Issue 9
What's New at The Microfilm Shop
I think this is where I came in - by John Negus
Marketing Award
Personality Profile - Chris Ellwell
What's New at The Microfilm Shop
The Microfilm Shop is continuing to invest time and money in the Micrographics Industry as we move ever closer to the next millennium. Here are just a few of the latest developments happening within The Microfilm Shop - by Paul Negus, Managing Director .
In the last couple of weeks The Microfilm Shop have announced our acquisition of the diazo duplicate supplier JRK Imagin Graphics of Brussels, Belgium. We are very pleased that we have been able to incorporate JRK into The Microfilm Shop organisation. Due to the large sales, high profile and the loyalty of their customers we have maintained the JRK brand name.
The JRK ImaginGraphics division of The Microfilm Shop will, in addition to its competitively priced and high quality diazo products, be able to offer a full range of microfilm consumables, storage cabinets and equipment. JRK has always specialised in the larger volume diazo users, being able to offer competitive bulk diazo prices. Combined now with our diazo striping and cutting plant coupled with our extremely low minimum order quantities (100 sheets or 1 roll) and our customer service reputation we are attempting to consolidate our position as one of the major European diazo suppliers. Our improved buying power should also mean that we can now be more competitive on all diazo orders starting from 1 roll all the way through to 10,000.
Packaged with our own manufactured jackets, our own label silver film and our comprehensive range of consumables we believe that we are superbly placed for the resurgence of the microfilm industry. Whilst other organisations have turned their back on microfilm we have consistently invested in new products, systems and sales & marketing. This is now paying off significantly with bureau sales, end user sales and new - yes - even new microfilm sales at an all time high.
By starting to sell equipment over 6 months ago we were able to reassure the bureau and end user market that someone was going to offer the full range of microfilm products. Along with the recent formation of the Fbi Europe, the Data Archiving Association and customers' realisation that computers won't solve everything - I can't wait for the year 2000! - we have helped to restore confidence in a market that should never have lost its faith.
We will be putting our money where our mouth is in June with a large stand at IMC '98 at Earls Court from June 9th to June 11th. On show will be our brand new Equipment Modem which will be based on our current 150 page supplies catalogue and price list. People who have already requested a copy at the end of last year (over 200 at the last count) will receive their complimentary copy within the next few weeks. If you haven't ordered one then give us a call or come along to Earls Court in June.
On show will be the latest A3 Screenscan Microfilm Scanner which should be a big hit with the Library market and help improve the user friendliness of microfilm. The new vesicular duplicator from Houston Fearless will also be revealed. This enables superb copying of photographic images on microfilm - another one for the libraries. The full Buic family of rotary cameras will also be on view. Along with our extensive range of microfilm con-sumables our stand will be well worth a visit.
On a final note I would like to take this opportunity of welcoming the customers of JRK Imagin Graphics to The Microfilm Shop. This combining of forces confirms our commitment to microfilm and will strengthen our position in the marketplace.
I think this is where I came in - by John Negus
On the basis that any excuse for a drink goes in the microfilm industry, they held a surprise party for me when I retired from the industry in June 1996.
It was a very pleasant evening and towards the end I was chatting with a person who worked for one of the film manufacturers and what he said startled me. No, he didn't ask me to buy everyone a drink, he said "I think you are lucky enough to be getting out at the right time."
For once in my life I was speechless. In one short sentence he had set out the malaise that has been gripping our industry for the past 7 or 8 years. Since that night I have thought about what he said many times.
When you retire you have lots more time to kiss the dog, stroke the wife and contemplate the meaning of life. After doing all of that I began to think long and hard as to how best answer the man's question - like all good instant retorts they only turn up months later.
When I first started in the industry (34 years ago) there was only Kodak and 3M really promoting microfilm. They each sold a camera and a reader printer and every week their reps used to meet and compare leads. This was because Kodak had the best camera (the Portable) but the second best reader printer (the Magnaprint) whilst 3M had the best reader printer (the F100) but an inferior camera (the Federal). With co-operation they promoted an industry by creating Kodak/3M joint installations in a pioneer, ground breaking market. They were shortly to be joined (late as ever) by Bell & Howell selling Burroughs equipment.
This was back in the days before fiche readers and COM existed and a Leo 4 was the state of the arts computer - Oh, happy days!!!
My first involvement was designing a microfilm system for Local Government planning files. i.e. a combination of plans (35mm) and documents (16mm). Microfilm jackets did not exist either.
Therefore, I eventually came up with an 8" x 5" laminated microfilm jacket (handmade) to hold 2 rows of 16mm and one row of 35mm film which was read on an aperture card reader. This meant that you had to flip the jacket over each time that you wanted the other half of the file.
At about the same time, Tom Anderson Snr of Microseal, Illinois, invented his 6" x 4" Tab Jacs made from card and polyester, and Kath Forty of MAB produced her 3 channel 3" x 5" welded jackets for medical files. Then (late again of course) came good old Bell & Howell with their 6" x 4" NB double sided sticky tape jackets. The birth of the flat film format meant that microfilm could expand into almost every facet of business life. Then, added to all this, there was the 3M cartridge with its odometer and there was nothing to stop us. They were Roller Coaster, exciting days and we could do anything the customer requested. Teams of salesmen from Kodak, 3M, Bell & Howell, Agfa, CAPS/Imtec and many others scoured the countryside from Durham to Dinorwic looking to find backlogs and customers who had never heard of microfilm.
This scenario led directly to the creation of the Bureau industry, as there were large backlogs everywhere and the customers were not too keen to tackle them themselves. The manufacturer's rep would go in mob-handed with the bureau rep and sell a complete system that covered, not only the backlog, but tomorrow's documents as well. This worked so well that many 3M, Kodak and Bell & Howell reps started up their own bureaux - many of which are still going today.
The whole prospects base consisted of 3 types of customer :-
- Those who wanted to save space and money.
- Those who wanted to save time and money.
- Those who wanted to chuck the stuff away but did not have the courage.
Everything was perfectly focused and clear, the customer could see the advantages and the cost savings, and we could see how to do it easily and profitably without having to continuously upgrade our equipment - Oh, happy days of Archive Imaging!!!
Then someone threw the first bottle of ink into our crystal clear pool and clouded it. It was labelled "COM".
Computer printout was designed for the ease of the machine and to Hell with the customer. Why have one mag stripe card with one person's complete year's wages calculations on, when you could have 52 (4" thick) 14" wide computer printouts instead?
So, it was really not surprising that COM caught on so fast and grew so big so quickly. Fiche readers, from being non-existent came to be sold in hundreds and thousands. COM was big, COM was sexy - good old Archive Imaging was eclipsed and became merely respectable. Our pool had increased in size dramatically. But worse was on the horizon, they then chucked a huge bucket of ink into our already slightly murky pool and really fogged it up. The panacea for all time was announced - Electronic Imaging.
The marketing departments of the big guys in the microfilm industry and the small guys in the computer game were now in Heaven; they had the wonder product of the millennium AND a ready made market of microfilm users who could easily be won over by the flash of a screen.
The Archive Imaging pool had suddenly become huge and very murky. Reps no longer knew what they were selling, nor customers what they were buying.
Those that made and/or sold microfilm turned themselves into computer firms overnight: took on hundreds of software and systems people: bought small "Expert" firms and, like the outsiders, plotted the death of microfilm. Some with a malicious glee, others with sadness. Archive Imaging became old and grubby.
I genuinely believe that most of the major companies in the microfilm industry got themselves lost. The huge costs of gearing themselves up for the "Big E" future were never recovered from profits on sales. They submerged themselves in an electronic world which they did not understand. When all the shouting is over you need a computer firm to sell computers and a microfilm firm to sell microfilm. This is where the industry is just returning to. Many of the electronic guys have gone or been transferred to in-house computer companies that know what they are doing and which systems make money and which don't.
Unfortunately, in many cases the baby has been thrown out with the bath water. The teams of microfilm salesmen have been downsized or have disappeared altogether.
Where are we now?
Nearly everyone agrees that microfilm and COM both have a future - they have a place in the overall scheme of things. That they have survived is no miracle, nor is it luck. It is down to the fact that the product is sound and, more importantly, you, the customers, knew it all along!
Let's take stock
What have we got going for us?
1) A known, accepted product range.
2) A large, happy customer base.
3) A large number of prospects who have never been told about microfilm.
4) Huge backlogs in bankers' boxes in warehouses all over the country. They can't afford to put the information onto electronic systems and know of no other alternative.
What do we lack?
1) Any form of coherent systems orientated marketing.
2) A strong multi-national sales force. (Come on Bell & Howell - I can wait).
3) Enthusiasm for our own product.
4) Most important - that "Vision" thing.
The microfilm pond is slowly clearing and we can begin to see its true, long term potential. With regard to the electronic media, we can now see where it touches and, more importantly, where it doesn't.
The Punchline
When I was a kid they did things differently at the pictures (cinema). They used to have the main film preceded by a 'B' picture. They were shown continuously and you went in when you arrived, sat down and stayed until you had looped the loop and seen it all.
So when this fellow said to me "I think you are lucky enough to be getting out at the right time," I wish, I really wish that I had been quick enough to reply :
"Oh no - I think this is where I came in and it was so good that I want to see it all through again!"
Marketing Award
The Microfilm Shop are proud to announce that we have been selected as a Silver Award Winner in Micrographics and Hybrid Imaging Systems Newsletter's 1997 service bureau/dealer promotion contest. The 4 page leaflet shown below was entered into the Direct Mail category.
If you would like to see a copy of this leaflet or would be interested in using it for your own marketing purposes, please contact us.
Personality Profile
Chris Elwell, The Microfilm Shop, U.K.
Although based in our U.K. & Export Sales Department, Chris's engineering background and aptitude for all things technical and mechanical means that he is ultimately responsible for all technical aspects of new products and equipment within The Microfilm Shop.
Since being with the company he has successfully controlled all aspects of internal training, managed the project to completely restructure our processing and duplication department, installed two Photomatrix 8000 high speed fiche duplicators, developed the technical programme for marketing the MS500 and has been made a fully qualified service technician for the Canon range of micrographic products. Needless to say, he is a valuable member of our sales team.