Frank Gaspari Looks to Separate FlexPrint from the MPS Clutter

By Scott Cullen

Frank Gaspari, CEO of FlexPrint, a national provider of document management and managed print solutions, is a straight shooter. Ask him a question and he doesn’t mince words. If you’re a copier dealer, copier manufacturer, or an MPS provider with a thin skin, you might want to stop right here and find something else to do because if you continue reading, Gaspari may say something that will ruffle your feathers.

There’s no denying Gaspari’s a successful entrepreneur and FlexPrint has enjoyed 700 percent year-over-year growth since its founding in 2005. No wonder the company was recently ranked by Inc. magazine as the 423rd fastest growing company in the nation. Prior to FlexPrint, Gaspari founded Column Office Equipment in Chicago in the early ‘90s. That company also made it onto the Inc. 500 before being acquired by Global Imaging Systems in 1999. Next up for Gaspari was a print management company, Image Manufacturing, which was also acquired by Global Imaging Systems.

Although FlexPrint started as a managed print services company, it does so much more than that. Strategically that makes a lot of sense because Gaspari is not a fan of the term, ‘managed print services’. We’ll give him an opportunity to explain an opinion, which borders on heresy in the document management world, later. In addition to its home base in Phoenix, Arizona, FlexPrint has more than 100 employees, offices in Los Angeles and Chicago, and supports hundreds of customers in 45 markets across the country.

How’s business?

Gaspari: Awesome, we’re growing, man. Business through the first six months is up a little over 40 percent compared to last year.


Who are your customers?

Gaspari: We have more than 300 customers coast to coast in every vertical industry. We focus on best in class companies with 200 to 30,000 employees, a lot of devices, and multiple locations. We’re not interested in doing business with the doctor’s office next door or ABC company that has five copiers and 10 printers. That’s not our business model. We want to engage with people where we can make a measurable impact and that’s typically an organization with a lot of devices and multiple locations, and who need a consultant to help manage this piece of the business.


Why do customers like doing business with Flexprint?

Gaspari: They choose us for our value proposition and our people.


When you say, ‘value proposition,’ what do you mean by that?

Gaspari: It’s different for every client. We’re not a managed print services company. We’re not a copier company. We’re what the customer’s pain and need dictates. We do a good job of analyzing what’s going on within their organization, understanding their business, and understanding what they need. We don’t have a cookie-cutter type of business model. I think some clients are more in tune with cost savings, so we can help customers there. Some are looking for process improvement, so we can help there. Some are focused on green initiatives and we can help them there. Some are interested in eliminating unnecessary discretionary printing, and we can help them there. And some of our customers are interested in all those things.


Who are your competitors?

Gaspari: We have all sorts of competitors. To be honest with you, there’s a clutter of me-too companies. There’s a clutter of people that want to simply move devices and a clutter of people that want to get into the space. A lot of the people who are getting into the space are grossly uneducated and they’re just diving into it because they’re being told that’s what they have to do. There are the copier people who are figuring out how to get into this space and some big VARs getting into this space. We’re not perfect, but I think we’re a few steps ahead of the clutter. And I put most in the clutter. That’s who we deal with every day.


What did you learn from your experience as an office equipment dealer that was helpful when starting FlexPrint?

Gaspari: What I learned was no matter how you spin it, copiers are a commodity and everybody sells the relationship and the service, and it’s all about price. What I saw happening before starting FlexPrint was printers popping up all over the place, and that gave me an opportunity to present a managed print program. What I learned from those two things is that you truly have to do what you say you’re going to do. You have to take a consultative approach and that means you don’t have any distractions as it relates to equipment, manufacturer relationships, quotas, any of that “stuff” that’s going to drive you to a decision that isn’t customer focused.


You don’t like to use the term managed print. Is that because it’s a buzz word that everybody’s using or is it too limiting?

Gaspari: Both of those reasons. It puts us in the bucket with everybody else. When we started, we were a managed print services company, but we don’t want to be in that bucket now because we do so much more than everyone else.


What is the biggest challenge of doing what you do, especially since you’re doing so much more than managed print?

Gaspari: As managed print continues to grow and become a bigger and bigger industry, separating ourselves on the initial phone call and the initial meeting from the clutter. It’s very difficult to do over the phone. Five years ago when we started no one was talking about this and it was a lot easier to get a meeting. Today, everyone is talking about it, they’re doing this, this, and this, and they’re stealing from somebody’s Website and this is the value proposition and the customer is like, ‘I’ve heard ten of these pitches, I’m not interested.’

Our biggest challenge is continuing to reinvent ourselves and bring measurable new value propositions to our customers to stay ahead of the clutter. Not just from a marketing perspective, but from a measurable, tangible results driven base to the customer. When you say, ‘What do we do for our customers?’ We do a lot of things. I would tell you that part of my job, which is completely different from what it was when I was with a copier company, is strategizing the space and looking at what else I can do to add more value to my customers. That’s a big deal because I have to stay ahead of the clutter. I have to bring them more value, measurable value, and that’s a challenge. One person I really depend onto assist me in this area is Tom Callinan of Strategy Development. Tom is a great resource for me and I seek his advice on many major decisions.


Tell me a little more about the environmental component you bring to the table?

Gaspari: The reality is it’s not a marketing line on a brochure or something we just talk about with no measurable deliverable for the customer. We’ve been talking about the green impact for the last three years. Number one is educating the customer about the amount of waste that goes into this part of their business as it relates to sustainability. Some customers don’t care. For some customers a green initiative is saving money. To educate them we have to show them how we can drive results. ‘If you’re interested in having a more sustainable, greener environment, this is what it means and here’s how we can deliver that for you.’ That continues to change and evolve as new technology comes to the table.

A lot has to do with paper reduction. Part of that value proposition, which is an oxymoron for a company that gets paid whenever you print, is eliminating print volume within our customers if they’re interested. Some don’t care about eliminating print, like a law firm because they’re billing back for everything. But some customers with a lot of discretionary printing are interested in a measurable program that eliminates printing year over year.


Where did the concept for going off in this all encompassing direction and starting Flexprint come from?

Gaspari: Before I started this I took a little time off to analyze my previous businesses and what I wanted to do. It came from two things; I looked at the market place and I knew that my biggest competition would be the status quo. I left Chicago to start this 2,000 miles away in Arizona—new people, new market, and there was no one else doing this—but I realized there was a huge opportunity for the right type of company.

Back then it was an aggressive company, forward thinking—one that would engage with a company like us. Part of it was, I saw the opportunity with my years of experience in this space and I knew it would be a lot harder from the perspective, it’s not a commodity, it’s not something you’re used to doing now, so you’re going to have to beat it home real hard, but as long as you have the right business model and value proposition, it could be done.

The other thing, aside from being a profitable business model, which as an entrepreneur you have to have, the other thing is the customer experience in this space is a great thing. Because of what we do and the relationship you have with them is not always bliss, but for the most part it’s a great relationship. It’s like selling a yacht; they love you versus selling a bunch of copiers or toner or whatever the hell you’re doing because you do a great service for them. In a company like us that prides ourselves in doing what we say we’re going to do, that was important to me. After 16 years of owning two companies, it wasn’t just about the money. I really wanted to do something that I enjoy doing every day.


How do you see your business growing over the next three to five years?

Gaspari: I recently hired a President and COO that freed up my time and now my focus is on really driving the business. It’s going to be difficult, but I believe with our real strong back end in 30-36 months from now we’ll be twice the size in revenue.


Beyond that any other thoughts on how Flexprint will change during the next 30-36 months?

Gaspari: We’ll definitely change. If we don’t, we’re not going to double our sales. We’ll add more components to our value proposition and probably get further away from managed print services, not that we won’t be associated with it. We’ve got to be because there are more people searching that [online], but our challenge is finding real measurable ways to add more value in the document output space within the client’s infrastructure. That will be the biggest change.



Scott Cullen has been covering the office equipment industry since 1986. Scott is Publisher/Editorial Director for Imaging Solutions Reseller; Editorial Director/Managing Editor for OfficeSOLUTIONS and OfficeDEALER; Editor for PC Solutions; and a contributing writer and Editor for Independent Dealer, OFDA, Mercer Business, ENX, BERTL’s iTchat, Repro Report.