Innovation Partners:
Is there anything new to innovate in the field of home building? AxisPointe and Alexander’s Print Advantage think so, and have used technology to put their theory to work. The result is a new concept: the HomeProfile system from AxisPointe Inc.
Imagine the possibility of producing along with each new home a customized manual and CD containing the home’s floor plan, restrictive covenants and requirements, and the contact information for every subcontractor and manufacturer who’s worked on the home, in addition to model number, color sample, and warranty care and use information for all the home’s contents. And imagine a world in which all of that information and the ability to launch and manage follow up service requests were available via a web component as well.
This is what the HomeProfile system entails.
AxisPointe is a company that was founded in Salt Lake City in 2003. The company had its genesis when Frank Tate, a builder of nearly 15 years, approached the previous CEO of the company, Andrew Smith, with an idea. After building homes for years, it dawned on Tate that in this era of advanced technology he was still using paper, pens, boxes, napkins, sticky-notes and walkie talkies to manage the plethora of specific information that goes into the building of each home.
CCR’s, floor plans, appliance manuals, color samples and customer service requests—there had to be a better way to manage all of that data. Tate and Smith began a process of due-diligence, development, and research and AxisPointe and the HomeProfile system were born.
The idea was an immediate success. But the logistics of actually compiling and producing the product soon became overwhelming, particularly as demand increased and volume requirements grew. Imagine the logistics behind the compilation and construction of a book of components that are fully unique to every individual home!
This is where AxisPointe’s partnership with Alexander’s, of Lindon, Utah, begins. With 27 years heritage as a commercial printer, in recent years Alexander’s has also forged a reputation as a leading technology integrator in the area of customized print automation.
As AxisPointe considered its potential production partners nationwide, Alexander’s stood out as the one provider with the technology background to fully understand and integrate the interface between the AxisPointe database and the commercial printer.
“The keys for us were being able to automate and track the information from AxisPointe across all three pieces of equipment the product needs to be produced on,” says Dan Mortimer, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Alexander’s. “We have to make sure the parts are produced in a way that brings them all together into a single manual at the end of the process. In that way, instead of producing a book at a time, we can easily ramp up to any level of production the company needs.”
“In essence, we’re providing the technology to make AxisPointe’s business plan possible,” Mortimer adds.
At present, AxisPointe’s presence has expanded to builder clientele in nearly all 50 states, with a field presence in 25 of the 50 U.S. states, as well internal sales and support to cover clients nationwide.
One of AxisPointe’s key customers, Liberty Homes, is based in Utah and Arizona and considers the HomeProfile a key differentiator in the level of service Liberty Homes can provide.
“One of our biggest desires is to increase our referral rates, and the ability to provide a comprehensive home owner’s manual can play a big role in accomplishing that,” says Jerry Pay, vice president of strategic planning and sales for Liberty Homes. “As builders, however, we realized that our specialty is building homes, and as much as we might think we’d be able to accomplish an achievement like HomeProfile, we’d never have the ability to deliver the quality product we wanted to offer without a very good partner like this.”
“The thing we like best about HomeProfile is that it’s tailored specifically to the individual home,” Pay continued. “It’s not a bunch of documentation to wade through, just a very specialized set of materials the homeowner is most likely to use.”
“To offset our costs of offering the product we were actually able to work with one of our preferred lenders—Countrywide—to offer them advertising within the manual,” Pay says.
“We also like that the material in HomeProfile is available in the manual, on a CD, and also via secure password interface on the web. We meet with each new homeowner within a week of purchase to deliver the manual and walk through it. Then we visit the homeowner again, 30 days out, as the warranty period begins. The product creates a great opportunity for us to keep in touch with the buyer with value above and beyond the purchase of their home.”
“I’m a real advocate of HomeProfile,” Pay concludes. “The people at AxisPointe have been excellent to work with. They are very responsive, and have certainly been meeting our needs.”
And as AxisPointe grows, their partnership with Alexander’s will continue to progress as well.
“We looked at 5-6 fulfillment houses in various parts of the U.S. when we were launching HomeProfile, and none of them did printing,” says Andrew Smith, AxisPointe President. “We knew Alexander’s as a top-of-the-line print shop, but it was when we saw the assembly and fulfillment part of their operation that we realized we could truly put all of our eggs in this basket.”
“Alexander’s has been the most integrated partnership we have from a technology standpoint,” Smith concludes. “We are completely confident that we’ve chosen the right partner to scale our business with us.”
For more information about Alexander’s Print Advantage, or to brainstorm the ways print automation could work for your company, readers can visit www.alexanders.com or call 800 547-8666.