Welcome. Here’s a quick take on who we are and what we do:

I’m Terry Frazier, writer, researcher, analyst, publisher, and founder of Cognovis Group LLC. We’re a consulting, research, and marketing company working on the opportunities and challenges as print and online communications continue to blend.  See the About page, my bio page, and give me a call at 678-374-4451 to talk.

Here’s what we can do for you…

• Are you a senior exec with in-plant printing and need to be sure it’s the right choice? We’ve helped Fortune 500 companies identify hidden costs, simplify options, and make the best choice for beating the competition.
• Are you ready to outsource but want to save time and money in the process? We’ve managed multi-million dollar RFPs and helped move $50+ million in fixed costs to a variable relationship with the best strategic partner, for a true long-term bargain.
• Want to cut your print-mail spend and move more customers online? We’ve helped companies find the right way to suppress print and reach their goals faster, avoid critical mistakes, and keep customers happy.
• Want to know what your major competitors are doing to increase online adoption? We do leading-edge market research to find out exactly what works… and what doesn’t.
• Are you a print or e-messaging provider looking to boost sales strategy? We know your customers and what they’re thinking, so you get an advantage in today’s tough market.
• Are you a business owner or professional looking to boost your image, showcase your expertise, and grow your business? We’ve put 20 years experience combining print, publishing, and the internet into some great Nearline services that simplify your life with faster, easier print and online marketing to keep you ahead of the competition.

These are just a few of the ways we can help your business, eliminate headaches, and save you money. Give me a call at 678-374-4451 or email me at tfrazier at cognovis dot com and let’s get started making your life easier.

They’re all pretty much the same, and they are all doomed if you don’t take proper steps before you install one. Effective inventory management is much more about your physical environment and your physical process (and your inventory management strategy) than the software. This is true anytime you have a software system that depends on lots of human involvement for accuracy.

Almost any inventory management system you install is going to exact a heavy price in tagging, tracking, inventorying, etc. Unless you can plan and minimize the physical effort associated with these steps the system is going to fail. It doesn’t matter what it is.

The real danger with any inventory system is that you rely on it when it is wrong. So you have to make sure that whatever you use, it is very, very easy to keep it up to date and accurate. Especially if you have staff that will be required to use the system (whether they are tagging, using, checking in/out, etc.)  the extra physical effort has to be as low as possible for it to work.

I would focus on making sure your physical environment is organized to support your inventory goals, and arranged such that you have quick visual cues if anything is out of whack.  I’d try to work it out on paper first. Use stickers, note cards, pads, whatever you need, but work on the process until you are sure it is sound and has been reduced to the absolute minimum number of steps.

Then when you are ready to automate a good, sound process do not accept any system that adds more steps. This is really common sense, but it’s surprising how many people will blindly follow some byzantine process because it is engineered into a piece of software.

Often creating your own spreadsheet template will suffice. A spreadsheet can provide rudimentary database functions and should work fine as a simple inventory control system. If it doesn’t you can look to something like Microsoft Access for a simple database.

If you aren’t comfortable creating your own spreadsheet template you could get someone like this guy http://www.excelconsultant.net/ (note: I have no connection to this site) to write it for you once you have a good idea of what you need.

The future of print may not be decided by the producers and purveyors of print, but rather by the rise of technologies that are completely outside their control.

Recently Stephen Beals of Printoolz.com asked for comments on print’s future and the linking of print to the internet, particularly with regard to recent technologies such as USBInsert and the SixthSense demonstration at TED. (For the full text of Stephen’s comment go here.)

The SixthSense stuff is amazing in many ways, even if rudimentary. My first response to the USBInsert (TM, SM, ©, ® PatentPending, etc.) is that this is the sort of thing that gets patent examiners in hot water. I could not readily find the details on patentstorm.com, but the general idea of taking some 10-year-old tech and gluing it to some die-cut cardboard hardly seems like it should be granted a patent. Perhaps there is some more original aspect of this device that I am missing. At least it pertains to some physical implementation, unlike the dildoid business model patents so rampant a few years back.

One of Stephen’s comments is that printing URLs in ads or copy is a waste of ink. I don’t have any data to dispute this (I don’t know if Stephen has any data to support it) but it just seems counter-intuitive — I look them up all the time. I think the problem (or one problem) is that such actions are difficult to track and/or very few people go to the trouble of tracking. It requires some work and forethought to setup any of the various trackable response loops, and it’s tough to do so without raising the effort level enough the reader just blows it off.

However, if your copy has raised the proper emotional state, and your URL is properly positioned as holding satisfaction for that state, and the action required is easy enough, why wouldn’t people do it? I do. I think that’s what USBInsert is trying to do – reduce the action component to near zero
while adding easy trackability.

Security issues with mass-distribution USB devices are significant, but security awareness in the general population is pretty low so that’s probably not a show-stopper. I just think USBInsert is swapping one kind of complexity for another with little net gain — you still have to tear out the little device and take it to some computer and plug it in. Can’t you type a simple URL in less time?

I recently listened to a web conference about the future of print media where HarperCollins talked about QR code implementation, and metaio, Inc. discussed augmented reality. Both are interesting, although coming from entirely different perspectives on interactivity for print.

QR codes are already being used in other countries that are more advanced in their mobile infrastructure than the US. Here we have to first get manufacturers to put the necessary software into smartphones, get carriers to sell the smartphones, and then get a preponderance of users to buy those smartphones. That could take a decade or longer. By that time devices similar to SixthSense could well be on the market making the whole exercise somewhat moot, although I suppose QR codes could be used to point the devices to meta-information provided directly by the advertiser/publisher.

In the end the future of printing could be completely outside the control of print producers, relying mostly on technology over which they have no control. There’s a real danger the industry will make the mistake Adobe made with PDF, and utterly misread their place in an online world. It’s not that print should go quietly into that good night but, as Peter Drucker said in Innovation and Entrepreneurship:

Innovation requires us to systematically identify changes that have already occurred but whose full effects have not yet been felt, and then to look at them as opportunities. It also requires existing companies to abandon rather than defend yesterday.

In today’s info-glut society it is increasingly important to have strong a communications and marketing strategy that speaks directly to your prospects and customers — especially if you are a small- to medium-sized company.

Image advertising and branding still work for the big firms, those with many locations and big budgets for ads that can’t be tied directly to results. Smaller firms need better economics, better returns, and better ways of ensuring the dollars they spend on marketing provide tangible, testable results.

Nearline’s knowledge and experience helps those firms make the most of their communications dollar and delivers the tangible results they need to grow and succeed in today’s ultra-competitive marketplace. Stay tuned for more as we integrate Nearline’s expertise into our service offerings.

I was the lead analyst and author on this study, and can vouch for the quality of the content. (For those who don’t know, I do a lot of my work in the Fortune 500 space as a contractor to Madison Advisors and Doculabs.) If you’re in the banking, financial services, insurance, or utility space and interested in how the major players are faring in their print reduction efforts, what’s working, and what’s not you’ll want to read this study.

We surveyed 27 companies with an extensive, cross-discipline survey followed with a 60- to 90-minute qualitative interview. The results confirmed some things we thought we knew, surprised us with some things, and provided valuable insight into where things may be going in the next 3-5 years.

If you’re in any way involved in the printed customer communications space — supplier, outsourcer, in-house production, manager, or senior executive — you’re going to want a look at this study. Contact Madison Advisors at the link above for your copy, and let them know if you want to participate in the 2010 study.

and our new physical location is:
2221 W. Southwest Loop 323, Unit 104
Tyler, TX 75701

You can still reach us at the same numbers and email addresses.

Here is my definition:

Supply Chain Management is matching the means of production to market needs while meeting the objectives of the business for cost, quality, service, and risk.

In 2002 Terry formed Cognovis Group, LLC as a full-time consultancy to aid companies in navigating the rapidly evolving world of personalized documents, multi-channel messaging, and enterprise content.

Since 2002 he has led or participated in numerous successful engagements that reduced cost by outsourcing non-core functions, validated efficient operations through benchmarking; Built strategic partnerships through effective and efficient RFP processes, and; Created solid transition frameworks for modernized customer communications.

Background

In 1995, while working at IBM, he developed several award-winning 1-to-1 marketing applications with clients from small advertisers to Fortune 1000 companies. In 1997 he was a member of the core team that designed, developed, and deployed the first fully demand-driven, retail paperback book production facility in the U.S., located in Nashville, TN. Later, as Director of Manufacturing at Internet-based publisher iUniverse, he was responsible for developing the book industry’s first fully outsourced, zero-inventory, demand-driven supply mechanism.

Previously, Terry was Senior Consultant for CAP Ventures/InfoTrends, a strategic consultancy in the digital print industry, where he published a number of papers on Digital Asset Management, personalization, and digital print. He is a Founding Director of the CRM Association – a nationally chartered, non-profit group formed to help companies build and sustain long-term client and partner relationships. Terry is a member of the Institute of Management Consultants, and holds a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Texas at Tyler.