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FINANCIAL PRINTERS
"DIGITAL ASSETS GALORE"
According to Duncan Varty, senior
vice president of Financial Print Operations, for the last seven to eight
years Bowne has been collecting client files originally digitalized for print
production into and electronic database. Now documents that began their
life as part of the SEC registration work Bowne does for law firms,
investment banks and corporations things like proxy statements, proxy cards,
10Q and 10K reports, and other SEC reporting requirements have been stored in
a digital repository that enables Bowne to reconfigure this data into a range
of digital options for the benefit of its clients.
Among other things, this
ultimately means dispatching files where they need to go. "We can
send PDF or HTML formats to any location required using our proprietary
software," Mr. Varty notes. But the digital game of Tag, You're It
doesn't stop there. "We have our customers saying to us, "We
want to deliver this electronic information to our end-user clients via the
Internet." The bottom line, Mr. Varty emphasizes, "is that we
are working in a environment of electronic collaboration."
Bowne's aim is to be there to
assist as people begin to understand the power of their data." Yet
as fully digitalized as the production cycle becomes a printing powerhouse
like Bowne still believes that the interim period for ink-on-paper output
will be long lasting enough to continue to invest in its roots.
"We're always buying printing presses," Mr. Varty says. But that's
not all. "We just completed construction of a $20 million plant in
South Bend, Ind. And in January 2000 we added a third complete press
line at Bowne. We're running these three lines 24 hours a day, five to
six days a week. The demand for print is definitely still here."
WHAT PAPERLESS OFFICE?
So much so, in fact, that financial
printers have big doubts about the futuristic notion of the so-called
"paperless office." "The average person is using more
paper now than before," believes Bernard F. McMahon, founder and
currently director of sales of a 25-years-old Columbia Financial Printing
Corp., of Hicksville, NY. "People want to make paper copies of
what they see on their computer."
Mr. Harris agrees. "Paper use is way up
since the advent of desktop publishing." And speaking of paper
consumption, Columbia Financial Printing produces stock certificates in 30
languages (including Chinese) for thousands of public companies.
It also prints annual reports, prospectuses, and documentation on limited
partnerships, debentures and bonds, just to name a few. "If a
company goes public and they need certificates, they can place and order in
the morning and we can ship it the same day," says Mr. McMahon of
Columbia's all sheet fed digital workflow.
EDGAR filing, or the electronic compliance system mandated by
the SEC, originally was viewed as a threat to traditional
printers. Instead of being a threat, however, it wound up as a
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revenue
stream for diversified printers like Bowne and Columbia Financial that are expert at negotiating its intricacies. "Our industry has
embraced EDGAR as a way to provide extra services," Mr. Varty explains.
WHO NEEDS A BROKER?
"Our system can
bring you right into the SEC's EDGAR files," Mr. McMahon says of
Columbia's Internet site,
http://www.pbss-exchange.com
The
site, authored by Columbia's own team of programmers, is billed as "a
revolutionary method of trading stock" and includes the option to build
electronic portfolios, use private trading boards, research initial public
offerings, and engage a search engine to sift through years of historical
data on public companies.
"We can give you more information
than you can get it from your brokers. And with one click of the mouse,
all 37,000 pages on the site can be converted into different languages.
It took us three years to write the program for the site," Mr. McMahon
says. This is just one new service Columbia makes available to its clients.
Columbia Internet Programming Co., a
wholly
owned subsidiary of Columbia
Financial Printing, also provides multilingual Web and database
designs. In particular, "there are many international companies
whose web sites are written in English only," Mr. McMahon explains. "We're on a campaign
to convert sites owned by companies listed on the New York Stock Exchanges
into whatever languages required to enable better business communication. Linguistics are the big thing of the
future," he says.
CALLING ALL PROGRAMMERS
Of course, writing programs, printing pages, and growing a
financial printing business in general requires one valuable resource in
particular people. According to Mr. McMahon, "I would say the most
important labor need we have today is for computer programmers."
Similarly, Mr. Varty describes that the labor market as "tight" and
the search for the best employees is ongoing. "We need people with
technology and service background, and they're very difficult to find.
Bowne is constantly recruiting at high schools and colleges and through our
operating companies and Internet sites," he says.
What are the expectations for growth in
2000 and the coming decade? "We anticipate an increase in our sales, requiring additional production facilities; it's going
tremendously fast," says Mr. McMahon about Columbia Financial Printing,
which gets much of its business by word-of-mouth from attorneys, stock
transfer agents, and banks. "You couldn't get better
references," he notes. As ever, growth must be well managed and
the target always kept sharply in focus. "In financial printing,
delivery is a scared thing," Mr. McMahon elaborates. "If you
don't deliver on time, you're dead."
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