDE has helped us expand our opportunities and increase our sales by $20,000 per year."

"Solimar's tech support team went 'above and beyond' when helping us," said Dave Henkel, President, Johnson & Quin . "The technical support that we received was first rate. As a result, we are researching different ways that Solimar can fit into our new Enterprise Wide Print Management System."