Suppliers fiscally fit, ready to roll

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- As their industry came off a banner 1997, managers from Atex, CText, CCI Europe and SCS told the Newspaper Operations SuperConference here that their financial houses are on solid foundations now, putting them in position to meet their customers' needs -- with help.

Half the world's papers run on decade-old systems, said Max Coebergh, senior vice president for international sales and operations at Atex Media Solutions Inc. of Bedford, Mass., which means replacement sales will sustain suppliers. To grow, "I think we all as vendors need to start looking at areas that are adjacent to the newspaper business."

Suppliers must create new systems, said Richard Cichelli, the president of Software Consulting Services of Nazareth, Pa. "The model of the old system was a queueing model. That's a relatively simple technology to implement, but it's completely at odds with a knowledge-based system shared by users."

But creating systems requires commitment, Coebergh said, and newspapers must buy in. "You expect suppliers like us to spend 10 to 20 percent on R&D; the newspapers spent one percent. If you expect us to do your R&D, you need to expect to pay for it," he said.

Partnerships between suppliers and customers may be the best answer, said Larry Moore, CEO of CText Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich. He told the Pre-press Industry Outlook session of working with one paper that has seven Microsoft-qualified engineers on staff: "We're supplying core technology, they're supplying what they want as a newspaper in the future. That's going to keep us more healthy."

Healthy payrolls were the norm. Atex added 110 people in the last year, with most going to R&D and customer support; CText is going overseas to find and train engineers, first in Brazil and now in Asia. CCI Europe started 1998 with 28 more people than in 1997, said Johnny Thøgersen, the Danish company's vice president for marketing research and product design.

Finding talent is tough, the suppliers reported.

"It's not difficult to hire people in our market, it's impossible," Moore said. He and Thøgersen both spoke of six-figure salaries that suppliers -- and publishers -- all may have to pay for technology personnel before long. A good database manager may cost $120,000 a year, Thøgersen said. "If you're not willing to pay that for good people, you're putting an even greater burden on us."

-- P.W.

See also SuperConference round-robin flies over familiar territory

From THE COLE PAPERS, February 1998, Copyright © 1998, All Rights Reserved.