Business by the Web
by Ross Bellingham
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Printing for Less
Livingston, Montana
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Zoot Enterprises and RightNow! Technologies are leading software companies in Montana. But many others, large and small, depend on the Internet and Web sites to reach well beyond our state's boundaries.
The is a story of three innovative types in our new virtual world.
PRINTING FOR LESS: America's print shop.
Internet and Web sites to reach well beyond our state’s boundaries.
This is a story of three innovative types in our new virtual world.
Printing for Less’s genesis began on the Yellowstone River, with a couple of friends talking about the printing business. Now, ten years later, a new, 64,000 square-foot printing plant sits just outside of Livingston, housing close to 200 employees, who generate over $24 million in annual income.
Andrew Field, on the urging of a fishing buddy, decided to revisit his first love in business, commercial printing. Faced with limited local demand and over 30,000 commercial printers nationwide, Field decided to go digital. Customers log onto the company’s Web site and select the print job they want: typefaces, paper stock, inks, and quality and quantity of the job. Printing is completed in days, not weeks, and is ready to be drop-shipped anywhere in the country.
Printing for Less’s (PFL) growth last year increased 28 percent over the previous year. Most of this growth came from outside the area, with PFL picking up 56 new customers on average every day. That’s added up to 63,000 customers served over the years, many of them repeats.
Wyeth Windham, production manager at PFL, led me on a tour of the new plant, answering questions as we went from section to section of the building. We began at the glass room that houses the computers that host the PFL Web site and databases. Six programmers are dedicated to these two functions, full-time.
However, as we moved through the plant it wasn’t the high-tech, state of the art printing equipment that intrigued the most. It was the progressive, advanced culture of the company that stood out. New staff are placed on small teams for minimum periods of six to twelve months. “We believe in creating teams that are individualistic, mobilized, independent, and empowered,” says Windham. “We hire for type of person, not skill set. We believe that since everybody spends so much time working closely with fellow employees, they should work with people they like. So we hire good people. ”Printing for Less’s growth last year increased 28 percent over the previous year. Most of this growth came from outside the area...
Staff does not stay exclusively within their teams. PFL believes firmly in cross-training, or, as they call it, “full training.” A computer programmer spent eight months on a print production team so that he would know who would be using the software he wrote and how to make it best meet their needs.
Windham attributes a good deal of the PFL culture to founder and CEO Andrew Field as well as to the outstanding quality of the people they have hired. “You can’t be adaptive enough in this market with a centralized management system. It’s a different world to manage people in now. People have to be a lot more engaged to be successful. We’re counting . . . on great people to make it work.”
IDEAL BITE: A sassier shade of green
In an office at Tech Ranch you’ll find the office of Jennifer Boulden and Heather Stephenson, who co-founded idealbite.com in 2005.
Idealbite was created to introduce new products and inform people how to make green choices in an eco-friendly consumer marketplace. “We help people practice what we call “incremental environmentalism,” says co-founder Jen Boulden. “We help them learn about making a big difference through small changes.” Idealbite teaches that just because you can’t afford a hybrid car or don’t want to live in a yurt doesn’t mean you can’t live a more sustainable lifestyle.”
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Montana Healthcare Telecommunications
Alliance map
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A major factor in the success of Idealbite is its Web-savvy perspective. Idealbite.com is informative, well-organized, and visually appealing. Perhaps most importantly, Idealbite offers easy accessibility. It exudes a positive and upbeat tone without the doom and gloom messages that can defeat the will of someone who would like to make earth-friendly lifestyle changes.
The site is full of helpful guidance on a variety of subjects from energy conservation to organic foods, all with a keep-it-light attitude. You might call it the “Green Hints from Heloise” Web site, full of enviro tips that help you to walk a little lighter on the planet. “Our approach is to do what you can,” says Boulden. “You don’t have to be perfect. Every little bit helps. We want Idealbite to be an inclusive place to learn about being green.”
Originally ideas for the tips posted on the site came mostly from the founders and interns. Now, readers contribute the majority of the tips. Additionally, those companies that want their products reviewed send their samples to Idealbite for scrutiny, everything from hemp shoes to eco dog treats. Tips are scheduled six months prior to publication, ensuring that their experts and writers can fully test and research each product and service before endorsing it. Idealbite’s daily emails, Web site, and blog are supported by companies seeking to connect with the amorphous light green consumer market. They also provide custom market research to companies that want to understand how their products and services appeal to the site’s target audience.
How many people have discovered Idealbite in its 19-month history? There are 80,000 subscribers to date, with growth averaging 14 percent per month. Most new subscribers come on by word of mouth, friends telling friends.
Boulden’s partner, Heather Stephenson, lives in San Francisco but is a native of Libby, MT. She came to environmentalism the hard way. Her father has asbestosis, and Heather receives X-ray exams every two years. Boulden came to her environmental awareness primarily through her mother, who began the recycling program in her daughter’s middle school. She has worked creatively to integrate her business background with her environmental passions.
“Heather and I realized that in order for green to go mainstream, we would have to take a new approach,” A major factor in the success of Idealbite is its Web-savvy perspective. explains Boulden. “We want to reward people for trying. Maybe you need your SUV, but you are looking for other ways to offset that fuel consumption. We offer lots of green solutions for you to try.”
What of the future of the site and its center in Montana? Idealbite will add an operations manager, a marketing assistant, a technical manager, sales, and an editor to the rest of the staff.
“We need to be at 100,000 subscribers. That will be the milestone . . .”
TELEMEDICINE
Lynn Noble of Billings dwells in the vital and hidden professional field of medical transcription services. She is the go-between for your physician, recording post-visit medical information about you on documents to be added to your personal medical file. Her clients? Until recently, her client base has been small medical practices in Montana. But Lynn Noble has been discovered and is going national.
Here’s how her transcription business (www.professionaltranscripts.com) works. The physician, who can be anywhere in the country, dictates patient information onto analog tape or a digital recording device. These recordings are then sent to Medical Transcription Service, where transcriptors transfer the information to a permanent printable record for your medical file.
Digitization of medical records is the next step. The ultimate aim is to make electronic records accessible to physicians and other medical professionals throughout the state via videoconferencing and data file transference. Montana has been a leader in this technology, called “telemedicine.”
Telemedicine has revolutionized the medical world for patients living in the vast rural territory of Montana. No matter how far away from a major medical center you may live, a specialist can review your case and work with your local physician. In its simplest form, this could be a phone conversation between two physicians consulting on the health of a patient. But the communication technology has become much more sophisticated than that. In a state as large as Montana, moving patients to various medical facilities can range from the impractical to the impossible. Patients may live great distances from a medical center or feel too ill to make the trip. Then there is the issue of travel time. Imagine a five-hour drive each way just to make a doctor’s appointment. Telemedicine bridges time and space. It is now possible to have your medical records transcribed, discussed, and documented by medical professionals throughout the state. Thelma McCloskey Armstrong knows this better than most. Thelma is director of the Eastern Montana Telemedicine Association, based in the Billings Clinic, and past president of the American Telemedicine Association. According to Ms. Armstrong, Montana has one of the first 10 telemedicine facilities to be established in the United States, having been funded with seed money from Qwest (then US West). Montana continues to be seen as a national leader in the area of telemedicine, with an unprecedented level of inter-organization cooperation. Montana continues to be seen as a national leader in the area of telemedicine, with an unprecedented level of inter-organization cooperation. This network has become an efficient augmentation to the state’s medical community.
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Ideal Bite Founders
Heather Stephenson and Jen Boulden
Photo by Jennifer Nash
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Eastern Montana has pioneered the application of this technology in part because of the distances and low populations between towns in the eastern part of the state. Western Montana, though, is catching up. Armstrong expects that state coverage of medical telecommunications will rise ultimately from its current 60 to 70 percent to 100 percent.
Videoconferencing is the primary focus of the state’s remote medical consultation services, although it is now possible to send X-rays and other graphic depictions by computer files to other clinics, hospitals, and physicians’ offices. Surgical procedures are even possible. Montanans are fortunate beneficiaries of these innovative technological services.
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