Enterprising Canadian printer releases Docket Manager print management system in U.S.A.

Chock another one up to Canadian ingenuity:  Mark Darling (left), who with his wife Deborah owns Track21 Graphix Inc., an Ontario printing company, has just released Docket Manager, their relatively new, Web-based print-management and estimating system, in the United States.  The announcement of this international development came at the first annual conference of the National Print Owners Association (NPOA), now taking place in New Orleans.  Currently more than 30 companies in Canada use the Docket Manager system. 

The Darlings say it works because it was created by print shop owners for print shop owners.  According to a news release dated yesterday, Mr. Darling began developing the system in 1999 after he couldn’t find a sales-and-database-driven equivalent that would fit the needs of his own company and be scalable to today’s Web-connected mobile devices.  Docket Manager is platform agnostic and runs on any computer or mobile gadget with a browser, including laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

The news release also quotes the Darlings as saying:

“We wanted a very open system that would be friendly to other systems.  [It] had to be fast, it had to be scalable, it had to be able to easily integrate with external systems such as CRM, accounting,  company Websites, Web-2-print, workflow,  imposition, social media, e-mail marketing, and preflight, to name a few.”

"We therefore built the system in a .NET/SQL framework.   We purposely avoided technologies like Flash that have proven to be a problem with mobile devices.”

“After we integrated Docket Manager, we actually went from 10 employees down to 4 employees and amazingly increased our productivity and reduced waste. Other users have shared similar experience regarding the ability to reduce staff after the implementation of the Docket Manager system.”

Besides continuing to grow their customer base in Canada, the Darlings will now also be expanding into the U.S. market through a new partner, Chuck Lobaugh (right), a fellow print-shop owner of Curry Printing in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.  Their Canadian headquarters is is located in Dashwood, Ontario, approximately 50 kilometers northwest of London, near the resort village of Grand Bend.

MyPrintResource.com has reproduced their entire news release at: http://www.myprintresource.com/product/10924411/docket-manager-docket-manager

http://www.docketmanager.ca/

http://www.track21.ca/
http://curryprintinghhi.com/

http://graphicartsmag.com/articles/2013/03/the-wonders-of-workflow/

Controversy over Vertis plant closures in Ohio and Ontario persists on line

My initial post on 6 February 2013 appeared as follows:
The closure of a Vertis Communications plant in Medina, Ohio has been scheduled for May 1^st  and will lay off 53 workers.  Based on an article in today's Medina Gazette, this matter seems to be attracting less controversy than the same company's January closure of their plant in Fort Erie, Ontario.

http://medinagazette.northcoastnow.com/2013/02/06/53-jobs-lost-after-sale-of-vertis-communications-in-medina/
http://vicg8.blogspot.ca/2013/01/sudden-closure-of-canadas-only-vertis.html
http://vicg8.blogspot.ca/2013/01/mpp-kim-craitor-champions-ex-employees.html

Update on 13 February 2013:

Although a similar article published in yesterday's Medina Post does not mention any labour disputes, the reader comments that have accumulated since 6 February 2013, when the Medina Gazette article was published, suggest that ex-Vertis employees in Ohio may be encountering similar problems to those faced by ex-Vertis workers in Ontario.

Anonymous, who has worked at the Medina facility for a decade, reports that workers received “No severance, no warn pay, no vacation paid out, no straight answers on what was happening to the company for 6 months.”  S/he also claims that, in order to secure his bonus, their general manager informed workers falsely that if the company stayed profitable, there was a good chance it would remain open.  From social-media sources like this one, it still remains unclear what the legal status of the ex-Medina-workers is, whether they have taken any collective remedial action, or whether a union represents them.

Meanwhile, Mad In Canada and Rooster1966 report that the controversy at the Fort Erie plant has still not been resolved.  They say the picket line continues 24/7 outside the closed plant and aims to prevent owner Quad/Graphics from removing assets until ex-workers receive the entitlements they have legally earned.
http://medinagazette.northcoastnow.com/2013/02/06/53-jobs-lost-after-sale-of-vertis-communications-in-medina/   
http://www.thepostnewspapers.com/medina/local_news/article_8b6f38ce-7071-5878-8aa6-91a6f66c5d5b.html

Update on 8 March 2013:

Like the Medina Post, PIWorld.com has turned in another neutralized report on the Medina plant closure:
http://www.piworld.com/article/commercial-printing-news-briefs-printing-impressions-march-2013# 

The following is an Internet link to a letter dated 3 March 2013 from James A Thibert, General Manager, Fort Erie Economic Development and Tourism Corporation, outlining Mr. Thibert’s version of recent events:  http://www.redbulldiaries.ca/node/3025

Detailed information on the recent escalation of Ontario protests by ex-Vertis employees is available on the Website of CHCH Television (based in Hamilton, Ontario) at: http://www.chch.com/component/k2/itemlist/search?searchword=vertis+communications
http://www.chch.com/home/item/11669-vertis-workers-say-they-were-stiffed-on-severance

But at least someone is still happy with Quad/Graphics:  their shareholders.  The company enjoyed profits of $21 million in the fourth quarter of 2012 and on Monday March 4^th declared a quarterly dividend.  Shareholders of record on Monday, March 18th will be given a dividend of $0.30 per share on Friday, March 29th. 
http://sussex.patch.com/articles/quad-graphics-posts-4q-profit-sales-down-7
http://www.jagsreport.com/2013/03/quadgraphics-plans-quarterly-dividend-of-0-30-quad/

Bill C-311 will expand Canadian wine market--and packaging opportunities for printers--even further

Several of my recent columns for PrintAction have discussed the growing markets for wine, beer, and alcoholic spirits in Canada and the innovations in packaging that are both helping to drive them and creating new opportunities for printers. This week another development signals further commercial growth for wine:  Bill C-311--a private member's bill ending the restrictions on carrying wine across provincial borders for personal consumption--passed third reading in Canada’s House of Commons with unanimous support.  Now it heads to the Senate, where it is also expected to pass.

The bill was introduced last October by Conservative MP Dan Albas, who represents the federal riding of Okanagan-Coquihalla in the heart of British Columbia’s wine-producing territory.  "We should be trying to take down these barriers to make it as easy to sell to someone in Alberta as it is to sell to someone in China," Albas told CBC News after the bill passed Wednesday night.

Since the prohibition-era Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act, it has been illegal in Canada (with a few exceptions) to carry alcohol across provincial borders.  The new bill would allow people to do so, although only for personal use, as well as allow Canadian vineyards to ship wine by post or courier to customers in other provinces.  Small wineries have long complained that the current interprovincial barriers prevent people from legally taking home a few bottles from their favourite vineyards out of province.  

Although wine can already be shipped between provinces for commercial sale, the shipments are only permitted through the provincial regulatory and marketing bodies for alcohol, such as British Columbia’s Liquor Control and Licensing Branch (LCLB) and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO).  Thus many smaller vineyards say they are left out of the process because they don't produce enough product to interest the provincial regulators.

While passage of Bill C311 will help alleviate small wineries’ concerns, it won’t eliminate all provincial restrictions.  For example, regulators in British Columbia, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and the Yukon still limit the amount of alcohol their residents can bring from other provinces for personal use to:  one case of wine, four bottles of spirits, and a combined total of six dozen beer, cider and coolers.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2012/06/07/bc-interprovincial-wine-law.html

http://news.sympatico.ctv.ca/home/canadian_wine_soon_to_flow_freely_between_provinces/248ee5b1

https://www.box.net/s/155447311a71831eea34