BFC's Success Formula: Efficient Process and Quality Print
With over 40 years of experience printing for the financial services and insurance industry, BFC (Batavia, IL) has zeroed in on the best way to service clients through efficient process and quality print.
With over 40 years of experience printing for the financial services and insurance industry, BFC (Batavia, IL) has zeroed in on the best way to service clients through efficient process and quality print. After identifying its clients’ specific needs, the company provides custom workflows to streamline the process from job submission through printing and fulfillment, all within very strict service level agreements (SLAs) that require same-day turnarounds. According to BFC Vice President Matt Novak, “If we can’t deliver the same day, then we’ve built the wrong solution for our client. We need to build it rock solid so that it works without fail.”
The evolution to digital print production began decades ago when clients in the insurance industry required short run, albeit most of it was non-personalized, letters which BFC produced using offset printed shells and black and white digital imprinting. Customers soon wanted to produce short run, full-color versioned documents that could deliver the next day. Demand for next day service became a critical customer demand and resulted in the move to investing in more digital technology. Eventually, that investment lead to BFC offering customers the ability to personalize business letters, ID cards, certificates or other communications.
Today, the company drops roughly 100,000 pieces of mail a day into the postal stream, totaling about 300,000 impressions a day with multiple page documents into one envelope. To meet the requirements of their SLAs, BFC relies on its arsenal of 13 Canon (Booth 1500) devices to produce fully variable, fast turnaround, quality print output; including the recently added two imagePRESS C10000VP digital presses. Novak says the quality produced by the C10000VP is so impressive that BFC’s lead press operator, a former offset press operator, couldn’t believe the quality coming off this device. He adds, “Those devices produce at a quality level that that was once only achievable in the offset world.”
As a long-time Canon customer, Novak believed the imagePRESS C10000VP was a natural upgrade for BFC. Novak and Lori Nelson, VP of Marketing and Business Development, are excited about the new markets they can attack because of the addition of the devices. Novak says, “We’ve moved some color critical work from our offset presses to the C10000 presses. Those devices have proven to be a workhorse when it comes to volume demands.” Another key point, Nelson adds, “The new Canon devices allow us to produce high-end marketing pieces on-demand and in shorter quantities.”
Consistent with industry trends, Novak says the company is starting to experience a resurgence in print purchasing volume from long-term clients. He says, “Some of our clients that didn’t completely abandon print but reduced its use are now coming back.” Novak describes one BFC direct mail customer that used to print massive runs of a single version piece. Today, he says BFC prints 500 different versions of that piece for that customer that includes very specialized content. Overall, BFC found that the sweet spot of its print production environment is highly customized, high-volume, short run, fast turnaround jobs.
