MAKING VALUE ADDED SERVICES WORK

Print Action, May 2004

THE BOOK REVIEW

David Dodd and Bill Lavelle suggest that intelligent diversification is the prescription needed for a healthy printing operation. The two principles of a company called Point Balance have backed up their theory by outlining a six-step protocol for rolling out value-added services and guiding diversification efforts for printing companies. The protocol can be found in a book, appropriately titled Making Value Added Services Work, which looks at strategy development, solution architecture, operating models for solution providers, complex selling, process engineering and technology selection.

In this tough competitive environment, according to the authors, many printers are diversifying to provide non-print, value-added services in addition to ink on paper. They continue to say that printing company managers hope offering these new services will rejuvenate revenue growth and improve profit margins. But they also argue that diversification does not guarantee improved financial performance and that, in reality, successful diversification is hard to achieve.

The two authors have found that 75 per cent of all recent business diversification programs have failed to produce expected financial gains. The book Making Value Added Services Work aims to provide a concise roadmap for managers to achieve value-added-services diversification. The book attempts to explain how to determine what services your company should offer, how to sell those services effectively, and how to build the business infrastructure to deliver those services profitably.

Those companies selling value-added services, relating to technology, have the ability to identify where prospects are in their own value-added development and can then apply the appropriate amount and type of resources to manage the cost of sale and reduce sales cycle times. The book sells for US$99 and can be found at www.printaction.com.