3 minute read
Thought Leadership
Article by Carl Amacker | March 2022
New Horizons - What’s next for BlueCrest
Carl Amacker Chief Marketing Officer
By Carl Amacker
Since becoming BlueCrest, our journey has felt a little like intrepid explorers venturing into the unknown sea. No one could have predicted COVID19, nor the disruptions that would come along with it, but we persevered through the storm, rallied together, and continued to venture forward. Though it all, we faced incredible complexities, and while the sailing hasn’t always been smooth, we proved to be resilient. In early 2020 we introduced Vision 2020 which set the foundation for us to leverage our internal strengths and motivate us to a path to success. Since then, Bluecrest has truly established itself as the technology leader in the postal automation space. Our print-to-mail solutions have provided great returns, and we see our products in high demand based on many of the challenges our customers face in the market. Our backlog stands at record highs, and we continue to tackle challenges while innovating and delivering solutions to meet customer demand. With the acquisition of BCC Software, Fluence Automation and Window Book, we now have a very broadest solutions portfolio, allowing us to grow +30% since 2018. So why change from Vision 2020? The Question.
Our industry is evolving. We face both headwinds and tailwinds to success. The reality is that the success we’re enjoying now in the production mail industry is nice, but it is a declining industry. Some of the assumptions we made in Vision 2020 have changed to the point where we need to refocus on new opportunities for growth.
“ Since becoming BlueCrest, our journey has felt a little like intrepid explorers venturing into the unknown sea. We persevered through the storm, rallied together, and continued to venture forward. Though it all, we faced incredible complexities, and while the sailing hasn’t always been smooth, we proved to be resilient .” Carl Amacker, CMO
The Opportunities.
Mail volumes are in decline and will likely continue to do so forever. Just look at our colleagues in the international space, where their volumes have declined much faster than what has been experienced in North America. This is especially true in transactional mail, BlueCrest’s historical sweet spot. When you look into mail volumes deeper, however, you all see that some types of mail are flat (direct mail), and others are growing (vote-by-mail). Despite the overall decline in mail, BlueCrest is wellpositioned to succeed in postal automation for years to come as we serve the largest customers in the transactional mail space, have made great customer inroads into the direct mail market, and are the leading provider of vote-by-mail in the United States.
Additionally, we believe that with all the changes taking place at the USPS, combined with the increase in costs of producing mail, the Presort industry will provide stability and an area of growth for BlueCrest in the future. PBPS is now our largest customer, and we have made tremendous investments in the presort business with our acquisitions of BCC Software, Fluence Automation, and Window Book. We now have the fullest set of solutions that help customers maximize discounts, improve productivity and predictability, and provide competitive differentiation. But we need to keep innovating and investing in other areas. Perhaps the biggest growth area for us in the parcel automation, especially in the areas of handling parcels for national/private posts, eCommercefulfillment operations, and large campus deployments. These markets are surprisingly under-served considering the boom in parcel volumes worldwide, and we believe that with our innovations (TrueSort) and acquisitions (Fluence Automation), we are now well-positing to experience large growth in these areas. The New Horizons.
And why are we so confident that we will be successful as we move into these new markets and opportunities? We have size and scale. We have an incredible service organization. We are international. And we are innovative and acquisitive. These traits allow us to be better positioned than our competition in each of these markets. We made it through the storm and established BlueCrest. Now, with the wind at our backs and a bright sun guiding our way, we are on to our new horizons.
