EDP Profile:
James Shand EDP
Founder and Director
e-knows Limited

Seasoned Industry Professional James Shand
Talks About Being an EDP

James Shand EDP has been involved with high volume transaction output (HVTO) technology for more than 30 years, all in the service bureau environment with the past 15-years focused on digital printing.

“I started my career in the electronics world in the early 60s,” says Shand. “This was when computing started to make an impact on business, and I started as a tape operator for a local IT service bureau. This career change lasted for 24-years with me progressing to be the company’s youngest board director. I outlasted several owners of the business, and several brand and product changes. I got involved in the digital printing business because we were looking to replace our line printers with two of the first switchable Xerox 9700 machines in Europe.”

Later, during his time as commercial director for edotech, a division of Barclays Bank, edotech became one of the fastest growing companies in the UK. edotech was eventually acquired by the Astron Group, making the organization the largest UK provider of transactional document solutions.

In July 2005, Shand founded e-knows Limited, a consultancy practice that provides strategic management to organizations using the document as a communications channel. Shand has since worked with clients such as the Canadian Government, the Jersey Post (ProMail), and Canon UK & Europe. 

Shand is a longtime supporter of Xplor International, the electronic document systems association, and was responsible for the creation of Xplor Europe.  Indeed, Shand has held a number of elected positions within the association, most recently serving three years as Xplor chairman starting in 2001. 

We asked this HTVO veteran to share the perspectives gained from being a seasoned Electronic Document Professional (EDP), which is an industry designation awarded to qualified individuals who have demonstrated broad knowledge of and experience in digital communication---whether in print, over internal networks, or online---from document creation to distribution. Shand earned his EDP certification in 1998, when it was originally called Electronic Document Printing Professional or EDPP.

On Being an EDP
”Having spent a number of years working in the industry I wanted something to demonstrate to others the depth and breadth of my experience an knowledge,” says Shand. “EDP was the only ‘certification’ available, and the fact that this was also judged by your peers was ratification to my knowledge. Unlike taking an exam, it also requires you to remain active in the industry and demonstrate every 5-years you have maintained your knowledge.”

Shand says that being an EDP in the UK helps with his consultancy business in giving potential clients a degree of comfort that he understands the industry and market. He says that for anyone seeking to position themselves in the market, the EDP program is important. “I have been mentoring people in the UK and seeking to work with recruitment organizations to consider an EDP person as better qualified----slow but it is starting to have an impact. A few of the UK vendors see their sales people as candidates for EDP.”

For Shand, the most rewarding aspect of being an EDP is recognition from peers in the industry and being able to explain to others what EDP means.

Shand offers his best advice for other professionals who are on the fence about becoming an EDP: “I would and do encourage everyone in the industry to become an EDP. There is nothing else that sets to demonstrate you have reached a recognized level of knowledge. Why would you not want that recognition having put so much into the industry?” 

Overall, Shand says that the EDP designation is not as recognized in the UK as it is in the U.S. and Holland. “It is growing in recognition in the UK,” says Shand.

On Industry Challenges
As a leader in the ever-evolving HVTO industry, Shand is in the forefront of strategic document innovation. “The challenge is getting people to understand and grasp the ever-changing and challenging aspects of variable data integrated marketing documents. The successes are in seeing enterprises and individuals develop from my intervention. There are endless opportunities out there and on a daily basis I see how things can be improved.”

According to Shand, HVTO users must search through a complex array of technology and software to find the most effective solution, and the key is finding pieces that work well together. The result may be encouraging for some. “Clearly the ‘buzz’ is all about integrated marketing content on variable data documents and once this has become an accepted norm there will also be a surge in full digital color printing,” says Shand. 

“I have enjoyed my 25-years in the document industry and along the way I have built many long standing business relationships and found many friends,” says Shand. “The opportunity in HVTO today lies in integrated marketing. If it is carried out correctly---and still much of it today is not---then documents should be the most cost effective marketing channel for any enterprise. The concept that we will use less paper is not likely to happen in my lifetime, but how we use that paper most effectively may well change.”