Bruce Wiener, formerly of BW Reprographics, joins ABC Imaging’s business development team

In a Press Release issued by ABC Imaging this morning, ABC Imaging says this at the beginning of the Press Release …

Washington, DC – August 25, 2011 – ABC Imaging, a leading print technology and document management company serving the A/E/C market, announced today that Bruce Wiener, founder and President of BW Reprographics, has joined the company as Senior Vice President Corporate Development.

Mr. Weiner, an industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience, founded BW Repro in 2003. The company served clients primarily in New York City and the surrounding region.

“This is a significant strategic move for us”, said Medi Falsafi, President & CEO of ABC Imaging. “Bruce Wiener will add additional value to our already talented management team By joining ABC Imaging, Bruce also enables us to expand our presence in New York.”

You can read the full Press Release at this Internet address:

http://tinyurl.com/3goa76y

Joel’s comments:

In my mind, the Press Release ABC Imaging released this morning left a lot of unanswered questions.

The Press Release indicates nothing more than Bruce Wiener (who was the founder and CEO of BW Reprographics) has joined ABC’s business development team. Inasmuch as Bruce was formerly an officer of the Louis Frey Co [a company that went Chapter 7, years ago, and a company that had extensive operations in the New York area and extensive FM operations (and its FM operations were not just in the New York area, but in many other parts of the U.S.)] and a reprographics industry veteran with 25 years of experience, I would imagine that most industry people would consider Bruce to be a “prime catch” for a senior business development position. Congratulations to Bruce on his new relationship with ABC Imaging.

The Press Release made no mention, whatsoever, about the situation of BW Reprographics. And, when I contacted a senior officer of ABC to ask further questions about BW Reprographics and about the nature of the transaction (assuming there was a transaction) between BW Reprographics, the response I got was, “I have supplied all of the information that I am aware of. Sorry I cannot answer the questions below.” (He was referring to a list of questions I sent in an e-mail, this morning, after I received the Press Release about Bruce joining ABC’s business development team.)

The remaining questions I have, and it looks like these will, unfortunately, go unanswered:

1. Will BW Reprographics continue in business under its own name?

2. If the answer to question #1 is “no”, then will BW Reprographics no longer be an operating reprographics company? And, if “no” is the answer to that question, what’s going to happen to BW Reprographics, LLC (the company!)?

3. Other than the “people asset” that Bruce Wiener represents, did ABC acquire any other BW Reprographics assets? Here, I’m referring to “goodwill, customer list, FM agreements, equipment, etc.”

I remain curious about the Press Release, because, earlier on this blog, I posted a note about BW Reprographics and ABC Imaging, and, in that particular post, I pointed my blog-readers to a document I placed in my Google Docs library. That document was a snapshot of a web-page that I pdf’d off of the Internet. That web-page, apparently, was an ABC “internal-HR” web-page (http://abcimaginghr.com/employees/). What it said on that web-page, at the time I pdf’d a copy of that page, was this, “ABC Imaging Acquires BW Reprographics in New York”. Later that same afternoon, I received an e-mail from a senior officer of ABC telling me, basically, that my characterization of the transaction was not correct. (Actually, the characterization I used was the exact wording that I found on that ABC internal-HR web-page.) That officer went on to say that ABC Imaging acquired (only) “certain assets”. Perhaps that officer was referring to Bruce (as an asset of BW Reprographics)? By the way, don’t bother looking on the Internet for what I found. That web-page no longer carries that headline. But, you can still see it if you click on the link, which will take you to the document that remains in my Google Docs library. As I said earlier, I was informed that that headline was not correct. I’m not providing the link to suggest that that’s not true. I’m providing the link so that my blog-readers will know that I didn’t “imagine it”!

Here’s that link:

http://tinyurl.com/3fnz8u2

Okay, that’s all I know, and it is unlikely that I will do another post about Bruce Wiener or BW Reprographics [unless someone steps to the plate and fills me in on the details as to what has happened to BW Reprographics (the company.)]

_________________________________

Further comment:

This has nothing, at all, to do with ABC Imaging or BW Reprographics. Just wanted to say that it is not uncommon for companies to hire former officer/owners of former competitors, whether on a “contract” basis or on an “employee” basis. Not too long ago, there was a company known as “DigiPlot” (DP). DP operated two locations in South Florida, one in Boca Raton and one in Ft Lauderdale. The principal owner/ manager of DP was Hamid Sharif. Very nice, smart, experienced guy. (I worked with Hamid when we were both at T-Square in Miami, FL.) As a result of the deep recession that impacted Florida’s A/E/C Industry, DP closed its doors. It was not sold to anyone. It’s my understanding that Hamid, right after DP closed, entered into some sort of business development (customer introduction) agreement with a large reprographics company, under which Hamid was entitled to receive commissions (or something like commissions) on business he brought to the large reprographics company. Hamid, having been in his own business for years, certainly had lots of customer contacts. My understanding is that Hamid was not formally employed by the large reprographics company, that he was engaged on a “contract” basis (non-employee.) I don’t know if Hamid is still doing that for that company. The moral of this story, presuming I got it right, is that a company does not always have to buy its competitor to acquire some or all of the business that company was doing. Sometimes it makes more sense, financially and operationally, to simply hire (contract basis or employee basis) one or more of the owner/principals of the competitor. After all, the reprographics business has always been driven by relationships with customers.

Correction to a previous post mentioning ABC Imaging and BW Reprographics

A few days ago, August 23^rd, I put up a post on the blog - using this as the title for that post - “ABC Imaging Acquires BW Reprographics.”

That same afternoon, I received an e-mail from an officer of ABC Imaging, indicating that the characterization I used for the “transaction” was “not quite right.” And, I was asked to pull down the post, which I did do.

Subsequent to that, I’ve received a number of e-mails (basically) asking me, “where’s that post?”, “why did you delete that post?”

I was informed, by the ABC Imaging officer who contacted me, that ABC will be issuing a press release about the transaction. Evidently, ABC Imaging acquired (only) “certain assets” of BW Reprographics. Right now, I don’t know any more than that. When I see the press release, I will post an update.

Yet another "eplanroom" software product for Construction Document Management, etc. (FASTTAC)

Quite some time ago, I put up a post on this blog that contained a list of vendors who’ve developed and offer “eplanroom” services. At the time I did that, I was unaware of the company I’m going to now mention in today’s post, FASTTAC.

I don’t know how much progress FASTTAC has made since 2008, which is when the A/E/C industry – and reprographers – began to experience a slowdown in business. (Yes, that’s putting it mildly.) I did notice that FASTTAC signed up a few reprographers as “resellers”, but, apparently, FASTTAC has not made much progress on that front since early in 2010.

What I found interesting about FASTTAC is that it was developed by a former Vice President and General Manager of Turner Construction. Turner is, of course, one of the largest GC’s active in the United States.

Here’s some information about FASTTAC, per the company’s web-site:

Executive Team

Ray Steeb

Founder, President and CEO

Ray Steeb, Founder, President and CEO of FASTTAC, has worked on this project from its inception when it began as a research project at Carnegie Mellon University. Ray is a twenty-eight year veteran of the construction industry having been Vice President and General Manager of the Pittsburgh Office of Turner Construction Company and President of his own commercial construction and program management companies from 2002 to 2007.

Ray began his career in field supervision on projects ranging in value form $3 million to $150 million where he obtained various levels of project responsibility. He then moved into middle management where he had total responsibility for profit and loss at the project level. Ray became the VP and General Manager of Turner's Pittsburgh office in late 1997 where he took on P & L responsibility for the business unit. This unique experience in field operations, project management and business unit leadership provides FASTTAC with the insight and guidance of an industry insider providing solutions that address the specific challenges and risks of the construction industry.

Here’s the company’s most recent Press Release – you will see that this Press Release announced that BW Reprographics became a “reseller” of FASTTAC:

FASTTAC® Announces Reseller Partnership with BW Reprographics

31 MAY 2010 
POSTED IN PRESS

Partnership Expands Company's Market Presence in New York City and Northern New Jersey

Pittsburgh, May 31, 2010 - FASTTAC®, an industry leader in simplifying the complexities of drawing distribution, control and collaboration in the A/E/C and Facilities Management industries, announced today that it has expanded its Reseller Program to include BW Reprographics. BW Reprographics, a comprehensive reprographics and document management solution provider, can now sell FASTTAC directly to its clients. This partnership expands FASTTAC's market presence and complements BW Reprographics' other products and services by creating an end-to-end digital document tracking and distribution solution that enables the sharing of drawings and documents by all team members on a project.

"This agreement advances our partnership with BW Reprographics and acknowledges our market leading position as the only effective digital alternative for easily distributing construction drawings and documents." said Ray Steeb, CEO of FASTTAC.

Steeb continues, "FASTTAC is so intuitive and easy to use that all project team members, regardless of their computer skills, can immediately use and share digital construction drawings. Our decision to partner with BW Reprographics was based on their experience with providing digital document management solutions in combination with their tradition in delivering innovative and progressive solutions to address the needs of architects, contractors and building owners. We are pleased we have established this partnership in this market and look forward to working together to introducing their clients to the FASTTAC solution."

The FASTTAC Reseller Program supplies its partners with the tools and resources required to deliver the high level of excellence experienced by FASTTAC's direct sales customers. The impact of BW Reprographics' long standing relationships with their local customer's combined with FASTTAC's ability to simplify and automate the drawing distribution process will result in improved communication, productivity and reduced project risk for owners, general contractors, sub contractors and facility managers.

"This partnership gives BW Reprographics an innovative digital document distribution system that complements our existing digital printing, plan room and document management and archiving services which we sell and market today," remarked Bruce Wiener, President, of BW Reprographics. "We only introduce solutions to our customers that have a high level of ease of use and that can address complex document management problems while delivering quantifiable business results. FASTTAC is a solution that meets these criteria and enables us to continue to deliver enterprise level document management solutions to our customers."

With FASTTAC's patented technology, all project team members instantly benefit from the automated distribution of digital drawings and documents which were historically distributed in a paper form on an as needed basis by the construction manager and/or general contractor. FASTTAC users obtain a complete set of contract documents and ongoing updates by simply clicking one button that automatically places updated drawings and documents exactly where the user found the previous version on the user's PC providing system management of the database of project information. These capabilities enable FASTTAC to go far beyond other simple electronic user managed access methods for construction drawings and documents such as shared drives, FTP sites and Plan Rooms. The ease-of-use and speed with which FASTTAC users can access and navigate between drawings quickly results in FASTTAC becoming the "go-to" location for contract documents used on construction projects greatly improving productivity and reducing project risk.

About FASTTAC
Founded in 2005 by industry veteran Ray Steeb in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University, FASTTAC products enable the construction and facility management industries to offer fast and easy access to project drawings and related documents created during the planning, design, and construction phases of a facility through its operation and maintenance. FASTTAC is the only product designed to centrally manage and maintain the contract set of project drawings and related documents while automatically distributing all needed content to the user's local computer. The entire set of project drawings, specifications and approved revisions can quickly and easily be distributed to everyone on the project team. FASTTAC's products are targeted at construction managers, owners and project managers that want to reduce costs and risk while improving productivity and profitability. FASTTAC software products are being used by contractors and building teams on projects throughout the United States. FASTTAC can be found at www.fasttac.com.

Established in 2003, BW Reprographics (BWR) provides commercial and onsite reprographic services in supporting our client's largest construction projects now underway in the New York Tri-State area. With commercial locations in New York and New Jersey, each operation maintains significant capacity, an experienced team, and virtual connectivity. Our growing customer base includes numerous members of New York's largest and most successful firms in the following industries: architectural, construction, development, engineering, real estate and financial. Our Web interfaced state-of-the-art processing centers located in New York City and Wayne, NJ, generate millions upon millions of printed and electronic documents across a wide variety of applications. For more information on BWR, please go to www.bwrepro.com.

Quick Profile – BW Reprographics, LLC – a “full-service” reprographics company operating in the New York – New Jersey market area

BW Reprographics was founded around the time that Louis Frey Co was dissolved in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy proceeding.

From the September 2003 Issue of “Repro Report Weekly”.....

“A Closer Look at New York’s Newest: BW Reprographics”

There’s an old adage that says, “the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree.” It’s an apt description for many in our familial industry, but it’s simply not ambitious enough for 20-year repro veteran Bruce Wiener. Responsible for sales and customer service satisfaction for the majority of his 20-plus years with Louis Frey Co., Wiener is proud of the solid revenue growth and loyal customer relationships developed on his watch. He has, however, wondered if there might be a better way. A better way to do what? A better way to serve today’s customers, whose demands are quite different than they were 10-20 years ago.

As a leader in the facilities management field, with numerous sites estab- lished over the years, Wiener saw an opportunity to leverage the industry’s technological advancements and in early 2003 launched BW Reprographics LLC in the heart of the Big Apple.

“It’s important to utilize the latest customer driven technologies when you begin without a structured legacy and determine how they can best position you for the future,” Wiener says. “Obviously the biggest challenge to setting a business in motion is cultivating clients and giving them a reason to move with you. When you have a 20-year history in a city like New York, and you’ve dealt with thousands of people, the name recognition is a huge asset. But in the end, you’re doing what everyone does: knocking on doors, creating added value and giving 110 percent everyday.

BW Repro has more than met the challenge. Building from the ground-up with the support of loyal customers and colleagues, Wiener opened a 3,000-sq. ft. facility near the Empire State Building and Penn Station. He has started producing numerous client orders, secured some FMs and, because many architects and engineers have migrated across the river over the last couple of years, is opening a second location in suburban New Jersey.

“It’s very exciting,” Wiener says. “Each location will be fully equipped with the best hardware out front to serve the customers’ imaging needs and the best systems software in the back office to improve client communication.”

Specifically, BW Repro is investing in cost-capture technology, Internet connectivity and other processes that cutting edge firms are using to convert from manual to automated digital workflow and improve their communications.

“In order to provide the best technology solutions, we have already established alliances with leading providers of document management software and reprographic systems to optimize our clients’ communications management efforts,” Wiener says. “We will also use technology, such as online communication and billing software packages, which will integrate with our clients’ document management and IT infrastructure to provide seamless and real- time management.”

Wiener’s aim is to provide BW Repro’s customers both high quality reproductions and “advancing values” – and by the latter he means “services that will help customers excel in their own business.”

“By concentrating on keeping our backroom operations streamlined and highly motivated, we will be able to provide our clients with a winning equation,” he says. Highest quality output plus progressive document support systems and superior value – this is the ‘new math’ that many reprographic clients are asking for.”

The equation extends to forming key alliances with companies that share a comparable vision and service ethic.

“In today’s environment, you need to be efficient, and for me that means having core professionals and forming the proper alliances. As I see it, your best alliances start with a strategic partner with an excellent product and a responsive support team, but there also has to be the sense that they’re on the same page and are equally committed to adding value to your client.”

In addition to operating the two commercial shops, BW Reprographics LLC will also be extremely active in the FM arena, an area Wiener helped pioneer several years before it became a widespread practice.

“These key ingredients – quality, dependability and continuous improvement – are even more critical in the facilities management environment,” Wiener explains. “The ongoing value of FM services is changing rapidly. Reprographic firms must recognize this value and be proactive in advancing their abilities for the customer.”

Joel’s comment (actually, a question): Is BW Reprographics still "independent", still owned by Bruce Weiner?