[PrintOwners] KM6500 one week report and Pricing Models

Sat Apr 14 14:42:40 EDT 2007

My pricing model is based on what the market will bear. I'm not going 
to go into details but suffice it say that we do not subscribe to the 
"how low can you go" mentality.

But what I can offer as an opinion is that even at 5.5 million, you 
need to shift your mentality from an offset world to an integrated 
solution world. You will not bog down your sales reps with $500 jobs, 
what you will do is strengthen your ability to not let accounts leak 
away to others who will handle the $500 and the $5000 digital jobs as 
well. Not all digital jobs are small dollars, you'd be surprised at 
the dollar volume of the digital jobs we are blowing through here. I 
know its been an epiphany for me.

According to the latest from PIA/GATF Ron, your size printing company 
is at the most risk for loss of revenue from buyers seeking a full 
service offset/digital hybrid solution provider. Your going to face 
competition from smaller operations that are more flexible and can 
turn on a dime, and larger companies that have a large buying 
capability to deploy new technologies and not even blink.

I would start getting very serious about integrating digital 
solutions for your salesforce...God knows I waited years too long myself.

S.

At 10:32 AM 4/14/2007, you wrote:
>***** This is a PrintOwners List Message *****
>
>Good post Bob, we too are looking at the KM6500, it hadn't occurred to me to
>ask if the folder slowed the machine down.
>
>We are a general commercial printer/mailer $5.5MM and I am concerned about
>very short runs interfering with our regular bindery work, including the
>issue of how many overs do you run for certain bindery operations.  In
>looking at some of the in-line solutions, thought these could solve a lot of
>those problems, but if the folder slows the machine to a crawl, I don't know
>about that.  In addition, we note that a huge percentage of our jobs bleed,
>so in many cases this will negate being able to use the finishing in-line.
>We are also concerned about if we could bog our sales reps down selling $500
>jobs when they should be concentrating on much larger jobs.
>
>A good customer recently told us they had a price for a full color booklet,
>32 pages plus cover, 8.5 x11, 500 qty, price of $2450.  We couldn't touch
>that price offset, even with our super fast makereadies.  When I started to
>look at the price, the cost per copy looked very low (.27 per 11 x 17 side)
>forgetting any bindery.  But when I started to look at the value added from
>this job versus time it would take to run, I came up with a figure of
>roughly $200/hour, not too shabby if run on a machine that costs in the
>$40-60K range.
>
>So I wonder if companies with these type of machines are abandoning the
>cost/copy mentality and selling the output more per hour?  I would be
>interested in hearing from others regarding their pricing models.
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: printowners-bounces at printweb.org
>[mailto:printowners-bounces at printweb.org]On Behalf Of Newtone
>Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2007 12:40 AM
>To: Discussion List for Printing Business Owners Only
>Subject: [PrintOwners] Konica 6500 one week progress
>
>
>***** This is a PrintOwners List Message *****
>
>Hi to everyone in Printland.
>
>We've had our KM6500 a week now, and I thought I'd give an update. We have
>the 6500 E version (entry level), this means that we have a lower end Fiery
>Rip, and the finisher has some limitations; 80 page booklet vs 200 page,
>only letter or 1/2 fold. Doing letter fold on a single piece slows the
>machine to a crawl, 12-15 ppm vs the rated speed of 65. Paper handling is
>great, we can feed 80@ cover from a paper tray and duplex in the machine.
>Great registration. We have printed 100# gloss cover also from a tray but
>not duplexed. The color is really sharp, has less gloss than my Xerox 7750,
>more like offset. There are a couple of issues with print drivers, Acrobat
>Fiery and In Design CS2. Multiple copies of multiple page files are sent to
>the RIP for each copy. Also, the finishing features do not work from the
>creation software. We have been able to work around this by using the Fiery
>Workstation Command software. One would think that EFI and Adobe would find
>it advantageous to be fully compatible with each other, but hey, what do I
>know. The copier has a decurler and printed pages come out very flat.
>
>The KM service team has been very helpful. They are very compartmentalized;
>One tech does service and set up; another does network and connectivity; and
>a third assists with software, training and education.
>
>We are waiting for the post document feeder and the high capacity paper
>tray, these are on back order. Color copies off of the glass leave a lot to
>be desired, but this might be a service issue and we are checking with the
>tech.
>
>Our biggest issue to date has been matching the desktop print setup to the
>settings set at the copier for paper weights. We were used to paper, heavy
>paper, thin and thick cardstock on our Xerox. The KM6500 has 8 settings!,
>all in GSM. It has taken me nearly 20 years to understand why 66# cover is
>heavier than 70# text and now I have to learn an all new system. If the
>settings for paper finish, color, weight, and delivery tray do not agree, a
>job does not print. I'm getting my exercise going back and forth from my
>desk to the copier room to verify and correct settings.
>
>All in all, we're very happy with the machine. We run nearly 10,000 pages in
>one week, mixed about 50/50 black and color.
>
>We are diverting some jobs normally done on the press to the printer.
>
>Thanks to everyone for your input on promoting my machine. I'm still
>digesting the suggestions and formulating a plan. I have a lot of
>questions/concerns about pricing. Full color copies is easy, just ask
>Kinko's. I'm curious about the press jobs transferred to the machine. So
>far, I am just charging my standard press rates, regardless of which
>equipment I use to produce a job. But it seems that some sort of pricing
>based on the operating costs and click charges is inevitable. I have a
>competitor advertising 5000 4/4 business cards for $99. As a small/quick
>printer, were being squeezed from the bottom by low cost B/W and color
>lasers in companies and SOHOs, and by the bigger commercial printers going
>after the smaller jobs. We want to promote variable data and need to learn
>how to price it.
>
>Hope I haven't bored anyone with this post, but it was input from the group
>that alerted me to the alternatives to big X and prompted me to get this
>machine. The combined wisdom of ths list is a powerful tool.
>
>Thanks to everyone.
>
>Bob Newton
>Town & Country Printers, Inc.
>Santee, CA
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Scott Cappel
Sorrento Mesa Printing
7398 Trade Street
San Diego, CA 92121-2422
858-527-0800
858-527-1740 FAX
http://www.sorrentomesa.com

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