Printers embrace online services and EDI

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, August 1, 1995 by Steve Wilson

The printing community is printed for a new way of doing business: through electronic data interchange (EDI). A recent survey of the online practices of printing companies, conducted by the National Association of Printers and Lithographers, found that 65 percent of the 220 printers surveyed use an online service such as CompuServe to send and receive customer files.

But other methods of transferring large amounts of data are already being embraced by printers attracted by the time and money savings that EDI technology affords.

Esteban Haigler, technical service manager of New York City-based Parade Publications, knows the benefits. He estimates that by using Boston-based Quebecor (USA) Printing Corp.'s SMDS (Switched Multimegabit Data Service) network, he eliminates two days from the weekly's multiple-edition production schedule. The technology also saves the cost of shipping film. Parade produces about 50 regional editions each week and sends electronic files to four plants through the network.

Quebecor finks 10 plants and three customers with SMDS, says Terry Bush, corporate engineering manager. The technology, acting as a network in which charges are incurred for every megabyte delivered, allows the company to send fully imaged color pages in five minutes.

"We can broadcast information to six plants simultaneously," Bush says. "And it gives the customer easy access to our facilities."

Parade also uses the slower but more economical ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines to receive digital ads. Haigler says it takes him just 24 hours turn around the 50 to 60 fully formatted pages the company pipes in for the tide's regional editions.

"ISDN operates 150 times faster than a traditional telephone line and, unlike SMDS, charges the user per call instead of per megabyte. Mike Bengtson, director of communications at Chicago-based R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company, says ISDN is the perfect EDI choice for low to medium workloads. Considering its adjustable speed and cost, many printers are treating it as a natural fit for their magazine clients.

"ISDN is good for short, bursty stuff," says John Garvey, vice president of marketing and distribution at Parade. "We think it will be a widely used technology."

Other EDI technologies include frame relay networks and the fastest means yet devised: ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode), which can also send video and sound at high speeds. Although ATM was released earlier this year, Bush says it will take a few years to catch on. Meanwhile, printers and clients win have their modem ports full.

PRODUCTION TIP

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In the first two MD&P sections, we printed production and design tips from Tim Samms, president of Eden Communications, and John Mack Carter, former editor in chief of Good Housekeeping. Now it's your turn to share experience and know-how with your peers in the industry. If yoou have any tips, tricks or hints that show how to do it faster, cheaper and better, please write to us on America Online (CowlesNews) or CompuServe (72733,227), or call 212-683-3540, extension 409.