Print Partnership Sustained Through Proactive Customer Service

Posted on May 24, 2010

Excellent customer service, expert bid and pricing advice, and the latest in technology keep Louisville-based V. G. Reed in the forefront among printers doing business with the U. S. Government Printing Office (GPO) – the federal government’s centralized resource for meeting the print requirements of the work of the executive, legislative and judicial branches.  According to Title 44 of the U.S. Code, all federal agencies are required to use the GPO for their print procurement and virtually all jobs must be awarded through a bid process.

Bud Reed, chief executive officer of V. G. Reed & Sons., told me that work from the GPO and other government offices keeps his presses busy when they would otherwise be idle and looking for work. While his company typically lowers its prices for jobs that are run when it has open capacity, the urgency of getting the job done on time and with the highest quality is no less important.  This type work also benefits his bottom line because income at a lower rate is better than no income at all during what would otherwise be downtime.  This helps V.G. Reed & Sons remain competitive and keeps prices lower across the board for all customers.

But it isn’t easy winning government jobs.  There are more than 10,000 printers registered to bid on work from the GPO.   Of those, roughly 400 actively vie on a regular basis for the $400 million in federal government printing contracts awarded each year.

Successfully getting government work requires a partnership – one that V. G. Reed has built and nurtured with Government Print Management, a Chambersburg, Pa., based firm that has been in the government print management business since 1975 when it was known as ABC Advisors.

Today, Government Print Management is a division of e-LYNXX Corporation and a leader in print procurement management, representing more than 250 commercial print, direct mail and print marketing suppliers across the United States.  Government Print Management helps them win government print jobs using its proprietary and robust national database system for researching and obtaining, through overnight courier, fax, Internet downloading, and e-mail, all available GPO solicitations that meet the client’s production requirements and capabilities.  These opportunities are categorized immediately; data base entered, and disseminated on a timely basis to offer Government Print Management clients maximum bidding time based on each client’s capabilities and production requirements. 

Bud Reed recalled the days before ABC Advisors and Government Print Management when he had to rely on a contact at the GPO to check on posted jobs and then send them to him.  That was a very hit-and-miss way of doing business. What Government Print Management does  today makes what was done back then seem like the Dark Ages.

Technology has made many more government print job opportunities accessible to more printers, but with opportunities come complexity.   For one thing, everything is decentralized and only a company that specializes in government print management can really keep up with the jobs and then offer advice on what will be the best opportunities for maximizing a print supplier’s profitability. Government Print Management also furnishes print job histories, competitor and marketplace information, projected target pricing, negotiation of specification changes, bid submission services, bid results, assistance during the production process, invoicing, 21-day collection, and full paper work handling services.  Government Print Management has experienced professional print specialists who guide clients through proposal preparation, red tape cutting, GPO rules, regulations, and procedures, all the while meeting sales goals set forth by each client.

Even with its state of the art technology, what really makes the difference for V. G. Reed is working with a Government Print Management representative who knows his business, knows how the GPO operates and knows how to put the two together so V. G. Reed is making money on government work.  Bud Reed cited, as an example, the level of service day in and day out that V.G. Reed gets from Beth Miller, our account manager at Government Print Management.  She proactively notifies V.G. Reed about the right type jobs that fit its equipment. She is as concerned about his profitability, as she is about ours.

An excellent case in point is a job that came into Government Print Management from the GPO for an agency customer, the U.S. Department of Labor.  It was for printing books – on average 40,000 per year – for a value of several hundred thousand dollars over a five year period.  It was an impressive order.  Once received Miller passed it along to Government Print Management pricing experts who prepared a spread sheet that showed how V. G. Reed had priced similar jobs in the past.  The spread sheet also included a recommended targeted price for the job based on Government Print Management’s database of historical information on GPO jobs.  This is the largest data base of its kind in the United States containing GPO job specifications and pricing dating back to 1991.  V. G. Reed reviewed the pricing and made some adjustments before sending it back to Government Print Management for submission to the GPO.  Because the timing on the bidding was tight, Miller kept everyone involved on track so that the bid could be successfully submitted.  Had she not done that, V. G. Reed may not have made the deadline and would have been disqualified from consideration.  As it turned out, V. G. Reed was the low responsive and responsible bidder and got the job.

As a senior account manager, Beth, along with others on the print specialist team, monitors close to a hundred jobs a day.  The Government Print Management Production Team matches open jobs with the print supplier that is best capable of running each job.  It is a sophisticated process – one that requires Government Print Management to have mastered the host of GPO requirements and procedures as well as to know the production capabilities, seasonality and pricing habits of the many print suppliers that actively bid on GPO work.

With Government Print Management as a partner, print suppliers stand a much better chance of winning government work than if they try to go it alone.  Our strengths complement those of print suppliers, and we are very pleased to work with print suppliers that are the most frequent winners of GPO work.

Deborah Snider, senior vice president of Government Print Management, says it is through the strengths and performance record of V. G. Reed that Government Print Management can recommend V.G. Reed & Sons with confidence to the U. S. Government Printing Office.

About V. G. Reed  & Sons                                        

V.G. Reed & Sons is a print company that has added in-house mailing and fulfillment to its extensive list of client services.  Fortune 100 financial, insurance, manufacturing, healthcare and other companies are among its clients.  V.G. Reed & Sons printing has been family owned and operated for more than 65 years. It began when V. Glenn Reed, Sr. started producing mayonnaise labels in the basement of his Louisville, Ky., home in 1938. Since then it has grown into a 144,000-square-foot facility that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The company specializes in financial and commercial offset and digital printing, and fulfillment/mailing services.  For additional information, visit www.vgreed.com  or call 800-635-9788.  V. G. Reed is based in Louisville.

 

About e-LYNXX Corporation

e-LYNXX Corporation (www.e-LYNXX.com) (888-876-5432) licenses its U.S. Business Method Patent No. 7,451,106 – The Gindlesperger Method – to buyers and third party procurement and system providers through its Patented Procurement Method division. e-LYNXX also works with print buyers to reduce their procured print costs through its American Print Management division and with print suppliers seeking to improve their revenues by winning government work through its Government Print Management division. Founded in 1975 as ABC Advisors, e-LYNXX Corporation is based in Chambersburg, PA 17201. 

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