DATA Group Reviews

Pros

Overall, the people are by far the company's best resource. Everyone is pretty good, friendly, and it's probably the least political place I've ever worked at. A lot of seasoned experience in there so you can learn a lot about the industry in a short amount of time. Their systems and solutions - while antiquated - are still some of the better offerings in the industry.

They have also been investing in new manufacturing technology that make it easier and cheaper to deliver product fast and efficiently.

Investments in quality monitoring, FSC processes, label and digital technology is encouraging and a step in the right direction. Warehousing and distribution is probably the single biggest factor that is helping them stay competitively in the game, despite the recession.

2006 acquisition of Relizon and combining of forces made this company a solid coast-to-coast player in Canada.

Current stock price of three dollars and change (at time of writing) is a MASSIVE bargain, yielding about a 30% return.

Cons

They may have tended to rest on their laurels which could result in their competition outpacing their technology solutions in due time. Lack of innovation in recent years has closed the gap on their competitiveness and are now increasingly faced with competing on price alone. The advancing technology of the printing industry is rapidly commoditizing a product/service that was once exclusively the domain of custom manufacturing. Overall, the industry is converging, and this company will only survive if they expand offerings to support asset creation as well as asset management. This means investing in more technology that serves the customer: self-serve reporting tools, self-serve authoring and content management, and other utilities.

Internet access is locked down and policed.

Can be a bit of an "old boys network" in there. Much of the same management have been around for decades, and they're all fairly young - so don't count on getting in middle management anytime soon.

Disparities between East and West results in a fragmented organization that experiences disconnects in everything from culture to pricing to technology.

Advice to Senior Management

1. Step out of your comfort zone like you did in the old days: Invest in technology. Abandon the build it yourself technology strategy, and seek out best of breed solutions that others have developed. And for god's sake stop policing internet activity. Open things up and let people learn about the competition.

2. Give some props to your employees with plans that don't necessarily cost you more money. Offer stock purchase plans to employees.

3. Build a sales/delivery platform that has the customer in mind instead of trying to make the customer work to YOUR requirements. Expand solution offerings to asset creation (Insite is a good first step, but it's scratching the surface. Relizonline is better... but that will only get you to where you should have been two years ago.)

4. Relax. Everyone else is in a recession. How come you won't recognize that?