Print Solutions Magazine, November 2002 -- Adding Value

Several years ago, Stienstra visited three of his best manufacturing partners and presented each with a runner's baton. The batons were imprinted with BRIDGE Information Systems' logo on one side and the manufacturers' logos on the other side. "I spoke to them about the race that we run together and how important it is to have a good start in the race--that's what we do as a distributorship--and how important it is to have a good finish in the race--that's what they do as suppliers," he says.

Similarly, BRIDGE Information Systems shows its appreciation for its client partners by offering one-stop shopping. "If it stands still, we can print it," Stienstra says. When the distributorship opened its doors in 1980, it offered only traditional business forms. Today, it also offers commercial printing, direct mail, promotional products, labels, security documents, signage, envelopes, integrated cards and labels, and more. "There are just so many areas that we've gone into to help our customers," Stienstra says.

BRIDGE Information Systems places high priority on honesty, integrity and dependability. The distributorship's written code of ethics states: "In all of our professional relationships, we pledge ourselves to this rule of ethical conduct: We shall in the light of all circumstances and conditions of which we are aware, to the best of our ability, treat each client, vendor and fellow worker just as we would want to be treated."

Clients have responded with loyalty. In 1980, BRIDGE Information Systems became a preferred provider for United Airlines Inc., beating out UARCO and Moore Corporation Ltd. to provide 800-number help-desk services to travel agencies using United's Apollo computer reservation system (CRS). In 1986, the distributorship also became a preferred provider for now-defunct Eastern Airlines. As a result, the distributorship served more than 2,000 travel agencies by 1997, accounting for approximately 50 percent of its $1.9 million in sales. "The phone just rang," Stienstra says. "We had customers calling from all over the country." Today, BRIDGE Information Systems is a preferred provider for Amadeus/SystemOne, a major travel agency CRS owned by Air France, German carrier Lufthansa and Spanish carrier Iberia Airlines.

Turning Challenges Into Opportunities

"1998 was a very painful year," Stienstra says. BRIDGE Information Systems lost 11 accounts after the companies were purchased. "We were suppliers to small fish that were eaten by bigger fish," Stienstra says. "The big fish already had their suppliers, so we weren't invited to the party."

The accounts, which included a dental supply company, a publishing house and an insurance firm, each accounted for $40,000 to $85,000 in annual sales for the distributorship. Many of them had been Stienstra's accounts for more than 10 years. "What do you do when you have a $70,000-a-year account or an $80,000-a-year account that's sold and that business is suddenly turned off?" he says. "We were losing sales in lumps. It was like starting over."

BRIDGE Information Systems' travel agency business also declined as cash-strapped airlines cut agency commissions and the public flocked to web sites such as Travelocity and Expedia to book trips. The distributorship faced additional sales losses after Sept. 11, when its remaining travel agency clients filed for bankruptcy or drastically reduced print purchases. Last year, travel agencies accounted for 30 percent of the distributorship's $690,000 in sales.

After watching his company's sales decline, Stienstra looked for ways to penetrate existing accounts. "They already knew how to spell my name and how to make a check out to BRIDGE Information Systems," he says. "They were my best prospects." But Stienstra was reluctant at first to offer non-traditional items such as promotional products. "I was a systems guy," he says. "I wanted to design multipart forms with five plates. To me, a coffee cup wasn't interesting. It was beneath me. But I learned I had to change my thinking or I had to close my doors."

In April 2000, BRIDGE Information Systems purchased Creative Forms, a Crystal Lake, Ill., distributorship that attributed 50 percent of its sales to promotional products. Stienstra also added commercial printing, direct mail, signage and more to his company's product mix. "We've had to reinvent ourselves," he says.

Offering Total Solutions

Several months ago, Stienstra was in the right place at the right time. Hoping to penetrate an existing account, he and his son, R.J., made a sales call to the Chicago Architecture Foundation. They showed the foundation's director membership cards they provided to Chicago's Brookfield Zoo and John G. Shedd Aquarium. "He looked at the cards but didn't say much,'" Stienstra says.

After the meeting, the director took Stienstra and his son on a foundation tour, then invited the pair to visit the foundation's gift shop. After buying a few items, Stienstra and his son were about to leave when the gift shop's phone rang. "The guy behind the cash register asked, 'Are there a Misters Stienstra in the store?'" The director had shown the sample membership cards to someone in the foundation's art department who was dissatisfied with its current card supplier. BRIDGE Information Systems landed the $4,000 card order.

In August, the foundation approached BRIDGE Information Systems for assistance with a signage project. The foundation wanted to use large letters to advertise its products and services in the windows of its John Hancock Building gift shop. The foundation's art department provided the distributorship with a drawing of the windows to illustrate its letter idea.

After conducting a nationwide search for a manufacturer that could supply the product, BRIDGE Information Systems provided the client with 37 3-D black letters constructed of AD-FOAM™, a dense plastic foam material. The letters were mounted on white Cintra panels and spelled "ARCHITECTURE," "DESIGN," "TOURS," "TOYS," "BOOKS" and "GIFTS." The panels were placed on glass shelves in the gift shop's windows.

"When you add value for your customers, you become the go-to guy," Stienstra says.

—Kara S. Carpenter

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