The Internet affects your business whether you like it or not. So start planning for it now.
That’s the message Ignite Communications, at 231 Douglas Ave. in Providence, is marketing to potential clients. Its current customers are companies seeking to expand their marketing and sales through creative and new media. General Electric Co. and Hasbro Inc. are among them. They are companies that have solved some kind of marketing problem by turning to a firm that has evolved continuously since it was founded in 1939.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
Ignite started as Printers’ Service Supply Inc. Originally in downtown Providence, it supplied ink, hardware, and everything else printers needed. In the 1940s and ’50s it did hot-metal type. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the firm evolved into a pre-press service bureau, though it still supplied the printing industry.
Also during that time, Printers’ Service Supply began providing high-end scanning and photo retouching and color separations. After several years of this, the company name was changed to Northeast Digital. The changes went a bit further in early 1990s when new and creative media were added to the company repertoire.
Finding that customers were having trouble distinguishing between the pre-press services of the company and its new, creative media side, the company in the early 1990s decided to split in two: Northeast Digital would handle electronic pre-press services, while Ignite Communications would be the new media service.
CHECKING THE ARTWORK are Tom Connoly, left, and Steve Kabalkin, vice president.
Now clients see the difference between the two operations, although both operate out of the same cramped, gray building on Douglas Avenue.
”We look at ourselves as an alternative to an ad agency,” said Rick Koconis, vice president of business development for Ignite Communications, adding that because of the company’s access to the pre-press services of Northeast Digital, Ignite can do most of its services, such as film separations and scanning, in-house. This saves it from having to get these jobs done elsewhere, he said.
One of Ignite’s major services is Web development – designing sites, hosting them, and giving companies the ability to do business on the Internet in new ways. It’s a service Ignite developed slowly and has purposely been quiet about – until now.
”In terms of Web development in general, we spent a lot of time planning this,” Koconis said. “We didn’t want to be two guys in a garage saying, ‘Yeah, we can do a Web site for you.'”
A big part of designing a Web business system is evaluating the customer’s needs. Ignite takes a four-phase approach. It starts with a communications audit, in which the company analyzes itself and assesses its goals for the Web, and ends with a review and analysis of the site and its capabilities.
For example, it recently worked with a company that wanted to establish a Web presence without attracting unwanted attention. Ignite built it a system that enabled it to communicate with suppliers efficiently. At the same time, it will avoid unwanted inquiries by not registering its URL with any of the various Internet directories.
But while the World Wide Web helps companies to be more efficient if they use it properly, Koconis said a big part of his job is convincing them of the Internet’s power. Companies, he said, must understand that planning a good Web business plan can take months or even years. Thus, he urges clients to begin planning to use the Internet now, even if they don’t plan to go online right away.
”That’s probably the toughest part of what we do,” he said. “Educating customers to what the opportunities are on the Web. We can’t say enough about how important this stuff is.”
As an example, Koconis said many companies are being told by their customers that they will not do business with them if they cannot do it electronically. This is both a burden and an opportunity. The burden is that the company must get an effective Internet service going. But once it establishes one and gets its clients used to doing business on it, that company has an advantage. The reason, he said, is that clients will be reluctant to do business with anyone else once they have gotten comfortable with one company’s Internet system.
One of the difficulties of going online is that older companies usually have a more difficult time than the upstarts – which will provide much of their competition. Older companies often have larger operations to evaluate. For some companies, going online means completely rethinking the way they do business, and in some cases, starting from scratch, Koconis said.
Businesses have to realize, he added, that going online means more than merely translating their operations into a Web format. Instead, they must recognize that the Web offers potential for customer services that were unavailable before, he said.
”It’s hard to make customers realize that they need to rethink how they do business right now,” he said. “The Web offers more opportunities – types of information, how to personalize things to customers – all things you couldn’t do before.
”Some of the companies that you would assume that would be up to date with this stuff are not,” he said.
All kinds of companies fall into that category, he said. J. Crew, for example, had problems this past holiday season because its internal database was not linked directly to its Web infrastructure. The result, he said, is that the company was selling products over the Web that it didn’t have in stock. This is an example, he said, of a company that thought its Web business through and still ran into trouble. That’s why planning your Web business carefully is important, he added.
Which is part of what the 25 employees of Ignite Communications and Northeast Digital help clients do. Because the business is expanding, it is now looking to move out of its location. It is, however, committed to staying in the city, Koconis said.
Providence, he added, has been good for the company, which was formed by Everett Kabalkin, who is still president. His son, Steve, is vice president. Koconis points out that the company has survived where others have failed because it has changed as the marketplace has changed.
”We like to think we’ve paid attention to our customers,” he said, “and tried to change and progress with the times.”
