The inkjet market is evolving rapidly and moving into full-blown commercial applications. Paper dimensions, color quality, substrates, workflow and finishing are evolving rapidly.
Looking across all categories of print, and how people use it, the exciting thing now is that people can see this is the right technology for what the future of the industry looks like. Disruption of the traditional analog printing processes and business models as a result of high quality, shorter runs, personalization, and good economics is starting to present itself. Speed and cost are good enough to compete favorably against legacy technologies in many applications; then you layer on the value added capabilities and turn-around times, it's very striking.
Furthermore, Inkjet has the real possibility of disrupting today's existing high-quality digital production presses. For example, you could take the equivalent of an entire day of work on four of the highest productivity color digital presses, and move them onto an inkjet platform, and the result might be that the former entire day is reduced to only two hours. The opportunities are really in the improved efficiency, the cost impact, and the capability of adding new product features.
There is a lot of activity in hardware for "paper moving", in heads, and in ink itself. The software and computer side of things is ahead of the game at this point, which was a problem in the past. From my perspective, everyone but HP is in Version 1.0 of their production press technology. HP had quite an impressive showing at Drupa with their presses, notably showing the T-400 coupled with two different industry standard finishing lines.
A lot of the offset press manufacturers are "bolting on" inkjet technologies to existing platforms, a trend that I think has a short life expectancy-- primarily due to emerging technologies from companies like Landa Corporation. With their impressive show at Drupa, with such a great, comprehensive story and Benny Landa's proven track record, although they are at "version .9", it would be foolish to doubt that what they are doing will succeed. Landa will be an important company in the market. Another interesting showcase at Drupa, on the lower end of the spectrum was Delphax with their sheetfed Elan press, based on Memjet technology. A couple of years ago, it was commonly questioned whether Memjet technology was even real, whereas now it's seen altogether differently, and very real.
Inkjet is a big investment, but it's evolving so rapidly that an acquisition should probably be treated more like the purchase of computer systems, than a printing press has traditionally been financed. If you buy a machine today, the outside life expectancy is probably 5 years and at there will quickly be much better equipment available.
You also have to understand the workflow and finishing parts of the equation. Most printers innately understand the printing part, but it's getting the work onto the press and getting it finished and out the door that can make the difference between success and failure, and Inkjet presents new challenges in these areas.
Finally, the machines that create a competitive advantage today tend to be large and expensive. They have very high throughput. In order to achieve an ROI, a company must have the volume of work necessary to keep the press operating virtually around the clock. You may need two presses— because what do you do when you have 20 hours of capacity planned for a press that goes down?
A lot of people are saying, books and “transpromo” now, then marketing materials, newspapers, packaging, even photo books-- everything people use other printing technologies for, will be rolling out on Inkjet over the next 5-10 years significantly replacing offset technologies. I agree with this thought process.
Although there are many challenges, the opportunities clearly outweigh them. It’s a very exciting picture today, and I’m looking forward to rapid development over the next couple of years.
(this commentary originally appeared in Graphic Communications World "The Green Sheet", November 2012.)
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Friday, November 16, 2012
Data: Is it the Printer's Nemesis?
I've long advocated that printing companies need to acquire IT capabilities to remain competitive. MIS systems, WebToPrint, and data handling skills have long been key to running a printing business.
All of a sudden, they are also an important part of a big segment of our product mix. Marketing materials targeted at specific consumers have been around for many years. VDP (Variable Data Printing) software coupled with digital printing took off way back in the early 2000s. Print personalization, which was once the wild frontier of technology for many printers, is now becoming obsolete. There are to big reasons for this: data and measurement.
Data
The biggest problem for print service providers is data. In a world where it's important to know "everything" about people, the only people who know that much are the search engines, and "big data" providers. Print is not part of their offering. Print might be considered competitive to their offerings but, because it doesn’t compete well, it isn’t perceived as a real threat. VDP stands for Variable DATA Printing… if you don’t have access to data, you can’t do it effectively.
It’s well understood how Google’s Adwords technology (just as one example) can deliver an audience to a marketer in an easy, cost effective way. Google approaches the marketing world in a way that is almost entirely different from a print marketer. It’s an algorithmic approach based on collecting and analyzing data. It starts with the data, not with creative. In fact, display advertising is a relatively recent addition to Internet advertising, which is somewhat incredible to imagine since the growth has been so meteoric. Such technologies are becoming ever more sophisticated.
Print media publishers can only offer marketers audiences based on their limited content. Golf clubs sell to people who read Golf magazines. With digital advertising, context matters less than tracking consumers wherever they go. That kind of tracking is the reason, for example, a shoe ad appears on Weather.com and also on a local blog.
Certainly many companies know a lot about the behavior of their customers, but many today are trying to create a strategy and framework to manage the data around it, primarily so they can participate in online marketing more effectively. Again, print isn't competitive in most cases. Print is being deployed via traditional methods, in what might be described as a “shotgun approach” versus the laser-guided smart bomb that is the Internet.
Furthermore, there is no real reason a marketer at any company, small or large, would trust the average Print Service Provider with access to their data. From security and privacy standpoints, “most” printers will not pass muster at corporate IT departments when they are audited. It’s also very often the case that the person the printer is calling on is not the person with access or control over the data, which results in barriers to selling VDP. Ironically, this has always been a barrier, and some have overcome it, but more have failed.
Measurement
With digital advertising, you now know what advertising and marketing initiatives you are running are working, and can change your campaign in real time to match customer behavior and results.
With print, you have to wait until the next “cycle”, whether it is the next issue of the magazine or the next mail drop. The only real way to determine the ROI of a print campaign is cumbersome testing that takes way too much time to implement and execute. The only real measurement of the effectiveness of a campaign is increased sales.
One impact the Internet has had on everyone is that we’re all incredibly impatient. We want information now, not a week or a month from now. When there are large amounts of money at stake, we get even more impatient—and advertising and marketing is the lifeblood of most companies.
Sounds really negative, doesn't it? Make no mistake: the days of "Dear Chuck" on a postcard are over. The good news is, there are still many applications where print personalization can play an important role. The adoption has been so limited, the sky is the limit for creative and technically savvy print service providers to succeed with these products.
But you've got to know how to use the data, and measure the results.
All of a sudden, they are also an important part of a big segment of our product mix. Marketing materials targeted at specific consumers have been around for many years. VDP (Variable Data Printing) software coupled with digital printing took off way back in the early 2000s. Print personalization, which was once the wild frontier of technology for many printers, is now becoming obsolete. There are to big reasons for this: data and measurement.
Data
The biggest problem for print service providers is data. In a world where it's important to know "everything" about people, the only people who know that much are the search engines, and "big data" providers. Print is not part of their offering. Print might be considered competitive to their offerings but, because it doesn’t compete well, it isn’t perceived as a real threat. VDP stands for Variable DATA Printing… if you don’t have access to data, you can’t do it effectively.
It’s well understood how Google’s Adwords technology (just as one example) can deliver an audience to a marketer in an easy, cost effective way. Google approaches the marketing world in a way that is almost entirely different from a print marketer. It’s an algorithmic approach based on collecting and analyzing data. It starts with the data, not with creative. In fact, display advertising is a relatively recent addition to Internet advertising, which is somewhat incredible to imagine since the growth has been so meteoric. Such technologies are becoming ever more sophisticated.
Print media publishers can only offer marketers audiences based on their limited content. Golf clubs sell to people who read Golf magazines. With digital advertising, context matters less than tracking consumers wherever they go. That kind of tracking is the reason, for example, a shoe ad appears on Weather.com and also on a local blog.
Certainly many companies know a lot about the behavior of their customers, but many today are trying to create a strategy and framework to manage the data around it, primarily so they can participate in online marketing more effectively. Again, print isn't competitive in most cases. Print is being deployed via traditional methods, in what might be described as a “shotgun approach” versus the laser-guided smart bomb that is the Internet.
Furthermore, there is no real reason a marketer at any company, small or large, would trust the average Print Service Provider with access to their data. From security and privacy standpoints, “most” printers will not pass muster at corporate IT departments when they are audited. It’s also very often the case that the person the printer is calling on is not the person with access or control over the data, which results in barriers to selling VDP. Ironically, this has always been a barrier, and some have overcome it, but more have failed.
Measurement
With digital advertising, you now know what advertising and marketing initiatives you are running are working, and can change your campaign in real time to match customer behavior and results.
With print, you have to wait until the next “cycle”, whether it is the next issue of the magazine or the next mail drop. The only real way to determine the ROI of a print campaign is cumbersome testing that takes way too much time to implement and execute. The only real measurement of the effectiveness of a campaign is increased sales.
One impact the Internet has had on everyone is that we’re all incredibly impatient. We want information now, not a week or a month from now. When there are large amounts of money at stake, we get even more impatient—and advertising and marketing is the lifeblood of most companies.
Sounds really negative, doesn't it? Make no mistake: the days of "Dear Chuck" on a postcard are over. The good news is, there are still many applications where print personalization can play an important role. The adoption has been so limited, the sky is the limit for creative and technically savvy print service providers to succeed with these products.
But you've got to know how to use the data, and measure the results.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
QR Codes- Why, Why, Why?
Although the printing industry (or perhaps slightly more accurately, its consultants and journalists) seems to have latched onto QR codes in a pretty dramatic way, parallels can be drawn to the initial hype of VDP PURLs (Personalized URLs) that took place in the early 2000s. If you pick piece from a printing trade journal written seven or so years ago about VDP and PURLs, you could replace the acronym “PURL” with “QR Code”, and the piece would likely still have the same meaning; tell the same story.
In overview, the goal of QR codes is to enhance the user’s (i.e., reader or consumer) seemingly dull print piece with access to new, rich media experiences that complement the print piece. The flip side is the notion that the print piece is driving customers to the rich media experience waiting for them to view, to help “close the deal”. These are both worthy goals, but have encountered some challenges along the road to adoption.
For printers who have implemented VDP, QR Codes are technically just like implementing a PURL (Personal Response URL) on a printed piece—the benefit is that the recipient doesn’t have to type it in. This should increase the likelihood that the prospect will engage and see the additional content. That additional content to be provided via the QR Code’s link is often a mobile website these days, but can take other forms, like playing a video or showing a map. Like PURLS and other VDP applications, QR Codes can be “one to many”, where the same QR Code could be scanned by thousands of prospects, and they are all taken to the same unique content, or they can be 1:1, where each user gets their own personalized QR code, that takes them to some content that is personalized just for them. Printing QR codes is easy, and can technically be done by any Print Service Provider, using inexpensive and even free software.
One of today’s QR Code applications, readily seen, is on signs and graphics. The consumer at the point of purchase, or in the aisle of a retail store, is enticed by offer text and graphics on a printed piece; or the merchant wants to make a special offer on a particular product or add-on item.
QR Codes have appeared in many different shapes and sizes of printed products in addition to signage and display graphics. These include magazines and newspapers, brochures and datasheets, and even stationery including business cards. The results are mixed because of some obvious limitations of QR Codes.
The biggest obstacle is software that can read the code, which is relatively cumbersome to obtain today. This limits the audience for the code to tech-savvy consumers. While at this writing some 88% of smartphones have cameras, apparently only about 13% have software installed to allow them to read QR Codes. This special reader software must be installed on a smart phone to scan the code, and it is not included with Google’s Android smartphone software nor on the Apple iPhone and iPad devices. Until Apple and Google include native QR Code applications that automatically work with smartphones built-in cameras, QR codes will remain a curiosity that will only be used by technical and “bleeding-edge” users.
Another problem with QR codes is their size and appearance on the printed piece. To make them easier to scan, they are general fairly large on the printed piece. Making them bigger also makes them obvious to the user, because it’s a double edge sword—they are seen, but they are ugly (a bunch of square dots inside a larger square), as well as meaningless and unfamiliar to most consumers. All while taking up print “real estate”.
So although the QR Code is being touted by consultants and pundits in the printing industry, it has not achieved enough traction or “ubiquity” to justify the amount of attention it has received. Does it make print complement mobile? It technically can, but today the consumer has to be quite motivated (presumably by an enormously valuable offer) to act. While it could be said that this may be the problem, not the technology itself—i.e., the creativity and motivation of advertisers to actually use this new mechanism in campaigns— it’s kind of a chicken and egg thing, and if advertisers really saw the value in doing this versus alternatives, perhaps we would all be scanning QR codes multiple times a day.
There are other ways to achieve the same results that QR Codes are promising. A company called DigiMarc, based in Beaverton, Oregon (www.digimarc.com) has been creating what they call Digital Watermarks for many years. Their software accomplishes the same end goal as QR Codes, but without the visible barcode-style manifestation. The August 2012 edition of Seventeen Magazine makes extensive use of the technology. Similar to QR Codes, the company’s solution requires reader software to be installed on the consumer’s smartphone to activate the rich media experience (in this case, software that is proprietary to DigiMarc), leaving that hurdle for the consumer to overcome. Seventeen Magazine’s young readership may be a good test, because it “seems” likely they would engage and want to see rich media associated with the “fun” content in the printed magazine. We will stay tuned and look forward to seeing the results.
Image recognition technology is likely to become much more powerful in smartphones as their processor speeds and memory capacity increases. This will allow the phones to recognize images, and retrieve offers based on the actual image itself, without a code. Google has been working on such technologies for several years, and is likely to make this available as an adjunct to their Ad Words offerings in the future.
Voice Recognition software in phones is only in its infancy now with technologies like Apple’s Siri, but will very likely be used for advertising applications. Instead of having to scan a poster, for example, you could simply speak particular text from the poster (i.e., keywords) to Siri, and she would retrieve an offer for you on your IOS-based smartphone. Apple is making gigantic investments in mobile advertising technology, so we can expect this to happen sooner rather than later.
This is an excerpt from the paper entitled, "Does Print Complement Mobile Computing", by Chuck Gehman and David Uyytendaele, published in the TAGA 2012 Proceedings.
In overview, the goal of QR codes is to enhance the user’s (i.e., reader or consumer) seemingly dull print piece with access to new, rich media experiences that complement the print piece. The flip side is the notion that the print piece is driving customers to the rich media experience waiting for them to view, to help “close the deal”. These are both worthy goals, but have encountered some challenges along the road to adoption.
For printers who have implemented VDP, QR Codes are technically just like implementing a PURL (Personal Response URL) on a printed piece—the benefit is that the recipient doesn’t have to type it in. This should increase the likelihood that the prospect will engage and see the additional content. That additional content to be provided via the QR Code’s link is often a mobile website these days, but can take other forms, like playing a video or showing a map. Like PURLS and other VDP applications, QR Codes can be “one to many”, where the same QR Code could be scanned by thousands of prospects, and they are all taken to the same unique content, or they can be 1:1, where each user gets their own personalized QR code, that takes them to some content that is personalized just for them. Printing QR codes is easy, and can technically be done by any Print Service Provider, using inexpensive and even free software.
One of today’s QR Code applications, readily seen, is on signs and graphics. The consumer at the point of purchase, or in the aisle of a retail store, is enticed by offer text and graphics on a printed piece; or the merchant wants to make a special offer on a particular product or add-on item.
QR Codes have appeared in many different shapes and sizes of printed products in addition to signage and display graphics. These include magazines and newspapers, brochures and datasheets, and even stationery including business cards. The results are mixed because of some obvious limitations of QR Codes.
The biggest obstacle is software that can read the code, which is relatively cumbersome to obtain today. This limits the audience for the code to tech-savvy consumers. While at this writing some 88% of smartphones have cameras, apparently only about 13% have software installed to allow them to read QR Codes. This special reader software must be installed on a smart phone to scan the code, and it is not included with Google’s Android smartphone software nor on the Apple iPhone and iPad devices. Until Apple and Google include native QR Code applications that automatically work with smartphones built-in cameras, QR codes will remain a curiosity that will only be used by technical and “bleeding-edge” users.
Another problem with QR codes is their size and appearance on the printed piece. To make them easier to scan, they are general fairly large on the printed piece. Making them bigger also makes them obvious to the user, because it’s a double edge sword—they are seen, but they are ugly (a bunch of square dots inside a larger square), as well as meaningless and unfamiliar to most consumers. All while taking up print “real estate”.
So although the QR Code is being touted by consultants and pundits in the printing industry, it has not achieved enough traction or “ubiquity” to justify the amount of attention it has received. Does it make print complement mobile? It technically can, but today the consumer has to be quite motivated (presumably by an enormously valuable offer) to act. While it could be said that this may be the problem, not the technology itself—i.e., the creativity and motivation of advertisers to actually use this new mechanism in campaigns— it’s kind of a chicken and egg thing, and if advertisers really saw the value in doing this versus alternatives, perhaps we would all be scanning QR codes multiple times a day.
There are other ways to achieve the same results that QR Codes are promising. A company called DigiMarc, based in Beaverton, Oregon (www.digimarc.com) has been creating what they call Digital Watermarks for many years. Their software accomplishes the same end goal as QR Codes, but without the visible barcode-style manifestation. The August 2012 edition of Seventeen Magazine makes extensive use of the technology. Similar to QR Codes, the company’s solution requires reader software to be installed on the consumer’s smartphone to activate the rich media experience (in this case, software that is proprietary to DigiMarc), leaving that hurdle for the consumer to overcome. Seventeen Magazine’s young readership may be a good test, because it “seems” likely they would engage and want to see rich media associated with the “fun” content in the printed magazine. We will stay tuned and look forward to seeing the results.
Image recognition technology is likely to become much more powerful in smartphones as their processor speeds and memory capacity increases. This will allow the phones to recognize images, and retrieve offers based on the actual image itself, without a code. Google has been working on such technologies for several years, and is likely to make this available as an adjunct to their Ad Words offerings in the future.
Voice Recognition software in phones is only in its infancy now with technologies like Apple’s Siri, but will very likely be used for advertising applications. Instead of having to scan a poster, for example, you could simply speak particular text from the poster (i.e., keywords) to Siri, and she would retrieve an offer for you on your IOS-based smartphone. Apple is making gigantic investments in mobile advertising technology, so we can expect this to happen sooner rather than later.
This is an excerpt from the paper entitled, "Does Print Complement Mobile Computing", by Chuck Gehman and David Uyytendaele, published in the TAGA 2012 Proceedings.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
The Inevitable End of the Flash Era
Adobe has some really cool things pointed at the Internet these days, much more than what they are doing in the print space. A friend pointed me to this nifty open source framework they've shipped, called PhoneGap. Mobile Internet, and "multi-screen" are the hottest areas for developers, so it should come as no surprise that this is where Adobe's attention is focused.
As for the Internet goodies, apparently Flash is no longer part of their plans for the future. The writing has been on the wall since Steve Jobs started his anti-Flash crusade roughly three years ago.
Last November, Adobe announced that it would stop the development of Flash for mobile devices. This week, Adobe disabled new installs of Flash on Android devices. If this really means Flash is done for Android, this is really a huge milestone. I mean, Flash is still "ubiquitous", and a lot of work will have to be done to completely erase it from the web. In fact, it's likely that remnants will be around for many years.
Steve Jobs would be completely stoked. As we may recall, he started this whole thing in early 2010 by calling out Flash as "evil." He, almost single-handedly, made HTML 5 as the platform of choice for mobile content. Obviously HTML 5 is growing in adoption on the desktop, too-- limited primarily by the unfortunate staying power of ancient browsers on user desktops.
Anyone who uses Flash now for anything except games and certain video applications is making a bad technical decision. And unless you already have lots of Flash expertise in house, you should move on-- because the best developers will have little interest in working with this platform from now on.
As for the Internet goodies, apparently Flash is no longer part of their plans for the future. The writing has been on the wall since Steve Jobs started his anti-Flash crusade roughly three years ago.
Last November, Adobe announced that it would stop the development of Flash for mobile devices. This week, Adobe disabled new installs of Flash on Android devices. If this really means Flash is done for Android, this is really a huge milestone. I mean, Flash is still "ubiquitous", and a lot of work will have to be done to completely erase it from the web. In fact, it's likely that remnants will be around for many years.
Steve Jobs would be completely stoked. As we may recall, he started this whole thing in early 2010 by calling out Flash as "evil." He, almost single-handedly, made HTML 5 as the platform of choice for mobile content. Obviously HTML 5 is growing in adoption on the desktop, too-- limited primarily by the unfortunate staying power of ancient browsers on user desktops.
Anyone who uses Flash now for anything except games and certain video applications is making a bad technical decision. And unless you already have lots of Flash expertise in house, you should move on-- because the best developers will have little interest in working with this platform from now on.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Berg Cloud's adorable Little Printer poised to ship!
Late last year I wrote here about a company called Berg Cloud, developing a really fun little intelligent printer, appropriately named "Little Printer".
Well, yesterday I got a note saying they are about the ship the product. Here's the announcement verbatim:
"It’s been an amazing few months working on Little Printer. Since we made the announcement last November, Little Printer has received loads of attention. The introductory video received half a million views in the first five days alone. Over 60,000 of you signed up to hear news, and we’re very happy to be able to bring you some.
For eight months we've been getting a mirror finish on the plastic, folding steel, fixing radio interference bugs (there are some war stories there), designing characters, creating beautiful packaging, making the best possible API for developers, getting set up with credit cards... and today, finally, we're manufacturing." Which means:
Little Printer can now be pre-ordered from the BERG Cloud shop!
Congratulations to Berg Cloud and I wish them all the best. I didn't place a pre-order, so I guess I'll have to get in line now!
Well, yesterday I got a note saying they are about the ship the product. Here's the announcement verbatim:
"It’s been an amazing few months working on Little Printer. Since we made the announcement last November, Little Printer has received loads of attention. The introductory video received half a million views in the first five days alone. Over 60,000 of you signed up to hear news, and we’re very happy to be able to bring you some.
For eight months we've been getting a mirror finish on the plastic, folding steel, fixing radio interference bugs (there are some war stories there), designing characters, creating beautiful packaging, making the best possible API for developers, getting set up with credit cards... and today, finally, we're manufacturing." Which means:
Little Printer can now be pre-ordered from the BERG Cloud shop!
Congratulations to Berg Cloud and I wish them all the best. I didn't place a pre-order, so I guess I'll have to get in line now!
Monday, June 25, 2012
Upcoming: Automation Solutions Network in Minneapolis
The most recent meeting of the Printing Industries of America's Automation Solutions Network (ASN) was held this past February in
Memphis and featured a tour of Mimeo, and after that, a once-in-a-lifetime
late night tour of the Fedex Global Superhub, to watch "the sort"--
when all the packages get unloaded, sorted and loaded onto new planes and then start flying out. For printing nerds, Mimeo was probably the more fun part of the visit, but no one could leave the Fedex experience without being absolutely astounded!
ASN is a great industry user group. It's a unique venue by virtue of the the presentations and tours, and just as important in my book, it's an unparalleled networking event for technical people involved in factory automation and integration projects. The group welcomes a wide range of users of JDF-enabled systems as well as the suppliers of those systems. The Automation Solutions Network steering committee includes printers who have implemented successful automated workflow systems or are in the process of doing so. There's really nothing better than talking with a peer and discovering they have the same issues you have-- or conversely, they've already solved that problem and are willing to share the solution.
The next ASN meeting will be held in Minneapolis on September 18th and 19th, 2012. There are two very special parts of the meeting agenda that are great reasons for anyone involved in print technology to attend.
First, on September 18th, there will be a tour hosted by Japs-Olson. This legendary firm was founded in 1907, and has steadily grown to be the worldwide leader in direct mail services and commercial printing they are today, employing more than 700 people in a facility that occupies more than 500,000 square feet operating 24/7. The company serves global customers managing campaigns from a few thousand pieces to tens of millions. The company has long been a leader in creating and implementing automation applications to support their continuously evolving business.
Second, my fellow Dscoop Operations committee member Bill Wieners, president of Digital Lizard, will give a talk about his company's use of automation.If you've never heard Bill speak, I strongly encourage you to sign up for this event. Bill and I did a joint presentation to a full house at Dscoop7, the HP Graphics Arts Users Group meeting, this past March in Washington, DC. As Bill and I were planning our talk, it was startling clear how similar our approaches to automation are. Even though Digital Lizard is smaller than Mimeo, we share many of the same challenges and have approached solving those problems similarly.But different! For me, there will always be more to understand about what Bill has done, and what's he's planning on doing next. And he's an engaging speaker.
Located in a remote corner of Idaho, Digital Lizard’s experience should make every company take notice. Their Web2Print software has allowed them to scale from 175 orders to over 400 orders per day. Automated workflows for production and back end business tasks have eliminated and reduced labor and streamlined processes. The company has 14 Indigos, and a variety of other devices and finishing equipment, but a surprising low headcount. The company was recently purchased by venerable Creel Printing in Las Vegas.
There are only 40 spots available for the meeting. I'm going to take one of them. Sign up now!
ASN is a great industry user group. It's a unique venue by virtue of the the presentations and tours, and just as important in my book, it's an unparalleled networking event for technical people involved in factory automation and integration projects. The group welcomes a wide range of users of JDF-enabled systems as well as the suppliers of those systems. The Automation Solutions Network steering committee includes printers who have implemented successful automated workflow systems or are in the process of doing so. There's really nothing better than talking with a peer and discovering they have the same issues you have-- or conversely, they've already solved that problem and are willing to share the solution.
The next ASN meeting will be held in Minneapolis on September 18th and 19th, 2012. There are two very special parts of the meeting agenda that are great reasons for anyone involved in print technology to attend.
First, on September 18th, there will be a tour hosted by Japs-Olson. This legendary firm was founded in 1907, and has steadily grown to be the worldwide leader in direct mail services and commercial printing they are today, employing more than 700 people in a facility that occupies more than 500,000 square feet operating 24/7. The company serves global customers managing campaigns from a few thousand pieces to tens of millions. The company has long been a leader in creating and implementing automation applications to support their continuously evolving business.
Second, my fellow Dscoop Operations committee member Bill Wieners, president of Digital Lizard, will give a talk about his company's use of automation.If you've never heard Bill speak, I strongly encourage you to sign up for this event. Bill and I did a joint presentation to a full house at Dscoop7, the HP Graphics Arts Users Group meeting, this past March in Washington, DC. As Bill and I were planning our talk, it was startling clear how similar our approaches to automation are. Even though Digital Lizard is smaller than Mimeo, we share many of the same challenges and have approached solving those problems similarly.But different! For me, there will always be more to understand about what Bill has done, and what's he's planning on doing next. And he's an engaging speaker.
Located in a remote corner of Idaho, Digital Lizard’s experience should make every company take notice. Their Web2Print software has allowed them to scale from 175 orders to over 400 orders per day. Automated workflows for production and back end business tasks have eliminated and reduced labor and streamlined processes. The company has 14 Indigos, and a variety of other devices and finishing equipment, but a surprising low headcount. The company was recently purchased by venerable Creel Printing in Las Vegas.
There are only 40 spots available for the meeting. I'm going to take one of them. Sign up now!
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
How Automation Benefits Mimeo
Automation is critically important to what we do at Mimeo,
and touches every aspect of a job—even when there are manual processes involved
in producing parts of it. The automation
begins with the customer on our web site, and extends to the delivery of their
job.
Automation delivers many features and benefits to them and
to us. Every document we produce
originates as an order placed on our website. The customer brings their content
and uses our interface to tell us how they want their print product produced—
organizing the content, telling us what paper and binding they want, specifying
finishing options like folding or covers.
As they create their piece on the screen, we show them exactly what it
will look like, and provide them with their price in real time.
Automation means the website can look at the choices they
are making, and determine when we can produce the job, so we can tell them
during the process “Submit this order by 10pm Eastern for delivery as early as 8:30AM
tomorrow”, or conversely telling them that a particularly option they’ve chosen
might take us an extra few hours to produce, so will not be able to be
delivered until the next day.
When the order is placed, we already know how much it will
cost to produce, and how much we’re selling it for. We’ve often already collected the money. The best part is: it automatically goes into
production (although some jobs can be automatically routed to preflight or
prepress, if necessary or desirable). In many cases, a job could literally
appear on the workstation of a press operator seconds after the customer
clicks. People throughout the organization have visibility of the job’s status
at all times. Once printing is complete, the job moves through the plant for
finishing, then on to shipping.
Once the job is finished and shipped, a number of different
groups throughout the company take advantage of the data we’ve collected about
the job and our performance to make decisions and continuously improve our products
and operations.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
drupa every 4 years, but always once in a lifetime
I returned from spending a week in Germany at the every-four-years drupa trade printing and paper trade fair. I was there with HP and Dscoop. We had more than 1,000 Dscoop members present at the fair. HP played an amazing host and kept us busy with events and tours throughout the week. They were showcasing several new presses including their new B2 presses, the 10,000 20,000 and 30,000, to which our group had been introduced in March at the Dscoop7 conference in Washington, DC (see previous post here.)
Here's a quick video from Whatheythink.com that editor Cary Sherburne and I shot while I was at the show.
This show always surprises, and this time around was no exception. I saw a tremendous amount of exciting technology, and had a lot of really great conversations with industry colleagues. I am hoping to take a few minutes next week to catalog some of what I brought back from the show next week.
Here's a quick video from Whatheythink.com that editor Cary Sherburne and I shot while I was at the show.
This show always surprises, and this time around was no exception. I saw a tremendous amount of exciting technology, and had a lot of really great conversations with industry colleagues. I am hoping to take a few minutes next week to catalog some of what I brought back from the show next week.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
The Era of the Hard Drive in the Sky has Begun!
Yesterday, Google announced Google Drive, a cloud storage system that is among the most anticipated features of any software system, ever. Industry analysts, pundits and gadflies have been predicting the eventuality of this capability for years. In it's initial launch incarnation, Google drive is simple to install and easy to use, and as far as I'm concerned, totally lives up to the expectations built-up around it! Out of the gate, anyone who signs up gets 5GB of online storage for free. Upgrade to 20gb, 100gb or even a terabyte for very affordable incremental fees. It makes storing files to the cloud and syncing them among multiple devices seamless (PCs, Macintosh and Android Smartphones today, Apple iOS and other OS/devices later). Google Drive acts just like another drive on Windows or the Mac. You can copy or move files to it, and even create new files and folders in it. I installed it on my Macintosh first, and when I logged in, I just saw all my Google Docs files in a native OS window on my MacBook Air. It could not have been simpler.
The timing of the Google announcement may have been planned to steal the thunder of a Microsoft announcement only two days earlier-- of a similar solution, the new version of SkyDrive, which gives MSFT a competitive offering in the cloud storage arena. Notable in the announcement are new storage applications, new support for devices running Mac OS X Lion and iOS, as well as support for Windows phones. SkyDrive automatically synchronizes the devices to which it is connected. Files and folders are organized in SkyDrive in the same manner to which we've all become accustomed on our local devices.
While Google and Microsoft are well-known as rivals to one another, they are both equally wary of startups who might come along and eat their lunch. In this case, those companies are Dropbox and to a lesser extent Box (formerly box.net). Dropbox was founded in 2007, and has a good head start on both of the (in the case of MSFT relatively) new competitors. Dropbox has more than 25 million people using the service, which works on Windows, Mac and Linux computers, as well as with mobile apps on iPhone, Android and Blackberry. Drew Houston, Dropbox's Co-Founder and CEO, upon hearing the announcement of Google Drive, tweeted, "In other news, @Dropbox is launching a search engine." I'm not sure if this response is hubris or real fear. Prior to the announcement, Dropbox's private company valuation was speculated to be about $4 Billion. It remains to be seen if it can maintain that sky high valuation in light of the fact that two of the biggest tech companies in the world just came out with respective "features" that come close to duplicating Dropbox's entire business. That is sort of the key: for MSFT and Google, this is a feature among many thousands of other features, not the whole company or even the most important part. On the flip side, though, Dropbox has been expecting this kind of competition for a long, long time. Now its here and it is formidable. For example, Google Drive's pricing is roughly 1/4 of Dropbox's pricing today. That could dramatically change the game, in terms of acquisition of customers for Google, and loss of revenue for Dropbox. Furthermore, the integration between Google Drive and Google Apps, though a bit minimalistic today, is already very useful for companies like my own who have been using Google Apps almost exclusively for the last couple of years.
For consumers of this technology, it's going to be exciting to watch this competition between industry giants. In addition to simple storage and backup in the cloud, these services offer great collaboration and sharing possibilities-- both intracompany and between companies. It's hard to believe that in this day and age high-tech companies would still be using technologies like FTP to share files, but they are. Replacing such primitive services with these new technologies is good for everyone-- the creator, the user, the printer, the IT guys, everyone. With the large files we consume daily in the graphic arts industry, these services offer a really affordable and easy to use alternative to old fashioned, error-prone methods that our customers don't want to understand and shouldn't have to!
The timing of the Google announcement may have been planned to steal the thunder of a Microsoft announcement only two days earlier-- of a similar solution, the new version of SkyDrive, which gives MSFT a competitive offering in the cloud storage arena. Notable in the announcement are new storage applications, new support for devices running Mac OS X Lion and iOS, as well as support for Windows phones. SkyDrive automatically synchronizes the devices to which it is connected. Files and folders are organized in SkyDrive in the same manner to which we've all become accustomed on our local devices.
While Google and Microsoft are well-known as rivals to one another, they are both equally wary of startups who might come along and eat their lunch. In this case, those companies are Dropbox and to a lesser extent Box (formerly box.net). Dropbox was founded in 2007, and has a good head start on both of the (in the case of MSFT relatively) new competitors. Dropbox has more than 25 million people using the service, which works on Windows, Mac and Linux computers, as well as with mobile apps on iPhone, Android and Blackberry. Drew Houston, Dropbox's Co-Founder and CEO, upon hearing the announcement of Google Drive, tweeted, "In other news, @Dropbox is launching a search engine." I'm not sure if this response is hubris or real fear. Prior to the announcement, Dropbox's private company valuation was speculated to be about $4 Billion. It remains to be seen if it can maintain that sky high valuation in light of the fact that two of the biggest tech companies in the world just came out with respective "features" that come close to duplicating Dropbox's entire business. That is sort of the key: for MSFT and Google, this is a feature among many thousands of other features, not the whole company or even the most important part. On the flip side, though, Dropbox has been expecting this kind of competition for a long, long time. Now its here and it is formidable. For example, Google Drive's pricing is roughly 1/4 of Dropbox's pricing today. That could dramatically change the game, in terms of acquisition of customers for Google, and loss of revenue for Dropbox. Furthermore, the integration between Google Drive and Google Apps, though a bit minimalistic today, is already very useful for companies like my own who have been using Google Apps almost exclusively for the last couple of years.
For consumers of this technology, it's going to be exciting to watch this competition between industry giants. In addition to simple storage and backup in the cloud, these services offer great collaboration and sharing possibilities-- both intracompany and between companies. It's hard to believe that in this day and age high-tech companies would still be using technologies like FTP to share files, but they are. Replacing such primitive services with these new technologies is good for everyone-- the creator, the user, the printer, the IT guys, everyone. With the large files we consume daily in the graphic arts industry, these services offer a really affordable and easy to use alternative to old fashioned, error-prone methods that our customers don't want to understand and shouldn't have to!
Thursday, March 29, 2012
HP Graphic Arts Users Group, Dscoop
I just returned from Dscoop7 in Washington, DC. This was the 7th annual face-to-face meeting of the Digital Solutions Cooperative, founded in 2005. Dscoop is the independent global community of graphic arts business owners and technical professionals who use HP Indigo and Scitex equipment and related solutions. Dscoop7 had over 2,000 attendees and more than 150 sessions. More than 90 vendors showcased their solutions in addition to HP, and we also had a pre-conference program for graphic designers this year called DSee, which was wildly successful.
I'm proud to say that the Operations Committee (of which I am the incoming chairman) was responsible for a track of 10 sessions over 2 days, all of which were delivered to full house crowds! Kudos to Mike Blanco (with GPA), our outgoing chairman who led our group into the conference and Amy Biedenharn at Dscoop HQ, who facilities our every move.
I put together two sessions for this year's event. My first session was a "201-level" panel discussion called Fine Tuning Web-To-Print: Implementation and Operation. We realized going into the conference that a lot of technical and operations folks already know the basics of W2P, because these things are becoming part of how we all do business. A lot of companies now run more than one system or are in their second or third implementation.
So we put together a panel of experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities and talk about the nuts and bolts of such topics as storefronts, cross-media capabilities, e-commerce, workflow and business system integration, variable data printing and customization online, hosting decisions and more.
I wanted to have representatives of all the great Web-To-Print solutions present at the event. Logistically-speaking, it's awfully hard these days to get technical people from printing companies to commit to speaking at events. Thanks to Leslie Wengenroth at PageFlex, the well known VDP and storefront vendor, we got Paul O'Brien, CTO of Acculink, a leading-edge printer in Greenville, NC to join us. I managed to round up a nice cadre of technical people from most of the solutions present at Dscoop7: Alex Boissezon from Pixfizz; Chris Young from XMPie, a Xerox company; Greg Salzman- CEO of Aleyant Systems; Steven Enstad- one of the founders of PageDNA; and Becky Schick from HiFlex, now an HP company as a result of their recent acquisition.
There was a time in the not too distant past when a panel like this would have seen the vendors bickering over small points and vying for the microphone to get the last word in. This panel was nothing like that, in fact there was much agreement on many points, little contention. These companies all have powerful solutions: Paul and I as the users on the panel could easily see the value in each of their products and technologies. In the recent past, software vendors had more of the approach that the marketplace was a zero sum game, and to win you had to squash the competition. This isn't the case any longer. Today, you must pick and choose among solutions that fit your target customer and market, and they must work together. That was the overriding message of the session. I had 3 pages of "seed" questions I put together in advance with the help of the panel. I only made it through a handful. We had fantastic audience interaction, many great topics arose. The session could have continued for the entire afternoon if the time had been available!
The second session I presented was called Printing is Easy, Everything Else is Hard (Workflow Automation), and was somewhere in between introductory and 201 level. I partnered with Bill Weiners from Digital Lizard, who is a kindred spirit and well known in the group. Digital Lizard is owned by venerable Las Vegas offset printer Creel, and while smaller than Mimeo, Digital Lizard is very advanced from a technology standpoint-- and they own almost as many Indigo presses as we do! Like Mimeo, they produce both documents on demand as well as photo products.
The premise behind the session was that when you have powerful equipment on your floor, printing is the easy part. The hard part is getting the work from the customer onto the press, tracking it throughout the steps in your operation, getting it finished and out the door, finally delivered and billed. The solution for many of these challenges lies with advanced workflow automation.
Bill and I presented case studies of the way we do things at our respective companies. We talked about key building blocks for implementing solutions to help our attendees streamline their operation, while improving efficiency, quality and profitability. This session was in the last time slot of the event on a Saturday afternoon, and I am happy to report that the room was completely full. Bill and I can't take full credit for the topic or the speakers being such an exciting draw-- it's just as much a product of the fact that the Dscoop audience is definitely the best and brightest, and most dedicated, group of printers in the industry!
There were many, many other highlights at the the event. Notable among these, the introduction of new HP Indigo Presses, the Indigo 10000, Indigo 20000 and Indigo 30000 the "biggest" among them, in more ways than one-- these new machines can print in the popular 29" or B2 sizes, and applications include commercial printing, labeling and packaging. There were many other announcements, including software upgrades and new workflow solutions. HiFlex was highlighted in a couple of sessions, and in the solutions showcase. I will talk more about the software aspects in an upcoming post.
Keynote marketer Sally Hogshead provided an exciting and fun kickstart to the event. It's the first time I've seen a Keynote presenter at an industry conference do a shot on stage! HP Indigo GM Alon Bar-Shany, presented a fantastic "state of the industry" report, with terrific insight. Bar-Shany paints a very good picture for adopters of the technology, and HP Indigo as an organization is well positioned to help printers capitalize on the opportunities ahead. Along with all the data, Alon pointed out that Dscoop7 began on March 22nd, which was the 10th anniversary of HP's acquisition of Indigo. Resting on the laurels of the past 10 years is not in the cards, though, as the company charges forward!
Even though Dscoop7 has just ended, I'm already looking forward to Dscoop8 next February in Dallas, Texas!
(photo credit Bryan Yeager, Associate Director, Infotrends, from pre-Drupa festivities at HP in Israel the week prior to Dscoop7.)
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
64th TAGA Annual Technical Conference
It’s hard to say “there’s something for everything” about the TAGA Annual Technical Conference, the global graphics arts industries’ most elite technical conference. It’s specifically NOT for everyone—unless you are an academic, engineer, scientist, or technical practitioner of printing. In which case you will certainly find things that you need to know being discussed at this year’s 64th annual event, to be held in Jacksonville, Florida, on March 18-21. If you are a CEO, COO or Owner of a printing company or industry equipment or software manufacturer, I would strongly advise that you send a couple of your key technical people. I’ll explain why.
My personal involvement in the industry is in the creation of software for printing applications, and there are always a few great talks on this topic. But for me, what I find incredibly invigorating about TAGA is the fact that there are so many topics discussed that I am not directly engaged in as a professional. These topics are as far ranging as ink, paper, mechanical engineering, chemistry, physics, photography, light—but not limited to these. In fact, there are almost no limits. The result for me has been broadened horizons—I learn what I don’t know, and approach problems I face in my work with a new perspective.
The keynotes this year include some of the most interesting leaders from some of the most exciting companies in the graphic communications business today. Starting with Marc Olin of EFI, who has been travelling the world buying up printing-related software companies while other former industry leaders are suffering, to Mike Puyot from Memjet, a company which is finally shipping product via OEMs and is poised to dramatically change everyone’s business, after existing as a virtual “urban legend” for almost 10 years! These are followed by the most complete, robust technical program available this year at any conference in the industry.
One of the coolest things about TAGA is the questions from the audience after the presentations. As you can imagine with a group of this make up, there are many opinions and TAGA encourages an intellectually charged environment. There are no assumptions, and this is not a love-in where PR rules-- people are often challenged on the statements they make from the dais. It’s exciting!
Another really important aspect of the event is the student chapter participation, and the annual student competitions. To the printing company owner: here is the most important reason for you to send you top technical stakeholder or two to TAGA: recruiting. Plug your company into the top printing schools in the WORLD—Cal Poly SLO, Clemson, RIT, Western Michigan, as well as Ryerson in Canada, and leading global schools Grenoble Institute of Technology in France, and Linköping University in Sweden, to name just a few. They will be sending teams of their best students (usually Juniors and Seniors, who will soon be looking for a career position) to compete for awards in our annual technical competitions.
The program includes talks from some of the recipients of the Printing Industries of America’s prestigious Intertech Awards, an opportunity to learn about some of the industry’s latest and most advanced, game-changing commercial product developments.
Beyond all the important content, there is the “real world” social platform as well-- the three day conference is loaded with great networking opportunities, including luncheons, the association’s annual business meeting, and a gala awards banquet. TAGA’s annual event has been a “can’t miss” for the industry’s tech community for a long time, and I’d encourage anyone who hasn’t attended in the past to make it a new annual tradition. There is still time to register and attend, visit TAGA's Web Site.
My personal involvement in the industry is in the creation of software for printing applications, and there are always a few great talks on this topic. But for me, what I find incredibly invigorating about TAGA is the fact that there are so many topics discussed that I am not directly engaged in as a professional. These topics are as far ranging as ink, paper, mechanical engineering, chemistry, physics, photography, light—but not limited to these. In fact, there are almost no limits. The result for me has been broadened horizons—I learn what I don’t know, and approach problems I face in my work with a new perspective.
The keynotes this year include some of the most interesting leaders from some of the most exciting companies in the graphic communications business today. Starting with Marc Olin of EFI, who has been travelling the world buying up printing-related software companies while other former industry leaders are suffering, to Mike Puyot from Memjet, a company which is finally shipping product via OEMs and is poised to dramatically change everyone’s business, after existing as a virtual “urban legend” for almost 10 years! These are followed by the most complete, robust technical program available this year at any conference in the industry.
One of the coolest things about TAGA is the questions from the audience after the presentations. As you can imagine with a group of this make up, there are many opinions and TAGA encourages an intellectually charged environment. There are no assumptions, and this is not a love-in where PR rules-- people are often challenged on the statements they make from the dais. It’s exciting!
Another really important aspect of the event is the student chapter participation, and the annual student competitions. To the printing company owner: here is the most important reason for you to send you top technical stakeholder or two to TAGA: recruiting. Plug your company into the top printing schools in the WORLD—Cal Poly SLO, Clemson, RIT, Western Michigan, as well as Ryerson in Canada, and leading global schools Grenoble Institute of Technology in France, and Linköping University in Sweden, to name just a few. They will be sending teams of their best students (usually Juniors and Seniors, who will soon be looking for a career position) to compete for awards in our annual technical competitions.
The program includes talks from some of the recipients of the Printing Industries of America’s prestigious Intertech Awards, an opportunity to learn about some of the industry’s latest and most advanced, game-changing commercial product developments.
Beyond all the important content, there is the “real world” social platform as well-- the three day conference is loaded with great networking opportunities, including luncheons, the association’s annual business meeting, and a gala awards banquet. TAGA’s annual event has been a “can’t miss” for the industry’s tech community for a long time, and I’d encourage anyone who hasn’t attended in the past to make it a new annual tradition. There is still time to register and attend, visit TAGA's Web Site.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
State of Print and the Cloud
Looking forward in 2012, there will be exciting developments in Cloud printing. We will assuredly see advances in all the topic areas and from all the technology companies we've covered here, including Apple, Google, HP, and the graphic arts industry suppliers.
Beyond the constantly forward-looking technology components, the business of print in general continues its transition. Business models are blurring. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and commercial Print Service Providers (PSPs) are competing for the same work in many cases. MSPs want to gain share at the expense of PSPs, and vice versa. In speaking to many document owners in large corporations, even at companies that own their own production operations, I hear people looking for additional, better options.
I've said for some time that customers impatience is growing. This is manifested by their restlessness with the status quo of how printing operations do business. Digital media, and Web2.0 applications, have hurt how print is perceived. People expect the same sort of experience working with print manufacturing operations online that they get from everything else in their digital sphere. Instead, in many cases, doing business with printing companies is like going back to the 1970s, not in a fun and nostalgic way, but instead in a complicated, frustrated, primitive and time consuming way.
Another thing that has happened lately is that some what were "hottest" technologies for print have become obsolete without ever achieving critical mass. One big example that is becoming more apparent every day is 1:1 personalization in print, a technology and application that has struggled along for many years, now appears to be all but dead. Many things led to this death, for example, people realized that the worst time to sell something to someone is when they are reading a bill (causing the death of TransPromo). But the main things killing off 1:1 VDP are Google and Facebook. Print personalization never had access to platforms like these, rich with the data necessary to effectively target users with personalization-- and now never will. And even if we somehow obtain access now, the speed at which we can deliver the message is so slow, it's likely to be at worst completely irrelevant when it gets to its recipient, and at best, old news. Another example in "big iron" is the direct, on press imaging, or "DI" presses. There are just few applications for these niche technologies, you've got to ask yourself, is it worth it?
An example of how fast things are changing in the hardcopy world can be found in the everyday lives of those of who spend a lot of time on airplanes. One of the main drivers behind development of early Cloud Printing platforms, like EFI PrintMe was airline boarding passes. How ironic is it that at virtually the exact moment in time when most hotels now have free access to workstations and printers for you to print your boarding pass, you no longer need a physical boarding pass because you can use your smartphone.
We have a big year ahead of us. A series of upcoming events will shed great light on what our industry is going to look like in our near future. First, PODi, in January-- what will they talk about, now that 1:1 is dead? We shall see. I'm guessing "becoming a Marketing Service Provider (MSP)" will be a key topic. The Automated Solutions Network of the Printing Industries of America will feature a tour of Mimeo's Automated Document Factory in Memphis and a once-in-a-lifetime visit to the Fedex global hub, on January 31st. Automation needs to be a mantra in this industry, especially at a time when communicators in corporate America can go online and get their message out almost for free, in a split second. Vision 3 Summit, in February, where there is bound to much hand wringing regarding the number of business closures and "unforeseen" mergers going on in the business. I bet some deals will be done there! V3 will also no doubt see pundits telling the audience members to become Marketing Service Providers (MSPs)-- all you printers out there, let's cheer them on and while they are busy trying to compete with Facebook, Google and Groupon, we'll print all the stuff their customers used to print with them!
Moving on to more positive territory, the 64th Annual TAGA Conference will be held in Jacksonville in the middle of March, showcasing the industry's future through it's student competition, along with the industry's best and brightest scientists and academics. Immediately following that same week, DSCOOP7 will be held in Washington, DC, and is certain to be one of the most exciting events of the year. Drupa, the international trade fair in Germany, begins on May 3rd, and I think this year the most interesting stuff will be everything that is NOT a printing press(which is not to say there won't be exciting printing presses there.)
Then it's time to come home and execute on everything we've all learned. Stay tuned for more developments as these trends unfold.
Beyond the constantly forward-looking technology components, the business of print in general continues its transition. Business models are blurring. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and commercial Print Service Providers (PSPs) are competing for the same work in many cases. MSPs want to gain share at the expense of PSPs, and vice versa. In speaking to many document owners in large corporations, even at companies that own their own production operations, I hear people looking for additional, better options.
I've said for some time that customers impatience is growing. This is manifested by their restlessness with the status quo of how printing operations do business. Digital media, and Web2.0 applications, have hurt how print is perceived. People expect the same sort of experience working with print manufacturing operations online that they get from everything else in their digital sphere. Instead, in many cases, doing business with printing companies is like going back to the 1970s, not in a fun and nostalgic way, but instead in a complicated, frustrated, primitive and time consuming way.
Another thing that has happened lately is that some what were "hottest" technologies for print have become obsolete without ever achieving critical mass. One big example that is becoming more apparent every day is 1:1 personalization in print, a technology and application that has struggled along for many years, now appears to be all but dead. Many things led to this death, for example, people realized that the worst time to sell something to someone is when they are reading a bill (causing the death of TransPromo). But the main things killing off 1:1 VDP are Google and Facebook. Print personalization never had access to platforms like these, rich with the data necessary to effectively target users with personalization-- and now never will. And even if we somehow obtain access now, the speed at which we can deliver the message is so slow, it's likely to be at worst completely irrelevant when it gets to its recipient, and at best, old news. Another example in "big iron" is the direct, on press imaging, or "DI" presses. There are just few applications for these niche technologies, you've got to ask yourself, is it worth it?
An example of how fast things are changing in the hardcopy world can be found in the everyday lives of those of who spend a lot of time on airplanes. One of the main drivers behind development of early Cloud Printing platforms, like EFI PrintMe was airline boarding passes. How ironic is it that at virtually the exact moment in time when most hotels now have free access to workstations and printers for you to print your boarding pass, you no longer need a physical boarding pass because you can use your smartphone.
We have a big year ahead of us. A series of upcoming events will shed great light on what our industry is going to look like in our near future. First, PODi, in January-- what will they talk about, now that 1:1 is dead? We shall see. I'm guessing "becoming a Marketing Service Provider (MSP)" will be a key topic. The Automated Solutions Network of the Printing Industries of America will feature a tour of Mimeo's Automated Document Factory in Memphis and a once-in-a-lifetime visit to the Fedex global hub, on January 31st. Automation needs to be a mantra in this industry, especially at a time when communicators in corporate America can go online and get their message out almost for free, in a split second. Vision 3 Summit, in February, where there is bound to much hand wringing regarding the number of business closures and "unforeseen" mergers going on in the business. I bet some deals will be done there! V3 will also no doubt see pundits telling the audience members to become Marketing Service Providers (MSPs)-- all you printers out there, let's cheer them on and while they are busy trying to compete with Facebook, Google and Groupon, we'll print all the stuff their customers used to print with them!
Moving on to more positive territory, the 64th Annual TAGA Conference will be held in Jacksonville in the middle of March, showcasing the industry's future through it's student competition, along with the industry's best and brightest scientists and academics. Immediately following that same week, DSCOOP7 will be held in Washington, DC, and is certain to be one of the most exciting events of the year. Drupa, the international trade fair in Germany, begins on May 3rd, and I think this year the most interesting stuff will be everything that is NOT a printing press(which is not to say there won't be exciting printing presses there.)
Then it's time to come home and execute on everything we've all learned. Stay tuned for more developments as these trends unfold.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
