Unfortunately, there is no standard "pricelist" on inventory management and fulfillment because, like printing, each project is unique.

Generally, pricing is determined by the following:

First, we charge to store the product. This is usually billed on a "per month" basis. Amount being stored (volume and weight) and length of time being stored (how long it will take to go thorough the inventory).

Second, we then charge for the process of "fulfillment" which is basically the cost to pick, package, and ship. Usually we bill this on a monthly basis too—so on the same invoice you will see the monthly storage and the individual fulfillment charges. Pick pack and ship charges depend on the following:

1. Order method (manual = more expensive vs. eCatalog = less expensive). Keep in mind that setting up an eCatalog can have a cost to it if it is complicated or customized. If it is a standard feature eCatalog and the volume with the project is large enough, the cost of the eCatalog can be minimal or even a no charge set up.

2. Type of products being fulfilled. Remember-- we can fulfill printing and well as non printed products

3. Volume (number of fulfillment requests each day/week/month).

4. Frequency of picks and packs (if we can fulfill once a week after accumulating all of the orders as opposed to fulfill on demand, you can save money. This, of course depends on volume. If there are enough requests each day, we can fulfill each day cost effectively and thus provide a very quick turnaround. However, if the volume is not there, it makes more sense to "bunch them" and do them say, once a week. But the question is, is this a good enough turnaround? If not, there may be a premium charged.

5. Packaging requirements. (Note—if you can pre-package and pull already assembled or packaged products, packaging cost can be reduced. Conversely, if you have to collate or package on demand, it will be more expensive. We often get our customers to "package up front" – when we print the job—in the increments that they are going to fulfill. Example—if they are going to fulfill in 500's, we will box in 500s when we print it. Also packaging can be impacted by "kitting" or "bundling" requirements—if multiple products have to be put together or multiple products have to b put in the same box.)

6. Shipping method. Generally we ship via UPS but some customers want special options.

Remember fulfillment is just like printing, the larger the volume, the lower the per unit cost. Also, sometimes it makes sense to "print on demand" if the product, run length and finishing options make sense. Finally, you can mix and match—you can put both print on demand and inventoried items on the same eCatalog.

The best thing to do is to have a very specific idea of how you want your product fulfilled (based on the information listed above) and then sit down with your B&B account executive and talk it through. We'll then give you a proposal back with all of the details of how it will work and the individual prices too.

Here are the direct links to the sections of our website that cover these services:

Inventory Management and Fulfillment: http://www.bbprintnet.com/aboutbb.cfm?pass_link=inventory

eCatalog: http://www.bbprintnet.com/aboutbb.cfm?pass_link=procurement

Very often the products that are posted limit the kind of information that can be customized by limiting the fields (or areas) on the product that can be changed or customized. Also, design elements and fonts can be controlled too. By doing so, a company can protect the look and feel of their brand. It also produces a well designed product without requiring the user to have design expertise.

Most companies use online design technology to allow individuals in their organization to customize and order products online through a password protected website called an eCatalog. There are many advantages to having an eCatalog including the huge cost savings of allowing employees to order directly, thus cutting down on processing costs. For more information, read more about eCatalogs.

Many products are perfect for online design. Some common products are business cards, stationery items such as letterhead and envelopes, and customized brochures.

B&B Printing has a very advanced set of online design technologies designed to leverage the benefits of online print design and procurement. Contact us for a complete demonstration of this technology.

B&B's inventory management solution is comprised of three key services/capabilities:

1. Storage and Fulfillment Services: B&B offers storage and fulfillment services.
2. Online Inventory Management: B&B offers online, integrated inventory management tools which allow you to monitor inventory, view trends and replenish inventoried items.
3. Online Inventory Release Ordering: B&B offers eCatalogs which allow you and your employees to order releases from inventory.

We're here to help you! Contact us or Learn more about B&B's inventory management and fulfillment services and get an in-depth overview of the above three services/capabilities.

For your convenience, you may also click on the following link: Account Application.

Note that under "B&B Downloadable Forms and Information" in the "Useful Links" section you can find other helpful forms and documents.

Yes, there are some interesting statistics that show just how effective variable data printing can be. CAP Ventures (a market research firm) surveyed digital print customers with the following question:

“By what percentage have you improved the following metrics with personalized (variable data) printing?”

Response time: 34.9%

It is important to note that there are certain factors which impact response rates when using variable data printing. The most important of which is the effective use of variable data. While you can see that variable data does dramatically improve response rates, it is essential to establish a well thought out strategy on how you will apply your database. “Strategy” is, in its own right, a big subject—too big in fact to cover in this answer. But, if you want to understand more, see our Variable Data Case Studies. There you will see how other companies have successfully applied this technology.

Of course, B&B’s account executives and CSRs are trained variable data printing consultants who will be glad to work with you on your strategy and show you examples of effective, successful projects.

Read more about B&B's digital printing capabilities.

If you are designing a variable data job, your file should be designed in QuarkXpress and your database should be comma delimited. B&B can help you in either of these areas if you have questions or need assistance.

A variable data piece still only requires one file; the actual data that is used will be pulled from a predetermined database. However, you will need to design with variable data in mind. Here are some of the key points:

• If your piece includes images as variable data, the images chosen should all be the same shape and size. If you chose to vary a 3" x 5" image, all images for that spot should be 3" x 5". While it is possible to set your file to make the images proportional, you run the risk of hurting the quality of the image if significant changes are required.
• If your copy will change, design around the longest string of copy. Check your database for the longest name - first and last combined if you plan to use both - or for whatever your longest piece of variable data will be.
• Variable data printing puts a spotlight on your database. It will be worth the time and effort to make sure you have correct information.

The Digital Printing Council offers a newsletter, Designing4Digital. For more information, see their web site at http://www.gain.net/PIA_GATF/DPC/D4D/main.html.

For additional information: read more about B&B's digital printing capabilities or see our Variable Data Case Studies.

But all is not lost: B&B does support PDF (Portable Document Format) files. You can create a PDF of many file types, including MS Word files, using a software program called Adobe Acrobat. Adobe has also recently released an online service that allows you, for a fee, to create PDFs without having Acrobat. (A recent 'Tip and Technique' posted on B&B's web site discusses this online service available from Adobe). By creating a PDF file of your Word file, we can generally take your file and image and print it. We have more detailed information on PDFs our website under a section called 'WHEN SHOULD I USE PDF?'.

To get a general overview of PDFs, you can also link to one of our Printing Encyclopedia cards which addresses PDF technology

It is likely that a three color job would be run on one of our large multi color presses. While B&B has the most efficient production process available for each of our presses, the process for the HP 5000 is more efficient than for our conventional presses on short run jobs. That streamlining is reflected in the price. Based on your question, it sounds like the three color job that you are referring to is a short run job and this explains the price difference. Of course, as your quantities go up, the larger format presses combined with our Computer-to-Plate technology become more efficient than the HP 5000 because they run faster and run a larger sheet size, thus enabling more pages to be run at once.

1) Preproofs: Soft proofs can be used to give an inexpensive preview of your job before outputting the final proofs. If you are unsure that your file is correct or if you commonly have alterations and want to avoid some alteration charges, this can be a very powerful tool. A preproof can also be used to preproof complicated files that B&B has to fix or update, scans, unique cropping, etc. Why is a preproof helpful? To save money and to avoid expensive alteration charges. Rather than outputting expensive final proofs, you can receive a digital version first and make any alts prior to getting that final hard proof output for final approval. While these alts to the PDFs will still be charged for, the costs will not include the expensive material costs of hard proofs. To make it easy on you, we can produce PDFs of the individual pages instead of imposed files.

2) Simple Alteration Proofs: Occasionally, a customer receives a hard proof and asks for very simple (generally copy only) changes. If time does not permit getting another hard proof, we can generate a soft proof for review. Soft proofs are much better than a fax because they show color and are easier to read. These types of proofs must be imposed because in essence, they are a final proof.

3) Type (composition) Proofs: Instead of faxing a composition proof, we can provide you a PDF soft proof. Why is this better? it is easier to read and you can see colors, etc. To make it really easy to read we can send individual pages instead of imposed files.

4) Supplementary Proofs: Often a large number of people have to see proofs. Sometimes these people are not in the same location or are in different parts of the country. This can cause a delay in turning around a proof and can mess up a turnaround. To expedite the proofing process we can give you BOTH hard proofs AND soft proofs. In this case, the hard proofs act as the final proofs and the soft proofs can be redistributed by you to the others in your organization that need to review them. Because the hard proofs act as the final proof they will be signed off on. Because the soft proofs are not final proofs, we can PDF individual pages for easier reviewing instead of imposed files.

Conclusion: As you can see there are many other uses of soft proofs that do not just involve final proofing. Your account executive will be glad to work with you to see how soft proofs can help. If you would like to see how soft proofs work, take a tour of the soft proofs section of the Customer Center now.

*All soft proofs are subject to the Soft Proofing Terms and Conditions located at www.bbprintnet.com/softproofterms.htm.

*B&B Printing has no direct connection with Flightcheck or Preflight Pro. The inclusion of these links on B&B's site does not imply endorsement or warranty by B&B.

We press hard for color split lasers because they are the best way to catch certain problems before you send the job to us. Color split lasers are the best place to catch:

• Swollen type problems,
• Overprint or trapping troubles,
• Problems with converting RGB or Match colors to CMYK.

Sometimes imbedded files have colors that are mistakenly named differently than the main file (Pantone 575 vs. Pantone 575U). Your page layout program will treat these as separate colors. By running color splits you can see these extra colors. Rule of thumb: if you have a 4-color job and you have 5 color split lasers, something is wrong!

Catching and fixing these problems before you send the file to B&B ultimately will save you time and dollars.

B&B can design custom dies for just about any shape you want to produce. We also have many standard dies for pocket folders, CD holders, and other custom packaging needs. Using a standard die template is likely to be more cost effective; your Account Executive can show you what we have in stock.

Die cutting helps any printed piece stand out – and is a must for most custom packaging. When considering what form your die cut piece should take, think about its intended use. If it requires folding and will be passed from one person to the next, be sure that the order of the folds is obvious so the second and third person will have the same initial visual impact. Also, while sharp points may be more dramatic, they are more likely to show wear quickly – a dog-eared point probably is not your intent. Don't hesitate to ask to look at our samples before you head into the design phase.

No. PDF Soft Proofs don't replace dot based Matchprints or inkjet Matchprints, but there are occasions where it makes sense to use PDF Soft Proofs either in conjunction with Matchprints or in place of them. PDF Soft Proofs are not great for checking color fidelity on critical projects, but if your four color project is not color critical or if you're just checking copy or a one or two color job where the color is not critical, PDF Soft Proofs may work fine. They are also very effective when you need to get approval from more than one person. The designer might receive the Matchprint to check for color correctness while everyone else gets a PDF Soft Proof to review copy and general appearance.

The general rule of thumb when it comes to final proofing of a project, PDF Soft Proofs should be used to expedite a tight turnaround. If you have time to look at traditional hard copy proofs, do it—they are the most accurate.

For more information on PDF Soft Proofs, go to Frequently Asked Questions about soft proofs in the soft proofs section of the Customer Center.*

*All soft proofs are subject to the Soft Proofing Terms and Conditions located at www.bbprintnet.com/softproofterms.htm.