A Management Tool For Today’s Industry Epicomm program helps businesses prepare Ifor change in real time n today’s industry, the benefits of technology are not limited to the pressroom. Leading Indicators, a software driven management tool from Epicomm (Booth 861), is helping print, mail, fulfillment, and marketing service providers get control of their financial activities, and prepare for change. A web-based financial benchmarking program, sponsored by Konica Minolta (Booth 1931), provides insights into companies’ key financial metrics, giving them an edge in growing profitability. Visitors can test drive the program in Epicomm’s booth (861). “The changing nature of today’s industry creates historic opportunities for the prepared and profound threats for the unprepared,” says Epicomm Senior VP and Chief Economist Andrew Paparozzi. With Leading Indicators, companies can monitor their “universal vital metrics”—13 critical business measurements that every company should track regularly. “Owners and managers can see how their critical metrics compare with those of their peers and industry leaders, break out performance by size of company or other filters, and have access to an ongoing analysis of business conditions, critical trends, and issues in their market,” says Paparozzi. The program is based on three principles: • Focus first on what’s most important. “Instead of trying to benchmark everything from the get-go, we start with the vital metrics that tell us what we most need to know,” says Paparozzi. “We can always dig deeper—but not until we know exactly what the vital few say about our performance and prospects.” • Benchmark frequently enough to anticipate trends. “Good benchmarking programs detect trends. Better programs detect trends early. The best programs anticipate trends, getting us out ahead of them so we can aggressively reinforce the positive and reverse negative,” he explains. • Challenge ourselves. “Too often we benchmark only to confirm our current standing and conclude that we can just keep doing what we’ve been doing,” says Paparozzi. “There was a time when we could get away with that. But that time has long past. “One key to the effectiveness of Leading Indicators is that it provides management with crucial financial benchmarks on a timely basis—quickly enough to capitalize on the immediate opportunities they may offer and protect against the impending threats they may reveal,” says Paparozzi “Data are submitted monthly,” he explains. “If nothing much were changing, benchmarking vital financial metrics once per year would be enough, but everything is evolving, and the pace of that change is not about to moderate.” Leading Indicators is open to every industry company and franchisee. There is no charge to participate, but companies must agree to submit a detailed company profile and provide specific financial and employment data on a monthly basis. Data to be submitted include gross sales, cost of goods sold, payroll, gross margin, EBITDA, accounts receivable, number of employees, and number of sales personnel. Data entry at the secure Leading Indicators website takes less than five minutes. No one sees a company’s data except the person submitting WHAT YOU COULD DO WITH AN & it, anyone the company designates as a Leading Indicators contact, and Paparozzi, as program administrator. To help researchers get the whole story behind the data, participants are also asked to respond to a monthly “beyond the numbers” question on issues such as their greatest opportunities, threats, and concerns. From the data submitted, the program calculates the company’s 13 vital metrics, including sales growth, payroll as a percent of sales, gross margin, EBITDA as a percent of sales, days of receivables outstanding, and sales per employee. Participants may access results, including a summary of metrics from all respondents and top performers (top 20%), at the program website. Epicomm members may also break results out by company type, size, and other relevant criteria. Non-participants have no access to Leading Indicators results and no results will be published. Go to ilink.me/Research.LI and click on the sample survey form to view the metrics and/or register for the program. Imagine Being Able to Digitally Print, Cut, Slit, Crease and Strike Perf up to 47 Inches in one Single Pass at Full Production Speeds. G R A P H E X P O 1 5 DP1000 & DF Pro BOOTH 3013 WWW.MGIUSA.COM Official Show Daily | PrintingNews.com GRAPH EXPO | September 15, 2015 | 25
GraphExpo Show Daily September 15 2015
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